Altari, this is the first time I've ever tried to lose during the winter. This could be true b/c I always seem to need an adjustment up in my thyroid med. dosage and then I am able to go back down during summer.

Today was in my calorie cycling schedule a 1200 day. I didn't do breakfast (this is a hard one for me I literally have to force myself to eat breakfast) but I had my usual coffee, 2 tsp sugar and 1/4 cup milk. Around lunch I had a bowl of cheerios, 1 cup with 1/2 banana and 1/2 cup of milk. For snack before dinner, I had 100 calorie kettle corn and then dinner I had chicken alfredo, 4oz chicken breast, 2oz noodles plus the crazy high calorie sauce, 1/2 hotdog bun with butter and garlic and one glass sweet tea. For dessert I had 100 cal. choc. cake thingy. I think it all added up to about 1175-1200.

INTERESTED in examples... I need to make sure I am not eating any of them!!!

Too many calories impedes weight loss. You can lose on McDonalds and you can gain on chicken and green beans.

Speaking of green beans, how do you feel about vegetables, Niecy? Eating more of them might help you feel full on less food & will give you some nutrients that we all need. I don't know if the list of food you ate constitutes a typical day, but I think it you'd benefit if you included some broccoli or green beans or spinach or butternut squash or something. (I'm not going to let you count kettlecorn & the bit of garlic as your day's intake of veggies.)

Saef, HAHAHA, no I will not count the kettlecorn and garlic as veggies. Actually this not a typical day. I do pasta twice a week, and now that I think about it I have NO idea why I reserved the 1200 cal. day to make pasta of all things! I think because I was tired and frustrated it was easy to just stick the chicken in the oven to bake and boil the noodles. I know better than that really, and I usually make that on my higher cal. days so I can have more noodles. I should have exchanged that kettlecorn for an apple probably.

The other nights of the week I do a meat and 2 veggies or a good sized salad with lean meat, either chicken or turkey.

I actually really love vegetables and fruit of any kind EXCEPT tomatoes and onions. The acidic nature of the tomatoes just doesn't agree with my tummy and the onions also make me very ill. Funny thing about the tomatoes, I can get away with spaghetti sauce and it doesn't bother me much.

Niecy,

Do you have hypothyroidism or hyper? I'm assuming hypo, correct? For people with hypothyroidism it is even more difficult to lose the weight and keep it off.

That being said, it requires much more discipline. Consulting with your physician about what you are currently doing to lose weight, including your exercise routine and how many calories you are eating is a good start. He/she may need to know this in fact to help you achieve success.

As a side note, I just read that you did a 1200 calorie day in which you skipped breakfast pretty much and had pasta and garlic bread for dinner. Not a good way to go.

NEVER skip meals, period. When you skip meals, especially breakfast, you are basically starving your body of the fuel it needs to continue through the day. Think about it, you have already been fasting for 7-8 hours while you were sleeping, and then you extend it even further. Skipping breakfast actually slows the metabolism, which is the opposite of what you want especially with your condition. Studies have also shown that people who skip breakfast tend to eat more calories throughout the day, and usually unhealthier foods.

What kind of milk are you drinking by the way? A lot of people overlook the importance of things like that, but it is important. You should steer clear of whole milk and even 2% reduced fat milk. Half the calories in whole milk come from fat. 2% reduced fat milk isn't significantly that much different from whole milk. 1% reduced fat milk, skim milk, or non-fat milk are the way to go. 1% reduced fat milk has half the fat of 2% milk.

I'm a fan of moderation, and I think it is good to allow yourself one meal that you really enjoy one day throughout the week. I'd keep it to just one meal, and one day out of the week though. I'd also be careful about going too low, like to 1200 calories on your diet. Too few calories can actually cause your body to store fat in its desperate attempt to conserve energy. This may happen from skipping breakfast as well.

Try to stay away from white breads and rice as well since they can cause rapid insulin spikes that tell your body we have all the energy we need and cause your body to store again. What's worse is that they are usually followed by huge insulin drops which makes us feel hungry again.

Yes, I am hypo and you are definitely right, it is very hard and I don't know, in my eyes I feel I have to work twice as hard sometimes to get the same results as others. I also have adrenal issues but it does seem to get better with exercise. Basically what my levels are showing is that everything about my cortisol is backwards from everyone else, I want to stay up all night and sleep during the day. Maybe this is why eating anything before 10am makes me nauseated? There is nothing in the way of medicine that can be done about that except steroid, which I refuse to do. If I had full-blown Addison's yes, I would have no choice but to take it.

For the past week, I have been doing whole milk, I forgot to get skim last grocery trip. But whole is not what I usually have unless I see I am running behind on calories for the day and instead of something junky, I would rather drink a glass of milk.

Bread is a tough one for me but I will say I am not completely hooked on white bread, it can be any kind and I am ok with it. Rice I do ok with staying away from, it's not my favorite. I do have yellow rice from time to time, but that's maybe once a month.

I always though 1200 cals were ok in the case of calorie cycling...I will make some adjustments to that and see what happens.

Thanks again

I know from past experience when I lost from 265 to 139 that those last 25 LBS came of hard and slow. I kept upping intensity and religiously following plan. (WW at the time). Some times I would stay at the same weight for 4-5 weeks then lose a LB or so. I wish I had been better at maintaining though as I eventually gained all but ten LBS back. Now I can see that I probably was almost at maintenance level for six months or so as I lost those last six LBS. Try not to think so much about what the scale says and think about how great you are doing exercising and eating in a healthy way.