It is official ...

CONGRATS!
I gained weight the same way...undereating without enough activity.
I was eating only dinner each day and only getting out or doing anything considered calorie burning...well...rarely.

Now Im getting closer and closer to my right amount of calories all the time!
Im debating eating my workout calories, but the thought still frightens me considering that I hardly ate before and this seems like so much food despite that its healthy now.

Hopefully Ill get good progress like you because we had/have about the same starting weight and ending goal!

Cant wait to see the pics :flowerforyou:

Yep, that was me .. ate only dinner. And I was working on the computer almost all day and night (trying to build my online business).

In any case, I also had a hard time convincing myself to eat more than 1200 calories. I lost weight at first but hardly any inches. Eventually I started to gain even though I has just started to burn over twice as many calories as I was when I was losing weight.

I guess adding calories was an act of defiance at that point. But that's when it started to come off .. not just the weight but the inches! I mean, the weight was slow at first but it was going down ... and the photos showed huge changes.

It takes time to heal your metabolism. At first I was losing a pound every ten days. But I kept it up and the last few pounds came off the quickest, averaging about 2-3 pounds per week on a 250 calorie deficit.

awesome! Good to know, thats a ton of motivation for me too.
Ill be sure not to get discouraged as my body readjusts to the calories its supposed to be getting. Im losing inches already and gaining muscle because of the workouts Im doing, but I cant wait until the scale starts to agree with the better-fitting clothes!

would you really recommend eating my exercise calories? It seems so odd to me all while it kinda makes sense.:grumble:

I would definitely recommend eating some. You don't have to do it all at once. Try 100 extra calories every few days until you're eating half. Then stay there for about a week before you experiment with more. It's a process, figuring out how to work them in without feeling stuffed.

EDIT:
Oh, I just took a closer look at your food diary. Go for frequency also. You should be eating every 2-3 hours. That helps a lot. So maybe start with an extra snack and go from there instead of adding to a current meal.

Hugs to all

That's great, good for you!!!

How did you lose so much in such a short time?? what is your secret???

1. eat every 2-3 hours
2. exercise
3. eat all your exercise calories
4. heavy strength training (I did a round of P90X)

It was really slow in the beginning because I was an under-eater. So I had to learn to eat and get my metabolism to trust me to keep eating :laugh:. But the weight and fat eventually melted off faster than MFP thought it would.

Did you count strength training under cardio--meaning did you eat calories from that or just true cardio type??

Yes, I ate my strength training calories too. I used a heart rate monitor to calculate them.

Ive written up a little schedule for myself in which I do breakfast at 9:30-10, a 30 min workout at 11, lunch, another workout, a snack, and then some optional WiiFit or a walk (Im easing into exercising more often), then not eating till dinner. Guess I should snack between the optional 3rd workout and dinner?

A snack shortly after workouts are a good idea. :flowerforyou:

I normally follow up my "big" calorie burners with a glass of chocolate milk. It was an easy way to get in the extra calories I didn't think I could eat. And it's the best recovery drink for strength and endurance workouts.