For the past few weeks (maybe even a month) I had been struggling through a nasty plateau. My weight would not go down anymore despite the fact that I was eating REALLY well (and definitely eating LESS too) and I was doing lots of exercise. However, now that I look back I realize that my calories were pretty low. I probably wasn't getting more than 1,100 a day, and less on some days. During this time I noticed that I was feeling less hungry and that made NO sense to me at all. I was like, I'm eating so much less and yet I don't feel hungry? What's going on?
Fast forward to 2 days ago, I calculated my BMR online and apparently my body needs at least 1550 calories just to keep my organs alive! I upped my calories to reflect my BMR and finally..... I am breaking through this plateau and my natural hunger signals have returned. I understand now that by eating so little I had slowed my metabolism and my body simply wouldn't drop any weight. SO... If you are currently fighting a plateau and if you are consuming less calories than your BMR, you may want to try increasing the number to reflect what your BMR is. This very well could give your metabolism a much needed boost. Since your BMR is the amount of calories that your body needs just to survive and be healthy, if you consume only that amount each day you will automatically have a calorie deficit (even if you are totally sedentary)!
Now that I know all of this I find it alarming that so many women adopt the 1200 calorie rule.... How can one calorie amount work for every woman (or man)? We have to know how many calories each of us needs in a day and rely on THAT to achieve real, lasting results. In order to keep my own results coming I plan to reduce my calories by 30 each week, in addition to my daily exercise.