How I Started

Calories in that... full day edition, the breakdown:

To celebrate my 100th Instagram post, I’m going to give you a glimpse into a day of my meals. I’ll also explain how I started and currently track calories. A little background— I had 7 babies from 2009-2018. I hardly noticed that I had kept on 5-10 lbs per babe (totally worth it by the way 👶🏻), and after the finale baby, finally I was ready to make a change.

The very first thing I did (one year+ ago) was download the @MyFitnessPal app. Using the app (or you can use another calculator), I calculated what my caloric intake should be per day for my height to achieve weight loss. It’s straightforward, to lose weight you need a caloric deficiency— consume less calories than you burn. I encourage you to use the calculator since my number is specific to my height. I started at 1200 calories per day. Knowing what I’ve learned the past year, I think I was consuming close to 3000 calories per day prior to changing my habits. 

For 9 months, I stayed at 1200 calories per day, logging everything I ate into MyFitnessPal. I really tried to stay close to 1200, because going too far under would leave me starving the next day. My new caloric intake was hard at first, but became easy as my body adjusted. I was sure to stay hydrated. Did you know you should be drinking 2/3 of your weight (lbs) in ounces of water per say? For example, if you weigh 200 lbs, you should shoot for 132 oz of water per day. I learned that sometimes I was just thirsty when I thought I was hungry. The more hydrated, the better I feel.

To keep myself honest (because I can fit at least a full cup of ice cream in a 1/2 cup measuring cup), I use a kitchen scale to measure my quantities and portions. This helps me a lot, because I can trust that what I document is accurate (so I can confidently save room for dessert). I still do this for most foods.

I  also walked as much as possible and started using @peloton. My next goal is to build more lean muscle. The exercise is great, but the most important factor to weight loss is still caloric deficiency. 

I should talk about protein. Protein makes you feel full, and it requires more energy for your body to metabolize protein. I love efficiency! I try to consume at least 100 g of protein per day, and shifted my focus to protein especially when I transitioned up above 1200 calories.

After 9 months of 1200 calorie days, my BMI had dropped nearly 10 points, I lost 50 lbs, and I felt good. It was time to enter maintenance mode. This took some trial and error. At first I added 200 calories to my daily consumption, and I quickly started gaining weight. So I dialed back to 1200 for a couple weeks, and tried again at a lower rate. I found that adding 50 calories every two weeks was a good rate for me. At this rate I was able to keep my weight maintained. I’m currently up to 1700 calories per day, and this will probably be where I stay. I have a bathroom scale that I have used the entire time to check in frequently (sometimes daily, sometimes weekly). I like that it automatically syncs to my phone and graphs progress for weight, body fat, BMI, etc. 

Now that I’m in maintenance mode, sometimes I go above my calories. And a lot of days I’m below. I listen to my body, because after a year I have a really good idea of what feeling hungry, full, and over-full fee like — and I listen!

You can follow more of my meals on Instagram @caloriesinthat !

Important note: I am not an expert or professional, this is simply what worked for me. I hope my experience is helpful, and I’m happy to answer any questions about anything!