Fine Tuning

It took me a 100 days, but I have finally realized that I can do something to help lose the elusive 1 pound every 3 days. Specifically, I have realized that to some extent I can manage both my daily calorie intake and my daily exercise to help ensure that I have a total calorie deficiency of 3500 calories over a 3 day period.

As mentioned earlier, I keep a table of calories consumed for various levels of activity (measured by step counts and miles walked) calculated at my actual weight, updated every 4 or 5 pounds or so.

At the moment, the table is as follows:

actual weight: 317
. . . . . . ......... calories, miles/wk, steps/day
sedentary: . ...... 3393,...... 0,....... 0
lite activity : . . . 3915,...... 5,..... 1618
lite "+": . . . . .... 4241,..... 10,..... 3237
moderate:........ 4567,.... 17.5,.... 5665
heavy exercise:.. ----,..... 27,..... 8740

Using this table and my actual daily calorie count, it's possible to calculate the daily calorie differential.
Here's what this looks like over the last 3 days:

day 1 - 6/27 -
steps: 7010
moderate calories: 4567
actual calories: 3235
differential: 1332

day 2 - 6/28 -
steps: 7000
moderate calories: 4567
actual calories: 3081
differential: 1486
cumulative differential: 2818

day 3 - 6/29 -
steps (so far): 3650
lite+ calories: 4241
actual calories*: 3030
differential*: 1211
cumulative differential*: 4029 over 3 days, good for one pound
*estimated

So, what's the point? Well, today for example, my left knee, the weakest part of my body, is the size of a football. It would be a really good idea not to walk on it anymore today, even though it doesn't hurt walking. Knowing that I will have a big enough calorie deficiency to lose my 1 pound/3 days (provided I stay on target today) helps me decide not to walk this afternoon but rather rest my knee.

In other words, knowing where I stand in regard to losing my target 1 pound/ 3 days allows me much more flexibility in deciding how much to exercise on any any given day, on whether to eat out or not, or have pizza, or just have a big, really low calorie salad. The way I see it, the more flexible I can make my food decisions, the less constrained I will feel about my "diet", and the more likely I will succeed.