Has anyone else experienced this??

I'm a calorie counter, and of course numbers is always a big deal. When I'm losing weight (any at all really) it makes me super motivated, and it becomes very easy to stay in my goal range of 1400-1500 calories per day. But as soon as my metabolism slows down for a few days or a week, I don't care as much and I eat anywhere up to 1700. You would think this would be a downward spiral, but it's not! When I up my calories for those days, my metabolism gets all confused and I start to lose weight again (therefore getting motivated to eat less again). Such a great system- but it didn't always used to be that way


Discouragement always used to be the reason I wouldn't stick to a diet before, except then, I would go crazy and go buy some ice cream or something. Back then, it was always a downward spiral, because I would be so discouraged, I wouldn't go back to dieting and would start to gain again.

The moral of the story?? Learn to deal with discouragement. All I did was take my failure to lose for a couple of days in stride, not allowing myself to eat a ton, and not trying overly hard to willpower myself into lower calorie ranges. There really is something to "the middle way"...taking things in stride and not proclaiming everything as the end of the world.

So anyone else have stories like this? Changes in the way you think that came with your new eating habits?

I can safely say....

nope!

There is a variation of this method in Weight Watchers called the Wendie plan. Your points are not the same everday; some days you will have really low, some average, and some days many points. I think it prevent/breaks stalls and does a good job too. I think the only problem would be to not get too off track on high calorie days.

Completely unintentionally, this happened to me last week I kept between 1300-1500 the previous week (trying to hit 1500-1600), and last week I was in the 1700's EVERY DAY-- and I lost 2 lbs

I think it only works if you don't mean to do it, though.. (hahahha) Psyche yourself out, so to speak

Congrats on the loss!

That's just great! I believe that's what separates the maintainers from the rest - finding way to work *with* your body instead of against it.

This has happened to me. I was not losing and then had an overeating day. Not terrible, but much more than I have been used to...the next day I was up one pound, and the following day, back to "normal" eating, down two.

I do think there is something to reassuring your body that it won't starve that allows it to drop weight. The trick for me is not to convince myself that my body needs that "reassurance" too often!

This is the trap I fall into. I'm really good at convincing myself that eating those extra calories is actually a good thing. It's really nice when my body can forgive me for the occasional lapse, though!

Maybe this explains my weight loss this week! I'm not a calorie counter but am following more of an intuitive plan, more fresh fruits and vegetables, etc. This past week was very stressful, but I was astonished to see the scale down. I know it wouldn't be good to eat every week the way I ate this past week. Even though I never ate beyond "full," I did eat things I wouldn't normally have in my plan and am sure I took in more calories than usual.

It's weird. It seems like my body will lose a bit, wait to see if anything bad happens and, when it doesn't, lose a bit more.