_evokes's Journal, 29 July 2022

congrats 👏 you earned it 👏  

⭐️🎉⭐️ 

Congratulations, awesome job! You inspire me to get back on the wagon. 

A big congrats on achieving your weight goal. You are a shining example that goal is achievable. 

Awesome!!! :-) 

Congratulations! That must be a tremendous feeling! 

Woot Woot!! Congratulations!!  

So awesome! 

Congratulations! Needing a boost from success story- may I ask how many calories you eat daily? I'm 5'8 and really struggling to figure out what my intake should be in order to maintain a deficit. I was losing weight slowly at 1400 calories and recently dropped down to 1200. I feel like it's reversing my progress, so maybe not enough? or is this still too much? 

Congratulations 🎉 - Well done 👍 

Well done, press on💯‼️🤙🏽 

Congratulations!!!! SO MUCH CONGRATULATIONS!!!! And thank you for the well wishes! In the end, that is all we want for each other - best wishes for a successful journey (whatever that met look like for each individual) 💪 💯 🌎 🫶 

Congratulations!!!!  

Congratulations! Well done! 

Congratulations 👏👏👏. Keep inspiring. 

Thank you, everyone!! ❤️❤️❤️ 

Aprilshowers35 I plan to write out a full road map all about that on my blog soon, I’ll share it with you when I do. But in the meantime: I try to maintain a very strict calorie deficit Monday-Wednesday, about 800-1000 calories, usually in the 900s. Thursday is usually 1000 also. Weekends end up 1200-1500 or more, especially during the summer since there are so many social occasions. I also exercise almost daily though on top of it whenever possible. 10-20 min cardio, 20+ min weight lifting. 20-30 min walk too if time permits. I recognize that a lot of people would think my calorie deficit is too extreme though. I suggest looking at 2-3 online BMR calculators and enter your personal data to get an accurate recommendation that is right for your height, weight, age, etc. According to those, I personally burn 1200 calories daily at a sedentary rate (so not counting exercise and physical activity), so that is what I use as my baseline. 

You crushed your goal, and that is fantastic!! You mentioned that your current plant is to focus on body composition - what's your plan of attack? Muscle will help you maintain your loss long term, so at this point it's critical. Recomp will require a caloric surplus, but a very minor one (I call it a "clean" recomp), which at your current calorie intake may require some level of reverse dieting. I'm not meaning to be critical - on the contrary, you have worked so hard, and accomplished something incredible! I just want to convey that recomp and maintanence are a completely different beast, and difficult in their own right. If I had known anything about reverse dieting when I weighed 120 lbs., I would probably still weigh around 120 lbs. I want to see you succeed! This is just more info to consider. 

are1981 I don’t interpret you as being critical at all, this is exactly the kind of advice I need. I wouldn’t mind losing 5 more lbs but I definitely want to replace fat with muscle regardless of the number on the scale. Any resources or tips you want to share are much appreciated. As of right now I have no idea how to approach recomp or maintenance and while I’m excited to be at a healthier weight I am definitely apprehensive about this next phase. 

Well done, and tomorrow you will maintain!