[mescelestus]

After riding out a Looooooong plateau, I decided to use the RMR calculator to determine my daily calorie need sfor weight loss (bc what I was doing was clearly no longer working, the plateau was/is over 6 months). I have been following that guideline for over a month and have lost only about 3 pounds. Here is the problem/question: The calculators give me what I consider to be a high (1650-1850) calorie number for weight loss. I have not been able to eat that many calories on most days, and have trouble coming up with healthy ways to consume 1700ish calories a day. The other problem is deciding an accurate activity level (the calculators have given me the above numbers with a "moderate" activity level). Can you help me decide? Here is what my week looks like: 30DS everyday, no fail (until the 30 days are up, then i'll see), Walking up and down stairs at least 15 times a day, I walk at LEAST a mile every day...3 miles most days...and I take 6 mile walks on both saturday and sunday. Other than that I move around whenever possible...(dancing and figeting for at least 30 mins a day). Given that, what do you think I should consider my activity level to be? Do you think the above calorie needs are accurate? And if so, how do you suggest I get all those calories in daily while still eating healthy and lower carb? Thanks for reading this complicated mess...All your responses will be appreciated.

[gardenerjoy]

I'm no expert, but I have been doing a lot of reading! So I'll chat with you.

To start with, 3 pounds in a month is not an unreasonably small amount of weight loss. Do that every month and you will get to the goal line! I've also learned from my reading that the rate of weight loss slows the further you go -- you probably won't lose the next 60 pounds nearly as quickly as you lost the first. And congratulations for that, by the way! I'm impressed and hope to be able to say I did that some day.

Your level of activity sounds at least moderate to me.

Since you're not losing weight quite as fast as you would like, I'm not sure that adding calories makes that much sense. Could you convince yourself that 1600 would work better both in not making you eat more than you seem to want and increasing your weight loss a bit?

As for low carb, healthy snacks, a handful of nuts is considered healthy these days -- walnuts, almonds, macadamias, peanuts, and other tree nuts show up pretty frequently in healthy food lists. Nonfat yogurt is another biggie. Have you tried edamame?

Hope that helps!

[mescelestus]

Thanks for your reply! I do non-fat greek yogurt a lot, and perhaps don't value that enough. Well I did lose the three pounds that month, but i have been in the 190's since January, and now, i'm just below it...There has to be something I'm not doing right if in nine months all I lost was 9 pounds. Maybe I need a dr's opinion on that...Also I'm 20 yrs old, and I'm not on any meds so I shouldn't be having this trouble. I guess you're right though, I'll try to stick to 1600 steadily, and track it over 2 weeks. Thanks again!