My fitness pal - experiment

[OwnedbyChanter]

Loads of people at work have been raving about this ap for ages more so as our summer ball is due and everyone wants to look their best.

So out of interest I downloaded it and for the first week I logged everything that OH and I ate as a normal week . WOW lucky for me I love sport as if not I would be massive really quickly it was a total shock to see just how quickly those couple of biscuits took me way over my limit and those glasses of wine put me straight in the red daily. So for the next two weeks I made an effort to stay in the limits but still found it really hard. My average day is

Belvite biscuits breakfast
Banana
Uncle Bens rice pot or mug shot
maybe a yogart

Dinner - hunters chicken and new potatos, pizza, chicken and bacon salad etc etc
Yogart for afters

I am close to my limit daily if it was not for the gym at lunch I would never be able to have a single treat.

But what it did do was show much just how much rubbish I was eating and the amount of food that actually was not required but just consumed because it was there.

A real eye opener but on the plus side I did actually lose 6ibs on it

 

[Rubic]

It is very good for making you realise just how much junk you can eat and also how many calories you can consume in a normal day! I think that is the issue for a lot of people, they just don't realise what is in their food!

 

[domane]

Wow, that is a LOT of carbs, daily!

MFP is definitely an eye-opener but what has really surprised me is the purchase of a Fitbit earlier this year. It's a glorified pedometer but will list calorie burn (average for my age, height and weight) from the type of steps - ie, if I'm running I will burn more, obviously. According to my Fitbit I burn a lot more calories than I thought I would and explains why I was able to lose so much weight last year when I was limiting my daily intake.

 

[sjp1]

Oh dear - I eat all sorts of fattening things and have wine!! I should get it and see just how much more I consume than I should!

 

[OwnedbyChanter]

Domane, yes that is a lot of Carbs but I train in the gym or out running everyday and riding the boys every night, I had my heart rate monitor and watch on the other day for a session in the school and I burnt 280cal but that was nearly all trot and canter work for 45mins. hacking for 2 hours burns hardly anything about 120cal. So it is never as much as people think. A 25min, 3 mile run for me is again about 280cal a 45min shred and shed is only the same amount and thats 45mins

Scarey stuff people are mistaken that riding is agreat exercise so they don't have to do anything else but its is not you have to be in trot or canter for nearly 45mins to burn what you could do in a 1/2 jog.
Also only being 9 stone I need the carbs to have the energhy to train.

 

[Jessey]

I used one for a while and like you was normally pretty close to my limit, until I had 3 weeks off work pre wedding so had time to cook and play with the ponies more and when I actually cook proper food I was only doing around a thousand calories a day Wish I had time all the time

 

[squidsin]

God, I don't think I want to know! I've started running every day anyway as was starting to get a bit of a muffin top - but it will tell me I need to cut down on the wine, I am sure, so ignorance is probably bliss!