I’m not going to eat between meals and I’m not going to take seconds. Just Today. And I’m going to try this for a year to see what happens.

In earlier posts this week we talked about how (even if we’ve made The Commitment) calories still count. That most women (especially those struggling with obesity) burn about 2000 calories a day. And if we want to lose weight, this number should be lurking in the back of our mind as we measure our portions of food. But, we’re not totally limited by that number; we can boost it enough to make a difference with just a little exercise. And that’s what we’ll be talking about today.

There are lots of places to go online to find the number of calories you’re burning through various exercises. I was thrilled to discover that one of the best exercises is roller-bladding (30 minutes = 581 calories for a person of my weight) and now that the weather is better I’m going to try to do it for a couple of hours a week. Walking burns about 100 calories a mile (again for someone at my weight) and I usually end up with about 30 miles a week for a total of 3000 walking calories burned.

I got these figures from the Fitness Partners Connection Jumpsite, but you can get similar numbers from many of the sites on the search I posted earlier in the post. Or you can do what I do and use a computer software package to keep track of the details for you. There are two options for this, web-based software (with free or subscription options) or desktop software.

I am not a fan of the web-based options. I can’t make myself enter such incredibly personal information into a stranger’s database. The thought of providing that information to a corporation (and some of them, like Weight Watcher’s Online charge for the privilege!) with no compensation for my sacrifice, makes me sick. Even if it’s free, I’m not doing it. I don’t share most of those details with my friends here. And I’m not going to share it with corporate strangers anywhere else. They wouldn’t be offering this service if they couldn’t make money from the information I’d share. And I can’t see why should they make a profit from the tragedy of my obesity saga.

Luckily there is another option: Desktop software — at least if you use a PC. I’ve used two programs. The first, BalanceLog is interesting. It’s meant to work from a base-metabolism rate (they call it Metabolic Fingerprint) that is determined by them using BodyGem® metabolism measurement device from HealtheTech™. Which cost about $50.00 when I did it 3 years ago and gave me pretty much the same number given by the ‘Accurate Way’ formula we talked about on Sunday (Conversations with my doctor, part 2).

I used the BalanceLog software for several years; it has certain conveniences. It comes bundled as a Windows or Palm program — the two can be synced.> And you can establish a web account that syncs with them as well. You won’t be surprised to learn that I never took advantage of this option & can’t review it at all. The software is extremely easy to use. It has built in graphs that require no programming.: It has a gigantic database of foods and exercises and it’s fairly easy to add custom exercises and foods for tracking your own personal favorites.

But, I wasn’t really happy with the graphs and reports. And they couldn’t be configured by me to fit my needs.

So, I found another program, FitDay which isn’t really more flexible — I can’t really configure the reports myself here either.e But, the graphs and reports fit what I’m looking for a little better. It also has a huge database of foods and exercises.

They are both very good products. And with each of them, the estimate of calories burned adjusts as you lose (or gain) weight.m And since they are both desktop software packages, your information is your own. Unless you use the BalanceLog option to sync with their Web Application.

I’m not totally happy with either of these packages.m I’m hoping to find something that let’s me post Food/Exercise/Blood Sugar Readings by time so that I can get reports that graph them in relation to each other. As far as I know, the software package that does this doesn’t exist (please tell me if I’m wrong.) It’s very frustrating to me that we’ve got these nutrition-based diseases and no nutrition-based software to track our progress with them.

I spent several months with each of these packages, but I don’t use them constantly anymore. I use them now when I want to make sure I’m still on track with my calorie estimates.o Both for calories eaten as well as burned. And since I’m ready for another re-alignment, I’ll be using the FitDay program for the next month or so.

What do you use to keep track of the details?e Do you do it all in your head? Do you keep a written journal?i How do you find the calories? Or do you think about the details at all?

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