I’ve decided to start trying to lose weight. I’m around 240lbs which is very overweight for someone 5’9″. I’ve set a few goals for myself and today I started on my trip toward those goals. I’m going to detail my journey on my personal website, but I’m going to have to build that site first. So I’m going to post my first few entries here. I’ll link to the other site once I have it up in a few days.
My ultimate goal is to get below 160lbs. That’s quite a trip from 240. So my first goal is to get below 200lbs. I’ve set that goal for 3 months. I may be able to get there faster, but that’s my conservative time frame. To reach this first goal, I’m cutting my calorie intake down to 1200 per day. I estimate that my current calorie intake is around 3000 calories per day. At that rate, I have stayed at 240 for around two years. So it’s safe to say that my body currently burns around 3000 calories per day.
It won’t stay at 3000 calories per day because as I lose weight my body will stop burning so many calories, unless I increase my daily activity. Since I’m lazy and overweight, exercise isn’t something I’ll focus on at first. I have to drop my weight through diet so that I’ll feel more comfortable exercising and increasing my general daily activities.
Looking at my current diet, I can find quick ways to reduce my calorie intake. One thing that instantly comes to mind is to remove my soda intake and replace it with water. The problem with that is that water gives me intense heartburn for some reason. I think this is mainly do to my current diet, and I’ll be compensating for this at first using heartburn medication. I’ll also be drinking milk or juice a couple times per day. When counting calories, it’s important to remember your drink calorie intake as well. A glass of whole milk is around 140 calories. Even skim milk is over 100 calories per glass. A glass of orange juice is around 110.
Which leads me to my 1200 calories per day. These calories have to be spaced out in such a way to keep me from getting hungry. I also have to incorporate low-calorie filling foods. So my plan thus far is to eat 6 meals per day each at an average of 200 calories. So when I drink orange juice or milk, I’m only left with 100 calories for the actual food. I’m using oatmeal to help with this. Oatmeal is around 10 calories per table spoon. In meals where I will be drinking milk or juice, I will be eating 4 tablespoons of oatmeal with a small pinch of sugar or honey…a very small pinch. This will give me at most 50 calories for the food and 110 calories for the drink. I’m eating once every three hours starting with when I wake up.
For example my schedule for today is (I woke up at 2am):
2am: Milk(110 cal) + Oatmeal (no sugar, 3 tablespoons – 30 cal) = 140 calories
I missed my 5am schedule because I was grocery shopping for low calorie foods, but I ate and changed my schedule when I got back home.
6:20am: Tuna (70 cal), Mayo(one teaspoon for flavor in tuna – 45 cal), saltines(60 cal) = 175 calories
So far, I’m at 315 calories for the day. I have four more meals scheduled:
8:00am: Orange juice(110 cal), Blueberries(1/2 cup – 40 cal), Oatmeal (with dash of sugar – 50 cal) = 200 calories
9:00am: Gelatin Snack = 39 calories
11:00am: Low calorie frozen dinner = 220 calories
1pm: Milk (110 cal), Soup (chicken noodle homestyle = 88 cal) = 198 calories
3pm: Gelatin Snack(39 cal), Tuna (70 cal), Mayo (45 cal), saltines (60 cal) = 214 calories
That will be my final meal of the day, and it will bring my total calories for the day to 1186. I hope that I can make the stretch between 3 and 6pm without getting hungry. I’m going to try to go to sleep around 6pm. I may move the gelatin snack from 3pm to 5pm. That may help. For now, I’m off to get my OJ and oatmeal going. After I eat, I’ll be working on my calorie counting site. I’ll make another post about it in a bit.