SDMB Weight Loss Club, October

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
141

[QUOTE=Cosmic Relief]
OK, I finally decided to try the WW points thing. Please do not tell anybody, I feel like I’m becoming my mother. I have a question about how to enter the points for exercise. How do you calculate points for exercises that aren’t well-defined in their web tools?

Today I backpacked 2 hours with a 30 pound weight. The point-o-meter does not seem to have a straightforward way to enter this. According to other online tables, I burned about 1700 calories. No way am I accepting just 6 points for this. If my vague understanding is correct, points are equal to calories divided by 50 (plus adjustments for fat and fiber, which don’t apply to exercise). So I should really get 35 points for that, in my estimation.

Does anybody have any idea?
[/QUOTE]

I would count it as the most allowed daily exercise points, which is 4 points. Sucks, I know, but those are the rules that they have.

We will keep your secret here… :smiley:

142

[QUOTE=supervenusfreak]
I would count it as the most allowed daily exercise points, which is 4 points. Sucks, I know, but those are the rules that they have.

We will keep your secret here… :smiley:
[/QUOTE]

I’m glad you mentioned that, since I had wondered, too, what their criteria were. Of course, I could have read about it, but god forbid I do that.

143

I have to add that the 4 points per day is the recommended maximum. You are allowed to earn more. According to the Points Booster slider, you can earn up to 13 points for 2 hours of high intensity exercise, factoring in your body weight.

144

[QUOTE=Cosmic Relief]
OK, I finally decided to try the WW points thing. Please do not tell anybody, I feel like I’m becoming my mother. I have a question about how to enter the points for exercise. How do you calculate points for exercises that aren’t well-defined in their web tools?

Today I backpacked 2 hours with a 30 pound weight. The point-o-meter does not seem to have a straightforward way to enter this. According to other online tables, I burned about 1700 calories. No way am I accepting just 6 points for this. If my vague understanding is correct, points are equal to calories divided by 50 (plus adjustments for fat and fiber, which don’t apply to exercise). So I should really get 35 points for that, in my estimation.

Does anybody have any idea?
[/QUOTE]

1700 calories sounds high to me - my pedometer calculates about 110 calories per mile with an all-up weight of 125kg (~280lb). I’ll have to recalibrate the pedometer soon as I’m now getting to be well under that weight, but then I only use the calorie figure as a guideline. The point is that unless you’re really booking in that 2 hours, you’d be doing well to cover 16 miles (that’s getting up to marathon-runner speed; I’ve just asked the office authority), which is what you’d need to burn anything like that amount of calories, unless of course your all-up weight is a lot higher than mine. (All of my all-up weight is built-in, for that matter. I’ve considered backpacking a few bricks to make up the weight that I’m shedding, but I’m just as happy not to be toting it for now.)

I haven’t done WW in nearly a decade so I don’t know how many points you’re meant to credit yourself with for exercise.

145

[QUOTE=amarinth]
About a month ago, I started trying to eat a more reasonable amount of calories each day, snack less (or have better snacks), and eat a fruit or vegetable every day. So far, I’ve been doing pretty good - it shows on the scale, but not on me. Which is disappointing, quite frankly, I wouldn’t care what I weighed, so long as I looked thin, may be the wrong attitude, but at least, I’m admitting it. I am actually exercising a lot less than before I started eating better, so I need to start that up again. So far, I’ve done two days worth of the crossfit thing - I like it so far.

For exercise points it tends to be ~1 point per 100 calories burned. Of course, if you’re doing heavy exercise, this becomes ridiculous. I always had trouble with WW when I was working out. obviously, I should eat more - but double what I would eat on a non-exercise day? yeah, right. And WW headquarters was no help. I think I ended up just not trying to stick within the points for those days - (this was before the weekly fund method of points).
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Can you explain what you mean by that bolded part? If you burn 100 calories, that’s one activity point. A hundred calories is a hundred calories, I don’t understand where the ridiculous comes in.

You eat one food point for each activity point burned. If you were to eat 100 calories, that would be TWO food points. Activity points and food points are not the same thing. There is a built-in deficit of ~50 calories to stop you from eating every calorie you’ve burned with exercise.

146

OK *now *the doc says I have several pinched nerves in my neck… I go in for an MRI sometime next week. The neurologist can’t see me until March. (There is no way I’m going to spend close to half a year with dizziness and headaches.)

The good news is, my symptoms improve as the day goes on and I am back working out at night.

147

[QUOTE=Khadaji]
OK *now *the doc says I have several pinched nerves in my neck… I go in for an MRI sometime next week. The neurologist can’t see me until March. (There is no way I’m going to spend close to half a year with dizziness and headaches.)

The good news is, my symptoms improve as the day goes on and I am back working out at night.
[/QUOTE]

Gah! Don’t you hate when they can’t decide what’s wrong with you??

Hope you get it figured out soon!

As frustrating as it is for me to be going through what I’m going through, at least I know what the problem is and what has to be done to fix it.

148

[QUOTE=supervenusfreak]
I have to add that the 4 points per day is the recommended maximum. You are allowed to earn more. According to the Points Booster slider, you can earn up to 13 points for 2 hours of high intensity exercise, factoring in your body weight.
[/QUOTE]

I’m not seeing any slider. I get to enter an activity name, a duration, and an intensity of low, high, or medium. High gives me 21 points. According to this site I actually cranked about 1700 calories (hiking for 2 hours carrying 22 pounds weight on top of my regular 210 pounds) which I think comes out to about 35 points.

I don’t think that factors in speed or weight though… I may not have said but it’s on heavily rolling terrain at about 3mph.

149

Khadaji, you might want to consider seeing a chiropractor or massage therapist, at least until the neurologist can see you (I agree that March is too long to wait). If you really do have pinched nerves in your neck, it might help to at least relieve the symptoms somewhat. Glad to hear you’re feeling somewhat better though!

ETA: I hope that doesn’t sound like medical advice. You’ll want to check with your doctor before seeing a chiropractor or massage therapist, of course. :slight_smile:

150

[QUOTE=Cosmic Relief]
I’m not seeing any slider. I get to enter an activity name, a duration, and an intensity of low, high, or medium. High gives me 21 points. According to this site I actually cranked about 1700 calories (hiking for 2 hours carrying 22 pounds weight on top of my regular 210 pounds) which I think comes out to about 35 points.

I don’t think that factors in speed or weight though… I may not have said but it’s on heavily rolling terrain at about 3mph.
[/QUOTE]

Interesting, 'cos it sounds as though if you hiked for five hours a day you’d need to eat like a horse just to maintain weight. My cheap-ass pedometer only counts steps, and is calibrated for weight and stride length; I’m sure it’s easy to design one that computes speed and adjusts the calorie burn accordingly, but mine doesn’t.

I can certainly vouch for the effectiveness of walking as a calorie-burner - as my posts above indicate, I’ve been shooting for a daily five miles in two instalments, unless I’ve had the time to go for longer. I’ve not been feeling hungry enough to force me to eat more to compensate, so at the moment the weight is coming off a treat and the walking muscles are getting better by the day. Last night’s was just road and pavement with some variation in gradient, but my usual routes take in dirt tracks and fields.

151

I went back to walking/jogging this morning, with a brisk 3.5 mile walk and a .5 jog. It felt very good to do it. According to my activity points slider, I earned 5 points (50 minutes of moderate exercise at 280 lbs.)

Here is the guide I was given to determine intensity level:

Light: Light activities that do not make you sweat. Examples include stretching or walking at a leisurely pace.

Moderate: Activities that probably make you sweat. Examples include walking at a fast past or biking.

High: Activities that make you sweat. Examples include jogging, running, competitive swimming, or competitive biking.

I’ve been enjoying the moderate weather here. It has made doing this much easier.

152

[QUOTE=yellowval]
tdn, the one thing I would add to your list of predictions is a multitude of excuses from the other person … “I can’t eat healthy because I’m always eating on the run.” Or, “I don’t have time to work out.” Or, “I’m too tired to exercise after work, chasing the kids, etc., etc.”
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This is an excellent point.

But I’m too busy. But I have issues. But mom never loved me enough.

One idea that I’ve been playing with is that if you have problems in one area of your life, they tend to spread to other areas, like cancer.

But I’m too ugly. But talking to strangers is scary. But cigarettes make me feel good.

Get off your buts.

Yellowval, you tried to talk your coworker into losing weight. Did it work?

Have you ever lectured a smoker that it’s bad for them? They lit up right then and there, and blew smoke in your face, right? I have. I abolutely HATE it when some sanctimonious prick tells me that I’m going to die of cancer. I also hate it when some sanctimonious prick tells me I’m too fat. I want to smoke a donut and say “Back off, prick.” I hate it when people tell me what to do. I especially hate it when I know that deep down, they are absolutely right.

I fight them. My most powerful weapons are my buts.

You can’t tell someone else that they need to change. They’ll resist in a powerful way. But you can come to see your own problems on your own, and when you do, you’ll start to recognize that your own excuses are really quite lame. And then you’ll find that once you start to solve one problem, you’ve found you have the tools to conquer another problem. When you solve two problems, you’ll have the tools and courage to tackle two more. Once the excuses melt away, so do the many many prison walls that we didn’t even know were there.

If I can lose weight, I can quit smoking. I will do so by late December. No more excuses. I’m going to get off my butts. :wink:

153

[QUOTE=supervenusfreak]
I’ve been enjoying the moderate weather here. It has made doing this much easier.
[/QUOTE]

You speak truth. Yesterday was the first nice day we’ve had here in quite some time. It’s been raining pretty steadily over the past couple of weeks so I’ve been stuck inside on the treadmill. I was so excited to be able to go outside for my walk after work yesterday. Today holds great promise as well—the weatherman says it’ll be 65 degrees at 5 o’clock!

154

[QUOTE=Malacandra]
No-one has to think in terms of getting off the sofa 7300 times. God in His wisdom has made us creatures who live in Time. We don’t get everything all at once, though our imaginations can picture it; we get it all one moment at a time.
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Also an excellent point.

I don’t want a lifetime of exercise, I just need to do the next one.

Ironically, I don’t want the next cigarette, I want a lifetime of them.

155

[QUOTE=tdn]
Yellowval, you tried to talk your coworker into losing weight. Did it work?
[/QUOTE]

Well, technically I wasn’t the one who told her she should lose weight. Her doctor was. She just whined about it to us so another co-worker and I have tried to encourage her. All we get in return is more whining and excuses. My step-mom does the same thing. She whines that her doctor told her she has to lose 50 pounds yet all she does about it is go on stupid fad diets and drag my dad along with her. So they lose a few pounds, go off the diet, and gain it all back and then some. It just frustrates me so much!

156

[QUOTE=yellowval]
Well, technically I wasn’t the one who told her she should lose weight. Her doctor was. She just whined about it to us so another co-worker and I have tried to encourage her. All we get in return is more whining and excuses. My step-mom does the same thing. She whines that her doctor told her she has to lose 50 pounds yet all she does about it is go on stupid fad diets and drag my dad along with her. So they lose a few pounds, go off the diet, and gain it all back and then some. It just frustrates me so much!
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that’s tough. I think the best you can do in that situation is be your own success story and hope to hell that those people are inspired by it and ask for advice.

157

[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth]
Can you explain what you mean by that bolded part?
[/QUOTE]
I mean that if I did not exercise, my points would be about the amount of calories I “needed” that day. I would not be hungry, but I wouldn’t be overstuffed. For me, someone who was using WW to help with portion control and food estimation, that was a good guide.

If I did a short amount of exercise, (say 2 points worth), the same would be true, not hungry, not overstuffed, the amount of food that I was recommended was a good estimate.

On days where I would earn 15-20 activity points? All of the food estimates went right out the window. Obviously, I should eat more than the base points, I’ve burned more calories. But nearly twice as much food? That doesn’t seem right. Obviously the answer is somewhere in the 700-1000 calorie window, but that’s a very large window and if I could successfully navigate through a window that big, I wouldn’t need WW in the first place.

Trying to get answers from WW about heavy exercise was impossible. The leaders (at meetings) and the people on the phone would themselves admit that they didn’t know how to handle it.

158

I checked around on the 'net about my shin splints–I’ve been having pain when I walk fast, although not when I do the elliptical machine. Apparently, my shin and calf muscles are weakened. Today I did some of the exercises listed to strengthen them and did a longer warm-up than usual and I didn’t get any shin pain until near the end of my walk. That’s a huge improvement, because walking was extremely painful before. 3 more days this week and I’ll have met my 6-day goal for the 3rd week in a row. Go me!

159

Nice!

What were the exercises?

160

It’s a miracle! I lost 3 lbs just arriving in NY!

OK, fine, I didn’t actually lose 3 lbs but my mother in-law’s scale thinks I only weigh 165. Now, my goal was to reach 166 by this vacation so I suppose I could declare victory.

My MIL cooks for my husband and I like we’re a party of 5 and she’s a guilt feeder. “Look at all this food I bought.” “If you don’t eat it I’ll just have to throw it out.” Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong impression, she’s a wonderful woman and we’re having a great time but she’s a feeder so I’m having to exercise my “no, thanks” more than usual. Luckily, my husband is behind me 100% so I’m hopeful that I’ll make it through this vacation with no change in weight. I don’t plan to lose and I’d rather not gain either. (one Christmas I came home 7 lbs heavier :eek: )

tdn your predictions are very true. In fact, I can remember being that person making the excuses in the face of someone who had successfully lost weight through diet and exercise.