Hey everyone!
I've been lurking on here for a couple weeks, but have finally decided it's time for me to come out and introduce myself
I'm 23 years old; grew up and went to college in Michigan. Now, I'm working as an English teacher with a major private language school in a rather random city in Northeastern China. This is actually a wealthy city, and so I feel lucky (compared to foreigners in other cities) to have easy access to high-quality grains, breads, produce, etc. The other nice thing about where I'm at is the air and environment quality. Although the wind does sometimes pick up tons of dust and shade the whole place in a sinister haze, the skies are otherwise always crystalline blue, and I never worry about running outside without a mask. I'd never do that in Beijing!
So about my diet and weight-loss background, the abridged version is thus. Back in my first two years of college, I ate like crap, smoked heavily, and never exercised. There was a year where I lived in NYC, and contrary to what I'd expected with all the walking commutes, I managed to pack on a fair amount of weight thanks to the confluence of hearty deli food and borderline worrisome drinking habits. When I moved back to Michigan, although I wasn't overweight per se, I didn't like how I looked, and wanted more than anything else to get healthy and fit. My self-esteem was at an all-time low.
Over the course of between six months and a year, I sort of re-programmed my dietary preferences. By consistently eating a diet of fresh fruits, veggies, and all the other good stuff, I slowly but surely rid myself of the desire for unwholesome foods. At first, doing even 20 minutes of cardio at the gym felt like death. But spring came, and I bought myself a nice mountain bike, and worked myself up from huffing-and-puffing 5 mile rides to swift-and-confident 25 milers. Naturally, I lost weight, getting down to about 120 pounds, which seems to be the weight my body naturally gravitates to in the absence of focused calorie-counting and exercise routines.
120 pounds is a perfectly fine weight for my height, to be sure, but about this time last year, I decided I wouldn't mind taking off 5-10 pounds, just so that I could feel extra-sexy in my summer denim cutoffs. Where biking was always easy for me, adding in running made me feel like I was starting at square one again in terms of cardiac fitness. But as I had before, I worked myself up to progressively longer runs, until, as it presently is, jogging for an hour and a half was a pleasurable stress-release.
I lost the weight through strict calorie-counting, usually topping myself at about 1500/day on days I worked out, although the workouts during those months were much milder than what I do currently. In any event, it worked -- I wore just 110 pounds throughout the summer and into most of the fall semester. And I felt fantastic.
But the weight did creep back on, as the huge stress of my last semester of university (Fall 2011) and the writing of an honors thesis wore on me. I kept up well with my exercise, but I allowed my appetite to get completely out of control. I kept careful records of my calories from that period (in an Excel spreadsheet), and can see that I steadily gained back to about 119 even though I was averaging 40-50 miles a week running. It's because I would eat an average of 2500-2700 calories a day, although sometimes I'd have really bad days and come the closest I ever have to bingeing with 3500. Given my BMR calculation and workouts, that *should* have let me maintain my 110. But back the weight came, anyway.
So that's where I am now -- 118, and hoping to get back to my lithe old summer weight. I know it doesn't seem like much, particularly in comparison to the amounts other people on this forum have lost, but I really miss being that light, nimble, and well,
thin.
For about 2 months now, I've done pretty well with sticking to a daily allowance of between 1600-2000, maintaining my usual running schedule which probably amounts to something like 25-35 miles/week. Again, with my BMR and all that, I should theoretically be losing weight, but the scale has
not budged.
I'm good with measuring portions and estimating calorie counts (I always guess high, just to be on the safe side). My diet is wholesome and predominantly vegetarian. So why can't I lose weight?! This regime worked so well for me before -- why is it failing now that I'm giving it a second run?
This post is getting too windy, but I do want to add in my thought that this plateau is being caused by my body's changed efficiency, such that those long runs that used to wind me are now easy. Also, I just read about doing fasted-state morning workouts: I've increasingly got into the habit of running when I'd eaten most of the days calories, and so I just burn food from earlier in the day for energy, rather than my own body fat.
Eating 1600 a day is difficult but do-able for me, and while 1800 is much easier, I'm worried it's also too high. I've also gotten conflicting estimates of my BMR, and am not sure whether I should grade myself as "moderate activity" or "very active" when using the Harris-Benedict equation.
Anyone gone through a similar situation who can help me out? It would be so much appreciated! I'd love to lose 10 pounds over the next two months or so.
American Girl in Northeastern China
