Lunch today, provided by the office, will be Costco hot dogs and Costco Polish dogs. I didn’t bring my lunch today, I’m starving, and I will probably have my usual 2 dogs with mustard and ketchup.

I didn’t want to, but I just looked up the calorie count for those dogs. It visually seems like a pretty small meal, but guess what…

A Costco hot dog has 560 calories! So before any type of drink (soda) or sides (chips, … see the full entry

Earlier, I found out that my basal metabolic rate (BMR) is 1,265 calories.  This is how many calories I burn for essential bodily functions, so even if I stayed in bed all day and did not move, I would still burn 1,265 calories.

Of course, I don’t lie in bed all day.  I get up, brush my teeth, shower, get dress, eat, blink, laugh, talk, walk, type, read, etc.  All these activities, no matter how minute, requires the use of calories.  … see the full entry

Yesterday, my calorie count for lunch was 542 calories.  A massive improvement over my usual of about 800 - 1700 calories for lunch - for just ONE MEAL!

The difference is that I am now bringing in my own lunch to work. Eating the office provided lunch, or even going to the food places around here, is just too unhealthy.  Why take in extra calories when I don’t have to?

However, with … see the full entry

Yesterday, the office-provided lunch was Panda Express.  I should have brought my own lunch.  I should have gone out for lunch. I should have done something.  But shoulda, coulda, didn’t.

I really like Panda Express. A lot. So I had a lot of the fried rice, a good helping of the orange chicken, some of the BBQ pork, and a little bit of the chow mein.

At the end of it all, my calorie intake for lunch was… drumroll please…

1,742!!

What … see the full entry

There’s a few things I need to find answers to, I just haven’t had the time to research them online.  They include:

Do excess calories roll over to the next day?

Now that I’m actually paying attention to my calorie consumption and expenditure, I wonder if unused calories “roll over” to the next day or if you have just that 24-hour period to use them up before they’re stored as fat.  Let’s say I burn 2,500 calories on Wednesday.  But on Wednesday, … see the full entry

From my FitDay journal:

1,650 calories eaten today

Extra Calories Burned (in addition to my normal activity level)
45 minutes at the gym with heavy weights (215)
1 mile very fast “power walk” (101)
1.3 miles dog-walking (85)
401 Total

1265 (BMR) + 705 (Daily Actvity) + 401 (Extra Excericse) = 2,375 Calories burned today

Difference of -721 Calories

Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is how many calories your body burns daily to keep you alive.  That is, even if you were to lie in bed all day, your body would still be burning calories as your heart pumps, your lungs breathe, your brain works, your blood flows, etc.  You can consider this your baseline calorie expenditure.

The older you get, the lower your BMR gets, and the heavier you are, the higher your BMR.  This may seem unfair … see the full entry