The most successful calorie count that I've done was outlined in the book Thin For Life (love it! highly recommend it). It has a four week "jump start" program where you start really low (1000) and move up (100 per week). So week 1 is 1000 calories, week 2 is 1100, week 3 is 1200, and week 4 is 1300. After that you add a bit more at a time, until you determine your "maintenance weight" (mine was 2700).
It worked like a charm... the low levels of calories were easy to stick to because they were divided into food groups (i.e. dairy, protein, carbs, etc.). The protein was the largest group (around 300 calories). It was really eye opening to me how filling protein is!! I'm a carb junkie ;-)
I went from 140 lbs to 121 and kept the weight off for over a year. The reason I'm here is because I'm now at 134 (sigh!!). I stuck to my maintenance calories (2700) for a long time, but then started to exceed them (3500+) and, you guessed it, started packing on the pounds.
Calorie counting does really work, you just have to find the right combination of foods, and make sure that it's mostly high nutrient food and not junk.
Good luck :-)
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