The Truth Dot Com

The truth shall set you free right?  Well, I met my 60lb weight loss goal back in April.  Since then, I've gained 7-9 lbs (I fluctuate).  7+ lbs is a lot to a calorie counter.  I thought I would do well on my new increased calorie budget, which was around 1900 a day.  I took full advantage of it too.  I lost the last 10lbs by reducing my meat intake. Once I started back eating meat, that's when I started to gain back the weight.  I finally mustered the courage to log it on Lose It! yesterday.  So many people have kind of "admired" me on there for finally meeting my goal, so I kinda, slightly felt like I would be letting them down.  Anyhoo, I've logged it and now am re-tracking to lose these few pounds again.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally obsessed with counting calories (at least I don't think so), but I'm trying to be strict on my diet in order to lose the tummy.  I know that "abs are made in the kitchen" and I'm trying to do just that!  I don't think I can continue to eat the amount of calories I'm "allowed" to eat in maintenance mode and try to get a flat stomach at the same time.  Reducing them will definitely make me pay more attention to what I'm putting in my mouth as well as how much.

Sunday is always a rest day for me. So tomorrow I'm picking back up with Week 3 of Insanity, the Fit Test, and I will do a speed workout.  The rest of the week will be dedicated to building my endurance to run 5 miles easily (I had a wonderful 5 mile run Saturday morning) using no particular training plan.

Review: I Used Lose It! to Lose It!

I found the Lose It! app for iPhone's while randomly browsing iTunes one day.  I had no intentions on counting calories at the start of my weight loss journey, but this colorful, easy to use app caught my interest.  It just looked fun to use.  It wasn't like keeping a written food journal in a diary.  This app does most of the work for you.  You  just have to log it.  That was May 2009.  Three weeks later into June 2009, I had lost the first 15lbs.

I was one of the early Lose It! app users before they developed the website into what it is now.  Now you don't have to have an iPhone and a recent Android version has been released.  

When you first set up your account.  It will ask you to enter the standard info (i.e. Today's Weight, Goal Weight,  Height, and how much weight would you like to lose a week) that assists in determining your daily calorie budget.  My current calorie budget for maintenance mode (to maintain my current weight) is 1,964 calories a day.  If you're trying to lose weight, of course yours will  be lower, depending on your stats of course.  Once you've entered this info in, you can start logging your food and exercise calories.

The food database has been updated several times, so it includes almost every food and/or restaurant you can think of for every meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack).  If not, you can enter the item in manually.  The same goes for exercises (especially if you use a HRM which may give a more accurate calories burned count).

I eat so many carbs and not enough protein - working on that!

I like the Report feature (the full version-visible only via the website) which shows an analysis of your calorie trends including nutrient information. I'm able to see a breakdown of My Nutrients.  I particularly like to keep up with my Fat-Carb-Protein (& Fiber) percentages now that I am in maintenance mode.  Whereas, when I was just trying to lose weight and thought all of that was overwhelming, I just wanted to burn more than I ate.  Today's Fat-Carb-Protein percentages weren't that great.  I like being able to see this because its a quicker way of assessing what I am doing "wrong"; I like the extra control it gives me over my diet.

There's other extras like the ability to add friends so you can motivate each other, participate in the forums for additional help/resources, graphs showing your progress, and badges congratulating you for different achievements and milestones.  My most recent badge was one for "Smooth Sailing".  Earning the "Smooth Sailing" badge means I'm doing a great job of maintaining my weight.

I have heard of the other calorie counters like My Fitness Pal. I've never given that site a try, but I liked the convenience of the Lose It! iPhone app upfront.  I'm always on my phone anyway, so... this made it 10x more likely that I'd continue its use.  Two years later and 60lbs lighter, all using this app to track my calories, is proof!

Do you keep a food journal? Did you find it tedious or helpful?