I know as I get closer to goal, the weight will be slower to come off. I am dreading it. I have been increasing my exercise, although I just don't think my knees can handle much more. I'm absolutely not willing to eat less then 1200 calories. I can deal with a slower weightloss as long as it's just that, a loss. A weight stall, yikes. Whatever will be will be, I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I also had it in my head to increase my calories for a week and then drop them. Who knows, maybe I'll be lucky? Although I know that's highly, highly unlikely.
robin~you're right to not want to go below 1200 calories per day. And for a lot of us the last few pounds are the hardest to lose. I've decided that my body will allow me to lose about half a pound a week. That gives me 17 weeks until I should meet my goal. First part of June should see me at goal. Sure it would be great if it were earlier, but I'll take it. Like you said, at least I'm losing!
Look at it this way, slower loss at the end will probably make it a little easier for us to maintain our loss once we make goal. Do ya think?
1lb a week is a great rate of loss. I always averaged that too right from the start and I just figured I would mean I'd lose 50lbs+ each year and I'd be where I wanted to be in 3-4 years - not that long considering how long I'd carried 175lbs of excess weight around with me! I think your suggestion about dropping the cals on rest days - or rest day in my case as I only have one day off - is a great one as I think I could cope with that when I'm not being active.
Glory - It's great that you hung in there for those 15lbs. I think what you are saying about upping your cals is interesting. I've always worked on that principle that keeping cals as high as possible will avoid the body going into stubborn mode. But maybe it's the mixing it up and doing something different that we discussed earlier? I think what is becoming clear is you just have to keep experimenting to see what works as everyone seems to have a different experience.
Allison - I agree planning is KEY! Writing down everything I eat was the way I changed my eating habits and it's how I stay on plan/ get over bad days quickly. It's really easy to over/ under estimate what you're really consuming. I carry a diary aroudn with me at all times and it goes straight in there whenever I have anything. Fit day is fantastic - glad it's working for you. Well done on the 2lb downward movement - well worth waiting for! You'll get to your goal, but I agree it's very difficult to give yourself a deadline for it as weight doesn't seem to come off to schedule even if the calculates add up. But as you say you'll get there!
Tammy and Glory - Thanks for posting your weight loss charts. Tammy you've done so brilliantly! Glory - you're only A POUND away from goal - that must be an amazing feeling. It's interesting to see in both your charts the overall downward trend whatever the results of each individual week. But I know from experience how hard or rewarding (depending on how the week wen) that each of those weeks must have been. I suppose it's the big picture you have to keep focused on. I think I've lost track of that in recent months and I want the rest of the weight to be gone like that. I never had this view when I started out. I think it's the fact that I've lost so much weight and it's the challenge of knowing I have so far to go but have I got it in me to keep it going? But I shall keep your chart in mind when I'm flagging!
Robin - I think when you're near goal it's reasonable to expect the weight loss to slow down. but you might find you're OK until you get much closer to it. You may lose consistently - maybe slight less each week than you're used to - but hopefully you'll have a loss to log each week. See what happens. Sounds like you're willing to do everything to get there so I have no doubts you'll do it.