The Weighing is the Hardest Part

30 days after starting my pilgrimage from Pudgedom to Sveltville, I stepped on the scale (gasp!), and guess what? I'm some bad-ass mathematician because I lost exactly 4 pounds! It's not a lot for 30 days by most dieter's standards, but it is exactly what I was aiming for with my 3500 calories per week deficit. I ate well and cooked a whole lot of awesome meals for my boys and I. I hiked so much that I no longer feel like an imposter when I receive all those emails from the Sierra Club. I kept all Cheeto products out of my house (well, there was the one time I bought a bag of Cheese Puffs for my son....for some reason....and they disappeared....somehow). But most importantly, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I can fit into my Big Star jeans that my hips had previosuly rejected, so that's something! I think a 4 pound loss with a ton of hiking must equal more like 8 pounds lost because of the muscles gained...yes, I'll call that the "Eline Formula of Weight Loss".

And here is the math: *(daily stats averaged over 30 days)

Calories needed to maintain my current weight: 2200 per day
Calories actually consumed: 1950 (average) per day (easy peasy lemon squeezy!)
Calories burned: 257 (average) per day - 3 hikes per week x 600 calories each
Weekly calorie deficit averages: 3550 = 1 pound

*The reason for averaging over a 30 day period is to account for Cheeto mishaps.