I lost about 25 pounds last fall from calorie counting and exercising and was almost at my goal. To get to that point, however, I was *very* drastic with my eating-- no sugar, no caffeine, mostly macrobiotic diet.

Winter came on and I slacked off a bit and am back up to 140. I have been calorie counting and exercising for the past 2 weeks but the scale is not budging! I average appox. 1700 calories/day, which I know is a little high, but I also run about 20 miles/week.

My question is, how drastic do I need to get to lose these last 10-15 pounds?
And what does that even look like in terms of calories/food?

Thanks!

I hope you mean 1700 calories/day? Maybe eat 1500 and see if that helps, if not, try for 1800 if you're working out real hard. You're not really large to begin with so I can see how losing might be difficult.

Hey StellaBella! I realize I'm taller than you, but I run the same amount and we have the same end goal. I would be gaining weight if I ate 1700 calories per day. When I was actively losing, I ate 1200-1300 calories per day, plus ran and weight-trained every day. (I'm maintaining now at around 1600 calories per day.) The thinner you are, the harder you must work to lose the weight. I suggest dipping down to 1400 and really kicking butt with your runs to start seeing the scale move. Cutting out 300 calories per day is difficult, in my opinion, as this translates to an entire snack, for example, so look for ways to maybe shave off 100 calories in three instances per day so it won't seem as limiting.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes- I meant 1700 calories/day! That was the average for the week-- 1500 a couple days, 1800 a few others, etc.

fatburner- that is what I was afraid of.
Ugh- 1400 calories will be tough. Can anyone give me menu suggestions? Maybe that is a separate thread...

Hey Stella, we're kicking around the idea of doing a six week crack down over in the featherweights forum. Often, all it takes to get past a road block is small changes and consistency.

You'd be very welcome. I'll come back and post a link when I get something thought up ...

Stella, you can also check out my profile on DailyPlate... I have the same username (SceneStealer), and I'm at about 1400 cals/day trying to lose the last 10 pounds. Lately I've had a lot of binges but hopefully my food diary will you give you some menu ideas.

OK ... this is what I thought up. Come one, come all!

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=135480

Off to join...

Thanks for the personal invitation.

I'm doing about 1400 a day too lately. I track everything I eat in my blog, so you might find that helpful.

Hi Stella! We're about the same weight-wise and height-wise, and I'm also running about 20 miles a week.

I'm following the menus in Extreme Fat Smash, which come out to about 1200 calories a day for me. I've posted my menus for about two weeks in the "Are there any other EXTREME Fat Smashers?" thread in the Fat Smash part of the forum, if you want to check them out. I like that there is a good amount of protein in the plan, and that there are four meals and two snacks every day.

Hope that helps!

Kara

If you are currently eating approx. 1700 a day, I don't think that you need to make such a drastic cut to 1400 per day at one time. That is a pretty large drop at once.

Why not try 1550 a day for a couple of weeks?

Skwigg blogged about this recently - check it out here.

Jillian Michaels' second book "Making the Cut" is all about losing the last 20 pounds.