What's your magic number?

The whole premise behind weight loss is that you need to burn more calories than you eat every day to create a deficit and shed the pounds (that is my layman's, non-scientific version).  So, to start, you need to know approximately how many calories you are burning a day (at rest) and then figure out how many calories you should be eating in order to achieve your weight loss goals.  Exercise does figure into those numbers, but exercise can either be "extra eating" calories (in which case, you need to figure out how many calories you are burning), or they can be extra calories to speed your weight loss (so you don't eat them).  With all of those variables, it's helpful to have a tool to help you track all of those numbers and figure out your target daily goals. 

I recently discovered and fell in love with My Fitness Pal (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/).  It's an online resource and an iPhone app that allows you to figure out your resting calorie burn, how many calories you should be eating based on the weight you want to lose, and you can add and track your exercise calories.  It has a food diary so that you can track your calorie intake, and it has a huge database of food for you to search to find out the nutritional values.  It also has an online community, so you can make friends, post to message boards, and people get the chance to see your food diary.  I think it's a great way to be accountable for the food you are eating and the exercise you are doing.  It also has a weight tracker, so you can keep up with your progress!

They say that people that journal what they eat are a lot more successful when it comes to losing weight.  I think we tend to underestimate the calories in what we eat, and it's hard to track it all in your head.  I input everything I eat and drink, whether it is a good day or a bad day.  It also provides me a good history so I can see what menus kept me more full on certain days and less full on other days.  The site also gives you little bits of motivation (it congratulates you when you have a weight loss, when you have logged in for a certain number of days, etc), it tells you how much you would weigh in a month if you ate like you did that day every day, and it does give you a warning when you have a gain or go over your calories (if you keep eating like this, you will weigh X in 4 weeks).  I love it, and it's been a great FREE tool to aid my journey. 

So, what's my magic number?  1480.  I'll show you how I use every one of those calories in an upcoming post!