Perpetual Healthy Eating and Fitness Rant & Rave thread

[nadra24]

So I'm participating in a fitness challenge on FB, my friend posts workouts and we get points for posting photographic evidence of our workouts and also our food diaries from myfitnesspal or the like.  We also get bonus points for inspirational posts.  OMG, I just can't with some of the food diaries these girls are posting.  Yesterday one of them did 1300 calories of exercise, and ate 1400 calories.  MFP gives you a calorie goal based on how quickly you want to lose weight (or not) and then if you burn calories through exercise you get a bigger calorie budget.  Based on the calorie goals that these girls are posting, they have it set to move 1 lb per week.  Then they have a 500-1000 calorie deficit on top of that.  That is so not healthy!  A 1700 calorie deficit is not good for you!  The workouts are great, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to continue with this group due to the food journals and some of the thinspo that is being passed off as inspirational posts.  Gah!

[ihop]

nadra - a group of friends and I did a workout challenge for one month.  It was fun - encouraging and got some new ideas.  The second month they added a clean eating challenge (organic, no processed foods, etc).  I lasted a week before I removed myself.  It became a competition about what people were eating (or not).  It was awful.  And if you weren't eating paleo and/or adding protein powder to meals, then everyone assumed you weren't eating healthfully.  Ugh.  And I still don't understand how protein powder is clean - it is a processed food!  But half of the women had the same trainer who also thinks she is a RD - one of my pet peeves.

[onawhim]

Well I think most people way underestimate their calories eaten and way overestimate calories burned.  I mean it is hard to burn 1300 cals.  I would have to run 19 miles or something for that.   I doubt most people are doing that every day.   And not when they eat nothing.  I see that stuff on MFP all the time.  "I burned 50000000 cals and only ate 500 and gained weight!!!!"  I am sure there are some people who are being extreme but most people are probably not being honest or not counting properly.  If they are it won't last long. 

[merigayle]

I was in a running group when i first started running and all the woman had eating disorders or disordered eating and i had to quit and find a new one.

[wherestheportojohn]

Nadra,
Dump the competition, if you can get out gracefully.
Ditto on what Meri, IHOP, an doña whim have said.
So sad for those women, as they will likely become ill, injured, and possibly set themselves up for longterm unhealthy habits.

[CheryG]

But hey, at least they'll be hot date prospects.
http://www.returnofkings.com/21313/5-reasons-to-date-a-girl-with-an-eating-disorder

[nadra24]

Nadra,
Dump the competition, if you can get out gracefully.
Ditto on what Meri, IHOP, an doña whim have said.
So sad for those women, as they will likely become ill, injured, and possibly set themselves up for longterm unhealthy habits.

Today's numbers look better, from what I'm seeing.  Not so scary low, most everyone is eating at least 1200-1300 calories now.  I wonder if the really low numbers the first two days were more a result of people being gung-ho and really watching what they ate, and some people mentioned that they had had a last weekend of indulgence before the challenge started.  I know that I ate way too much on Sunday night, and wasn't very hungry for much except fruits and veggies on Monday.  There are still some fairly big deficits, but not enough to really screw up metabolisms.  I think it helped that the group leader posted hers, and said her appetite has been low and she needed a second dinner and she had one.  She also told someone else who had really low numbers that they needed a second dinner too!  I chatted with her a little bit off the group board, and expressed my concerns.  She was pretty receptive to it, and said she'd love it if I posted my professional opinions on the board.  One thing that is kind of tricky is that she had gastric bypass surgery about 5 years ago, and she's pretty dialed into what works for her nutritionally.  That is fine, obviously she's going to need to eat smaller meals than most people.  I just hope that people don't look to her food journals as examples of what they should be eating. 

I think I'll continue to see how it goes for a while, and just ignore the screen shots of the food journals if it keeps bugging me.  The thinspo has also been much better, more posts about training to be badass instead of training to be thin.  The workouts have been pretty good so far, so I'd like to keep going with it if I can. 

[Ice Cream]

Today's numbers look better, from what I'm seeing.  Not so scary low, most everyone is eating at least 1200-1300 calories now.  I wonder if the really low numbers the first two days were more a result of people being gung-ho and really watching what they ate, and some people mentioned that they had had a last weekend of indulgence before the challenge started.  I know that I ate way too much on Sunday night, and wasn't very hungry for much except fruits and veggies on Monday.  There are still some fairly big deficits, but not enough to really screw up metabolisms.  I think it helped that the group leader posted hers, and said her appetite has been low and she needed a second dinner and she had one.  She also told someone else who had really low numbers that they needed a second dinner too!  I chatted with her a little bit off the group board, and expressed my concerns.  She was pretty receptive to it, and said she'd love it if I posted my professional opinions on the board.  One thing that is kind of tricky is that she had gastric bypass surgery about 5 years ago, and she's pretty dialed into what works for her nutritionally.  That is fine, obviously she's going to need to eat smaller meals than most people.  I just hope that people don't look to her food journals as examples of what they should be eating. 

I think I'll continue to see how it goes for a while, and just ignore the screen shots of the food journals if it keeps bugging me.  The thinspo has also been much better, more posts about training to be badass instead of training to be thin.  The workouts have been pretty good so far, so I'd like to keep going with it if I can. 

I had to look up thinspo.

[wherestheportojohn]

<shudder>
Thinspo and pro-Ana sites.
<shudder>

[Ice Cream]

what happened to Mini's renewed interest in this thread?

[MiniDriver]

Damn.  Need to start over.   

[cgraz]

Damn.  Need to start over.   

That's ok. Starting over is better than not starting over.

[wherestheportojohn]

That's ok. Starting over is better than not starting over.

Wise woman.

Keep on truckin', mini.

[merigayle]

atleast i have the sense to wait until after Xmas

[diablita]

lord help me, I started the Whole Life Challenge today.   

[CheryG]

lord help me, I started the Whole Life Challenge today.   

Whoohoo!!!!  You're gonna do great!

[diablita]

thanks CheryG!  It's pretty daunting b/c of my work trips and b/c I'm a vegetarian.  But I made it through dinner at a pizza joint last night: we went with a bunch of friends so our kids could play in the arcade area.  I shared a salad and veggies + hummus with a friend who got me into the WLC. 

Last night I cooked up a bit of brown rice and I'm simmering chickpeas now.  Should help to be prepared.

[wherestheportojohn]

Good vibes for success, Dev.
I was reading your fb feed.

[diablita]

Thanks!  Day two was not bad, though the 70 ounces of water made my run challenging.

I'm traveling today/tomorrow for work so my little suitcase has more LARA bars and peanut butter packets in it than clothing.

[radial]

Thanks!  Day two was not bad, though the 70 ounces of water made my run challenging.

I'm traveling today/tomorrow for work so my little suitcase has more LARA bars and peanut butter packets in it than clothing.

That's a *lot* of water!  Glug, glug, glug.