oops, my reply didn't go through. Oh well, it was too long anyway. I'll keep it short.

Lin, you will love this plan.

Esofia, I've lived a lifetime of diet deprivation, and all it did was make me walk around hungry 24/7 and eventually make me fat. I lived 1200 calorie diets for years. Awful. 1500 calories would probably allow me to lose a bit quicker than I am now, but I'm in no big rush. And I get to eat more.

I love eating this way. I'm in no rush to lose. The way I eat now is the way I'll be eating forever. I can live with that!

This is the way to do it, and it's the way I choose to do it as well. Absolutely no reason to deprive yourself and watch yourself make up for the 'lack' later. I've upped my exercise everyday to burn more calories for my deficit.

Yes, it definitely works. It's all just an equation. I belong to Weight Watchers as the community and weekly weigh-in keep me motivated. But the Points Plus seems to work best for people who are just learning which foods to eat -- and I already know the calorie count of most of my faves. For example, most fruits and veg are 0 points, but if you stuff yourself with fruit and higher-cal veg (dark leafy greens are surprisingly high) you'll soon exceed 1200 cals. But still there's a lot to like about WW, I especially like the little sticky stars you get when reaching a mini-goal lol!! I'm combining the two but counting cals not points.

I am using an app called "Lose It" which is free online. It has the cal counts of most foods and exercises so you can easily keep track, and there's a mobile app too. Another site with lots of foods is Calorie King. If you have the time and inclination to up your exercise, that will speed things up!

Calorie counting works great if you get into the habit of doing so, are serious about it, and are not constantly cheating on the intake.

It works!! You just have to keep doing it. I got bored and gained back over 20lbs of what I had lost.I am back at it now and I feel so much better!!

I've found that calorie counting is the best thing that I ever "discovered." As someone who loves food, I can incorporate it into my life easily!

I've learned SO MUCH about portion control, and listening to my own hunger cues. I've found that 1200 calories a day is perfectly sustainable for me and I don't feel deprived on it. I'm kind of worried about maintenance though, as I know I'll need to eat at least 1600-1700 to maintain if I stop within the next 10 pounds or so (that's my plan...) when taking into account that my metabolism will be slower than a person at 5'3" 130ish pounds who has never been obese.

I've been planning for it, such as looking up ways to bulk up my meals without making me stuff myself. I'm sure that in experimenting I'll find the right formula for me just as I did for weight loss :)

goodmorning and welcome to journey that is tough yet simple but fulfilling.

yes calorie counting does work. i have lost all my weight through calorie counting and a little bit of excercize sparatically. 1200 really is to low though. if you go to mayoclinic.com then you can see on the calorie calculator that 1200 is to low and they tell you why.


when your of a shorter stature. as my best friend calls it "fun size" :) this just means you need to make up for it in excercize. wich really isnt to bad excercize is good. im still working on myself working out lol. but i would say you should stick to somewhere 1400-1600 for now and work off the extra calories.

hope this helps. <3 :hug:

http://mydownwardspiraltothesurface.blogspot.com/


oh yes and a huge thing in the beginning is being overwhelmed. here is an article i wrote on my blog all about taking your baby steps. : ) hope it helps. :hug:

I think Calorie Queens make a lot of sense, I didn't do it because I was almost at goal before I learned of it. For those of you that think eating at a maintenace level is too slow, a slower steadier loss is a more long lasting loss. I am a confirmed calorie counter and I have done all the diets, Calorie Counting is the most reliable and serves me well in maintenace.

I'm missing the part where I was advocating deprivation or hunger...

Oh, yes! :wave:

There are a lot of sites, apps and PC and Mac software programs to aid in making the counting easy. There are even pretty bracelets you can buy that aid in calorie counting throughout the day and also the good ol' fashioned paper and pencil or pretty journals are nice too.

I enjoy calorie counting. It has been my friend through many a long day of my ongoing weight management journey.

Jessica, loved your blog! Thanks for posting. :wave:

Eating at goal maintenance is a method I agree with except that Esofia's comment about that idea not really working for featherweights makes sense to me also. Thanks Esofia. That is a good point.

It does for me. I track my calories thru livestrong.com/myplate. Free & easy. Perfect.

1200 is the recommended minimum. Saying it's too low for everyone is problematic. If you're tall and active then yes, it's too low. For us smaller folks, we need to eat less in general just to maintain, so we might have to actually eat 1200 to lose!

I probably could eat more and still lose, but I find that 1200 (most days, some days I eat more) doesn't leave me feeling deprived at all. I'm losing around 1.8 pounds a week on average, so still at a healthy pace.