[Misora]

When I started out calorie counting I was dilligent and scientific and looked up the recommend number of calories etc. Then I promptly threw that out the window and and stuck to a 1500 calorie diet. For the first month I lost a ton of weight but then it just stopped coming off. I'm still being dilligent with my recording and measuring. I didn't really gain any back I just stopped losing. With some guilt I pushed my calories up to 1700 for a week and started losing again but then stopped. Then I pushed it back down to 1500, lost some and then it stopped even sooner.

The thing is for my height, age, gender and weight my BMR is supposed to be just over 1900. I've never given that much consideration because I'm not particularly muscular and I figure that if I most of my weight were muscle that would be more accurate. I don't do a lot of weight lifting though I try to either ride my bike to work one day a week or walk 5k 3 days a week either way averaging out to approximately 1500 calories a week on a couple of different calorie burn calculations I've tried.

So if there's any ladies out there who are my size or have been my size can you advise if that was too many calories? I just don't want to undo the progress I've made but I'm hovering at 2 lbs lost for the entire last month and it's starting to get disheartening. Plus even though my doctor was a complete idiot the only time I was actually give a calorie goal by a doctor it was 1100.

[jelder227]

I'd say try the 1900 for a week or so and see what happens. Worst case, you shouldn't gain on that. And it might get the scales moving again. Remember, everyone is different, so as long as it's not foolish or extreme, play with it.

I recently plateaued, and moving calories up worked! If I hadn't started on this forum I doubt I would have EVER tried that, and probably would have given up again. Now what I'm doing is trying to alternate - 1200/1300 calories with 1500/1600 calories. Maybe not every day, but at least three of each per week. And the scale is moving, slowly . . .

[beerab]

I agree try going up and seeing what happens, specially if you work out- as funny as it is- you need more calories then! Your body sounds like it's really holding on.

OR if you aren't working out- why not try some light exercise a few times a week?

[edzard]

I am not your size but I have lost regularly on 1800-2000 calories so give it a try, just keep aware. Good luck

[daniela]

Hi Misora,

Let me ask you, do you track your macros? When I first started losing weight I didn't but when I plateaued at 200 for 4 weeks I started looking into my macro ratios. Once I got my ratio to 40/30/30 carb/fat/pro (I was low on the protein starting out) and I bumped my cals from 1500 to 1700 I started losing again. I've also experimented with the ratio, for example if I eat 30/40/30 can lose more too but I have less energy and I need those carbs for all the running I do.

Just something else for you to think about because I think you know how I feel about eating more ;-) Personally I would give it a try and you need to do it for more then just a week to get an accurate picture of what's going on. If you were to raise your cals you might see a slight gain at first but say after 3 weeks still no change you might need to go to Plan B (don't even worry about that now).

Let us know what you decide to do and keep us in the loop if you start to see results again :-)

[Misora]

Daniela, I might actually try that. How does that work? For instance this morning I had an egg, a slice of low fat cheese, 2 pieces of toast and 100g (63 calories) of fresh cherries. I can calculate that the bread was 30% of my breakfast calories and I would think the egg alone would be mostly protein not fat (about 25%). Does the cheese count to protein or fat or both? I actually get a fair amount of protein but I'm making it a point to try to increase my dairy intake. Do you count by whole food or do you take part of each food and put them in a catagory.

[Misora]

Oh also where do vegetables come in? I can guess that the cherries probably count as carbs too but what about things like broccoli or squash?

[Idealmuse]

Misora - are you exercising at all? If your estimated BMR is 1900 and you feel that yours may be lower, then with all the potential for error when calculating calories I can see why you'd be having slow losses lately.

For me I need to exercise for decent losses. I think my BMR is supposed to be about the same as yours (or at least by body bugg thinks its about 2000) so depending on what type of loss I aim for I have to include activity.

I will refrain from commenting on the calorie intake though as I've been doing 1500 myself. On 1900 I wouldn't lose much if any w/o a few hours of exercise.

[daniela]

Hi Misora,

How are you counting you calories now? Are you just keeping a food journal on paper? If you want to track your macros it would be easiest using an online journal like www.fitday.com or www.thedailyplate.com

The calories in each item, let's use the egg, can be broken down into carbs, fats, & protein. So 1 egg is approx 70 cal, 4.5g fat, 1g carb, 6g protein. Then based on how many calories you eat in a day those macros are a percent of the total calories. For me this would be crazy hard to calculate on my own. I use an online journal called www.mynetdiary.com You have to pay for it each month but I like it because I can use it on my iPhone and I have it with me all the time.

Here is an example of what I've had to eat today and what I plan to eat. I think a visual always helps.

So to break this down I have 1800 cal per day and I try to shoot for 40 carb/30 fat /30 pro. Today I ate or plan to eat 1614 cal (I still need to add 186 but I don't know what I want yet) & my ratio is 38% carb / 23 % fat / 39% protein.

Did I explain that okay? So each food will be broke down into each catagory and be a percentage of your total daily calories.

If you are curious what quaker sugar is it's quaker lower sugar oatmeal & amped P is my protein drink.