Are Plateaus Inevitable?

I’m starting to think the answer to that question is ‘no.’ Not if you have a body bugg. Plateaus happen when you body doesn’t need as many calories to function [as in after losing some weight], so unless you up your activity level, you’ll end up taking in the same amount of calories you’re burning. Also, if you’re on a very restrictive plan already, your metabolism will eventually slow down so that you reach an equilibrium of sorts. But… it’ll be interesting to see if I run into this problem knowing how many calories I’m burning each day vs. what I’m taking in. I have a feeling the answer is ‘no’…

I eat anywhere from 1,500 to 2,200 calories a day, depending on the circumstances, my choices, and my appetite. But I also burn at least 1,000 calories more than I take in, so I’m always in a caloric deficit. If people pick an arbitrary number – like 1,200 calories and stick to that, eventually it’ll either be too much, or not enough, theoretically…

So, I’ll keep you posted on that aspect of using a body bugg – IF the dreaded plateau does strike. lol… so far, so good. I did have no weightloss for about 2 weeks, but I think it had more to do with my monthly cycle than anything else. Once my period was over, I dropped over 4lbs, seemingly overnight. That’s just how my body works, I guess. As long as it’s temporary and I immediately catch up to the pace I’m going for [2-2.5lbs/wk], I don’t care.

I took some measurements today and was pleasantly surprised. Especially when compared to my original measurements when I started this journey almost 2 years ago:

Here are my inches lost to date:

Chest: 7.5″
Waist: 10″
Hips: 10″
Thighs: 8″ [ea]
Calves: 2.5″ [ea]
Arms: 3.5″ [ea]
Neck: 3″

That last measurement blows me away – 3 inches off my neck! lol… I’ve lost 40lbs so far [40.2 if you want to get technical], and I’m shooting for another 55 lbs to get to my goal weight. At the pace I’m going now, if I can keep it up, I should get there by early to mid April, 2010 – a mere 5 months. That’s just amazing to me. I lost all of 7lbs all of last year because I wasn’t tracking what I was eating. I did drop a dress size from exercising and my body comp changing for the better, but then my weight just stayed the same for months and months until I got frustrated enough to look for something that would work for me – I found clean-eating, Tosca Reno, Oxygen Magazine and Chalene Johnson… and on Chalene’s recommendation – the body bugg. It’s been a slow but steady progression to figuring this all out for myself, but now that everything is clicking, it really does seem pretty easy. If you told me even 6 month ago that it could be this simple, I wouldn’t have believed you…

I’ve tried keeping a food journal in the past  but I was always tracking too many things – carbs, fat grams, protein, etc. And then I’d judge myself, or if I wanted something ‘bad’, I didn’t want to write it down – because that would make it real, disturbing my delicate state of denial. So I’d give up. All I track now are calories, and I eat whatever I want, but because I track calories, and because I like how I feel when I make healthier choices, I tend to want healthier foods 9 times out of 10. I do have chocolate almost every day. I do have snacks like crackers and cheese. Trackign calories has helped me to understand portion sizes. I see what I eat now and compare it to how I WAS eating – even while ‘dieting’ – and it’s no wonder I either gained weight or didn’t lose anything. When they say a food journal is key for most people to reach their weightloss goals and to sustain them, they’re not joking.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get comfortable enough to intuitively know approximately what I’m taking in vs. burning each day after I get to my goal weight. I suspect I’ll continue to use a food journal… even if I stop using the body bug. It’s pretty easy to remember about how many calories you burn during certain activities… and I would think once I don’t have anymore fat to lose, as long as I burn what I’m taking in, I won’t gain anything back. I’ll either be able to eat more, or have less daily activity. Right now I shoot for an hour and a half of ‘activity’ and 10,000 steps, 3,000-3,250 calories burned… yesterday I beat all my targets and didn’t even workout – I tend to do more around the house because I have more energy [and because I know it burns calories] and by bouncing on my stability ball while watching TV. So I gave my body a break from weight lifting and the 45 minutes of cardio I usually do, and today I feel fantastic, and ready to tackle the 2-3 hours of raking and bagging leaves that we have to do.

Losing weight isn’t the rocket science the diet industry will have you believe. It’s in their best interest to give you a taste of success only to take it away, so you keep coming back for more – buying their books, products, ’systems’, etc… It’s such a sham. If your goal is to lose weight only, then you don’t care that the diet your on doesn’t make nutritional sense as long as the number on the scale moves down. If your goal is to get healthy and fit, nutrition is everything – it affects your performance in everything you do. Which sounds more intelligent?  [It only took 25 years to become obvious for me]. ;)

Thoughts: 11.1.09

This is beginning of week 5 for me with the body bugg, and I’m down 11 lbs. It does what it says it does if you track your calories. I’m finally a believer. After dieting and FAILING miserably for so many years, I finally feel like I’m going to do this and make it to my goals. It’s very new, very awesome sensation. lol…

I would have figured I’d get bored with tracking calories, but I haven’t. I actually love knowing how many calories I’m consuming because I love hitting all my daily targets for calorie burning, steps, activity duration, etc. I’m a body bugg-a-holic if there is such a thing. lol

I’ve also discovered a great trick to making sure I burn up all my calories for the day. I love TV and I watch too much of it, but I bought myself a stability ball, and now I bounce on it while I watch TV – it works so well that I know I burn 350 calories while watching 45 minutes of news! If I know we have a lot of shows ot catch up on and will be in front of the TV for 2-3 hours [I know, it's a lot...], at least now I know I can burn 1,000 calories or more doing it. It doesn’t replace my daily workouts but it does mean I can just do ONE workout a day and then burn off the rest of my calories while watching TV vs. doing 2 workouts a day like I was doing before, which felt like too much. Bouncing isn’t that hard on the body, but working out twice a day can be.

I’m going to try dropping my calories from 1,850 to 1,750 and burning 3,000 a day vs. 2,850 to see if I can increase my weekly weightloss from 2lbs to 2.5lbs. If it’s too much I’ll go back to what I was doing before [1,000 calorie deficit per day instead of 1,250]. By kicking my routine up a notch, the body bugg software claims I’ll reach my goal by April 9th. Which is great because it gives me time to settle into my new size [whatever that ends up being] and gives me time to do a little shopping – we have a few weddings to go to in May. If/when I reach my goal it’ll mean I’ve lost a total of 95lbs. How crazy is that? I’m almost halfway there – I’ve lost 39 lbs so far since I started this journey. I’m still not 100% sure my goal weight of 159 lbs is correct or not, but I weighed 160 at the end of highschool and again when I lost the weight I gained after my first year of college, so my ‘ideal’ weight is probably around that number. I can always reevaluate once I get there if I think I can lose a few more lbs… and if my body stops at 165 or 170 and I look and feel great, I’m fine with that, too.  =)

The best part of counting calories and living this way is, nothing is off limits. I eat mostly healthy, but now and then I can splurge if I plan for it. Last night my husband took me out for a delicious lobster dinner. I had a 1.5 lb lobster and I dunked every piece in butter – I also made sure to let most of it drip off, and in the end I probably ate about a tablespoon total of the butter, which is about 105 calories. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. When we got home I had enough calories left over to have some popcorn while we watched a movie and a few squares of chocolate. That whole thing about some people being able to eat whatever they want is true – as long as it doesn’t mean their taking in more calories than they burn.

I used to think maintaining a big weightloss would be tough, but if you exercise, it really doesn’t need to be. If I’m burning 1,250 calories more than I’m taking in now, to lose the weight, it means I either keep up the activity level and I get to eat a LOT more, or I can eat about the same amount of food and I don’t have to worry about being SO active every day [right now I do about 10,000 steps and get in about an hour and a half of activity per day, at a minimum]. It’ll mean I can take a couple of days off each week and really let my body recover fully before pushing it again.

This whole experience has been such an eye-opener. I know I won’t ever have the same issues with weight gain again. I know I’ll be ready to move on with the rest of my life when I reach my goals. This will be the toughest thing I’ve ever done. But once I figured out what works for me it stopped being an uphill battle, and turned into a happy journey.  =)  I’m enjoying it every step of the way.

In case you’re wondering about the stability ball, this is the one I have. It’s made to withstand 1,200 lbs – it’s made more rugged for weightlifting. I’ll be getting another as we finish off part of our basement as a gym so I can use it in place of a weight bench: Rhino Skin Stability Ball [image courtesy of amazon.com]