My Live Fit (WEEK 8) Recap- Counting Calories

So this week (I just finished Week 8 of 12) on the Live Fit Program, we were supposed to count calories.  I used the formula below to determine I should be eating around 1,230 to 1,530 calories per day, depending on my activity.

I found this super cool website, My Fitness Pal that calculates calories for you.  You just type in your ingredients (they have a drop down list for you to choose from down to specific brands) and it calculates the calories, carbs, fat, and protein grams for you.  Here’s what 1606 calories a day looks like for me when I’m eating:
Meal 1:  Protein pancakes with peanut butter and syrup + coffee and creamer
Snack:  Two protein brownies — I don’t think the brownies are in there, so my calories are about 100 higher than the My Fitness Pal totals (totaling 1606)
Meal 2:  “Tex Mex” — I had to add it twice under the “lunch” category
Meal 3:  “Tex Mex”
Meal 4:  Protein shake (after workout)
Meal 5:  Egg White omelet
Those calories add up fast, and with My Fitness Pal, I was able to see how every calorie counts – my coffee creamer alone has 100 calories!
I completely blew the calories this weekend though.  I indulged in cheeseburger, fries, and a beer on Friday, crab cake egg benedict on Saturday at brunch, pizza on Saturday night, and Sunday for lunch.  Also, I had wine on Sunday- but just one glass.  
I’ll be back tomorrow sharing my latest photo and workout sheets.  
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Meet Megan

Hi! I’m Megan, mom to a thoughtful teenager and spunky young girl. We call Houston home and recently moved into our dream home. I traded my lawyer hat to become a full-time blogger in 2010. I love sharing my passion for affordable fashion, home decor, organization, & fitness to help inspire you to take care of you!

10 Comments

  1. i love my fitness pal! the app makes it so easy to track your food and fitness all day long. you can also make friends which i find motivating…to see that your friend states away just burned this many calories running! makes me get off my butt and move!!

  2. This is fantastic! I'm very impressed that you have the motivation and will to track your food and calorie intake. All of those numbers seem daunting so this part is definitely a challenge for me.

  3. I love my fitness pal! If you made the brownies yourself then you can go in and "create a recipe" and add all the ingredients so every time you need to add a brownie it will be saved in your recipes. If you use the app, go to "more". Click on "my recipes" and then click on the blue + sign and then just start adding ingredients…easy peazy! Sorry if you already know how to do this – just disregard all that. 🙂

  4. Megan,

    I love your blogs!! So glad to have this one to follow now! I'm starting Jaime's plan next Monday and I'm curious how your meals went for the first phase. Did you stick to the same thing everyday? Just curious as to what your meals looked like!

    Thanks

  5. I also use My Fitness Pal and it is such a great tool! I also love counting my calories (even when I go way over) so I can still watch what I eat while indulging.

    I'm definitely adding your blog to my Google Reader because I think seeing it everyday will help me stay motivated to work out regularly and watch what I eat!

  6. This is awesome – I literally went and joined ASAP. I'm not sure if I have your self discipline (I WISH I did) but this has definitely motivated me to be accountable for everything I eat, and staying active.

  7. I am in week 9 of the Livfit trainer program and cannot say enough good things about it. I am not new to fitness, had done P90X a couple of times and did Insanity this past summer, but wasn't real happy with my results. I am loving my results with this program!! My husband is doing the program as well, but he had only planned to do the first couple of weeks. He has also had great results so far. I have 6 kids, and thought my stomach would never be flat again, but I am seeing it get smaller each week. I tried the My Fitness Pal app and hated it. I use the (free) MyNetDiary app instead. It is so simple to use and also breaks down all of your macronutrients. I love the scanner feature too – I can scan the barcode from any food that I eat and it is added to the food database! Love it!! I have also been using an app called "JeFit" , I enter each week of workouts and can just select the day and know exactly what I am supposed to be doing, how many reps, sets, how long of a break, whether it is a superset or active rest set, etc. And when I pull up an exercise I have previously done, it shows me the last weigh at I did on that exercise, so I can constantly try to improve. I put my phone in an armband, pop in my headphones, and have my workout right there. No more papers to write on or forgetting it at home and trying to wing it. I cannot recommend this program enough for anyone that is looking to change their body!!!

  8. Megan,
    Your blog is absolutely brilliant, I love every single post. Thanks so much for this post, it was really helpful and I'm definitely going to give this a shot.

    Polly 🙂

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