Analyize Your Diet Situation

First you need to figure out how many calories your body needs to maintain the weight you have. I did it for sedentary and moderate activity  (I got 2200 & 2500) so I would get the calories for my slow days and workout days. Next you should take one of the numbers, 2200 for example and minus 500 from it for a loss of 1lb a week or minus 1000 for a loss of 2lbs a week. Keep in mind women should NEVER eat less than 1200 calories and 1500 calories for me! So minus the other number and you have the number of calories you should eat on workout and nonworkout days (my result was 1700 & 2000). It works well for me. 

Thanks R0senr0t

Thanks for the comment r0senr0t. My response got to be so long I figured I’d give it a post

I hope I didn’t typo but I’m counting calories, not carbs :) I have tried the low carb thing – I know what you mean, I lost 10 lbs on Atkins but wanted to kill myself. After a while of that I think my tastebuds died. The food becomes so tasteless you are just too depressed to eat.

So, at my wit’s end I thought I need to do what we all know we should do; Let go of denial, limit calories and exercise more. It’s really working! I’m so enthusiastic this time. I felt like I’d try  and give it a good effort but all for nothing. It’s like trying to fill a bucket with water when you know there is a hole in the bottom; so much effort for nothing why try. There’s no point until I could figure how to fix the whole – what’s missing from this equation . So I sad down and crunched some numbers and using the stats and facts I know I made a comprehensive plan. I’m not the analytical type so I ran my logic by my engineer husband. He caught a potentially fatal flaw in my math which would have ripped a bigger hole in the metaphorical bucket.

Anyways, I understand it all now AND IT WORKS! And its so simple and it’s all that stuff you’ve been told before. I just needed the think reasonably about this and I need a specific step by step plan. I don’t trust people seeing diet programs or pills and if anyone is wondering, I’m not being paid anything for saying any of this. I’ll layout how I set it up and figured it out in the next post (need to gather my notes) I’m excited! I hope this helps you!! I’ll also throw in a few of the books I found inspirational (no, not being paid for plugging people).

In the mean time, checkout my Diet Tips & Info page — it’s a great resource.

Dos Plan is Working!

So this plan seems to be working. Granted it’s just week one but I’ve lost 3 lbs!!!! I’ve done the math and figured out how I can eat 500-1000 calories less than I need to maintain. I have two different ranges: one for my workout days and one for my non-workout days.  I’ve set the plan for a 3 week period because psychologist say that’s how long it takes to break a habit. I thought I’d be hungry but I’m actually satisfied. That make me a little nervous since I’m used to making myself full but I’m learning to be ok with it. That’s a great habit. I’ve also exercised my “no” muscle -  when I say NO to bad food and behaviors. This is cool. Some of the books I’ve been reading have helped to educate me. I’ll list them later or just ask.

Dos Plan

I’m going to try a slightly new approach to weight loss. I’m going to try to be really analytical about it. I’ve been counting calories but I think this will be really easy to stick to if I have a very specific plan with real numbers to watch. I know part of being successful at any goal, especially weight loss, is being specific about your steps and milestones. I think a lot of us don’t get to this step. I think having something on paper will help keep my motivated. Right now I’m struggling with some back pain. Anyone who has had back pain before knows how disabling it can be. It’s kind of a Catch22; I have back pain because of my weight, but I can’t workout much because I have back pain. *sigh* Don’t worry, I’m hanging in there and trying to keep on track (with caution).