[Rosinante]

I'm really interested in this but didn't want to keep usurping Staceygee's thread. Thanks to her for raising this, though!

Apart from 2 sets of 3 days, I've been 100% on plan since May 24th. 207 days.
201/207 days 100% on plan.
171/201 days at or about 1400.
30/201 days at 1200.

I can't say that I'm stalling - my saw tooth pattern of lose, gain, lose, maintain and repeat is still doing it.
The 30 days of 1200 was an experiment to see what it felt like and also because I've increased my carbs. I've lost 8lbs at 1200.
The 171 days averaged at 1.76lbs a week.
The 30 days averaged at 1.89lbs a week.

I suppose I could just leave well enough alone; but I'm tired and a bit weak at the end of the 1200 month, and definitely won't carry on at that level. I always did plan to increase to 1400 gradually. 1252 today!
And I think I'm going to do the carb re-feed on December 28th: I have family coming to stay from the 27th and, for some reason, I've decided that on the 28th I'm going to serve English Afternoon Tea. This is odd, given none of us are English but hey! I am really looking forward to making lots of fancy little cakes and things but I had wondered how my usual 'take a tiny bit of everything' would cope with food that will be 95% carb for that meal. This may kill 2 birds with one stone.

Hey, if it doesn't work no harm done. And I do need to work on not being so frightened of food.

[mkroyer]

that is a great attitude! Working on not being frightend of food....
I like it

Good luck!
Ask questions if you have any

[JenMusic]

Originally Posted by Rosinante

Hey, if it doesn't work no harm done. And I do need to work on not being so frightened of food.

This is the part that stuck out to me as well. I have my own struggles in that area - the difficulty of testing my control and doing something that, from what I've been taught for SO long, seems counterintuitive.

I was calorie cycling for about 4 months before I realized I was eating under my calories on high calorie days, and then patting myself on the back for it. So now I'm trying calorie cycling for real in an experiment to see if my weight loss goes back to a faster clip - I'm averaging .5-1 pound a week now, where I used to be 8+ pounds a month. My high calorie days are VERY hard for me, mentally, but I'm hopeful that gets better the longer I do this (just like everything else!).

I wish you luck, and let us know how it goes!

[JayEll]

Rosinante, I'll be very interested in how it goes! Especially on December 29, 30, 31, etc.

Jay

[matt_H]

This whole process for me has been one of experimentation and finding what works for me. There is no harm in mixing things up and trying something new

[Rosinante]

Thanks for the support and interest.

I'm going to be interested myself to see how easy or not it is to get back to previous calorie levels on subsequent days. I'm going to be absolutely Fascinated to see if I can actually bring myself to do the re-feed on Tea day. Like Jen, I've tried to eat up to higher levels before but always pulled back and stayed low, thinking it the only way to go.
We'll see.

[stacygee]

Ros... I love your statistics! That is awesome that you have kept such good records. I wish I had done something like that. I work out a lot.

I will be so curious how it ends up for you. I'll let you know about me too!

[Rosinante]

Coo-ee! Mkroyer! You said I could ask questions.

You said that after a re-carb, people hold water and show a weight gain. I understand that. The question is: how long (ish) for?

The reason I ask, is that I had what seemed like an impossible dream of making 159 when I go on holiday on January 19th. I'm now 2.5lbs away from that. Yes, I know that realizing an arbitrary goal is.....er, arbitrary but it would please me.
Do you think that if I re-carbed on Dec 28th I'd see the expected waterweight gain whoosh away by the 19th? I know that's hard to answer.

If I keep losing at the rate I have been, I could be 160 by the 28th, will one day's re-feed completely blow that out of the water by the 19th?

See, this is me and fear of food. I want to have faith that re-carbing will work but it seems scarily counter-intuitive!!!!!!
Thanks for any insights you could offer.