My 28 day experiment was a success!

gatorginger

I don't exercise much either and I have had success losing weight just watching my calories. I however started out at 1000 a day since I was not used to eating 3 meals a day. I lost weight very easily and reach my goal weight. I have been upping my calories because I don't want to lose anymore and I do want to be able to eat more though. I found what worked for me was to take it slow so I would increase my calories by 100 more a day going from 1000 to 1100 and stay at that level for 2 weeks and every time I increase my calories I would lose more weight. I finally got upt o 1500 and stayed at that level for about 2 months and then all of a sudden I started losing again so I am now eating 1700 a day. I have had cheat days in between. I have actually had to eat to gain since I don't want to lose any more. I feel what has helped me was allowing my body to adjust for a period of time at each calorie level. Patience is the key and testing it out as you go to see what works. To me taking it slow was better because it gave me many cheat days lol

gatorginger

My Journey
2/27/12 started with myfitnesspal at 146 pounds eating 1000 calories a day

5/25/12 weighing in at 128.8 increased my calories to 1100 a day

6/8/12 weighing in at 126.4 increased my calories to 1200 a day

7/6/12 weighing in at 124.8 increased my calories to 1300 a day

7/20/12 weighing in at 124.6 increased my calories to 1400 a day

8/3/12 weighing in at 124.4 increased my calories to 1500 a day

10/10/12 weighing in at 124.3 increased my calories to 1700 a day

eknobbe

BUMP! SO INTERESTING!! BTW GREAT JOB!!

tracypk

This makes sense I have been considering this same thing. I like to run but I didn't want to make it something I HAD to do. I want to run when I want to run, not because it's a matter of losing weight or not. I'm going to do the numbers and see if it will work for me too. Thank you for sharing.

hbm616

Congrats on your success!

kaylanlynnNW

Your post made me change my settings. I had been pretty bumbed because I kept going over the 1200 calorie and 2 lb a week goal I had set for myself. Your post made me go back and be more realistic. I now have a 1 lb a week goal with 1550 calories. That being said if i stay within this goal its a win and if I with exercise exceed this goal then it will still be a win.

Aries03

Bump

missytrishy

Another thing is that restricting your calories to 1200/day and exercising 2 hours a day is not realistic and therefore almost impossible to do long term (ie: the rest of your life). What I have realized this time is that the slower you go the more likely you are to stick with it for the long term :laugh:

missytrishy

Your post made me change my settings. I had been pretty bumbed because I kept going over the 1200 calorie and 2 lb a week goal I had set for myself. Your post made me go back and be more realistic. I now have a 1 lb a week goal with 1550 calories. That being said if i stay within this goal its a win and if I with exercise exceed this goal then it will still be a win.

Thats what I am set as too and it has been very simple to stick too and I am rarely actually hungry

SoDamnHungry

Nice work.

Shaz_74

Congrats and thank you for posting!

JennKie1

I changed my calories a few days ago too. I was at a complete stand-still at 1200 calories a day and working out 6 days a week. I'm hoping it makes a difference for me too! Congratulations on getting it all figured out. I've got some "experimenting" to do.

_danjo_

That's awesome!

My weight, goals, and calorie calculations are almost identical to yours and I've been toying with the idea of bumping my daily calorie goal to 1700 (instead of 1400) and not worrying so much about exercise calories. I've seen it work here time and again but have been hesitant....I think now I'm gonna go for it! Thanks for being the tipping point. :happy:

Gerald_King

Cool well done

FITnFIRM4LIFE

iNTERESTING, Good 4 you! I agree starving is not the way...I do not do much cardio, But love to lift. Interesting read.
Congrats:-)

tabi26

Thanks everyone for the wonderful encouragement! You all rock! I've found what works for me, and I can't even beging to describe how happy that makes me!

If its not working, change it!

Good luck everyone!

annric08

This is so interesting - I've been doing a 2 week boot camp (1 hour interval / weight training each morning) on only 1200 calories / day (100 less than the minimum my trainer suggested) and felt as though not much is happening although I haven't weighed in since I started... this week I started jogging / fast walking for 45 minutes after the boot camp sessions to try and push the fat loss but in actual fact I think I'm probably undereating and that's hampering my progress.

2 days this week I went down to 900 kcal thinking it might push me through the 'plateaux'. I think now I need to feed myself a bit more to really see the most benefit from this.

Thanks for the reality check!!