So as you all know I have been slacking in the calorie counting category. I am still watching what i eat and still losing weight but just not tracking how many calories I am taking in each day. This past week I just another .6 of a pound. Although I am happy that the scale went down instead of up that is really unacceptable since i hope to lose at least 15 pounds by my cruise vacation on May 17th.
Previously i was focusing on 1300 calories per day but knew that after i had lost 10 pounds i would need to lower that amount to continue the weight loss. 1300 calories was hard enough to stay under but with some discipline and lots of water i know i can do it! So here is the new scale that i looked up (source: Biggest Loser):
To lose weight:
Weight - Calories
150lbs - 1,050
160lbs - 1,120
170lbs - 1,190
180lbs - 1,260
190lbs - 1,330
200lbs - 1,400
In my non-educated opinion i think these seem a little low since I was told by several other sources that I needed to take in 1300 calories to lose weight and according to the scale above that would have put me at weighing about 185 and that is not true! I'm not going to tell you how much I started weighing until i lose tons of weight and I can use the number for bragging but I can assure you it was not 185! So I decided to take a mixture of a couple of different sources and this is what i came up with (Sources: Biggest Loser, Slimfast, Livestrong):
To lose weight:
Weight - Calories
150lbs - 1,100
160lbs - 1,200
170lbs - 1,300
180lbs - 1,350
190lbs - 1,400
200lbs - 1,500
It wasn't a big change, basically a little padding and some rounding. Also i dont know if this is correct or not but it worked when i was losing 2-3 pounds a week... I took the above numbers as a "no activity" day goal. If i did exercise i could add a little. For example, when my goal was 1300 if i ran i added 100 calories. (An 8 min mile burns about 110 calories) These extra calories aren't enough to allow for an apple pie but they cover the extra snacks used to fuel my workout. This is what my ideal day looks like:
(Note: Intake amounts are MAXIMUMS)
7:30am Breakfast: 300 calories
10:00am Snack: 100 calories
12:00pm Lunch: 400 calories
3:30pm Snack: 100 calories
5:30pm pre workout snack: 100 calories
6pm-7pm Workout: Burn at least 200 calories
7:30pm Dinner: 500 calories
Total Intake: 1500
Total Burned: 200
Net Calories: 1300 - goal met!
On days when i didn't workout i wouldn't have the 5:30 snack and would either cut lunch to 300 or dinner to 400 depending my groceries on hand. Like I said, this is method is not supported by any articles or research that i have found but it worked for me and my body.
Now that I am dropping to 1200 calories I plan to cut 50 calories from each lunch and dinner. When I drop to 1100 calories at the end I will probably cut another 50 from EITHER lunch or dinner (depending on my planned meals for that week) and then cut the other 50 from the snack between breakfast and lunch. I'm not usually that hungry between there anyways, i just eat the snack to keep my metabolism going.
Now, here comes the good part! There is no doubt that shaving calories sucks and I imagine that when i get to the 1100 range that i will run out of meal and snack options pretty darn quick. Honestly, i'd say the biggest challenge I currently face is not hunger (drinking the right amount of water takes care of that for me) but actually finding a variety of meals that fit together to meet the calorie goal! I end up repeating the same plans every two weeks and as a result i get bored with my food. You are probably wondering "where is that 'good part' you mentioned?!" Well, the Biggest Loser also has a chart for how many calories you can eat and maintain your current weight! Here is their scale:
Goal Weight
155lbs - 1,900 calories to maintain
145lbs - 1,800 calories to maintain
135lbs - 1,700 calories to maintain
Unfortunately for you tiny people it doesn't go below 135lbs in this article (i think you can see more on the website if you register). My goal weight is somewhere between 125 - 135. I actually haven't decided on an exact number yet. I think 125 would be awesome but I think i would be perfectly happy with 135 too. So i'm kind of waiting until i get closer to 135 and then see how my clothes fit and how i feel to determine if i want to go down to 125. Regardless, i think 135 will be my maximum weight and 125 will be my minimum. I weighed 118 once right after high school and was starting to get too skinny for my frame (in my opinion).
Anyways, i am so PUMPED about being able to have between 1700 (for 135lbs) and 1600 (for 125lbs) calories a day once i get to my goal!! After sticking to 1300 - 1100 that will be like a feast! I am so excited. maybe too excited... haha.
(i think i have too many tags on my blog... i'll probably trim those down when i change over to the new blog)
2 comments:
Okay. Let's start with this, you absolutely will NOT go below 1200. Once you drop below that your body enters its starvation setting and begins burning muscle. Those figures are entirely to low. I I at about 1350 goal on my calories for each day and I am losing weight. I use www.caloriecount.com for my tracking-weight, calories, exercise, nutritional balance, etc. It will also run calculations for you as well. No matter how tempting it may be to believe the super tiny number it simply isn't healthy. Remember it also isn't just about how many calories you eat but about where those calories come from(see one of my more recent blogs).
I saw your blog after I finished mine and noticed it just happened to be a calorie blog also and that your numbers differed from mine. I thought it might cause conflict and this is a perfect example of the problem with dieting - everything/everyone has a different opinion. I'm not necassarily saying mine is right but I have no reason to believe yours is right either. I believe both are respectable sources for their own reasons.
Also something I don't think you are taking into consideration is that my amount is with no exercise so basically if you did any exercise it would bump up from 1100 (my lowest amount) to at least 1200 (which is your lowest amount). So my amounts may not be as far off as you think.
In the defense of my theory, my reasoning here is that prevously I was sticking to 1300 and working out 5 days and lost right at 2 pounds which i do know is a healthy target. I do know you have to decrease calories and increase muscle to keep losing the lower you get in weight so I have a hard time believing I can only go down 100 more calories since I have a lot more pounds to lose.
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