Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Adjusting my thinking on Food

This weekend involved a lot of good company and good food. It was the last little bit of my two weeks away from calorie restriction. The idea was to help kick start my weight loss again.

I've been having trouble loosing weight, even though I continually cut back the amount of calories I was taking in, and increased the amount of exercise I was getting. It seemed no matter what I did, I would bounce between 150 and 155, never dropping below 150 for more than a day. Worse yet, my Body Fat % was staying almost constant.

I had a "light bulb" moment when I considered dropping my caloric intake further, and realized that I was down right around 1200 calories a day. I believe I kicked my body over into starvation mode, and it was holding on to every calorie I ate for dear life.

So far, after two weeks of not counting calories, I havn't gained a significant amount of weight. I'm sitting at 154, about .2 lbs above where I was two weeks ago. My Body Fat is .1% higher than two weeks ago. It may not be proof that I was right, but at least it's proof that I can maintain easily! I mean, I even ate McDonald's this weekend! (Road trip necessity at 2am on the thruway, it's the only thing open.)

Today I'm going back to counting my calories, although I'm giving myself a more forgiving number for my caloric budget. I'm going to focus more on eating healthy foods than eating low calorie ones.

What adjustments have you had to make to your plan lately, and if you havn't had to make any, any advice on other adjustments I might want to make?
-Meg

4 comments:

Cheryl Chamberlain said...

A big thing I've tried to implement is meal planning and SNACK planning. Preplanning/preparing what I'm going to eat and when. I have a rotating supply of containers in my kitchen sink to wash! haha. That way I'm not guessing calories, or grabbing something on the go that I normally wouldn't grab. If I buy a box of crackers, or triscuits, or heck even pringles (as they are less calories/carbs than regular potato chips and you still feel you're getting a guilty pleasure) I break them down into those single serving snack baggies that I can toss in my purse.

We all have our own ways of getting there. Just brainstorm about what in the past has worked for you. Jody's (truth2beingfit.com) blog today definitely helped with that.

Anonymous said...

That's what I try to do- eat HEALTHY foods rather than low calorie etc.

I find that when I eat all-natural, real foods, I don't worry so much about the amounts. Somehow, when it's nutritious, the amount that we eat doesn't matter as much because you're getting so many nutrients and it also tends to be more filling.

- Sagan

Crabby McSlacker said...

Sounds like you're being really smart to allow yourself more calories and focus on health. It's ironic that keeping calories too low makes it harder to lose weight!

Annie said...

1200 calories is just way too little for anyone to commit to. Even at 1500 calories, I feel hungry sometimes. Maybe is not just the calories, but the type of food you are eating. I can eat a lot of veggies and fruits with 1500 calories. Just that I am still unable to make myself eat so much produce.

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