raisinet's Journal, 09 March 2021

I’m about 1500 everyday. However, I find if I don’t exercise every morning the scale stays the same at the end of the week.There are days , many days I force myself to go for a walk, run or workout. It’s hard when you don’t feel supported . I’m lucky with a great family. Maybe a Facebook group? 

I was doing 1200 calories a day, a couple of years ago and lost the weight but it was not sustainable. I was hungry all the time and gained the weight back. This go around I’m trying 1450 instead. 

I am around that 1200 mark and it’s coming off slowly. I work out 5 times per week but am also very active. I live on a homestead so always have something to do. I feel like 1500 is going to be around where I’ll be to maintain the loss. Also I am in my early 50’s so don’t get too down, just keep swimming 🐠 

I had macros calculated by someone else during a 30 day challenge and it came out to 1350 to be losing weight aggressively. I am in my 40s and about 140! Pounds. 1200 is quire low. Also - you don’t Have to hit exactly the same number each day - it’s good yo have a range of 1200 -1500 let’s say and on days you do a lot of extra movement you might be closer to 1500 and other days closer to 1200 or 1300.  

weight training will boost your metabolismin the long run- bigger muscles means you have to spend more energy to keep them! 

work out. 

Thanks for the input guys! I think I will try to increase it a little and see how it goes. I’m quite diligent to get activity every day (love my Apple Watch!) but I don’t do weight training- which I know I should.. I appreciate the advice. 

Hi Raisinet. I am a little older than you but started my (most recent) weight loss in January at 149.6. My career was in Health Promotion so I (should!) know all there is to know about maintaining a healthy weight. But knowing and doing are two different things. This time I seem to be moving closer to my target than I have been in the past number of years. I believe that a couple things have helped me so far: 1. I have a goal date - my 70th birthday in August 2. I follow a low carb diet and have been working to balance my macronutrients. I have tried low carb (Atkins) in the past but it has never really worked for me. Too restrictive. But I discovered their Meal Plans with daily menus and recipes and that has helped me immensely. I still measure everything until I get used to proper serving amounts. I can't stress enough the importance of serving size for me. 3. My background in health had me convinced I shouldn't go below 1200 calories a day. Well I did and it worked. 1000-1200 calories kick started my weight loss and I have been gradually moving up to 1250 a day. 4. I walk at least 30 minutes most every day. This week I will start resistance training with hand weights and exercises using body weight. It's frustrating that as we age, our metabolisms change and it's more difficult to lose weight. It is a slower process but I have found this time around that initially when I started in January I lost 2-3 pounds a week for the first couple weeks then I slowed down. That's okay! I am at a rate of 1-1.5 pounds a week now with some weeks better than others. We are all different and we each need to find what works for us. I wish you the best of success and I will be supporting you all the way!!  

hello Raisinet, If you are willing to try something different, I find that some principles of the Montignac method are easy to apply and work for me. The whole program was difficult to apply at friend's and restaurants'. Here are the main principles - If you are going to "cheat", do it 2-3 hours away from a meal - start "heavy" meals with greens - don't mix fat, fatty protein with carbohydrate -eat carbohydrate mainly with veggies - avoid cooked roots ( carrot, potatoes..) These are the the principles I started to use again most of the time to guide my choice. But a sweet potatoes shepherd's pie now and then why not (less damaging with a bit of greens before) take care  

I forgot to say that I am 56 and am waiting for two hip surgery, I am walking with a walker inside and outside (15-30 min at the vigorous speed of 20 steps/minute 🌞... yep very very slow) I believe in the nice and steady turtle wins the race.  

I’m 48 and in the last couple years I’ve really noticed a change in weight fluctuates up and down 5-10 lbs .. I found that it’s the little things that hurt the most like hidden carbs in drinks etc I’ve zero luck unless I stick to low carb high protein and 1200 calories or less a day 

I'm trying to keep my carbs under 20 but usually end up still under 25 weight is coming off slowly lost 8 lbs in a month i can't seem to get my calories over 1000 per day... 

Me too I'm also fat 

It is far better to introduce intermittent fasting (preferably as part of a low carb eating plan) than to restrict calories eaten per day. Just restricting calories while still being in an insulin dominant mode will just result in lowering your basic metabolic rate. You’ll end up in a downward cycle where it becomes more and more difficult to lose weight and you’ll be training your system to survive on less and less. Teaching your body to be metabolically flexible and to be able to create energy from fat burning and ketone production takes time. An excellent book that explains the basic physiology of energy production is The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung. Once you fully understand the mechanisms of metabolism then you can make healthy choices. It’s not as simple as calories in, calories out. 

By eating so few calories your metabolism slows down as a result. Your body doesn't know your on a diet or trying to lose weight so it will fight tooth and nail to keep you at the weight your at thinking your in a period of starvation. Gradually drop your calorie limit, don't just jump down. To lose weight it may seem counterintuitive, but you want to eat more. Eat how much your dietician is telling you too. 1500 should be the minimum for you. 1200 calories a day is recommended for a toddler. 

Omg....I set up a goal for 900 /day and I eat only 500-600. the scale shows results, but not sure about my body after few weeks.  

I started on 1st of Jan with 1200 cal a day, after 4 weeks on this I lost 16.9 lb. Then after 6 weeks I lost 20 lb all together, then one week later I lost 1lb which is all together 21lb, then my body was kind of confused so I couldn’t loss more. I had to increase to 1400 cal a day plus working out 3 days a week. So far I lost 30 lb 9 weeks since I started 

I'm 53 and using this app tells me 1700 cal a day with low exercise. I've lost 15 lbs since new years. it's really slow but safest way to do it. going under 1000 calories is really going to confuse your body. your sugars need to be level for consistent weight loss. going that low will put your body I starvation mode and will hold on to calories. I'm an expert on yoyo dieting lol done I must of my adult life and I find using the macros on this app really helps  

I was at a 1500 cal diet and lost 36 pounds since Jan don’t be so hard on your self have a cheat meal on a sat night something to look forward to. Not sure how much you exercise but at least 20 to 30 min a day to get the heart pumping and what works don’t drink water 15 min before and 15 min after you eat that helps with digestion because the carbs will hold on to the water and make it more difficult to process and make you feel bloated 

I’m on 1500 calories too. I’m 45. I’ve lost 12 pounds since December. I only want to loose another 3 pounds. It’s been slow for me. I’ve tried to be very creative. Finding foods that are very low in calories but the main thing is exercise. I don’t exercise a lot but I walk about 4 times a week for about 30 minutes and it helps.