I don't think you are rude. :flowerforyou: Here is the thing. When I first started this...a mere 7 weeks ago...eating your full TDEE was not what was recommended. It was eat at your cut. Then lots of people weren't seeing results...so THEN doing a reset was what was told. I problem is...and I truly don't want my fear/skepticism to sound like disrespect to the heads of this group because they are amazing fit women...but because this is so new...I actually haven't seen any success stories YET with the reset. It is mostly people saying they are pushing through, but are having a hard time and gaining weight. We are a few months out to see whether this reset really works for everyone and if weight IS lost, it doesn't end up being just losing what was gained during the reset. Does that make sense? If this group was a couple of years old and there were tons of threads filled with people who did the reset and ended up losing all their gain, plus the rest I would jump in with both feet...but since we are all in experiment phase...I just don't know whether this is going to work for everyone..including myself. And since I'm supposed to "look" the part of being a fitness instructor, I don't have the luxury of gaining 20 pounds and still perfoming my job well and looking how I "should".

There is a massive, massive change that I'm wrong, as I know either Lucia or Kiki did the reset and it did work for them...but it's just so early for everyone else that I'm just scared. I take a very low dose of an antidepressant to help with pain for a condition called IC that I have, so losing weight that I gain (including what I already have) is very hard to lose. So that is the hesitation.

I absolutely TOTALLY get it....I have some of the same fears/hesitations as to whether this is really going to work and have seriously scoured the boards trying to find just one success story of someone who actually truly lost all their weight after doing this whole method (reset, then cut, etc) and haven't found a single one. Then, I realized that the group was recently just started so that's probably why there isn't one yet...haha! Anyway, I'm trusting and having faith in it for now because honestly? The alternative sucked! I absolutely cannot EVER go back to eating 1500cal per day again..never, never, never! And I wasn't losing at 2000 either so upping to TDEE was the next option. The whole thing is so frustrating and mind boggling!

Have you added in your strength training yet? Strength training has been recommended to you a couple of times, but I haven't seen you mention adding it in. I realize you exercise a lot with your job, but your body should be accustomed to that and its probably not a challenge for you physically.

good to hear about the strength training the ones shedding inches seem to have all gone that route. couple things I want to bring up though..

I DO have a BMF, yes. My average over the past month is 3000-3100. I felt fine before I started this. I was still eating 1800-2200, but I stalled at 153. Again. And thought maybe I needed to eat more. So I'm not eating a ton more right now.

I know you are upset but think about it logically for a few minutes. Look at the numbers you burn and if you were previously eating 1800 - 2000 calories, and burning that much.. you were only eating 66% of what your body required to maintain.the weight. Yet, you stalled. That alone should make you think about how slow your metabolism must have gone to sustain that much activity off of so little calories.

Now you've increased, somewhat... (not to the recommended 15% though) and your body is able to put on with such a minimal increase, that's still a large deficit from your TDEE. I'd imagine that's just further evidence of how much your metabolism has slowed down.

Basically my two options are to lose these 8 pounds by going back down to 2000 a day

My guess is that you may at first lose the 8 lbs, maybe even a few more... Just remember your body was able to adjust to 1800- 2000k a day, (why you were in a stalled state at 154). In addition to that, given the fact that your minimal increase in calories caused immediate weight gain, it seems like you'd have to plan to pretty much stay at those cals forever to avoid ever gaining weight.. because the same thing will happen again once you increase again.

So i think you are correct that you have a decision to make... Fix your metabolism (go up to where you are supposed to be), or yo yo for years to come (back to 2k lose a little, eat more and gain, rinse /repeat)

At the end of the day though, you need to do what makes you happy and what you can live with since it's your body and your life.

I'm thinking about doing stronglifts after Chalean Extreme - halfway through with CLX.

If you do it after bodypump you can probably skip or shorten the warm-up sets for stronglifts since your muscles are already primed. You spend a lot of time int he gym as it is!

My apologies.. I looked at your diary which had it set to 2400.. so I assumed that was what you were using as your cut. That's 20% of 3000.

I was wondering whether to go back down a bit OR go to a 10% cut instead. Which would be 2700. HELLO! :laugh:

Which ever you choose stay with it long enough to get results! Your body performs daily ALOT and has for years being undernourished (like mine) It will take weeks to adjust.

We all want you to succeed and stay at the size you want!! But I also selfishly want you to stay with us

Graysmom,

For what it's worth.... I know EXACTLY how you are feeling in regards to your job. I was a professional dancer, I competed in ballroom and latin dancing.. having to wear those skimpy little costumes and was constantly starving myself to try to look "good" on the dance floor. I was constantly told by judges I needed to lose more and I was too fat. I danced anywhere from 6 - to 10 hours a day. I followed Weight Watchers recommended 1200 calories, and many times only ate once a day. I constantly battled weight gain. For the life of my I couldn't figure out why, with that much activity, the minute I ate more I gained weight.. Even at my lightest (116 lbs), I still had belly fat. I would immediately balloon if I had a competition break and slowed down to 3-5 hours of dancing a day or increased my meals.

I went through this battle from the time I was16 until 29. Gaining and losing over and over again. While my partner and I were successful and became US Champions, in my mind I was always the fat / flabby girl on the dance floor. I eventually stopped competing professionally because the weight battle got the best of me and I decided I just couldn't keep up my drive having to struggle so hard. I just decided i was meant to be fat, I was done, and just would teach. (weight gain!) A few years later I stopped teaching / dancing all together. (Bring on the major weight gain!)

When I found this group, it all finally made sense. As they say... hind sight is always 20/20 but.... a couple months of metabolism reset, then applying how eat, lose, and maintain my weight healthily and correctly, could have saved me YEARS (over a decade) of low self esteem, frustration, and misery.

To be honest, it makes me sad to think how different that era of my life could have been if I only I knew then, what I am learning now.

When I found this group, it all finally made sense. As they say... hind sight is always 20/20 but.... a couple months of metabolism reset, then applying how eat, lose, and maintain my weight healthily and correctly, could have saved me YEARS (over a decade) of low self esteem, frustration, and misery.

To be honest, it makes me sad to think how different that era of my life could have been if I only I knew then, what I am learning now.

Wow~ a VERY powerful statement.....and so TRUE for a lot of us.

Hugs to you and Gray for not just enduring body issues but having to do it in public. xoxoxoxo

I would recommend you start tracking your sugar, see if that's something you might need to cut back on.