Two years ago, I did a pretty good job combining training with weight loss by tracking my calories in a spreadsheet (2010 version). The spreadsheet has a few components:
- Day’s weight (post workout, preferably).
- Base calorie needs (weight in pounds x 13 calories)
- Net intake [calories consumed – calories burned running only – base calorie needs]
- Intake [calories consumed – calories burned running only]
- Details
- calories consumed with notes
- calories burned based on post-workout weight and distance ran [using numbers from RunningAhead.com]
When I was keeping up with things, the calories per pound [H3 cell] was pretty close to 3500.
One challenge that I had was trying to be honest about “how much” food I was consuming when the portions weren’t from a pre-measured package or menu item. Ultimately, it was the tedious game of guessing my calorie intake that frustrated me and caused me to stop tracking calories.
To combat that problem, I have purchased the following food scale. There are a wealth of resources to help determine the calorie content of foods, generally by googling “[food name] calories”. However, the portions aren’t always usable or realistic. With this scale, I hope to remove some of the time-consuming guess work from tracking my calories.
[Paid Amazon Affiliate link]