Thursday, August 30, 2007

Mocked by The Calorie Nazi

This was going to be a bitch and moan "poor me" kinda post, because the last couple weeks I've been quietly freaking out in a major way about the fact that I gained 3 pounds in August.

But I just have to accept the fact that that's what happens when you're almost 7 months pregnant and let it go. Because I haven't got it that bad - according to my scale (and my doctor's notes) my net gain for the pregnancy as of this week is: Zero.

That's right, I have officially gained back the 12 pounds I lost during the first 4 months of being so gloriously sick. So technically I guess I've gained 12 pounds, but if I think that way y'all will have to visit me in a padded cell so I'm refusing to think that way.

So. Instead of bitching and moaning about weighing exactly the same as I did 7 months ago, I thought I'd share something I find highly amusing. Something that kind of slaps me upside the head at least once a week, and serves as a constant reminder of how totally fast I am NOT....

One of the primary functions of The Calorie Nazi is to record your exercise and figure out the additional calories you're allowed to eat based on what you burned. It's got an impressively robust dictionary of activities, and includes varying levels of intensity for many activities.

Case in point - swimming.

In addition to options for each individual stroke, it gives me options for the intensity of the crawl. Those options are:

Intense (75 yards/minute)
Leisurely (50 yards/minute)

Um. Yeah.

See, when I was at my strongest on the swim, in the middle of getting one-on-one coaching, before my shoulder blew out, doing sprint sets, I could juuuuuust barely pull off 50 yards per minute.

And that's what The Calorie Nazi considers a LEISURELY pace.

This never ceases to amuse me. I'm thinkin the people who came up with these numbers have never talked to a back of the packer : )

5 comments:

jbmmommy said...

A net gain of zero at seven months is amazing. Please don't get upset if there's a gain in Sept and/or Oct, it's bound to happen and you're still completely healthy!

Just FYI, I got on the scale yesterday and in the week since Baby Girl was born, I lost 15 pounds. You'll still likely end up with a net loss for the whole deal.

It's all perspective the fast/slow thing. It makes me feel like a slug when people complain about their "slow" nine-minute miles. Oh well, as long as we do our best that's good enough.

Unknown said...

Yeah, the numbers for calories burned for various exercise activities fascinates me (in a watching a train wreck kind of a way).

LBTEPA said...

I lost 7kg in the week after I had my baby - still ended up with a 7kg overall gain :( but it and more are well and truly gone now :)
The main thing is you're feeling ok and tribaby is ok too.
Feel free to bitch and moan whenever, mate - pregnancy is HARD

Herself, the GeekGirl said...

I feel the same way about Garmin. So far, I've yet to have a pace that it considers "running" in any sense. All my paces range from "slow jog" to "fast jog".

Sixteen Chickens said...

I'm impressed that the calorie Nazi is still in your life, that in itself is a major accomplishment!