Avoiding plateau?

krosetoth

I'm overloading on information and am at the point where I can't differentiate between diet culture BS and actual legitimate health advice.

I don't have a firm amount in mind to lose, but I'm guessing it's around 40 pounds. The MFP calorie goal calculator set me at 1200 calories per day, which I've done for 2 weeks without problem and believe I have been losing weight (but don't have a scale, so...). Anyway, the more I'm reading about healthy dieting, the more I'm seeing that 1200 is too low to maintain for too long, that you'll reach a plateau and then find it impossible to continue to lose because you can't decrease your calories further than 1200.

I am wondering if I should be eating more for now and then decreasing later if needed? Increasing for a short time if I hit a plateau to "reset" my metabolism and then decrease again? I am really trying to avoid my inevitable loss of motivation if I start gaining weight back or don't lose for many weeks in a row.

Any advice from a more rational side of the internet?

sijomial

Step back a second from the idea that "MFP set me at 1200cals" - it really doesn't.

In reality it calculates your approximate weight maintence calories for a day with no purposeful exercise and then you tell it how fast you want to lose weight.
And that choice by you has big consequences for your calorie goal. Pick a fast rate of loss and you get to eat a tiny amount of food.
There are other choices but not with such a dramatic impact. Remember it's a tool you control and dieting decisions are still yours.

Now that low allowance could be appropriate for a while if you have 40lbs to lose but it is very much a choice trading getting a small calorie allowance versus speed. To me the two really important things here are:
1/ Getting to a healthy goal weight. The speed of getting there I don't really see as important enough to risk failure by making the process too hard to adhere to.
2/ Maintaining long term in your healthy weight range. You will notice an awful lot of people who get very good as losing weight but let it all come back again. Serious thought is required and it's never too early for that.

"impossible to continue to lose" - that would only be true if 1200 calories was your future weight maintenance level and that's highly unlikely. If you are in a genuine and sustained energy deficit you have to make it up from your body's energy reserves (primarily fat).

It's good you are thinking ahead, include in that thinking process how to make something difficult as easy as possible and also creating a strategy for when motivation is waning.

krosetoth

Thank you so much, @sijomial ! I really appreciate the thoughtful response. I also appreciate the straightforward explanation, this is where I was getting really loaded down with the internet at large. I agree with you that I am not interested in putting my long-term maintenance at risk just so I can reach initial weight loss goals quicker. I am currently planning to maintain this 1200 level for a month total, and then increasing a bit (but not drastically). Knowing myself and how I've done with "healthy eating" plans in the past, I think if I allow myself a little increase in calories when I'm losing steam, that might do wonders for my adherence. Thanks again!

sijomial

Sounds like a good plan for you.
It is nice to see a quick initial loss as a motivator and when your weight loss slows you can keep it in mind that even if this week's loss is smaller overall you will have made significant progress. That sense of of a longer perspective really helps to get over short term blips.
Good luck.