217.8 - My Personal Calorie Range

Weight - 217.8
Weight Lost - 17.6 lb. in 43 days

Total Calories Eaten - 1805
Today's MFD calorie allowance - 2148 for a 2 lb loss/week rate
MFD occupation activity level - Moderate Activity
HWHL or Trainer Momma calorie allowance - 1586 for a 2 lb loss/week rate at 218 pounds
Total MFD Exercise/Activity Calories Earned - 744
MFD Calorie Balance - 343 left to eat at 2lb loss/week rate
MFD Weight Loss Rate Today - 2.7 lb loss/week
HWHL Points Today - 39 (150 total this session) I did everything today, including an extra 30 min of exercising and posting on HWHL
Exercise - Zumba class for 60 min, and shopping (i.e. walking around the Wal-Mart "warehouse") for 50 min. (a small # of calories, but still a get-off-your-rear-end activity)

Thanks to Mom and Sue for the great comments on yesterday's post. I've been thinking about what my calorie range should be, and this is what I've concluded. I'm going to make 1400 calories the baseline for a 2-pound a week weight loss. That's with no exercising. I like the take My Food Diary has on things - take your baseline, and add "activity" points to it, or calories burned through exercise. That's your calorie allowance for the day. I think their calories-burned calculations are completely all over the place, and not terribly accurate. But based on overall points awarded for a variety of activities, and calorie readings I've gotten off various exercise machines, it's my opinion that if I work out hard, that I burn about 330 calories in a half-hour. That means pushing it on the elliptical, jogging, or zumba class earn this level of calories. Walking is less, and on down from there. Which means that most days, my calorie range will be about 1800. But there are days when I rack up a lot of calories burned with various activities, not just my half-hour of "official" exercise. I'm taking those points, too. For instance, my exercise plan for tomorrow, is to get up and do some serious weeding and edge trimming, then after dinner, I'm going to another 60-min Zumba class. My calorie allowance tomorrow will be over 1800. I guess the proof is in the pudding, as they say. We'll see how the weight comes off.

Speaking of Zumba, I got Dani to go to Zumba class with me today. I think she had a good time. I hope she goes with me again. It's fun to do stuff together, especially good healthy things. I had to laugh as we did class, though, because the walking/running track is above the gym and goes around the perimeter, so that anyone on the track can stand at the railing and watch what's going on in the gym. There was a young teenage boy up there, probably about 12, who was just mezmerized watching about 80 women shake their thing in Zumba class. I'm not sure, but I imagine he was drooling a little. There are some seriously fit and blessed-with-mad-dancing-skills women in that class who wear cute outfits to work out in. I'd glance up periodically and just snicker at him. Sheesh, teenage boys.