Yesterday:  274.4 lbs., burned 2300, consumed 1529.
Today:  273.2 lbs., Activities:  14.4 miles on the real bike.

Yesterday, fitbefore40 asked me a question in a comment to my blog, so today I’m gonna answer that question.

I have a question for you, have you asked a medical professional about the safety of continuously eating fewer calories than you are burning off? I’m just wondering how long you can do this without doing any harm to yourself…I’ve heard that undercutting your daily calorie requirements by 500 is reasonable (which would lead to a pound a week lost) but you seem to me going a lot more than that. Thanks for answering this for me and again I wish you much success 

Thanks for the encouragement, fb40, and for your concern.  :)  When I first read your question I actually read it wrong - but then I went back and read it again and saw the word “requirements,” aha!  I’m assuming that by “daily calorie requirements” you mean “the amount of calories a person needs to consume to maintain their current weight, at their current level of activity.”  If so, then yes, what you heard is correct.  If a person eats 500 calories less each day than the amount of calories their body needs to consume to maintain current weight at current level of activity - then after a week, their body will have utilized 3500 calories of stored fat, which is equal to one pound.

As to your question - yes, I did speak with my doctor.

Before I tell what she said, I just want to clarify a little something.  I have Graves Disease, an autoimmune disorder that affects my thyroid gland.  I have to take pills every single day or my thyroid will get all wacky and when that happens I get very sick.  The pills turn my metabolism WAY down.

I have my account at FitDay set at “sedentary/bed-bound” because that’s the lowest option they offer.  So when I post that I burned 2300 calories - that’s what FitDay says that I burn at my current weight — if I stayed in bed all day.  I don’t stay in bed all day, I work a full-time job - but even so, that figure is probably a bit overstated.  According to the spreadsheet I keep, it’s probably more like about 1900.

So — if I do nothing different — no exercise, just my daily grind at the office — I will maintain my current weight if I eat 1900 calories a day.  I generally stay right within the 1400-1600 calorie range.  I have had a few days when I “forgot” to eat and dropped below that range, and quite a few days when I went above. 

So here’s what I say:

- Don’t eat less than 1200 calories a day — as a habit.  If you habitually eat below that level, your body will assume that starvation is imminent and its metabolism will shut down to conserve stored fat.
- Eat more whole foods.
- Get moving.  Start slow if you need to.  Listen to your body.  If it hurts or if it’s swollen, let it heal.  Then do it again and push a little harder, farther, faster.
- Eat a little less than your body needs for maintaining your current weight and level of activity - then crank up the activities and burn off that stored energy faster. 

For me with my funky metabolism, it doesn’t exactly burn fast either way.  I’ve been doing this for 14 weeks and I’ve lost 12 lbs. so far.  Works out to LESS than a pound a week.  I didn’t really exercise, though, the first 4 weeks - and guess what - I didn’t really lose any weight either.

Okay, here it is, what my doctor said:

“Go for it, Eileen.”

She was very supportive.  She said as long as I didn’t starve myself, that I could exercise as much as I wanted.

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