25lbs gone...here's how I did it.

Well, I weighed myself today, although tomorrow is my actual weigh-in day, and I have lost a total of 25 pounds. Its gone away, far far away! I couldn't be more thrilled. This swimming thing certainly seems to be paying off big time! Just for the math geeks: I have lost 7.94% of my original body weight. So, I am slowly creeping toward being a B student in weight loss!!

I have been swimming four days in a row now and each time have swum a little longer. I ended up doing about 2 hours and fifteen minutes today. Burned approximately 1800 calories. I have decided to take the lowest estimate of calorie burn I could find out there on the web. Although, I am tempted to get a heart rate monitor and see exactly how many calories I do burn. I am not sure if there is one designed specifically for swimming but if there is I will find it.

So just to give an idea of what I have been doing to lose this weight.

1) You have to know your basal metabolic rate or BMR. This is essentially how many calories you would burn just to stay alive if you were lying in bed all day. Mine is currently 2530 based on my height and weight.

2) Secondly, you have to set a calorie consumption limit for yourself that is below your BMR. Mine is currently 1580 calories. Now, it is important to make healthy choices in regards to what you eat. Low fat and low sugar is excellent. There are also many people who proselytize the low sodium diet as king. I am not sure about this since I drink plenty of water, go over my suggested limit alot and am still dropping the LB's.

3) This brings me to my next point. Water, you have to drink water everyday. Eight 8 oz. glasses at least. More if you exercise.

4) I guess I have to say that exercise is truly the key here. You don't even have to do a whole lot of exercise to make it work. 30 minutes a day 5 days a week should cut it. The more you exercise the more it works.

5) Now here is where the magic happens. If I have a BMR of 2530 and I eat 1580 calories then I have burned a total of   950 calories doing nothing. Then if I exercise I burn even more. So today I burned 1820 calories swimming which leaves me at a calorie deficit of  2770 burned today.

Three important notes: You cannot let your body starve. If you do not eat enough calories then your body will go into what they call starvation mode. This means everything you eat that your body doesn't use to stay alive will try to turn into fat. The reason is because it thinks it is starving and doesn't know when you will get to eat again so it stores energy as fat. You have to eat to lose weight. Secondly, none of the numbers here are exact. You and I could be the same height and weight and still might have different BMR's. Also, metabolism is different for everyone. Calorie burn is different depending on the person as well. So all of these numbers are only estimates. However, it is better to have some numbers to work with than not at all. Finally, never eat below 1200 calories a day as this will automatically send you into starvation mode. It just isn't healthy and frankly its stupid.

Oh yeah and one more thing, I am not an expert on weight loss. This is just what has worked for me and I figured I would share.

Remember that tomorrow is a new day and a new beginning. Take it one day at a time and don't give up on whatever your goal may be.

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Don't forget to check out my food and exercise diaries on:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/sarahbear1981

The resources are plentiful!!!!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/sarahbear1981

The above URL will link you to my online food diary and exercise log. You can see what I eat and what exercise I do on a daily basis. I have it set up right now to lose 1 lb a week, by counting my calories and my exercise it should work. I might dial it up a bit in the future once I get slightly more active. Feel free to take a look. http://www.myfitnesspal.com is an awesome resource and it's free!!! It will definitely help me keep on track. I hope someone else out there will find this useful. I think it would also be a great resource to help someone maintain thier current weight. You don't have to know the calories counts. You just type in what you ate and it will find it for you. Amazing!!! It even has a water counter so you can track the water you are drinking!

On another note, I have added a few interesting button to the bottom of my blog. I put up a weight loss tracker from my fitness pal. There is a workout planner, BMI measure, tips for healthy lifestyles, and a life expectancy test for smokers. Also, I put up some picture of puppies (couldn't resist) and some fish, which you can feed if you click on the picture. I also added a search engine and you can find your search results at the bottom of the blog as well.

I also added some weight loss blogs that I like to look at for inspiration.

I also wanted to thank my friends and family for being so supportive of my weight loss goals and this blog. You guys keep me going!!!!

Pay Attention!

So today I took my comprehensive exam for my Master's degree and we had an hour break between tests. So I went down to the little cafe in the education building at UTEP and made what I thought was a healthy choice for lunch. I got a grape and cheese cup. Some fresh green grapes and little cubes of different types of cheeses. It looked like a small portion of cheese so I figured I was in the clear. Then after eating my delicious lunch, I noticed the plastic cup actually had a sticker with nutritional information on it. Ouch! 500 calories for a handful of cheese and some stupid grapes! What was worse was that it was 110% of my daily saturated fat allowance ( and that's for people who aren't trying to lose weight) and a lot of sodium and carbs. That is one of the pitfalls I think many people trying to lead healthy lifestyles fall into. It looks healthy so why not eat it. It's imperative that we pay attention.

For me this means, if I don't know what's in something or what its nutritional value is then I am not going to eat it. Restaurants even fool us into paying the extra 2 bucks for a salad without telling us it actually has more calories in it than the chicken sandwich we actually wanted. This can be so confusing but it is also a pivotal step in making a lifestyle change.

Needless, to say I spent the rest of my lunch break wandering around in dismay. It seems like when we are stressed out we pay even less attention and can actually end up harming ourselves and breaking our goals. Lesson learned for me. Beware the wolves dressed up like sheeps! =)