LondonIrishOllie
Pensively Posting
Hi All,
Hope everyone is well... Work and life is still crazy, always getting a chance to come on here but unfortunately not doing enough supporting and teaching as I should... Thats why I'm writing this little piece on how I've found that past 5 weeks of maintenance, some times i've been paranoid, sometimes I've thought I've been stupid and a lot of the time I've just been way too strict (Yes you dont have to be strict when off LT, just wise!)
So, along with others here when i came off refeed I stuck to around 1000-1200 calories a day, eventhough reading everwhere else online they say that low calories is bad for your health but it was a natural step to move from 600 calories a day on lt to something like that. How did I find it? great, loved all the foods i was eating and still am loving it! I mean I havent tasted anything I dont like in all this time and I used to hate a lot of food... it was fantastic!
But as the days and weeks went on you start to feel hungry between meals, it used to be natural to be hungry so then its a struggle, I snack on some fruit but maybe an hour later you get hungry again and literally can't have fruit all the time! Until the day i went out for lunch with work, got a huge dish of vegatable and prawn noodles, I was so full but for the rest of the day I didnt feel the urge to snack (I calculated instead of usual 200 cal lunch I had about 650), was so worried I'd put on weight now cos I've had so many extra cals... complete opposite..
My energy was fantastic, was faster cycling home, run was so much easier in the evening. I just overall felt better as soon as the fullness went away.. weight wise here are my findings
Weeks 1-3 - 1200 Cals - lost 2.5lbs
Weeks 4-6.5 - 1600 Cals - lost 5.5 lbs
So in my opinion dont worry if you have a bar of choc, if you increase your cals, have pizza, coke, whatever.. Its all ok in moderation, just be kind to yourself and don't starve yourself. I think I was to an extent at the start and wasnt losing as much as I should with the exercise I was doing, I was being too strict and too tough on myself... Maintenance doesnt have to be tough, it will always be a challenge but it can be enjoyable as well.
To finish, i did that calcualtor thing that told me how many cals I need to take to maintain this morning. It told me 4000! if thats sayinf 4000 and I was taking 1200 it certainly was not healthy, I'd just suggest to everyone who is on really low cals to up it a small bit and watch the results get better (in my case) or even stay the same. If Im wrong I'll buy ye all a water!
P.S reading that back i dont think I'm giving a good enough experience (it was so much better in my head last night!), but any questions Ill be sure to answer, have done a hell of a lot of research,,,
Hope everyone is well... Work and life is still crazy, always getting a chance to come on here but unfortunately not doing enough supporting and teaching as I should... Thats why I'm writing this little piece on how I've found that past 5 weeks of maintenance, some times i've been paranoid, sometimes I've thought I've been stupid and a lot of the time I've just been way too strict (Yes you dont have to be strict when off LT, just wise!)
So, along with others here when i came off refeed I stuck to around 1000-1200 calories a day, eventhough reading everwhere else online they say that low calories is bad for your health but it was a natural step to move from 600 calories a day on lt to something like that. How did I find it? great, loved all the foods i was eating and still am loving it! I mean I havent tasted anything I dont like in all this time and I used to hate a lot of food... it was fantastic!
But as the days and weeks went on you start to feel hungry between meals, it used to be natural to be hungry so then its a struggle, I snack on some fruit but maybe an hour later you get hungry again and literally can't have fruit all the time! Until the day i went out for lunch with work, got a huge dish of vegatable and prawn noodles, I was so full but for the rest of the day I didnt feel the urge to snack (I calculated instead of usual 200 cal lunch I had about 650), was so worried I'd put on weight now cos I've had so many extra cals... complete opposite..
My energy was fantastic, was faster cycling home, run was so much easier in the evening. I just overall felt better as soon as the fullness went away.. weight wise here are my findings
Weeks 1-3 - 1200 Cals - lost 2.5lbs
Weeks 4-6.5 - 1600 Cals - lost 5.5 lbs
So in my opinion dont worry if you have a bar of choc, if you increase your cals, have pizza, coke, whatever.. Its all ok in moderation, just be kind to yourself and don't starve yourself. I think I was to an extent at the start and wasnt losing as much as I should with the exercise I was doing, I was being too strict and too tough on myself... Maintenance doesnt have to be tough, it will always be a challenge but it can be enjoyable as well.
To finish, i did that calcualtor thing that told me how many cals I need to take to maintain this morning. It told me 4000! if thats sayinf 4000 and I was taking 1200 it certainly was not healthy, I'd just suggest to everyone who is on really low cals to up it a small bit and watch the results get better (in my case) or even stay the same. If Im wrong I'll buy ye all a water!
P.S reading that back i dont think I'm giving a good enough experience (it was so much better in my head last night!), but any questions Ill be sure to answer, have done a hell of a lot of research,,,