Little bit of a public 'happy dance'
Celebrating 50 pounds lost since I started 18 weeks ago, the beginning of November. As of this week, I've averaged 2.8 pound per week, even though I have my setting set for 2 pounds per week. I use the Zone diet formula (40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat) which has worked for me in the past, but didn't have a good, quick way to keep track so I went back to WW and struggled with their last few programs. Cronometer has been an amazing find and lets me efficiently do Zone again and man is it working.
Since I started, I've started using a fitbit to get more accurate activity calories. Although the fitbit gives me less calories overall than I was averaging on cronometer - and it has actually slowed my weight loss. I think I was doing better with just cronometer giving me my daily calorie limit - but I do like the data from the fitbit. I wanted to add this because I see some people struggling with the cronometer estimates but for me they are right on.
btw I travel extensively on the road and have to work out the nutrition on the road...tonight I'm sitting in a hotel room eating go chu jang chicken and noodles (pulled rotisserie chicken breast tossed in go chu jang mixed with microwaveable noodles) with a chopped salad with avocado, crispy jalapenos, and mango salsa (I usually make my own in the hotel room, but found some tonight at the grocery). It takes a little bit of work on the road, but I travel with knife, collapsible bowls, and measuring cups, and even a food scale so I can keep on track even on the road.
Here's looking forward to the next 50 pounds!
Comments
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Your dedication and hard work has really paid off! Congratulations on your success kahbakerjd!
Karen Stark
cronometer.com
As always, any and all postings here are covered by our T&Cs:
https://forums.cronometer.com/discussion/27/governing-terms-and-disclaimer -
Congratulations! Isn't it great to be able to find something that works for your body and lifestyle? I eat roughly at Zone macros as well and found that to be the best balance for me.
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60 pounds now, I'm feeling good because that 10 came off with kids on spring break to mall of America and a work trip last week (which delays losses due to holding water on the airplane - I've found ways to minimize, but someone my size will always have water issues on a plan).
Still at average of 2.5 pounds a week since starting cronometer, even though I'm set at 2 pounds a week on my settings. Doing Zone ratios and using Fitbit to track my activities - the only adjustment is that some days with lots of office work I don't make it up to my BMR calories (as calculated by cronometer) so I'm eating past my cronometer calculated calories goal on those days to get within 50 cals of my BMR and that seems to be working because my losses have kept up.
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I did sync my Fitbit to cronometer and yesterday it added in my activity from the Fitbit but today it isn't. Please, how do I sync the two?
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I had trouble with it getting unlinked at first, especially if I was using the web and my phone app. Check on your profile, and make sure you are still linked.
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Thank you Kahbakerjd - I checked that out and I linked it again! Does it need to be linked daily? Yes I too use the web, and my phone app.
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No, once it's linked it stays, but it seemed like it would unlink if I went between the two modes of using Cronometer. If I stayed on my phone like I do when I traveled it never unlinked. Now the problem seems to be fixed though because I was on both today and it didn't come unlinked.
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Congrats! I'm started about 4 weeks ago and am down about 15 lbs so far. Logging my food works well for me. I'm mainly watching my calories (around 2000/day) and trying to keep my carb intake below 100 g. I give myself one cheat day per week.
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Congrats to you also.
I also mostly watch my calories , but secondarily, I work on increasing my protein instead of limiting carbs...I like to keep the protein about 30% (88.5g before activity - set to zero because I use a fitbit - but with activity the target often is around 140g-180g - pretty high) and then I shoot to stay within or go over my fat target (30%) and stay within or go under my carb target (40%) - basically the zone diet. At 40% my carbs are much higher than 100g (they start at 118 but go up to 175 -200), but I look more at the percentages than a flat number.
One thing about tracking calories - make sure you use the program as designed and eat relative to your activity level. I shoot to always hit at a minimum my BMR (currently 2177) , but try to hit the target if it's higher...my BMR is sometimes higher than my "target" because subtracting the 900 (for weight loss) from my daily burned calories may end up lower than my BMR (i.e. I had less than 900 calories added for activity) - but I still always eat to my BMR. If I have enough activity my target is higher than my BMR and I try to hit that target by adding things for that day. I think using this strategy has kept me from being hungry and "craving" higher carb foods (quick energy so if your body is feeling under nourished, it can crave carbs and fat). I noticed I was hungrier and had some cravings when I was using just the weight loss "target" and not hitting my BMR every day so I started making sure I hit the BMR every day (thanks to posts from the dietician Susan on here). I find during the week I'm just eating my BMR (I have a "desk" job) and on the weekend I have extra to play with because I have more activity and I let the program guide me. Even though I have lots of days I'm exceeding my weight loss "target" it doesn't seem to be affecting my rate of loss which is keeping north of 2 lbs per week - but I think that's owing to keeping my metabolism going by hitting my BMR every day.
PS - I don't end up needing a "cheat day" because I can work an ice cream cone (kids love DQ) or piece of B-day cake in because these usually come up on weekends when I have more calories to play with and I just modulate what I eat the rest of the day. They say that is what naturally thin people do and I'm finding this program helps me to develop that way of thinking. Figure a 500 cal treat and needing at least 2177 calories every day - that is always work-in-able just about any day and a treat more than 500 cals is probably not going to make me feel right the next day so I've learned to avoid or cut the portion - I find the first bite is the good bite anyway - every other bit has "diminishing returns" on satisfaction so I'm often sharing with someone else or the garbage can if necessary.
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Update....70 pounds lost as of this week and averaging 2.3 pounds lost since I started the beginning of November - 70 pounds in just over 7 months - hooray! I just can't thank the Cronometer team enough. I find the program so easy to use and it makes it so easy to stick to the ZONE percentages. And the strategy of eating to my BMR even if its more calories than allotted for my goal has really worked and not slowed my weight loss.
For those of you that are new, really consider the gold. With the ability to add categories to your day you can segment out daily items to copy over each day - two clicks and all my everyday items like vitamins, water, sleep, activity, weight, BMI are there and ready for me to update with today's values. And my usual breakfast I just copy over to breakfast - you can use "recipes" or custom food to do the same, but for me the easiest is to copy the meal from day to day. And really explore the recipe builder - I love that I can make an adjustment and it not affect prior entries. So I have common recipes and I open them, tweak the amounts or ingredients as they were changed for today's meal and then save without affecting prior entries.
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90 pounds lost! I didn't post over the summer, but thought I'd update...20 pounds since June 7 is not too bad if I do say so myself...and I had A LOT of work travel over the summer so was eating in hotels and on the road a lot and still kept it going. I'm going to start a new thread when I hit 100 pounds lost.
I decided to add exercise this week...yes I lost 90 pounds without an organized (or any exercise program)...it's all math - build a deficit and you will lose...but with the weight loss, my BMR calorie allocation is going down and I don't always hit the deficit goal so I'm adding exercise...I'm lucky enough to have a home gym with a gym quality Precor Elliptical 546 and Precor stretching chair - my hubby has a bowflex in there too, but seems overly complicated so I'm going to go back to yoga...I was never as strong as I was when I did power yoga and with the gym equipment out of the way I think my kids can join me so it can be a family activity.
Hopefully be back with you in a month or so with the 100 pound update!
