Quote:
Originally Posted by bargoo
I am one inch shorter than you and today I weigh 117, I am pretty happy with that. Yes, like many have said maintenance is not easy it takes constant effort. The question becomes "Is it worth it?" In my case I believe it is. You are spreading your calories out a great deal, I find that I need to stay pretty constant with calories on a daily basis. We short people are limited to the amount of calories we can have to maintain. I can have about 1400 calories a day to maintain. I can have a treat now and then, but I am always aware of what I am eating. There is a man that posts on another board, he is 6'9" tall , he can have many more calories than me to maintain his weight, even our sister dieters who are 5'8" will need more calories than we shorties. There is no calorie that fits all. There is this, too, the less we have to lose the harder it is. Right now if I want to lose 2 pounds it takes me much longer than when I started and needed to lose ninety pounds. Most of us lose at a more rapid pace when we first start and slow down when we get to goal.
I thought my first post was perfectly clear. Guess not.
Bargoo you seem to be under the impression that my calorie count varies wildly from day to day. Not so. I have been trying various calorie levels for the last four years, sticking to each level for months at a time. My daily calories might vary by a hundred or so but my weekly averages are consistent.
After I lost my initial thirty pounds on an average intake of 1600 calories a day my weight loss came to a screeching halt. This was in late 2008. In January 2009 I dropped my calories to an average of 1300. Ate at that level for six months and added more exercise. No change in weight though I did measure smaller.
From June to December of 2009 I ate an average of 1150 calories a day. I tried eliminating all treats and eating as clean as possible. I felt deprived, my husband complained, and my food bill doubled. And I lost nothing.
For most of 2010 I ate 1000 calories a day. At this level I was tired all the time, grumpy and very very stressed. My weight did not budge.
In 2011 I dropped my calories even further, to 900 a day, divided into two small meals spaced twelve hours apart. Now I could barely drag myself through the day. To compensate for the lack of fuel I doubled my caffeine intake, living on coffee and sugar free energy drinks.
And I did lose weight. In eight months I lost a whopping 3 pounds
I lost another pound in September 2011 after our beloved greyhound, Sweetie, died suddenly from a rare blood cancer that nobody, not us, not his vet, had even known he had since he had had no symptoms. That dog was like a child to us. To say we were devastated is putting it mildly. For days I could barely choke anything down at all.
When I had recovered slightly from my grief I became concerned that perhaps my metabolism had been compromised by my low intake. So I tried a refeed. I deliberately took my calories up to around 2500 a day. That was, for me, a huge amount of food. As I had expected, my weight went up slightly. I dropped calories to around 2000 a day. The two pounds I had gained came off. I dropped calories again, down to about 1400 a day. My weight stayed the same.
This past year I have felt very discouraged. I'll eat at a low level for a few months but when my weight doesn't change I go back to eating 2000 calories a day. Since I have a thousand calorie maintenance range it makes no sense to stay at the bottom end if my weight doesn't drop when I do so.
Again I'd rather have to maintain at 1800 or even 1500 if I could lose at 1200.
As I've said more than once my body is freaky.