A Hundred Calories Here, a Hundred Calories There...

According to most places (ok both places) I looked, a five hundred calorie deficit a day adds up to a pound a week. I'm losing weight, but way more slowly than a pound a week. When I go look at the numbers, I've been pretty good at exceeding that 500 calorie gap.  So either, the math doesn't work on me? Or the numbers are wrong? It has to be one or the other.

There is a good chance I underestimate my calories consumed.  I try very hard to be rigorous about every bite, and generous in my estimate of portion sizes. But every study ever done says people underestimate calories consumed. Period.

There is also the possibility my magic device overestimates my calorie burn, but I've got no way to judge that. It does seem to do a good relative job, counting my activity differently every day, so I'll assume it is ok.

What are the odds my body is different from everybody else's and I need a different formula? Clearly, we are not machines made with careful quality control for identical results. And in a weight loss mode, your body hunkers down and tries to conserve weight, convinced it is threatened by imminent starvation. So maybe the formula is not exactly right for me right now.

The thing is, none of that matters.  The thing to focus on is not the absolute numbers, but the gap. Whether or not I'm counting right, making a series of small changes should make the gap bigger. For example, walking to and from the kids house adds a hundred calories burned. Making the lunch round trip to buy my favorite salad adds 150 calories burned. Time on the NerdicTrak or elliptical trainer would burn even more even faster. Maybe I can add 20 minutes of NT time into the mix - at 200 calories for that short time - maybe even in the evenings?

On the eating end, I need to be vigilant at and after dinner. Portion control at dinner, and only a very small dessert. Aim at keeping the evening sweet under 100 calories, below the 200 calories it has crept up to. I can do this. Try to keep that gap getting wider!

I'm going to be taking some time off this summer - days here and there, afternoons here and there. I'm going to kick it into a lower gear at work. I have some active days in mind for me and my girl. That should help keep my control and focus on my body up, if I have some extra time to manage things on the home front.