Kath Eats Real Food

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Below are some of my responses to your questions. Hope they help clarify!

Thanks for reading,

Kath

How many calories do you eat per day?

I average about 1700 calories per day. My goal is to NET 1226 calories, which means my gross calorie intake minus my calories burned through my workouts and walking equals 1226. I usually burn between 400 and 600 calories per day through exercise and walking, so that means I’m aiming for 1626 and 1826 per day. This number means I’m losing weight very slowly, so that if I have a special occasion or go over one day, it will balance out to maintain my weight rather than gain. I use a food and exercise tracker at www.CalorieKing.com that makes recording food really easy and calculates the calories for me.

Why count calories?

I like to keep my eye on how many calories I’m consuming and burning because I think it’s WAAAY to easy to eat too much, especially if you’re 5′2″ and small framed like me with not much wiggle room! My opinion when it comes to counting calories and measuring is “to each her own.” I’ve lost 30 pounds, I’m obviously doing something right. If counting works for me, then let me be!! Unless it becomes a problem or burden in my life, I will continue to at least ballpark my calories. If I lived on a farm or ate only food from a farmer’s market 100% of the time, I wouldn’t need to count. But I live in the real world of oversized portions, processed foods, good restaurants, parties, special events, holidays…it goes on and on and in order to make smart choices in these environments, I believe I have to keep counting. It’s just too easy to let things get out of control. I feel that I could maintain my weight without calorie counting simply by putting the emphasis on eating fresh, whole foods, but I’m always so curious about the calorie count even when I’m eating healthy that I find myself tallying them up in my head for fun!

Where did you come up with 1226 net?

That’s a good question and something I’m still not 100% sure about!

I basically chose my number based on what I think my basal metabolic rate (BMR) is. I believe your net should never be below your BMR or your body will not have enough fuel for your workouts AND your body functions. Make sense?

Most online calculators estimate my BMR at 1350, which was my net goal for the first 20-25 pounds. I then hit a plateau and to get off the last five pounds, I took my net down to 1226 as an experiment. (And 26 is my lucky number ) . The last few pounds came off, and now 1226 just feels right for me. When I’m eating 1226 net, my body feels great, and I don’t feel hungry (as long as I’m getting in lots of exercise). When I exercise more, I eat more. The weight and volume of food I eat when I’m netting this just feels natural.

I experimented with netting 1400 or so for a while and slowly gained a few pounds back, so I dropped it down again. I have a friend with my same body stats as me who nets 1400 and doesn’t gain. I think my desk job has something to do with it. If I were active more during the day, I’d bump it up a hundred or so. I keep it at 1226 despite having a weight maintenance goal with the assumption that I’m going to gain some on special occasions – it gives me a buffer if I overeat!

One thing to note: I find it almost impossible to net 1226 when I can’t exercise, so I usually up it to 1400-1500 on those days when I know i can’t exercise to let myself eat a little more. I’d starve on less than 1500 calories on a regular basis!

NEW! Are you trying to maintain your weight or lose?

I consider myself maintenance now, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still going to lose. Here’s why: Our lives are filled with ups and downs – I might go 2 weeks of eating super-healthy at home and cooking my own meals, but then I might have 5 special events in a row (Thanksgiving, travels for work, parties, etc.) where I eat more than usual. If I was eating maintenance calories on a regular basis (I would probably increase my net around 1400-1500 to do that), then when I overeat on these special events, I’d end up slowly gaining (this is what happened to me from August-October of 2007).

My goal now is to lose some, gain some. I eat a lower net on my normal days with the assumption that I’ll be over some some days each month (sometimes by a lot!) and it will balance out as maintenance. So I basically eat lower calories when I can so I can eat higher calories on occasion. It’s like a wave with a straight line through the middle.

I don’t weigh myself anymore (I think weighing is important for weight loss but is too frustrating for maintenance) so I’m not sure if when I’m a lower net if I’m really losing or not, but I do know that I gained netting 1400 + special events for a few months, so that should tell me something. This method of lose some, gain some seems to work well for me.

Sometimes I do go a few weeks in a row with next-to-perfect eating netting 1226 and feel I do need to up my calories some to keep myself properly fueled but then a special event comes along (this happened right before Thanksgiving!) and I overeat for a few days and things get back to normal.

So to sum it up, my goal is to maintain a weight range of 118-122 eating weight loss net most of the time and enjoying myself when I can.

What are your workouts like?

My favorite time to workout is early in the morning. I love getting it out of the way first thing, plus it gives me a good idea of how to portion my meals throughout the day if I know how many calories I burned first off. I really enjoy exercise and find that getting out of bed to get a nice workout in with a good magazine is more fun than getting out of bed to go to work, or school, or wherever your life takes you! That last thing I want to do when I get home in the evenings after a long day is go to the gym, but first thing in the morning when the day is fresh, I’m pumped! You might think getting up at 5:00 in the morning seems impossible, but the key is to make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Getting up at ANY time of day is hard, so you might as well get up early and make good use of your time! I go to bed at 9:00 to make sure I get in 8 hours of sleep. It’s really not as hard as it seems!

During the week my alarm goes off at 4:50 a.m. and I’m at the gym by 5:30 (after checking email and a snack, of course ) I spend over an hour there each day, switching up my workouts from the Stairmaster, elliptical, stationary bike, spinning classes, and weight lifting. I usually burn between 350 and 450 calories. On the weekends, I hit the gym on Saturday mornings and I run 4-6 miles on Sundays.

I also walk on my lunch break every day I can. Winter, summer – I’m either out in gloves and a scarf or sweating my walk around my office neighborhood. It does take some planning (I wear skirts in the summer and bundle up in the winter) and I always change into tennis shoes (yes, even with my skirts!). But it’s so refreshing to get a good 30 minutes of brisk walking in mid-day. Both for the mind and body!

How do you track your calories burned through exercise?

I wear a heart rate monitor – Polar F4. I got it at Target for $90. There are much fancier versions, but this one counts calories, heart rate and workout time, which is all I need. It comes with a chest strap that goes right under your sports bra. I couldn’t live without it!

Do you count fat, carbs or fiber?

I don’t specifically count fat, fiber, protein, and sugar content per day, but I definitely do keep these in mind. I avoid foods heavy in saturated fat and of course anything high in sugar, such as sweetened yogurt (although I have them on occasion). I don’t count carbs at all, but I do try to eat a balance diet with a little protein, whole grains, and fat at every meal. I try to have fruit, veggies, grains, a protein and dairy at most of my meals. In terms of counting, it’s really just calories in, calories out, but since my goal is optimal nutrition, I do consider much, much more than calorie content when choosing foods (and it’s taken me a while to realize that’s what’s most important!)

Is eating healthy around your family and friends challenging?

I don’t have too many people question it because I think people have seen my weight loss and know that health and nutrition are my favorite topics. I try not to be obsessive about it in public or when I’m in groups, but there are plenty of ways to be discreet about it. Look at menus ahead of time. Have a snack before or after a meal you can’t control so you can eat less of it if it’s bad, etc. I try not to make a big deal of it all and think in general my family and friends are pretty respectful when I ask to go to a healthy restaurant or for their recipe so I’ll know how it’s prepared.

Why bother using a food scale?

Isn’t weighing food kind of obsessive? When I first started calorie counting I just used to ball park amounts for each food, but I realized if I’m going to bother counting at all, why not be as accurate as possible? That’s when I bought a digital food scale. Now I can just plop my banana, apple, salmon fillet, peanut butter, almonds, etc. on the scale and know exactly that portion size I’m eating. A “medium sweet potato” in CalorieKing’s database is listed as around 110 calories, but by weight, I usually eat about 13 oz sized raw sweet potatoes – which are over 300 calories! “Medium” is so subjective, but oz are calculated scientifically and are therefore consistent between databases. I recommend those who want to be accurate with portion sizes go to Bed, Bath and Beyond or Linens and Things or Amazon.com and buy a Salter Digital Food Scale (one of the best brands). If you’re going to count, you might as well be accurate. If you’re not counting, don’t worry about it!

What inspired you to start a food blog? Why do you bother to include all the specific calorie information?

I started the blog to share my recipes and healthy meals with my family and friends. I had a lot of people asking me how I lost 30 pounds and what I eat day to day to keep it off, so I decided to show them, through blogging my meals, snacks and exercise. The calorie additions made it more interesting and I find it helpful to know the nutritional ballpark when looking at the meals. It helps to see that HUGE meals aren’t always high in calorie (thanks, Volumetrics!) and smaller meals can often be higher than you think.