Päiväkirja - Agnes Z, 27 marras 23

No … 1200 is too little calories if you’re being active 

My activity level is pretty light. Now it is mainly 3-4 long (1 hr+) walks a week (90% brisk walk, 10% a jog). My work is pretty sedentary and there is some light housework and cooking everyday. 

Try it for another week if you didn't gain. I have to be between 1000-1200 to lose weight. Very little activity right now because of knee pain. 

Thanks, Fritzy. I'm thinking now I'll go for 1500 daily cal for a week and see what happens. A bit nervous to go up to 1600 too fast. I've been thinking of 1600 cal as more of the maintenance level and I still have a way to go. Is your knee pain subsiding somewhat? Hope you can do more soon! 

Agnes, I'm also thinking 1400-1600 calories may be maintenance for me but I have a long way to go. Knee pain isn't improving. I just whined about it in another journal entry! 

No, it's worth a try. I move my intake up and down as needed. You can always go back... 

Good job on the calories!! 

You might be able to lose at 1600 calories....it will just take longer. 1400-1500 sounds like a good goal to aim for. 

Same here. I allotted myself 1800 (maintenance level) for the week, but I didn't eat 1700 a single day. I lost .8lb, so I'm really happy. I dialed back to 1500 today, but I really rarely eat more than 1400 and change.  

I wonder if you gained some muscle, that’s probably why you still lost weight even w a caloric increase?  

I expected to weigh so much more after Thanksgiving. My whole life it’s been so easy for me to gain and so hard for me to lose. Weight loss helps us so much with our metabolism, your metabolic state now is probably completely different from when you first started trying. I just joined this app so I don’t really have it on here but I’ve lost over 50 lbs since June and I got on the scale today repeating to myself to expect to have gained 10 lbs after 4 days of no extra exercise and eating however I wanted on several different meals throughout the weekend and I didn’t gain a single lb. This won’t be the same for everybody but that could be the case for you as well!! Keep up the good work! 

To get some insight into what 1600 versus 1400 cal would mean for the rate of weight loss, I went to the Body Weight Planner at the NIH site (at niddk.nih.gov/bwp). You have to take these calculators with a grain of salt but it told me that I’ll achieve my goal weight of 150 lbs in 120 days if I stick to 1400 cal a day versus 200 days if I eat 1600. Way too long for both, but does give me an idea. (And a reminder to be patient!) 

John10251, how do you decide when to increase your intake? With the decreases, it’s easy (the scale is going up), but it’s trickier with the increases. Do you just do it until no weight loss, and then go back down? It’s hard because the scale already has a “noisy” signal with the normal fluctuations of +/- 2 lbs. 

Thanks, Morticia! I’m glad you survived Thanksgiving! (I saw your post on how sick you were). Did you get your sense of smell back? 

I agree SherryeB! I have to consider if I want to go slower and right now the answer is no. 

Hi, Gigi! I follow your weight loss journey and your posts closely because I have a similar trajectory and goal. I want to ask you about creatine—did you find it worth doing? I’m curious about it. 

Valeskal and GettingFit, I also wonder what’s going on with muscles and metabolism as we lose weight. There are so many warnings that they get worse with weight loss (I.e. you lose some), but it must be more complicated. I move more as a thinner person because I have more energy. As for metabolism, I wonder if I was upping it last week by walking outside a lot in a relatively chilly temps here. I was shivering a bit, and kept warm by interspersing my walking with bouts of jogging. This must have revved something up😀 

Hi, Agnes! I do think the creatine helped my workout performance. But the main reason I decided to invest is due to the mental improvements, especially in middle age. Definitely do some research. I watch a YouTube channel called Gravity Transformation. I find his content very well researched and applicable to my journey. His main focus is serious bodybuilders, but he has tons of content tailored to people in all stages of their fitness journey. Best of luck to you! I look forward to celebrating our mutual success!  

Not gonna lie. It was horrifying watching that scale move up nearly 5 lbs in 2 weeks. 😱 It stabilized within a month, but after 8 months of solid losses, that was scary even knowing to expect it. 

Holy smokes, Agnes! I just realized how much weight you've lost! YOU ARE KILLING IT!!! GREAT JOB!!! 👏