Calorie Intake

estruchd

I have always been a firm believer you are what you eat… what you put in your body, shows it out… meaning eat healthy life style it shows… bare minimum going in and you won’t be so big… However so I am stagnant for months on my weight… I have lost over 120 pounds, I am active working out 5 days a week 2 hours in the gym… switched to more strengthening exercise then cardo, trying to tone up my sagging skin and firm up my giggley wiggles fatty left over areas…. So now trying to monitor my food intake to make sure I am within 1500 calories daily… or to make sure I am eating more then enough to be at 1500 to try to get my metabolism to kick in… I need 40 more pounds and I am stagnant for 6 months… also, this is my first year in full menopause and trying to see where is it in my body that I am going wrong!!! Totally discouraged and trying to beat the emotional DONT give up pat on the back as I look at this damn chocolate mousse cake that my son brought home, in comparison to my oatmeal… so going back to basics of eating and watching my water intake!! I need 40 more pounds off…

My name is Donna… Any in-site on my dilemma? Or do I indulge in some chocolate mousse cake and say the hell with it?

Xellercin

I guess I am left wondering: how do you want to be eating once you reach your goal?

There is no "dieting" and "giving up." There's just the way you eat, day in and day out and how that shows up in terms of your body composition.

I get that you're frustrated, but try not to conceptualize anything as giving up or saying "to hell with it." There's nothing to give up on, there's just what you eat, day in and day out, for as long as you are alive.

Is that sometimes going to be chocolate mousse cake? Sure, if that works with your goals, then why not? By coincidence, I ate a bunch of chocolate mousse cake last night and I'm not at all worried about gaining weight.

Why? Because I've built a long-term healthy eating lifestyle that I enjoy, day in and day out with the occasional cake featured.

I don't know why your weight loss has stalled, and I don't have a magic solution for jump starting it. But if you've lost 120 pounds!!!! then you already know exactly how to lose weight.

Maybe your body just needs a rest, maybe it's in a healing phase. Which means now is the time to double down on caring for it as best as possible with high quality, nutritious foods, regular exercise and good sleep.

Maybe instead of focusing on how you want your body to be different than it is, start focusing on taking the best possible care of your body so that it can handle more weight loss and come out the other side as strong and vibrant as possible.

Weight loss is HARD on bodies. Now is not a time to be angry with yours, it's a time to be as nurturing and caring as possible. Because as hard as losing is, losing and regaining is even harder on it.

Now I'll actually give you some actionable tips, although you might not like them. Whenever I have felt like my metabolism is in the toilet, I put a total half to trying to lose weight.

I actually focus on adding as many calories as possible plus activity while being more active. There's usually a pretty decently big range of calorie intake that your body can handle and maintain your weight, and I push that to the absolute max and stay there until I can push it up a bit more.

I watch my average weight like a hawk, and I usually do gain a bit of weight along the way, but it's worth it to get my metabolism back up after beating it down with long periods of restriction.

Try not to think about where you want your body to be in a few months, try to think about where you want it to be next year, in 5 years, 10, 20.

What are the LOOOOOOONG term investments you need to make in order to live with the most optimal body you can achieve?

Lastly, you're right, you ARE what you eat. That's not a belief or an attitude, you very literally are made of what you eat. Your body got it's original materials from what your mom are, and it gets them now from what you eat every day.

So again I ask you what you want your daily eating to look like once you are at your goal weight? Start thinking in forever terms and start building that ideal lifestyle and relationship with eating.

Start coming at this from a place of careful, deliberate self care, because the healthier and stronger your body is, the easier it will be to obtain and maintain your optimal body for the rest of your life.

I can't give you tips on how to start losing more weight NOW, but I can give you advice for how to live in your best body for the rest of your life.