[Phoenixflame]

Hello all!

I am new to this forum and very excited to get to know everyone. Since June, I have been on an exercise and diet regime. I think, because I like all kinds of food, that calorie counting works best for me.

I have lost weight...but it seems to be slowing down, and I'm not sure why. Allow me to outline my situation.

I started at around 180, or a size 16. I do not know what I weigh now, but I'm around a size 12 (sometimes a 10, depending on the clothes). The reason I do not know my weight is that I'm a college student. Though I have access to an awesome gym, their scale is apparently way off (it's a standard locker room warning). I would guess my weight between 150-160.

I was getting very frustrated about my lack of progress compared to during the summer. I considered myself to be eating very healthy. My roommate suggested that I'm eating too little and in somewhat of a "starvation mode." However, it is difficult to calculate meals I get from my school's cafeteria because I'm never sure if the veggies I'm eating are loaded with bad stuff. The food isn't saturated in grease, but it has a shine to it.

Here are a few typical days for me. Hyphens indicate different meals. All slices of bread/grains are wheat unless otherwise stated.

Breakfast:
- 1/2 cup Kashi GoLean (normal, not crunch), 40-cal Almond Milk, handful of strawberries (or similar fruit), two egg whites
- 2 slices of 40 calorie bread, two egg whites, ketchup, onions, tomatoes, orange
- Slice of bread, 1 tbl of almond butter, dab of jam, piece of fruit
Beverage is coffee with Splenda and skim milk or sugar free powder creamer

Lunch:
- Mixed green salad with chicken, sliced cukes, chickpeas, assorted salad veggies, and ultra low-cal spray dressing
- Medium JambaJuice Light (around 280 cal)
- Fruit salad (no added sugars, just chopped fruit, at about 1 1/2 cups) with fat free cottage cheese (about 45-60 cals)
- Turkey/chicken sandwich with mustard and standard veggies on plain wheat bread
Beverage is either diet coke or water

Afternoon Snack:
- Fatfree yogurt (between 90-110 cal)
- Handful of almonds
- Babycarrots dipped in Better N' Peanut Butter

Dinner:
- Similar lunch stuff
- Two types of cooked veggies (like broccoli and squash, about a cup or 1 1/2 cup each), grilled chicken fillet (about the diameter of a large grapefruit half [though not nearly as thick!])

Dessert:
- Sliced apple with maybe 40 cal worth of nonfat yogurt
- Small banana with cinnamon and a sprinkle of cacao powder

Additional:
- I usually have another cup of coffee during the day, but always made with skim milk and Splenda
- Other beverages include tea with Splenda

I try to go to gym every day. I do cardio every day, 30-45 minutes (Spinning class 2 or 3 times a week), usually on an elliptical or bike. Every other day I do weight work or take a weights-related class such as Abs & Glutes.

Does anyone have any advice? I tried to use the online calorie counters but they all gave me different results, so I'm confused. How many calories should I aim for? Thanks so much!

[mandalinn82]

Without portion sizes on the lunches and dinners, its hard to get an accurate calorie count, BUT, based on what you said, it seems like you're doing OK. Would it be possible for you to estimate your calories using an online calculator? Maybe throw in a teaspoon of oil into your count per meal, in case the veggies are cooked in it, and investigate?

"Chicken" for example - the calorie count will vary depending on how much of it you're eating. Some sense of portion would be useful! So getting a handle on portions and having a better idea of where you are calorie-wise might be really useful. You don't really ever want to consistently dip below the 1200 mark - some believe it slows metabolism, and anyway, its nearly impossible to meet your nutrition needs that way. How many calories were you eating over the summer?

A couple things to be aware of regardless of your calorie intake.

1, as we get closer to goal weight, we lose weight slower. The body uses calories to haul itself around, metabolize, keep us alive...all good stuff. When we weigh less, it takes less calories to do those things. So loss slows.

2, our bodies adjust to exercise we're doing. So if you're just slogging away on the same cardio machines, or doing the same strength training exercises again and again as you did last week and the week before, your body will burn less calories doing it as when you first started. So as much as possible, try mixing up that exercise...try something new! And REST is important. You should really try to take at least 1 day a week off. If your body has no time to recover, it won't build muscle and get healthier.

3, Calorie counters online are really, notoriously inaccurate. It takes experimentation to figure out what calorie levels work for you.

[benchmarkman]

one thing you need to keep in mind is that as you lose weight you have to consumer fewer calories are burn more as time goes on. This is because your body needs fewer calories because it is a smaller size.

[Lori Bell]

You don't say how tall you are but based on your beginning numbers I'd guess around 5'3". Since you don't own a scale, and the one accessible is inaccurate, I would suggest a tape measure. They are cheap and will give you a good idea on your progress. From reading your menu your calories are probably about right. Just make sure you are getting enough protein. Sounds like you may be a bit carb heavy. Ask the staff at the cafeteria if they have a food scale you could borrow. Get a better idea of your portions. 4 oz. of lean meat is generally about the size of a deck of cards.

I don't enter my calories onto an on-line calorie counter, I write it all in a food diary though I have several on-line resources to figure calories. I use an on-line site for restaurants, I have a few old WW book for home made, and thankfully nutrition labels are on just about everything. Just remember, it doesn't have to be exact, for example, I love hot and spicy Chinese soup. If I am going to a locally owned Chinese restaurant that doesn't have a nutrition chart, I'll go online and get an estimate from a few on-line sources and find an average. In the back of my food journal I keep a list of calories of favorite meals, or foods I have had to manually calculate calories on.

Don't starve yourself. You should never get to the point of ravenous hunger.