I lost weight eating?

"The link sounds super scary. according to where the poster sends me, if I eat under 2200 calories a day i'll be losing weight. are you kidding me? I gain weight at 2000 calories have you ever tried his method personally? if so, did you find that it worked?"


I gained weight eating too much and not exercising enough. Simple, like almost everyone.
I kept weight on by eating too little, and exercising too much.

My stats-
18-year-old girl
TDEE: 2600 ish
BMR: 1500 ish
Height: 5'6"
SW: 157
CW: 152 (25-26% bodyfat)
GW: 135 (18-19% bodyfat)

Let me tell you my story:
1 year ago I weighed 140, I was OK with that, would have liked less though.
Come the end of swim season (workout 11-14 hours a week on average, 4h dryland, rest swimming), I kept up my eating habits over a break when I only did crew (7-8h per week, jsut dryland first two weeks). I gained almost 10 lbs. in a short amount of time. Then I was in crew season (7-8 hours a week, more rest during workouts, and I swam 5-6h and dryland 1.5h). I was swimming, but since I was already tired from getting up early for crew, I was not working nearly as hard. I started eating 1500 ish calories to lose the weight I had gained. About a 100 calorie deficit, which means I should have lost 2 lbs a week, right? NO, I was close to my goal weight, and I lost a few pounds, but then I packed them and a few more back, no change in diet or exercise. By then I was 154, only a short 2 months after I was 140. Very disheartening.
I worked all summer as a swim lesson teacher, and did my own running, dryland and swimming workouts. TDEE around 2300 I would guess. I was still eating 1500 calories a day, and not losing. I stayed 154-156 all summer!
August came, and I went to a camp. I ran every morning for about 20 minutes, nothing compared to the workout my body was used to, TDEE maybe 1800, and I ate lots! I gained 2 pounds in 10 days, I was 157-158
Then I went on a 10 day vacation. I walked hours, ran barely at all, ate about 1300-1400, and lost those 2-3 pounds, Here we are at 155-156 again.
Swim season started, and I ate 1300-1400 calories from September 10th until Dec. 20th, minus Thanksgiving of course. I was doing my swim season workouts again (11-14 hours a week) and did not lose an ounce. I was frustrated beyond belief, and I wasn't hungry, although I occasionally gave into cravings (not hunger) and binged on sweets.
Come Christmas, swimming went down to 7-8 hours a week, eating went up to 1600-1700 at least. And by January 5th ish, I was down to 152 lbs. Imagine my surprise I was ecstatic! I threw myself into dieting again (1300-1400, 11-14h per week exercise), and lost a few more pounds. Christmas was like a reset, but I didn't know about them at the time.
Then I discovered IPOARM (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12) and the EM2WL group (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/3834-eat-more-to-weigh-less). I read IPOARM and all the Eat More To Weigh Less stickies. I figured out my TDEE and BMR, and I decided I had been doing a VLCD (very low calorie diet), for too long, and I needed to do a metabolism reset.
I started that on January 23rd, 2013. And became hungry again really quickly after starting to eat more.
I am now nearing the end of 5 weeks eating near/at my TDEE, and have eaten about 30000 more calories (8.57 pounds worth) than I would have on my old diet. I weighed in at 153.4 this morning, and it's my TOM, which adds at least 1-2 pounds for me, so consider that 152. I weigh only 2-3 pounds more than I did on January 22nd, and I have eaten 8.5 pounds more worth of food (I should weigh almost 159). I have eased back slightly on exercise as well. Most of that gain happened in the first two weeks, and I have been relatively steady since then, and there is also a lot of evidence pointing towards those couple pounds being water weight.
My metabolism is back near where it should be, and I am more energetic, sleeping better, not tired all the time, my workouts are better quality, and I am oh-so-much happier than I was.
I will be starting a deficit this Friday, March 1st, about 6 weeks after I started my reset. I will only do an 18% deficit, and should lose about a pound a week. Slower weight loss than I would like, but it will be sustainable. After I get down to about 140-142 I will only do a 10-15% deficit, and lose even slower, to keep it going. I will also take 'diet breaks' where I will eat at TDEE to keep my metabolism going.
The best part about this all? When I finish my weight loss, I will slowly work up to my TDEE (will be lower as I will be smaller) and eat there for forever and ever. With my current exercise, that will mean eating 2500 ish calories a day, if I change my routine, I will find my new TDEE by estimating with a calculator (recommend http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/), and eat at that to maintain weight.

I am now armed to be healthier my entire adult life, and have IPOARM and EM2WL to thank for it.


I'll add this to my lengthy letter: I also adjusted my macronutrients and am now eating less carbs and a lot more protein than before, to help preserve lean body mass while losing fat. Even weighing a bit more, my clothes fit a bit better

If I haven't convinced you, look at EM2WL, read the stickies, read the success stories, read about other people (including myself) freaking out that they will gain tons of weight and not be able to lose it. I won't lie, there are some people it doesn't seem to have worked for, but most of them did not stick with it long enough, or were not at a VLCD for a while, or not big on exercise (most EM2WLers lift).

Finally, my last sales pitch (no, you will not pay a dime):
Do you like eating as you are now?
Wouldn't you rather eat more now even if you maintained and didn't lose the weight?
Isn't it worth it to give it a try, as everything else is seemingly not working?
Don't you want a sustainable lifestyle, where you won't just jump up 10 pounds shortly after reaching your goal weight?

ETA: I wrote a freaken essay, sorry about that!