Last night I was checking out nutrition.gov to see what the government has to say about nutrition. I am diggin' it. Something did occur to me though....... I had one of those ah ha moments. It broke down weight loss in very simple terms: energy in vs. energy out. That's pretty simple. But if you want to maintain.....that's where the trouble starts. Energy in must EQUAL energy out to maintain your weight. You have to have a pretty good structure and routine to your life I am guessing to nail that one on the head day in and day out.

I was also thinking that if a person were to start losing fat from a moderate to high percentage of body fat that it would be much more simple for them to eat at the maintenance level of their goal weight instead of dropping calories very low (1200) to begin with.

Of course the person would most likely lose weight much faster if she did a lower calorie diet and then switched to maintenance once the goal weight was achieved. However, it takes quite a bit of experimentation to find (maintenance level). That's when the weight starts piling back on again. The person may have lost 50 pounds successfully on a low calorie diet..... they get in their routine, and see results rather quickly. They've lost the weight.........now what???


I vote that it would be better all around for a person to begin eating at maintenance calorie level for their ideal weight......that way they would get months of practice developing healthy eating habits and ultimately reach their goal weight with no deprivation. The down side is that it would take a bit longer, but I believe it would be a more successful plan in the long run resulting in long term maintained weight loss rather than yo-yo dieting. But it may not take longer.......because really not that many people can tolerate a low calorie diet for very long before they break down and scarf a whole pizza or something.

There are many calculators online to figure out what maintenance level is for your ideal body weight that takes into account your lifestyle and activity level. Nutrition.gov has one. I would multiply my goal body weight by 15 to get my lifetime maintenance calories. (high activity level) If I lose or gain once I reach 120 pounds...then I may have to adjust my math slightly to accomodate.

So 120 x 15 = 1800 calories.

Of course none of this makes any difference to me......as the life of the competitor by nature is comprised of yo- yo dieting. :) I am just thinking ahead for when I plan to be normal again.

C.

P.S. I got the Cajun Tilapia w/black bean and corn salsa on rice pilaf yesterday (310 calories) and it was AMAZING!!! Thanks Krissa!