I've hit my DietBet goal, now I have to maintain focus to protect my progress. Here's how I think about managing my caloric balance.
I've found a daily intake calorie count that is sustainably comfortable. I aim for that daily, but there are pitfalls.
1) Knowingly take in more calories than planned- life happens.
2) EVERYONE underestimates intake calories and overestimates excercise calories- leading less of negative caloric balance than calculated
3) FDA food labelling allows for a 20% error rate- meaning a 100 calorie snack can actuall be 120 calories or a 1300 calorie day could actually be 1560 intake calories, if you are depending on package labelling.
4) Then there are scale flucuations due to water balance, food residue in the gut and, I swear, evil humors in the air, although the humors thing has never been proven.
So, biology and our surroundings conspire to conserve weight. To overcome this, I focus on managing intake calories to drive weight management and use exercise, or burning calories, to protect the progress I've made and to buffer the calculation errors and the physiologic scale fluctuations.
This gives me a sense of control instead of being buffeted by haphazard weight flucuations and develops confidence in adhering to a process that delivers sustainable results.