Eating plan/exercise schedule help

Just to give you a bit of backdrop information. Several years ago I put on a load of weight from excess eating and drinking. I went up to 20 stone (6 ft 3 in height). It was starting to make me extremely depressed so I did lots of research (and ignored quite a lot of it) and basically decided to starve myself as much as I could, and also do as much cardio as I could manage, with three full body weight routines per week too. I found though that I really wasn’t losing much weight. I was having absolutely HUGE calorie deficits, eating just about 1200-1500 calories per day (sometimes just 1000 and I was 20 stone!) and walking/jogging as much as possible. I was feeling AWFUL and constantly felt like I was about to pass out, getting terrible headaches. I felt so fat and repulsive though that I pushed myself through it. From looking online I decided I must be in starvation mode. I know that is quite a contentious topic but either that or my metabolism had essentially ground to a halt. They both amount to the same thing.

I started cycling carbs/calories and this really kick started things, the weight started flying off. I also was able to get my fitness up. At first when I was 20 stone I could only jog for 4 minutes before I needed to slow down and walk. I think when I was right at the start I would go on a treadmill for 20 minutes, doing 4 minutes of jogging intervals with 1 minute of walking. Now I go for 10 mile runs. I hit some plateaus and sometimes had to change things a bit. One thing I have always consistently found though is I cannot just have the same net calories per day, this just leads to my metabolism grinding to a halt. Having too large a calorie deficit over a consistent time doesn’t work either. I have found sometimes I lose weight when I eat more, rather than less calories.

I lost 6 stone in total, though 1 was due to me being ill in hospital for 2 weeks and not eating. Even at 14 stone I wasn’t content with my weight, though in retrospect it was my BF percentage I was not happy with as I still looked chubby. I ended up putting 1 stone back on after I recovered. Then over the next year I put on about another stone and a half. So I found myself back up to about 16.5 stone and getting a bit nervous, though not looking too fat and still regularly exercising. I went back to the drawing board and started eating cleaner. Although I was still tracking everything, I ate less fatty foods and also completely stopped drinking alcohol. I have lost almost a stone of this, so I currently weigh just over 15.5 stone. I decided to eat 2500 calories Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (though I often marginally reduce the calories as the week progresses, sometimes eating a bit more than 2500 on Mondays and Tuesdays). Then Thursday 2000 calories. The exercise I do is quite changeable at the moment. I used to run about 25 miles or so a week and do weights too. I have bulging discs in my back though so stopped doing weights a while ago. I would say on a typical week I would probably aim to do a 5K on a Monday, about 4 miles on Tuesday, day off on Wed, then 8 or 9 miles on Thursday, then maybe do another 5 mile run on the weekend. So possibly about 20-25 miles. I find my weight loss happens between the Thursday and Friday – I drop from 2500-2000 calories and do a long run, so I have a huge deficit. The sudden drop seems to spike my metabolism.

I have been at this game a long time so everything is pretty meticulously calculated. Absolutely everything is accounted for. The only thing I ‘eye ball’ is the splash of skimmed milk I have in a cup of tea, which is unusually just one a night. All food is straight out of packet and/or weighed. I don’t eat anything if the macronutrient contents are not on the packet/label. Even sauces or anything like that I will put on a spoon and weigh.

I should also add that I have read endless guides and all the stickies on BB, tried everything etc. Often what I have found works for me is different to what the experts recommend. I think the reason I have made this topic is to see if anyone has had similar experiences to me and if there is anything anyone would recommend. Particularly anyone who regularly runs – I would like to try something new to see if it can speed up my weight loss. So any calorie plans and running schedules. Although I have lost quite a lot of weight, I’ve been using MyFitnessPal for 30 months now so feel I am failing since I am still overweight and nowhere near the shape I want. Though unless I can start doing weights again I have to be realistic as to what those goals are – I should certainly be able to be slim and athletic though with minimal fat.

I should also add that part of my problem is on Fridays and Saturdays I do not track what I have. I often gain 3 or 4 pounds at the weekend but without these 2 enjoyable days I would not be able to be so disciplined the other 5 days. I usually lose this weight quite quickly though.