I've been up and down a bit as well lately, but I know why and was not concerned. As of this morning, I'm down to 224.4, my lowest weight in probably 10 years. Last week i was at 227, and the week before I was at 226. I was up last week, because I was retaining fluid due to a pretty hard week exercise-wise. That's pretty typical so I expected it. The cool thing is, my % body fat has dropped even faster than my weight, indicating I may be seeing some actual muscle gain.

That's one reason why, as I continue to lose, I'll be UPPING my calorie intake, instead of lowering it. To me, slow loss is perfectly fine, if I can keep or even gain some muscle mass. Based on my calculations, at one point, I had lost almost 7% of my muscle mass (when I was eating too little). Now that I'm eating more, I'm retaining my muscle mass and have even reversed the trend somewhat so that now I'm only down about 5% muscle mass overall. I'm hopeful that I can get that back over the next 6 months or so.

Enough on me... Kevin, personally, I really think you're eating too little. I'm only a little taller than you and I'm eating 2000 base calories before exercise. If you're concerned about a plateau, the best thing you could to is get your RMR tested so you KNOW how many calories you should be eating, instead of just guessing. I also highly recommend tracking your % body fat and % lean mass. The one thing I see all the time on here is people that are losing "weight", but a high percentage of that weight is muscle. I hope you agree, but that's the WRONG kind of weight to lose! The best way to avoid losing muscle mass is avoiding the large deficits and doing regular strength training.

Challenging week -- after a good drop last week, I wanted to double-down, and really cut down on the food and turned up the exercise - but at mid-week I was up! (Didn't record that). Hung in there, and ended up the week .8 down. Hopefully that was a blip of a plateau.

I *have* to get under 245 this month. Will be tough, but I am going to keep up the working out and eating clean. Heading to Hawaii next month and I want to down at least 25 by the time I go.

The weather is better so we all should be getting out and staying active. Let's really crank it up this month!

SW: 265
CW: 252
GW: 199

Great progress guys!

I have completed week 2 of my attempt to maintain. First week I increased intake and didn't work out as much and I hit the mark - zero gain. This second week I stretched it a bit farther. Went to Pittsburgh all day Friday. Had many beers, ate "normal" and went to Pens playoff game. Then we drove from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg for an all day Beer and gourmet food festival. Hit both pretty hard. I did work out twice each day as well as all this week. Was somewhat concerned with the weekly weigh in today, but..... Down a pound!

It is great to see the drop in size with clothes (like Kevin). I just went through all my old stuff and bought some new. Leaving for Aruba Sunday and will be gone for two weeks. I went from XXL to some L shirts. From 44 shorts to some 36 and some 38. My dress shirts went from 18.5 down to 17. Feeling good and doing all I can to stay here.

Good luck to all over the next two weeks. I will most likely return home "in the hole" and need to have a few weeks of focus to recover the weight. But oh well, that is why they call it vacation!

Later,

Ted

Great job, Ted! Working on my May goal of 100 miles on the bike, and dropping below 200lbs. 49 miles in and 5.8 lbs to go.