rosio19's Journal, 24 June 2018

This is one of the main reasons I’m ‘off my diet’. 1200 is too hard. I’m slowly working back up but will stop about 1500 which is around my maintenance. After I see what I lose with the trainer I can go up or down depending on her advice and how I feel. I told a friend yesterday how I was eating and she was amazed I’ve continued it for 14 weeks(2 more just cutting portions before dropping and logging calories). After a year of trying all sorts of things and still gaining. I have a feeling I crashed my metabolism :/. 

@peeperjj what you’re describing essentially is, Metabolic adaptation, which basically is adaptive thermogenesis, happens after a period of time when you’ve lost a certain amount of weight in a certain amount of time where your body basically goes “I don’t need to use up X amount of calories (energy amount) anymore due to less body mass so I’m going to reduce X amount in order to keep this smaller body alive!!” Your body doesn’t know (or give a crap) between you wanting to lose fat to look good or lose fat to survive. Which it only cares about, surviving, so one reason (among far to many to list here which also have to do with being an deficit for extended period of time) ahem is, the new “smaller you” doesn’t need as much of an intake of calories, as it once did, so it’s not that your metabolism is “broken” it’s just that, it’s not doing the same stuff it was when you began dieting at X weight... So if you realize you’re gaining weight, then you will have to reduce your caloric intake further, the manner in how is up to your choice. & that’ll help sort out the problem once you play around with the intake levels either higher or lower ranges, depending on how you’re progressing. 

I'm confused - @Rosio19 - wouldn't it depend on where you're starting from? I've been losing pretty much daily since the start of June. I've read enough posts here to know I'll likely plateau at some point, and that I should recalculate my macros at that point. I do notice the days I'm under my caloric allowance of 1463, I lose more - which I think is great. I'm not starving on those days, I'm just satisfied with less. Trying to figure out if this is harmful or unhealthy... Can someone recommend some reading or online viewing to help me sort this out ? I truly am on a mission to lose weight but more importantly want to do it in a healthy manner - otherwise what's the point. Thank you in advance - I really do appreciate having a community of people who are helpful and much more in-the-know than I am.  

Such a great post and wise words here form the FS Jedii. I'm in plateau hell at the moment. But actually fearing a calorie increase in case I get used to it after conditioning myself to have a deficit . But I am always satisfied and not feeling hungry. So its a terrible quandary. I'm aiming for more intensity and work outs and completing a greater H2O intake ... but I read with interest how others got on. I'm on 35000/38000 deficit for about 4 months now and hovering around 6lbs loss which is astounding, I mean it should be 10lbs per month. Terribly hard to stick with it when there are no results forth coming. To thenester ... good for you you are continually losing you obviously have hit a sweet spot... for me around each 10/12lb drop there appears to be a stall. Now I'm down around 25lbs and on the lower side of normal BMI it seems there's a particularly sticky plateau I can't seem to knock. But I'm going to keep at it. I'm assuming that with me lifting more weights, that has something to do with it. I find keeping a measure of your vitals can help with motivation if the scales aren't moving. Rosio great poster!! 

Pepperjj i heard severe caloric deficit diets n other extreme diets crash metabolism  

Thenester, the bad is this, when u do hit a plateau u will have to eat less calories n than less n than less. Ok n when u want to go to maintenance ur maintenance will only be a few hundred calories more of that... for intance me ...my maintenance is around 1900, but the lowest amount of calories I have eaten in a day is 1500, to be honest I lost most of my weight on 1600 (my info is all on this app). so when I upped my calories to 1900 it was very easy for me to maintain  

Now let say someone starts a diet at 1200, they hit a plateau n 1000 a day, another plateau n 800 😳 n so on. than when they go to find their maintenance calorie intake number, their body would have adapted to such a low amount of calories so their maintenance is only a few hundred calories more...( let’s just pretend n say ) like 1400 😵 Its like They will be on a severe calorie deficit throughout their life now (cause its a lifestyle) 😢🙁  

Bandrai thank you  

A calorie deficit should take into acount height, sex, n activity level. I would always choose the sedentary option, when looking around for my deficit num. n all 2/3 sites I looked at suggested 1600 calories a day. I don’t understand how people are surviving with 1200 calories a day 😥 

Rosio - you are spot on with this - this is a marathon and slow steady gains (1 to 2 ppunds a week loss) is the safest and the most ideal. The slow rate of loss makes it sustainable as well as a lifestyle change. Besides I like working the weights now so I say no to any muscle loss - Have a great week 

Yes with weights I can eat more if I want to increase muscle, one of this days 😏🙌🏼 For the winter bulk 💪🏼 

right now I’m in the summer cut 😏 

@chris actually I do need the weight off soon. I have my last(hopefully) fat grafting coming up. I’m to lose any weight before that or anything I lose after will come away from the fat grafting too. Something about insurance not wanting me to wait much longer to finish up or I’d put it off for a year as I planned to do at the beginning of this year. Have 20# to lose before the school year starts again. 10# minimum, 30 ideal but not realistic lol. He said to account for a 10# gain as I came back to maintenance diet and any muscle and fluid gain. 110-120 is where my oncologist wants me, surgeon wants me 120-130 and I just want my closet full of clothes to fit! Lol  

@deadpool the lady at the YMCA said it sounded like my body had adapted to my calorie intake and exercise. I could 1) cut more calories but my surgeon wants me on 1500+ and oncologist 1200+ when I asked them or 2) slowly work back up to 1500, add a bit more exercise and when my body adapts again then drop back to 1200. But not for so long. I didn’t think 16 weeks was that long honestly. Nobody knows what to tell me for sure as before chemo my body was like clockwork lol. Now that stuff doesn’t work. @ rosio 1200 is hard! If I had this community before I started I would’ve known to drop to 1800 then 1500 then 1200 as I reached plateaus instead of 1200 immediately. I was eating 1800-2200 a day before and gained 10# in 7 months. I think 1800 would’ve been my maintenance with no added exercise.  

I agree! this is why I love FatSecret. It told me I needed to eat 1900 calories! The other sites tell me I needed 1300. 

The key is to eat nutritious foods, not use the extra calorie "allowance" to eat unhealthy foods. 

@chris lol yes I need both arms. Recurrence is a threat that my onc is worried about so pushing for 110-120. My surgeon wants to rush surgery in case I need another next spring before he starts having problems with insurance. His assistant said 130 would be fine before the next surgery if I couldn’t get to 120. We will schedule surgery at the end of July. So probably end of August. I pushed it back a month because of family issues (secretly because of weight loss too lol, but family issues is a valid reason to them while weight loss is something I should be able to force). The trainer assured me we would work with weights and she would help me figure out where I needed to be on that to build muscle as fast as I can without hurting myself. She couldn’t believe I was on 1200 calories and said I couldn’t be that low while building muscle. Need maintenance calories plus 200-300 more on workout days with high protein. I AM impatient though. I don’t like people upset with me or disappointed and they will be when I go back to my appointments:/. I think we will go over nutrition as well with the trainer. Probably tomorrow.  

Oh and I should point out that my surgeon wants 5# or less then 20# or less starting next week for weights. They both prefer ‘walk walk and take another walk’ each day over any diet, strength training, bike etc. But they’d rather see diet after walking. One told me once that I should aim for 3-6 hours a day walking. With 3 kids.. who can’t keep up at 3.5mph.. when I have hours every day running them to practices, summer weight training, volunteer long and so much more. They aren’t happy (family) that I’m taking 4 hours a week for myself at the gym with a trainer but I need to do it for my health. So I plan to work my rear off those 4 hours lol.  

Honestly I was so lucky I stumble upon knowledgeable people n I try to post some of the things that have helped me on this site to help others. 

U do u, u will never regret working on urself