[OC] I tracked my exact calories consumed vs my estimated calorie needs from an online calculator to see how accurate it was in predicting my weight loss over time
[OC] I tracked my exact calories consumed vs my estimated calorie needs from an online calculator to see how accurate it was in predicting my weight loss over time
Which online calculator did you use? I’ve thought about trying this – always thought it would be interesting. And congrats on the weight loss!
Furlion on
Just so you know, the calorie information on the food we consume is much more approximate than you think. Each individual ingredient has its own margin of error and when they are combined can give very large differences between what’s reported and what you get.
iamnearlysmart on
That’s remarkable progress in Little over 3 weeks. Almost 3 lbs per week. How difficult was sticking to diet?
devourke on
I technically started dieting a couple of weeks earlier than this around the middle of July so this shouldn’t be substantially affected by water weight. Time frame is a little over 6 weeks or so (~19.2 lbs over 44 days), I have no idea what I actually started at in July, my wife thinks I was 230 but I don’t remember.
The online calculator I used was essentially as accurate as the person using it. I started this test at 5’11” @ 220lbs and based on my fairly sedentary lifestyle it assumed that my TDEE (total baseline calories needed + additional calories for daily activity) would be approximately 2,400. I used to work out a lot 10+ years ago so I’m guessing I may have some excess remnants of muscle as it appears that the calculator was actually underestimating my TDEE and my realistic caloric budget should have been somewhere around the 2,800 mark.
I’ve never really tried conventional dieting before to lose weight, usually I just starve myself and run as far as I can every day which historically has worked fine every time I’ve done it in my 20s. Since I’m in my 30s and should be getting more mature, I decided to try a healthier approach to it but I legitimately hate dieting so tried to figure out what the maximum amount of weight I could safely lose per week would be and back my calorie budget out from there.
* Losing 1lb of fat uses approximately 3,500 calories.
* Apparently you’re not supposed to try to lose more than 2lbs per week (1lb/week is recommended but I don’t have the patience for that)
* I then based my diet over the last 1.5 months at a ~1000 calorie deficit per day based on the original estimated 2,370 cals/day.
* I’ve consumed an average of 1,290 cals/day and have ended up losing ~3lbs/week
* I’ve walked an average of 1 mile/day during this timeframe. Prior to that I didn’t really walk or do anything other than wake up, look after newborn, work, look after newborn while eating, put baby to sleep, fall asleep on couch 20 minutes into watching a show I’ve been looking forward to all day.
This is more than what is recommended but it’s still a lot healthier than what I would usually do so I’m fine with it.
* Due to my inherent laziness I’ve essentially eaten the exact same meal almost every weekday for the past 1.5 months minus 2 or 3 days where I was pressured into eating a visiting in-laws cooking. I typically only eat dinner (even normally) and eat an ice cream cone after dinner each night. I think eating the exact same thing each day helps avoid water retention issues from day to day but mostly it helps that I don’t have to worry about accurately tracking my calories each day since I’m just copy / pasting.
* There are a couple of spikes and dips in calorie consumption throughout. The first on 8/22 was from when I ate 3/4 of a bag of salt & vinegar potato chips which definitely seemed to spike my water retention the following days
* The second “spike” is from when I was given an 8 pack of CostCo chocolate muffins from my wife and she made a sad face when I told her that didn’t fit into my calorie budget. As such, I ate 1 muffin per day (410 calories) for 7 days and the 8th was eaten by a visiting friend.
* The small dip during the week of 8/27 is from when I didn’t realise we had run out of bacon (usually have 1-2 slices on average per day built into my meal prep where I use the bacon oil to fry mushrooms and help make my bland no milk mashed potatoes taste slightly better)
Anyway, overall, the 3,500 calories per pound of fat seems to be fairly accurate.
4 Comments
Which online calculator did you use? I’ve thought about trying this – always thought it would be interesting. And congrats on the weight loss!
Just so you know, the calorie information on the food we consume is much more approximate than you think. Each individual ingredient has its own margin of error and when they are combined can give very large differences between what’s reported and what you get.
That’s remarkable progress in Little over 3 weeks. Almost 3 lbs per week. How difficult was sticking to diet?
I technically started dieting a couple of weeks earlier than this around the middle of July so this shouldn’t be substantially affected by water weight. Time frame is a little over 6 weeks or so (~19.2 lbs over 44 days), I have no idea what I actually started at in July, my wife thinks I was 230 but I don’t remember.
The online calculator I used was essentially as accurate as the person using it. I started this test at 5’11” @ 220lbs and based on my fairly sedentary lifestyle it assumed that my TDEE (total baseline calories needed + additional calories for daily activity) would be approximately 2,400. I used to work out a lot 10+ years ago so I’m guessing I may have some excess remnants of muscle as it appears that the calculator was actually underestimating my TDEE and my realistic caloric budget should have been somewhere around the 2,800 mark.
I’ve never really tried conventional dieting before to lose weight, usually I just starve myself and run as far as I can every day which historically has worked fine every time I’ve done it in my 20s. Since I’m in my 30s and should be getting more mature, I decided to try a healthier approach to it but I legitimately hate dieting so tried to figure out what the maximum amount of weight I could safely lose per week would be and back my calorie budget out from there.
* Losing 1lb of fat uses approximately 3,500 calories.
* Apparently you’re not supposed to try to lose more than 2lbs per week (1lb/week is recommended but I don’t have the patience for that)
* I then based my diet over the last 1.5 months at a ~1000 calorie deficit per day based on the original estimated 2,370 cals/day.
* I’ve consumed an average of 1,290 cals/day and have ended up losing ~3lbs/week
* I’ve walked an average of 1 mile/day during this timeframe. Prior to that I didn’t really walk or do anything other than wake up, look after newborn, work, look after newborn while eating, put baby to sleep, fall asleep on couch 20 minutes into watching a show I’ve been looking forward to all day.
This is more than what is recommended but it’s still a lot healthier than what I would usually do so I’m fine with it.
* Due to my inherent laziness I’ve essentially eaten the exact same meal almost every weekday for the past 1.5 months minus 2 or 3 days where I was pressured into eating a visiting in-laws cooking. I typically only eat dinner (even normally) and eat an ice cream cone after dinner each night. I think eating the exact same thing each day helps avoid water retention issues from day to day but mostly it helps that I don’t have to worry about accurately tracking my calories each day since I’m just copy / pasting.
* There are a couple of spikes and dips in calorie consumption throughout. The first on 8/22 was from when I ate 3/4 of a bag of salt & vinegar potato chips which definitely seemed to spike my water retention the following days
* The second “spike” is from when I was given an 8 pack of CostCo chocolate muffins from my wife and she made a sad face when I told her that didn’t fit into my calorie budget. As such, I ate 1 muffin per day (410 calories) for 7 days and the 8th was eaten by a visiting friend.
* The small dip during the week of 8/27 is from when I didn’t realise we had run out of bacon (usually have 1-2 slices on average per day built into my meal prep where I use the bacon oil to fry mushrooms and help make my bland no milk mashed potatoes taste slightly better)
Anyway, overall, the 3,500 calories per pound of fat seems to be fairly accurate.