Slow and Steady, Low and High

csangobydesign

Hello all!

I started using MFP the same week I joined a gym which is fairly hardcore, in late June of this year. I feel that I have a bad bad decade to shed: that I spent 10 unhappy years building a moat of flesh around myself, with the real me hiding head down at the center. I feel like I'm giving birth to myself, which comes with birth pains, of course, which I embrace. I'm not sure why the time came to confront the past and the present: to step on the scales in June and take the slip of paper with 242 pounds on it amongst other mysterious numbers. Now it's September 21st, the start of fall, and I'm down ALMOST 25 pounds (how I wish my gym would round up--I don't own my own scale). I'm in that weird space between clothes sizes: not quite ready for a size lower but my current clothes look dumpy. I love my gym; I love the commitment; I love the days (usually) when I post on MFP and am under my calorie goal.

One point of confusion I'd love to hear others speak to. Being Math goofy, I'm not sure on heavy workout days what to do with the calorie counts on MFP. I enter the exercise and my allotted calories rise, but I'm afraid of going over (MFP suggests 1208 calories now for me to meet my goal, losing 100 pounds in a year). As long as I meet the 1200 calories on that day, I'm not yet in starvation mode, am I? I was a fierce follower of what MFP said until my trainer warned me that I should follow the recommended calories, including the additional cals on days I exercise (4x a week at gym). Have others struggled with this? And I'd also love to hear how people deal with weightloss plateaus: I broke through one but fear I'm at another since I didn't lose a pound this week and stuck to my calorie numbers with one exception one day. I'm a bit low about this: it's hard to see what I've done since I feel sI have so far to go.

That's my introductory outpouring. Thanks to anyone who reads and has a thought to share.