Hi, I don't think we've met on the forum yet, but I stumbled across your diary, and I just wanted to say YOU CAN DO THIS. The only reason you can possibly fail is if you give up, and you're not going to give up, are you, so ....

I read your post about rest days. I feel exactly the same. The last few days I've been getting really tired because I won't take a day off, and yesterday, I finally had to give in and stay away from the gym. I spent most of the day feeling certain the weight was piling back on me, and when I weighed myself I was going to be right back where I started. I weighed myself this morning and .... no gain. I had so much energy today and really enjoyed myself at the gym (rather than just struggling through it, which I'd done the last few days).

Rest days rule!

stopping by to say hi and to say you are doing great! keep thinking positive...that is half the battle! Lucky you...got to see Snow Patrol....

Thanks for all of the positive words, everybody!! It REALLY helps! I was waning a few hours ago and this is my long day at the gym...now I'm pepped up again!

And Bethann- lucky you- you live in sunny San Diego!! Snow Patrol was great. Don't know if you have any of their stuff, but they have a song called "Set the Fire to the Third Bar", which features Martha Wainwright...anyway, they picked a random girl (yes, it really was random- she had a teleprompter and everything) to come up and sing Martha's vocals on the song. How awesome for her! I'll bet she never forgets that night!

Kelly- I try not to weigh myself too often, but the temptation is there, and then I get mad when I don't see a change. I think I was so distracted last time that maybe I don't remember the weeks where no change occured so well. How did you get an eating plan from Steve?

I also can't expect for the weight to come off just like it did last time. I have a long way to go, but I'm starting out more fit now than when I weighed 275 and was coming off of years and years of a sedentary lifestyle. Hopefully mixing up my workouts will have the effect I want, which is to lose on a verage 2 lbs/week. I guess I don't feel like this is an unreasonable goal because I'm doing so well food wise. Although, I am PMSing and craving french fries and a burger right now! I'd probably get so sick if I ate it though, LOL!

Ali- thanks for stopping in and reading about me and my journey- it's nice to "meet" you! I do have that feeling too of "Oh my god, the weights coming back because I didn't go to the gym today!" Which is very silly, especially when I'm still staying within my target calorie range 1500-1700 calories! I do hope the fear and doubt go away with the fat!

I took Tomo's advice to get real about energy expenditure and Steve's advice to eat 20% less than maintenance. I am managing well with this. Not too hungry at night, a little bit maybe but okay. Not suffering.

So multiply your weight in pounds by 15. That's how many calories it takes to maintain a body your size (assuming you exercise). This is not just Steve saying but educated opinion by trainers or something. Ask Steve. Anyway, eat 20% less than this and you will be in a deficit. You will drop weight. I was going crazy hungry before and almost quit. I am beginning to eat my meals with absolute gusto instead of fear. I am learning.

My maintenance is 15 x 188 = 2820
I'm eating 2250 calories.
I've lost four pounds this month. Almost don't believe it.
I'm doing it!

Thought I'd add that I know I need at least 1000-1200 calories in by noon. I need it to break the nights fast and to have enough energy to get out of the house and do something with the day. 300 calorie snack and 650 calorie supper round out my day. Sometimes two snacks and a smaller supper. At least 2 litres of water/tea.

Are you drinking water? It is so good for you. I start after breakfast and continue after lunch. Have learned to manage bathroom breaks and drinking times etc.

I figure exercise is the real work. Drinking water and taking a multivitamin is easy.

Congratulations on implementing your plan.

So I did the equation and tha seems like way too many calories for me- and it's a very different number than other sites people have used here to figure out their BMR: 15x227=3405 - 20%= 2705.

I think that's a number I came up with when I figured my BMR + my exercise, which would then be maintnance??

Last time I lost, I went to a registered dietician and she gave me an eating plan that was no more than 1600 calories/day, which I have to work at a little but it's what I eat now. I did decide to up my calories a bit to 1700 (I was eating aout 1500) after reading info on the board, including from Steve, about fatigue and upping calories if I'm strength training. I'm confused!

While I'm not expert, I think that 1700 sounds just perfect for you. While everyone here is excited to get to their goal weight, you want to do it as healthy as possible. You won't enjoy a thinner body if it's unhealthy and useless. The calories sound good and as long as you are happy, you'll be great

I have seen five different maintenance levels for me, from 1810 on up. Try documenting what you eat over two weeks to see what you ACTUALLY need to eat to remain sane. See what you ARE eating on a daily basis. I eventually settled at a higher range which is STILL a deficit.

Steve asks poignant questions. Like, "How do you know you're not in a deficit?" He blows me away with what he knows.

You will lose at any of these maintenance levels, including the higher one. I thought his numbers sounded WAY too high at first and that there was no way his numbers could lead me to lose but its working.

You just need a tiny bit more time to find what works for you this time around. Maybe you could give your dietician a call and pose the question to her since you did invest in her advice. I'm sure she would be happy to hear from you.

Hope this helps.

I keep a record of every food I eat on fitwatch.com. I have a HUGE pantry of foods I've entered from the nutrition info label. But I've done it for so long and I pretty much stick to eating what's in my pantry so at this point I don't feel like I need to record every day. It started becoming so it was coming in at around 1500 calories for weeks so I think at this point, I'm eating with the knowledge of calories, etc. Sometimes I'll still enter a day to see if I'm staying on par, and to see before I leave work how many calories I can allow myself at dinner, like, "Do I have room for a glass or two of wine?"...that kind of thing.

I've gotten so used to eating 1500 calories that I wonder how I'm going to get in the extra 200 now....

I just want to fine tune what I'm doing so I'm not risking getting my body used to what I eat, how often and how much I exercise, because from everything I've gathered, it's good to keep your body guessing so it doesn't go into survival mode.

I do eat well- that website also tracks my protein, fiber, fat and carbs, because I have targets for those as well, not just overall calories. I'm not hungry on the 1500 cal, but was beginning to be after I started adding strength training, another sign I thought I should add some calories to the day's count.

I am VERY BAD about drinking water! I never drank much water as a kid, i swear I was probably dehydrated for the first 30 years of my life!
I'm trying....I have a 32 oz. Nalgene bottle that I'll fill up in the morning and take to work. For some reason I drink more water when I drink out of that. Then I try to have another full bottle at night. It's the classic 8 8 oz. glasses per day, but I know I should have even more than that with exercise and all.

Thanks for your help, guys!

Okay, now i'm doubting myself again. I went to bodybuilder.com to determine my RMR: 2014.

Add on the exercise I'm doing and it would seem that I'm working with a deficit of about 1309 calories/day, but acutally it would be about 1800/day if you consider I've been eating 500 calories under my RMR and doing the exercise. That would mean losing a pound every 2 days, or 3 pounds/week, which is definitely not happening! Why not??

Wait some more.

yeah.. be patient. it will happen how are you sure of your portions? are you weighin it? if your misjudging portions that could vary your calorie intake significantly

I'm trying to be patient, I really am! But I did go on a bit of a bender this weekend. I took the weekend off from the gym, hung out with my sister, ate too much (pizza and Chinese food, too!) and was depressed about my lack of progress.

On the brighter side, I did do some yardwork, took the dogs for a walk in the woods and have generally decided that regardless of what the scale says I should be pleased that going to the gym so much has to be having some positive effect on my body, even if it's effects I can't see, like my blood pressure, or good cholesterol, blah blah blah. The only thing is, while I am trying get fit, I'm also trying to get my weight down, and it is so frustrating. I've been on the other side of it, too, telling others that they need to be patient, but it's taken me weeks to lose just a couple of pounds, and last week I lost none, even though I was great with my diet and went to the gym five times...I just don't know what more to do. I'm sure I didn't work this hard at it the last time I lost weight.

patience grasshopper patience...

as long as you're doing what you're supposed tobe doing -you will see results.. sometimes it just happens slower than we hope...

Have you taken measurements and are you seeing any kind progress there?

I'm pretty positive my portions are right on. I know a piece of chicken should be like a deck of cards (I'll eat a bit more than that though, when it's a roasted, boneless, skinless chicken breast, after all, and so much protein...), a serving of pasta 1 cup, cereal one cup, and I know visually what those look like too.

But 99% of the time, I'm eating prepackage servings of oatmeal, skim milk, fat free/low carb salad dressing, low fat cheese, low sugar fat free yogurt, low fat cottage cheese, Low fat/calorie frozen meals at lunch (also having read the nutrition info so there's not too many carbs) low fat string cheese, no refined sugars except for 2 packets of sugar in my a.m. coffee, fat free creamer, etc, etc. even if I did go a little over on these foods (although so many of them are already individual serving sizes when I buy them!), it wouldn't amount to a whole lot of calories.

So I still don't have any answers. I just hope in a couple of weeks I'll be reporting some steady progress. In the meantime, I can only try not to think abot it, keep my head down, and keep going.