So I have been constantly holding between 170-175 lbs over 2 months now. I had gone from over 200 lbs to my current weight pretty steadily, but then I hit the dreaded wall, every dieter’s nightmare, the plateau. Until I reached this point, I was consuming about 1,500 calories daily and that was working fine. After reading various articles on how to break through a plateau, I decided to increase my caloric intake temporarily to a minimum of 1,900 daily. I suspect m body had becomed too accustomed to the amount of food I was feeding it.
So, what happened after increasing my calories? I became a lot more muscular. I have some definition now. I have way more energy and still managed to lose fat in places I had not been able to before, like my thighs. I am not necessarily smaller in size per se, just more toned and firm…which is a good thing, but I would still like to be a bit smaller than I am now. I am teetering between a size 10 and 8 jeans depending on the make and would like to go down to a size 6.
So what to do? Recently, I decreased my caloric intake yet again to 1,700 – 1,900 calories. Why these numbers? Well, my first goal is to reach 160 lbs. The amount of calories needed to maintain that weight is 2,720 at my current moderate activity level. Moderate being defined as exercising for at least 1 hr/day for 3-5 days/week at a moderate intensity level. In order to lose weight, I would need to decrease my intake by at least 500 calories/day. In this instance, I used 800 calories as an average, which gave me 1,900 calories as a maximum.
Once I finally hit 160, I will work on 150, which is now my new goal weight…so let’s see what happens in a few weeks. Wish me luck!
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