BrandyRelaxing's Journal, 05 August 2011

Yes Brandy but, nothing tastes as nice as being slim and healthy!!! 

And being able to chase those little babies around with ease! 

You can totally change your BMR by increasing the amount of muscle you have - athletes often consume considerable calories and never get fat "An athlete, however, can easily consume at least 3,000 to 4,000 a day; sometimes it can be quite a bit more. Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps, for example, is known to consume 12,000 calories a day." Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/311097-how-many-calories-should-an-athlete-have-a-day/#ixzz1UCn5mLGH now I am not saying that you'd ever eat that much - but.... increase your muscle mass and you increase how many calories you need just to stay alive!!  

Krystyne is right, building muscle can have a huge impact on what you'll be able to eat at 200 lbs. I've thought about this too, & honestly I think that in maintenance I'll probably eat pretty much the same as I do now most of the time, whether I'm still low-carbing it or just counting calories, but I'll be able to indulge 2 or 3 days a week instead of just 1. When I think about it, I'm not plagued with cravings every day of the week with the way I eat now & I'll still be trying to improve my fitness even if I'm done losing weight. In fact, I'll probably make great strides in the strength training area, since muscle growth is much faster when you're not in a calorie deficit. I guess I don't dread getting to my goal weight because I now know how to offset excess calories. If I want to eat more, I can exercise more. If I don't want to exercise more, then I'll get used to eating less & try to eat foods that are very satisfying. Not that big a deal. And honestly I think at 200 lbs, you'd only want to eat 1600 calories if you were still trying to lose. Personally I don't plan to keep trying to lose weight after that point. If it happens it'll be unintentional. 

Yah... I guess I was just hoping it would be around 2,000 calories so I didn't have to exercise EVERY day to eat what I want. Around 2,000 calories I can eat whatever I want in moderation. But I guess I've never really ate what a "normal" person eats, so I'll definitely have to wait until I get there. I think ultimately, since I'm only 5'5", I probably should have a happy body weight somewhere around 180, although, secretly, I'd love to be 169, and be able to say I have lost half my weight... but that's just way to far in the future. Anyways... it's a concern for a year in the future and I'm sure I'll have figured it out long before then! LOL 

Probably jumping the gun just a BIT dear lol. For all you know your maintenance calories at 200 lbs may very well end up being 2,000, in which case you will have done all this wondering for nothing. ;) 

You will probably find you can maintain at quite a high level, you will feel completely different at that stage about how you want to keep at the weight you are happy with. So much easier to deal with then, exercise will be easier then as well. krystynecar & kstubblefield have both put it very well.  

lol ... Kat... "wondering" = "worrying" ... I know!! :) 

Great comments. Thanks everyone, and thanks, Brandy, for the post.  

Ouch. On the other hand, there are workarounds like increasing the high-water foods you eat -- cucumbers, tomatoes, squashes and so on -- so you get the feeling of fullness without the calories. 

That is true... I guess I should just try lowering my calories over the next little while and see how it goes - see if it works for me. Not that it changes my goal, it just might change how I approach it!