Desipite having been on my "diet" for close to 10 days now, my scale arrived and my game began just 3 days ago. The first time I steped on my scale, I was suprised: 127.2lbs (55.7kg) was lower than I expected. Taking the measurement repeatidly, it was consistant. "Well", I thought to myself, "so long the scale is consistant, I can use it to track weightloss regardless of weather the absolute value is proper."
The last time I had the opportunity to measure myself** (admittitly 2 months ago) I was 131lbs (59.4kg). Yes, losing 4 pounds in 2 months wouldn't be unheader of; however, it felt off. In the past two months I've been home for the holidays then left the states and came to a new country, where, while adjusting and figuring out where and how to eat (remeber my lack of a kitchen!) I don't think I ate partcularly well, not well enough to merit a 4lbs loss in two months (and possibly enough to merit weight gain). Surely, this scale was just calibrated a little differently, right?
But here's the question: how much did I lose in my first seven untracked days? Was it the 1.5lbs/week I was shooting for? Or maybe more?
I'm new to the idea of tracking calories. "Calories in- calories out = deficit = weight loss" seemed pretty simple. I decided I wanted to lose 1.5lbs/week. Figuring I would make mistakes, I calculated the daily deficit needed for 2lbs/week: 1000 calories/day. Well that seems like a lot, I mused, but I'd already comitted to this.
So I heard abou this thing called your "basal metabolic rate", the amount of calories your body burns just doing bare bones activities. Depending on the calculator I used, mine was somewhere between 1200-1400 daily calories. Being conservative, I picked the lower number. Then I figured I ran about 3 miles/day (300 calories), probably walked about 2-3 miles a day (150 calories), then figured I probably average in another 150 calories of movement elsewhere. So my daily expenduratre is 1200+300+150+150=1800. Taking 1000 calories off that, I should eat 800 calories a day.
It seemd like a low number, but I'm up for a challenge, so I hopped to it. My breakfast was a banana and kaja (120cal), my lunch was eaten out (estimate 400-800 cal, depending), my dinner, I figured would be an orange or maybe steamed broccoli (I love the stuff) (60-200cal). Assuming something like 120+600+150=870 calories taken in each day, I should be on track (well 70calores over, but I'd already built in a buffer).
I'll admit the first two days, I didn't feel all that great; I was hungry (duh) and felt a little weak. But I'd promised myself I would give this a fair shake so I stuck with it. Around the 3rd or 4th day, I adjusted. I still sometimes felt a bit weak, but I was still manageing to run like normal and felt pretty good in general. I had a slight headache, but remidied that by putting more potassium and salt in my diet. Cool! Admittidly, I was a bit zealous; I found it easy to skip dinner so I did. I expected to fail, to cheat, to eat something I wasn't supposed to, but I didn't (and haven't, yet).
Well this suggests my diet has been under 800 calories/day for most of a week, and I'm doing alright. I wondered what others' regiums looked like, so I did used some google-fu. Well, I was supried.
One of the first articles I found was about a 185lbs woman, trying to loose weight by eating (you guessed it) 800 cal/day. The article author suggested this wasn't happening, becasue her body was so underfed it was cutting calorie requirements. Hmm. On top of that, he thought eating at such an extreme deficit might be causing her body to break down muscle (no!) and generally mess up hormones and other important things. Ouch. I can't find that article again, but I found one with a similar message here. I continued on my google quest and found an article citing that, at minimum, women on diets should be eating at least 1200cal/day. Well oops.
I've never been in on the weightloss scene, I've hardly ever stressed about my weight. At 5'4" and around 130 pounds, I certainly have some extra fat hanging around, but not even outside the "healthy" weight range for my age. Sufice it to say I've never obsessed about my weight (even if I have been concious I should take it down a nautch) , and most of this is pretty new to me. Maybe I HAVE been taking it to an exteme, and my nice new scale was doing it's best to warn me.
Now everybody's body is different, but I won't pretend to believe that I'm far outside the norm. I've been vaguly aware it's considered reasonable to lose 1-2lbs per week. But since I'm not "overweight", maybe I should aim for closer to 1lbs/wk, and take my weightloss measures down and eating measures up.
So starting this morning, breakfast is a 250 calorie affair. Lunch will be 500-700. For dinner I'll have an orange plus steamed broccoli and carrots (with a little butter), 350cal. This should total up to about 1200cal/day. I'll start here and continue increasing until I'm closer to the 1lbs/wk zone.
Sorry body! I make mistakes, but I learn!
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**Note: I stated my impetus for starting weightloss was gaining 4pounds over 4 months. This was something I noted when I was back home after making monthly trips to the Dr's (long story) Sept-Dec. That was my motivation, but between coming home for the holidays and moving to a new country, I put it on the backburner until now.