Weighing In - Day 51

Today's Diet Tip: Remember, when you're counting calories, they're not all equal. The time at which you consume the calories is important, as it also defines how much time you have to burn them off.

As an example, I am currently trying to reach a goal of 1200 or less calories a day. If I were to eat all 1200 at the beginning of the day (about 8 AM), I would have approximately 14 hours to burn it off, meaning I'd only have to burn about 86 calories an hour. However, if I were to eat the same amount at dinner (6 PM), I would have approximately 4 hours to burn it off, meaning I'd have to burn a whopping 300 calories an hour to burn off just the amount I ate today, not even including the amount I wish to lose in fat.

Because of that, always try to eat the most calories early, and then have each meal get successively smaller throughout the day. This will reduce the amount of calories you have to burn in the average hour and assist you in losing weight.

Current Goal Weight: 194.2#
Current Goal BMI: 26.31
Current Goal Deadline: July 20, 2008

Today's Weight: 198.0 (+1.3)
Today's BMI: 26.64 (+0.11)

Yesterday's Caloric Intake: 1270
Breakfast: 280 calories - Einstein Bros

• Yogurt with Granola - 180 calories
• SpontaneiTea - 100 calories

Lunch: 590 calories - Woody's Pizza

• Spaghetti - 480 calories
• Salad w/ Cottage Cheese - 110 calories
• Iced Tea - 0 calories

Dinner: 320 calories - Wendy's

• Homestyle Chicken Go Wrap- 320 calories
• Mandarin Oranges - 40 calories
• Iced Tea - 0 calories

Yesterday's Exercise Time: 60 minutes (50 minutes aerobics, 4 minutes strength training, 6 minutes yoga)

Yesterday Post-Assessment:
Yesterday overall should have worked out very well. However, I unfortunately ate significantly more than I should have at lunch, and I believe that is contributing to this weight gain. I could feel at the time that I had eaten too much, but continued anyway. The result, an increase in weight and some rather strong cramps.

Breakfast was a fantastic selection. I had yogurt with fruit and granola. The total for the yogurt alone came out to 180 calories. Unfortunately, they don't have unsweetened iced tea available at Einstein's, so I did pack on another 100 calories from the SpontaneiTea, which is the best selection next to water. The total, however, was still only 280 calories, which is fantastically done for breakfast.

Lunch, as mentioned above, was not so good. I did choose salad and pasta over pizza, which contributed to a lower calorie count. However, they brought a more than generous portion of pasta, and I chose to eat it all. The result, about 2 lbs of pasta in my stomach, increased my weight for today's measuring and my physical discomfort. Needless to say, I don't intend to do that again.

For dinner I intended to have a Grilled Chicken Go Wrap and mandarin oranges from Wendy's. Unfortunately, I was delivered a Homestyle Chicken Go Wrap instead of Grilled, which added 80 calories to the meal. The total on that meal, however, was still quite reasonable.

In summary, I have gained 1.3 pounds since yesterday, which caused a BMI increase of 0.17. This means I would have to lose 3.8 pounds amounting to a BMI decrease of 0.33 in order to meet my goal in 9 days. I'm hoping that the weight gained from the spaghetti meal is only temporary and that, as it passes, I see a greater decrease in weight over the next couple days in order to meet my goal.