I posted this in the main forums, but also wanted to post here to show that you don't need to starve yourself to lose weight. I started this journey set on MFP at a 1lb/week loss, which gave me a net of around 1600. As I lost weight, that goal went down, but once it was under 1500, I felt I needed more, so I manually adjusted so my goal was back at net of 1540. Continued to manually adjust my goal upward as I added in JM 30DS in August, replaced that with body weight exercises in the fall, and added weights in January. Eventually I was at net 1700. Then I decided that I wanted more consistency in my days both for planning, and to give my muscles fuel to use to repair on my rest days. I used www.fat2fitradio.com to figure out what number to use and arrived at 2200. I have been eating roughly 2200 calories per day since mid-April. Overall, I have gone down 5 (maybe 6) sizes and lost over 75 lbs in a year. You can eat and lose weight, and look and feel great while doing it. Good luck!

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Happy one year anniversary to me. A year ago, I made the decision to make a change. I had friends starting their journeys at the same time, and we were there for each other (and still are). Without them, I don't think I would have taken that first step of starting, which I think was the hardest of all.

How did I do it? I get asked that a lot. A while back I posted a blog about how I lost my weight. My biggest piece of advice: listen to your body. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/watergirl626/view/how-did-you-do-it-199736#comments
Now, if you decide to pop into my diary to see what/how I eat, please look before Sat. This week has been atypical for various reasons, both in food and exercise. Just fair warning.

Now, to the fun part:

I am 32 years old, height is 5' 6.5". I started out at 224 lbs, ready to bust out of a size 18 in pants that run big, so realistically, I was probably a 20 in other styles, but I was sick of buying clothes the next size up. A year later, I am 148.5 lbs, and very comfortable in a size 8.

My measurements are 36-27-37. I am at 25.9% body fat. I lift 2x/week and run 2-3 times. Over the course of a year, I have lost 10" off of my abdomen, and 13 inches off of my hips. My hips are now smaller than my waist was. Crazy to think about it that way.