I just don't care anymore.

I gained. And I don't care. I don't care what I weigh. I don't care if I gain or lose. It just doesn't matter.

Nope. I'm not discouraged or quitting. The complete opposite. I know that the scale is not a good way to gauge my fitness. And I know that eating exercise calories works for me. And strength training absolutely ROCKS.

I've said before... how a few years ago, starting around 150#, I ate under 1000 calories a day, and got down to 130#. I wore a size 8, STILL had a muffin top, back fat rolls, and a double chin. Progress was painfully slow... usually less than a half pound a week, but I just thought I lacked discipline, had a bad metabolism, or just just not meant to be thin any more. I was thin, skinny even, for most of my life, and thought that it all caught up with me like my family always said it would.

Eating about twice that amount this time around (1350-1500 plus most of my exercise calories, averaging between 1800-2000), starting at 160#, I got down to 130# losing an average of one pound a week, even though I was aiming to lose .5# a week for the last 10# of it. I blogged about it - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/LorinaLynn/view/eat-more-why-very-low-calorie-sucks-201462 - including a photo of the jeans I wore then compare to the jeans I wear now, which are a size 2 or 4. My waist and hips are each about 2" smaller than I was when 130# years ago. I'm able to fit into jeans I wore in high school more than 20 years ago when I weighed 110#.

I found a photo from about 5 years ago when I was around 130#, and put it side by side to a photo taken this morning at 133#.



Too bad I didn't know then that I could eat twice as much and get better results.

There's no big magical mystery about why eating exercise calories work. It's math. I ate less than I burned, because I understood that my body is always burning calories, not just while I was exercising. I had enough of a calorie deficit to lose the weight I wanted to lose, and I had the right nutrition to prevent muscle loss. At 1000 calories a day, I had too large of a deficit, didn't have the right nutrition, and lost a disproportional amount of muscle, thus, I looked bigger than I do now.

After going on maintenance, increasing my strength training, getting more protein, and then recovering from an injury that kept me from exercising ( and required chocolate as medication! :laugh: ), I gained a little. Don't care. Here's me in September at 128# vs 133# now.



Not seeing any difference. Not from the front, anyway.



Now, there, I see a difference! A higher, rounder bum. And the jeans I bought then are too loose on me now. So I weigh more, but I'm smaller and have a cuter butt. Not going to sweat that five pounds!

And as long as I'm gloating about my butt, this is a photo that really brings it. My 27 year old butt, weighing probably about 125# vs my 39 year old butt. Seriously... who the hell ever thinks they're going to like their butt better at almost 40 than in their mid-20s?! Not to mention that I'm not sickly pale (though still pale) with dark undereye circles.



Good nutrition and regular exercise. Who'da thunkit?!