Rethinking my Plan

My body has decided that the major downhill roller coaster weight loss is at an end.  While I am sad to see it go, I am stopping the constant fretting about it here and now.  Writing things down has always helped me keep my mind on track though so this post is serving as my restructuring space.

Basically,  I have been going every other week with a loss, and then the loss being only 2-3 pounds.  That is fine, but I am restricting calories enough that this should not be happening and I should still be at 2 pounds (at least) a week.  This leaves me with only one conclusion: I have screwed up my metabolism and have been restricting too much.

I have decided to up my calories in an effort to battle this.  It's so counter-intuitive!  I found a very interesting read today that I am going to use as my guide.  In a nutshell, it states that your calories should not drop below your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and that the calorie deficit should come from a combination of exercise, and the difference of your RMR and your BMR. 

So, I found my RMR to be 1610 calories by using an online calculator .  My BMR is roughly 2658 (which includes light exercise 3-5 days a week). So I should be at a deficit of 1048 per day which is 2 pounds a week.

I have been following an exercise regiment too now which is why I am using the "moderately active" BMR.  I walk  close to 14k steps a day total.  This includes my morning 10 minute walk, 2 fast paced 15 minute walks that conclude with a 4 flight of stair climb, and another 4 flight of stairs mid-day, and then a 20-30 minute walk with the doggies after work which I have been doing every other day, but really need to focus and get it done every day.

I read that 1 mile = 100 calories, and that's about 7 miles, so it looks like I am burning 700 calories just on my walks.  I think I easily burn an additional 300 calories naturally (digesting, temperature changes, desk work, chores etc) so the 1048 deficit sounds fairly accurate. 

I am going to give this new regiment 2 good months and we will see if I am down 16 pounds by the beginning of December (2 lbs a week for the 4 weeks).  If not, I will re-evaluate.