Obvious discovery is obvious
Jun. 14th, 2011 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weirdquarkEating more fresh and fewer processed foods makes it much easier to get enough potassium and not too much sodium.
I started lifting weights about two months ago. It's fun, I'm getting stronger, all is awesome. My weight had been remaining the same though, and I wasn't sure if I wasn't losing weight because I was eating more calories than I was taking in, if I wasn't eating enough, or if I was losing fat but gaining muscle. I preferred the last, but since I had no way to tell which of these was the case by the scale, I started tracking calories and also taking measurements of various parts of my body so I could calculate my body fat percentage.
Using a tape measure isn't a great way to do this -- I found three different ways of measuring body fat and using my measurements got three totally different body fat percentages. I decided to average them (the average is actually pretty close to one of the measurements) and that's what I'm using to calculate how much body fat I have. Or, more importantly, how much muscle mass I have, because it is important to me that I not lose muscle mass.
Things I discovered from the calorie tracker:
I don't eat enough fiber when I'm not paying attention.
My sodium intake is too high.
My potassium intake is too low.
The later two are especially problematic when you consider that I have high blood pressure as a result of my genetic disorder. (Neurofibromatosis, for those of you who are interested.)
I do okay with all my other nutrients. I'm eating more protein because of the weight lifting -- the book whose program I'm following (New Rules of Lifting for Women) suggests a 40-30-30 carbs-protein-fat split. I think I am eating the correct amount; I was still estimating amounts when I started tracking, but I started being more anal and my calorie intake is about the same, and when I haven't eaten the number of calories that I'm aiming for I feel hungry, and if I go over, I feel over full, so it all seems reasonable. Mostly the tracker has been good for making me pay attention to fiber and vitamins, and I make sure to eat things with whatever I'm lacking for dinner to make up for not getting them earlier.
Today was a good day -- I ate lots of fresh food, very little processed protein (I usually get a lot of protein from various kinds of cheese or yogurt, which have a lot of sodium, or chicken sausages, which, ditto, though the ones we get are the lowest sodium sausages we've found, or canned chicken -- they're all fast and easy. I normally run tap water over canned food to wash some of the sodium away, but our tap water is full of sodium. Sigh.) and my sodium and potassium numbers were really good for once. So I'll have to try doing that more often.
It's only been a week, so while there have been weight and measurement changes, I don't know how much it means. I suspect that what weight loss I've had over the last few days has been due to increasing my fiber intake and drinking more water (and that it's mostly water loss) but according to my calculations, my muscle mass has remained the same.
The calorie tracker program that I'm using thinks that I can lose enough weight by mid August to, if my muscle mass continues to be the same, bring my body fat percentage down from the top of the 'acceptable' range to the top of the 'fit' range. Which would be great and all, but I have no idea what it's basing this on. (It's basing this on my losing a pound a week, which is a reasonable rate to lose weight. However, according to its calculation of calories in vs calories out, I'm averaging a calorie deficit of 30 calories a day, which will mean I'll have a deficit of 3500 calories (a pound) in about four months.
I do not think that the calorie tracker has the least idea of how weight lifting works, so it's not like its estimation has anything to do with reality. But the tracking on ratios and vitamins are useful, and after a few days of stumbling around I actually figured out how to use the log without driving myself crazy, so I'll keep it a while longer.
I'm going to eat a few more strawberries now -- my potassium's still a tad too low.
I started lifting weights about two months ago. It's fun, I'm getting stronger, all is awesome. My weight had been remaining the same though, and I wasn't sure if I wasn't losing weight because I was eating more calories than I was taking in, if I wasn't eating enough, or if I was losing fat but gaining muscle. I preferred the last, but since I had no way to tell which of these was the case by the scale, I started tracking calories and also taking measurements of various parts of my body so I could calculate my body fat percentage.
Using a tape measure isn't a great way to do this -- I found three different ways of measuring body fat and using my measurements got three totally different body fat percentages. I decided to average them (the average is actually pretty close to one of the measurements) and that's what I'm using to calculate how much body fat I have. Or, more importantly, how much muscle mass I have, because it is important to me that I not lose muscle mass.
Things I discovered from the calorie tracker:
I don't eat enough fiber when I'm not paying attention.
My sodium intake is too high.
My potassium intake is too low.
The later two are especially problematic when you consider that I have high blood pressure as a result of my genetic disorder. (Neurofibromatosis, for those of you who are interested.)
I do okay with all my other nutrients. I'm eating more protein because of the weight lifting -- the book whose program I'm following (New Rules of Lifting for Women) suggests a 40-30-30 carbs-protein-fat split. I think I am eating the correct amount; I was still estimating amounts when I started tracking, but I started being more anal and my calorie intake is about the same, and when I haven't eaten the number of calories that I'm aiming for I feel hungry, and if I go over, I feel over full, so it all seems reasonable. Mostly the tracker has been good for making me pay attention to fiber and vitamins, and I make sure to eat things with whatever I'm lacking for dinner to make up for not getting them earlier.
Today was a good day -- I ate lots of fresh food, very little processed protein (I usually get a lot of protein from various kinds of cheese or yogurt, which have a lot of sodium, or chicken sausages, which, ditto, though the ones we get are the lowest sodium sausages we've found, or canned chicken -- they're all fast and easy. I normally run tap water over canned food to wash some of the sodium away, but our tap water is full of sodium. Sigh.) and my sodium and potassium numbers were really good for once. So I'll have to try doing that more often.
It's only been a week, so while there have been weight and measurement changes, I don't know how much it means. I suspect that what weight loss I've had over the last few days has been due to increasing my fiber intake and drinking more water (and that it's mostly water loss) but according to my calculations, my muscle mass has remained the same.
The calorie tracker program that I'm using thinks that I can lose enough weight by mid August to, if my muscle mass continues to be the same, bring my body fat percentage down from the top of the 'acceptable' range to the top of the 'fit' range. Which would be great and all, but I have no idea what it's basing this on. (It's basing this on my losing a pound a week, which is a reasonable rate to lose weight. However, according to its calculation of calories in vs calories out, I'm averaging a calorie deficit of 30 calories a day, which will mean I'll have a deficit of 3500 calories (a pound) in about four months.
I do not think that the calorie tracker has the least idea of how weight lifting works, so it's not like its estimation has anything to do with reality. But the tracking on ratios and vitamins are useful, and after a few days of stumbling around I actually figured out how to use the log without driving myself crazy, so I'll keep it a while longer.
I'm going to eat a few more strawberries now -- my potassium's still a tad too low.
