I joined My Fitness Pal on the recommendation of The Pink Rachael. For the first week, I decided to carry on with what I have been doing anyway – eating as healthily as possible and trying to fit in some exercise between all my other commitments – and see what insights I could gain. Here’s what I’ve discovered:
- Star jumps (jumping jacks) don’t use up nearly as many calories as I expected. So why exactly have I been jumping around my kitchen like an idiot? 😉
- Pine nuts contain a surprising number of calories!
- There is far too much sugar in my diet. Most of this comes from yoghurts.
- I would be much better at sticking to my daily calorie limits if I didn’t have a social life 😉
- I am totally useless at judging correct portion sizes. If I don’t weigh out ingredients, I will automatically make too much!
- I can currently only jog on the spot for 2 minutes before I have to stop.
All that said, I have been doing pretty well so far. I haven’t always been below the calorie limit that MFP specifies in order for me to achieve my goals, but every day so far I have been below the number of calories it says I would need to maintain my current weight. And now for the numbers…
– I didn’t tell you my original weight (and I’m not going to now ;-)), but this week it is down by 0.5 kg.
– My body fat is down from 30% to 28.5%
– My waist measurement is down from 80 cm to 78 cm (there is some fluctuation, but it tends to be 78 cm in the morning and 79 cm in the evening… the last 6 measurements have all been below 80!)
Here’s a graph showing my morning waist measurements since I started using My Fitness Pal:
All in all, the first week went pretty well. For next week, I want to try and meet my exercise goals (30 minutes a day on 5 days of the week) and actively plan some meals in advance based on the number of calories they contain – during the first week, I was making our “normal” (but healthy) meals and checking out how many calories they actually contain. I already know I will be treating myself on Saturday though… planning on having friends round for curry. And wine, of course 😉
Confuzzledom 
He he…. Don’t you love trying to get in shape? We’ve always said when we are traveling we will eat what we want, andwatch what we eat at home. Well, we travel so much, our weights aren’t going down like we thought. Yuck.
I know the feeling… I let myself eat what I wanted in Ireland, and now I’m desperately trying to look good for a christening! 2 weeks and 2 days to go…
Just blame it all on the pine nuts…! 😉
Yes, those evil pine nuts!! 😉
Sounds very scientific 🙂 I am on week 3 here, its a long old slog but not to worry 🙂
It is hard work, especially in this weather… it’s 30° today! I want icecream!
shhhh! tell you what is nice, those slush cups I mentioned a few posts ago with a nice diet soda like cherry or lime 🙂
Kerep going – you’ve made a great start. 🙂
That’s a bit of a shock about pine nuts!
I know! I thought pine nuts would be nice and healthy… turns out 33g has 222 calories!!
Might as well have some chocolate! 😀
Nuts are one of those things that contain ‘healthy oils’, so although they’re high in calories they’re not really unhealthy – definitely better than my Hangover Crisps at any rate! haha! Good on you for all the exercise effort – the heat is just making me so lethargic!
I knew nuts were fairly high in fat (of the good kind), but 222 calories for 30 g of pine nuts?! Wasn’t expecting it to be THAT much! That tiny handful of pine nuts was more than the entire rest of the meal (and was partly responsible for me being 400 calories over that day. That and the extra glass of wine, *Ahem*).
haha – yeah, alcohol is definitely what tips me over too!