Almost Through Week One

12,641 calories and $114 later, I'm almost through the first week. I'm midway through Tuesday, so I still have calories to consume, so I'm looking at closer to 13,414 by the time the day is over. There is also a charge for Burger King for yesterday's breakfast that I haven't seen hit my credit card statement yet, so let's say $120.00.

That means I've spent about $17 per day on food, which would average $5.70 for each of the three main daily meals. I'm averaging about 1,900 calories per day, or 638 for each of the main daily meals.  My initial reaction to these statistics is not very positive.  However, I weighed in last night and it looks like I have a cumulative weight change of -2.58%. I literally got on and off the scale a half-dozen times easy because I didn't believe the number. I thought for sure that our indulgence at the Cheesecake Factory was going to lead to a weight gain of a pound or two. 

Looking at our regular monthly budget for restaurants and groceries, we allow ourselves approximately $17 per day to spend on food.  So, I have been spending about $17 a day for just my food; when you add in Francisco's food, we're spending probably close to twice our usual monthly allowance. There is a convenience cost when it comes to buying food at a restaurant vs. buying the ingredients at a grocery store and preparing the meal yourself. Our spending is more than I would like it to be, so I plan to take greater advantage of restaurant specials and coupon specials. 

There are many different calorie calculators with varying degrees of accurary.  The calculator available here, http://www.kriskris.com/how-many-calories-should-i-eat-a-day/, looks at the following variables:

1. Current weight
2. Age
3. Gender
4. Height
5. Activity level.

According to this calculator, my average daily calorie need is 1,810 calories. That puts me pretty close to being on target. At 1,900 average daily calories, I am consuming about 5% more than I need to be.  Bear in mind that this is the amount of calories I would need to consume to maintain my current weight. Fad diets aside, it all boils down to "calories in, calories out".

Perhaps a more helpful number to look at is your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). It sounds complicated, but basically it is just the number of calories you burn by just being alive on a daily basis. As this briefly explains, http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/, you use energy even when you are sleeping, so BMR is just the amount of energy you need to consume to keep your body functioning normally. According to this calculator, I have a BMR of 1,399.1.  This website also offers an alternative way to calculate your total daily calorie needs using the Harris Benedict Equation. After you calculate your BMR, determine your appropriate activity factor. Personally, I exercise for 20-35 minutes every weekday morning, so I could consider myself to be moderately active. The formula for this would be, http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/:

1,399.1 x 1.55 = 2,168.61 

Why the difference between this calculation and my earlier calculation? Activity level. I picked Lightly strenuous exercise the first time around. When I went back and adjusted to Moderately strenuous, the results were much more similar. So, maybe I'm not that far off with total calories consumed after all...