I'm going to applaud your work on this offmyfranny. I learned sooo much about nutrition by counting calories and I can see that you are too.

Let us know what you tried today and how it went.

I would be dead if I lived on 1200 calories. That's why I don't count calories - I eat clean and my calorie intake fluctuates from day to day, but I think that this is how it should be. JMHO, of course.

Okay, you see, that just plain ole' never worked for me. We are all different after all. Eating "healthy" was just a guise for me. I need to be held accountable and the only way I can do that is by monitoring my caloric intake. All too easy for ME to overspend calolries on healthy foods.


I've been "doing" 1200 calories for quite some time now. And I've never felt better. Never felt more alive. In fact, if I hadn't started doing 1200 calories, there's a great possibility that I would have been dead.

What is it that my dad used to say? Oh yeah. "That's what makes horseracing."

I love this meal! I'll make it a point to make it more often. Thanks!

rockinrobin - thank you for taking the time to respond so thoughtfully. Tough love! Granola bars ARE glorified candy bars. I get them because when I am craving "junk" it's an easy way to get through it for 100 calories. Maybe it's making me crave more junk? Or just not easing the hunger, probably.

Changing the way you eat is hard stuff!


Do you really think so? More than like 60 ounces a day? I drink 48 ounces of water, plus whatever milk, etc. that I drink that day. Drinking this much water has been VERY hard for me, because I have a bladder disease and while drinking water is GOOD for that, it also has me in the bathroom literally every 15 minutes. Before I started trying to make changes, I drank less than 20 ounces of liquid per day most days. So THIS is a HUGE change. I think I will stick with it for a while instead of overwhelming myself to do more. Once it becomes a way of life to drink THIS much, I can probably up it without too much problem. Or is this me being in denial and I need to just do it?

I am filled with so much self-doubt. :(

Not nearly enough. At all. I know I need to be more active. I'm being a wimp now that's it's freezing cold here and I don't want to go out. So I do the old standby - jogging in place, doing my core dvd, etc.

My husband wants to get me something for Christmas that I would never get myself (I'm a cheapskate). Maybe I should ask him for a gym membership. I get a discount because the gym is at the college and I graduated from there. It's $180 year for a single person. That's not bad. As long as I'd actually use it. How many people do that and then don't use it?

ok.. off to read page 2.

Thanks everyone!

awww.. thank you! Your encouragement means a lot to me!

tomato ~ as rockinrobin said, I am the same way. I would completely overdo it, simply because "it's healthy!" It simply just doesn't work for me. It looks like it's working for you though! Great weight loss! :)

That's a pretty great price. It works out to about $15 a month. For comparison, I pay $35 a month for my membership. :)

I was also going to come back and say that adding exercise would really really help. Even 30 minutes of body resistance stuff at home would make a difference - lunges, squats, stepups, pushups, situps/crunches, planks ... stuff like that, that wouldn't require weights (at least at first). But a gym membership would be really ideal.

By exercising for 30 mins a day, you could easily add 300+ cals back into your diet and not mess up your progress. And at 1500 cals, you'd open up a whole new world of eating! :D

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Actually, I just checked, and as an alum, my yearly cost would be $146.

They have a huge weight room, an indoor pool, a track, a huge room with bikes, step-machines, etc. plus they do 50+ different group classes.

I used to go back when I made it to my goal weight a couple years ago. I hated it at first, but then didn't mind it so much. I just did mostly the bikes and walking the track though. Group classes intimidate me, and I'm scared of using weights because of my shoulders. I'm afraid of re-injuring them (although weight training would strengthen them - I have rotator cuff injuries) I'm also a bit nervous about being in the weight room with all the big manly men laughing at me. lol.

I think when you join, you get 1 meeting with a personal trainer who will go through all the equipment with you.

I'll ask hubby. Maybe he'll join with me. He used to work out and do martial arts year ago. Now he just sits on the computer and plays games.

*thud* :) That's awesome!

ACtually one thing I noticed at my gym is that the guys - the ones who are really serious about working out - are in AWE of a woman who will lift weights. They think it's cool. I get more approving looks (and I'm not a skinny thing) and guys who make room for me and help me out when they see that I'm serious and not just playing around with "barbie" weights. It's really cool!

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It was the same way for me. The first 3 weeks or so I was hungry ALL THE TIME! But eventually after a couple of weeks your stomach does shrink and you do reach the point where you are hungry only when you should be eating.

I think this may be the case for me as well. When I was at my low weight, I don't remember EVER being this hungry! I hope it happens soon. I am regularly going over my calorie limit, but still eating less than I used to, for just over 2 weeks now, so hopefully soon!

We'll see. The thought makes me shudder. I'm a little chicken. lol.

I too am very short at 4'10" and I cannot eat more than 1200 calories and lose weight. My basal metabolic rate is 1290 which is what I would burn if I slept all day. Most days without exercise I can burn 1600 or so calories (I use a Sensewear armband that measures caloric burn - same devices that the contestants wear).

It is frustrating because the weight loss is soooo slooowww. I have to exercise at least an hour and a half a day and stick to 1200 calories to lose a 1/2 a pound a week (and that isn't guaranteed).

I eat some of the same things you do, and struggle with hunger which led me to eating no more than 300 calories at a meal with three snacks at 100 calories a piece.

I do track my calories on this same Sensewear website that tracks my caloric burn. Interestingly I am surprised that I eat pretty balanced meals - protein, fat, carbs, sodium, and fiber. I sometimes eat more carbs than I should.

Tough for us short girls.:cool:

Gradually get yourself up to 60oz a day. Honestly, it's a good thing to keep our systems filled with lots of water. And, I know it's difficult. I'm struggling with it myself, but we need to do it. Also, keeping your system hydrated with water helps your metabolism too.

Get some exercise dvds. You can get used ones pretty cheap too. I use the Biggest Loser workout dvds all the time and LOVE them. And, if you have Time Warner Cable, they have an exercise TV channel with all sorts of workouts.
And, the gym would be awesome, you just have to make sure you use it.
None of these changes are easy in the slightest, but once you get going on them, you will feel great.

I agree, I pay $45 plus tax, so it comes up to $47.something per month (I am in Canada).
I fortunate that the company I work recognizes the importance of a healthy lifestyle and we get $320 contribution per annum that can applied to our gym membership, Weight Watchers membership, etc.
But, even without the contribution, my gym is worth every penny - I just LOVE the place. We have terrific classes (everything included in the membership) plus this is the only truly hard core gym in town. I am really milking my membership for what it's worth - these days, I am at the gym 6x a week.

Sorry, I am going on a bit of a rant here - I really appreciate the fact that at the reception, there is always a huge bouquet of fresh flowers, and in the ladies change room there are two (at any time). I love smelling them every time I go there.

Rockinrobin and offmyffrany - I am a lot taller than you both, and I have always used to be terribly hungry. But all of a sudden, my body has somehow "settled" (or perhaps my stomach has) and not nearly as hungry as I used to be. Which is a good thing. I am not trying to convince anyone that not counting calories is the way to go - we each have to find our own way, our own method. I am just too lazy to keep entering everything into the DailyPlate, FitDay, or whatever the websites are. I am NOT lazy to exercise, though. :-)

I understand exactly what you're saying, Tomato. We must all find our own way. And of course, our bodies are all different and therefore require different "things".

For the record. I don't enter any of my foods into anywhere. I don't even write it down - anymore. It's all up there in my head. Once I learned the calorie counts of the things I eat and since I tend to repeat the same things over and over and over again, it's kinda easy to keep track. Breakfast has so and so many calories, lunch X amount, dinner, snacks and so on. And I am not extremely anal about it. I round up my apple to 100 cals. Sometimes it's 120, other times it'll be 80, depending on the size. Although I alwasy look for the smallest one. A salad - I estimate it around 200, although it may have been 220 or 180. It all evens out apparently, as I've lost the weight this way and now kept it off.