newleafThanks but I just don't know what else I would eat to bump up the calories. I'm making choices that don't have many...not because they don't have many calories, but more because that is what I have and that is what I want. Any ideas? I do love carbs, but really try to limit those..

I find it hard to get to the 1500. Here's what I ate yesterday, maybe there are some ideas in there for you?

Breakfast: coffee; medium banana; 10 grain hot cereal with chopped nuts, raisins, flax seed, and honey;

Lunch: bowl of butternut squash / sweet potato soup

Snack: non-fat Greek yogurt with pear butter and flax seed mixed it

Snack: 1 pistachio cranberry biscotti

Snack: tomato, tofu, a corn tortilla cracker with light laughing cow cheese and a slice of turkey on top

Dinner: (nothing major because we ran out the door; dinner was at 8:30pm) raisin bran with 2% milk

Snack: fresh blackberries with cool whip and a ginger cookie

I didn't hit a plateau. But I am losing more slowly than you, my average is 6lbs per month. I've also noticed that I tend to lose next to nothing in the week before my period, and then have a big drop the week of my period.

I eat around 1400ish

Thanks newleaf! Guess I just have to get used to those pesky scale fluctuations and try not to freak out every time I gain 0.2lbs! Easier said than done...

I think it just means that some people eat some number of the calories they burned through exercise. So if a person has a target of 1500 calories per day but they burn 500 through exercise they may feel they can eat 2000 and still lose. Thus.."eating back" the 500 calories they burned with the idea that the net result is 1500.

Yes, you definitely do... Do you graph your weightloss? I find that it makes it so much easier to see the big picture... I just looked at my daily graph. I have 94 data points, and -- are you ready? -- I have woken up to a gain 37 times in 94 days!! Yikes! I had never looked at that number before!! But it really does put it into perspective... That means that 35% of the time, I wake up to a gain. But obviously, I'm doing okay... This morning I woke up to having lost 19.7 lbs overall.

ETA: Because of all the daily fluctuations, lots of people prefer to weigh themselves once a week. I also keep a weekly chart, and if I were disciplined enough to only weigh myself on Monday mornings (my start day), then I would have only seen the scale up on 2 Monday mornings out of 13 weeks. Hmmm, there's something to be said for that... I couldn't weigh myself just once a week, but I can definitely understand why other people like that better!

Wow, congrats!! That's really a HUGE accomplishment and you should be so proud of yourself! You have such a positive attitude and that's really inspirational. I've been at 148 (+/- 0.2) for a little over a week now and am pretty frustrated, but am just trying to put things into perspective and know that I'm doing great things for my body in the long run. It's also TOM and I just started strength training right around the time I stopped losing, so I'm hoping my body's just catching up. Do you think I should give it another week or so to try to catch up (if that's what it's doing...who knows!) or should I try switching something up now? I just joined thedailyplate so I'll be graphing from now on and hopefully the big picture will look good! I feel like I'm doing everything right, but if the scale's not moving, it's hard not to doubt yourself and wonder if I'm missing something. Thanks for all of your support!

I am currently 338 pounds, I eat no more than 1700 calories per day (I have random days that I go over but not by much) I have lost 196 pounds since Jan 2008 eating that amount of calories, I exercise daily and my doc agrees that 1700 is where I should be (though I came up with 1700 he just agreed with it) since he is a fairly new doc.

Most of these calculators have me eating way too much food, someone in this thread said "May I say that magazines are not the best source of information" might I add that neither is the internet sometimes

I would just experiment with some calorie ranges and see how you do, I would not go below 1100-1200 though but again that's me and this IS on the internet so please refer to my previous paragraph

the opinion here is worth the price paid I think so take it with a grain of salt but the weight x 7 thing seems pretty correct to me, good luck with your weight loss

As Ever
Me

There are so many things listed that I would never even eat!!! I am trying to try new things, but TOFU, I tried that once years ago...no way!!! I do like laughing cow...gonna go get some now and I'm not a big fan of biscotti although my mom makes it and everyone loves it...maybe I can acquire a taste for it...thanks for the ideas.

I am now at 144 # and if I multiply that by 7, it's only about 1000 calories...that is definitely not enough...Wouldn't have a problem with that since most days I struggle to get to 1100-1200.

I eat anywhere between 1100 to 1450 (I do not calorie cycle, but when i buy meals for a week or some some weeks are higher then others) when I maintain I don't count but it is lower or very close to what some sites tell me my lose weight is. (Note: I haven't been exercising lately, but when I do I do not "eat back")

When I get my multivitamins and all the water I'm suposed to get I feel great and lose weight regardless of the level.