itstheamarie

OMG thank you SO much for posting this!!!! I was about to pull my hair out with the misinformation being spread about needing to be on a VLCD (very low calorie diet) forever to lose/maintain. Anyone every question why there are a MILLION threads on here about stalling after eating low cal and working out like crazy? OUR BODIES GO INTO PANICK MODE AND HOLD ON TO WHAT WE HAVE. As my doctor told me regarding losing my menstrual cycle- evolution has taught our body to resist famine. Say what you want about starvation mode, but I am walking proof that our body will shut down natural processes (ovulation since we can't support a child) to resist famine. Many of us experience this before surgery, too (stalling at 1,2000 cal/day). The reason we regain + more wt after these diets is that we gave up and went back to our ways after losing weight (MUSCLE and fat), but have ruined our metabolism (less lean body mass = lower BMR). This happens with the sleeve, too- look at all the threads about regain as we slip into old ways. The good news is, you can reset your metabolism by eating at TDEE. This is something to think about in the long term, not immediately after surgery of course. VST is great for support, but there are other sources out there, too. Myfitnesspal has several groups such as "EatMore2WeighLess" and "Eat.Train.Progress" who can provide you with information for days along with success stories about people who eat at normal levels and maintain weight loss (long term, not week 3 post op). We have to realize that if we are doing things that we can't maintain for life, all the work and stress we're putting our bodies through could be in vain. Your success does not depend on your sleeve. It depends on the choices we make all day every day to be healthy or not. Lastly, be careful who you listen to (myself included)! There are countless books and papers on these subjects who are written by experts. There are trainers and registered dieticians who can help, too. If you are having success, keep up the hard work! If not, keep looking for what works for you, because everyone is going to give you a different answer.

I was sleeved 12/19/12 and am down 71 pounds. My doc says right now to be getting between 850-1000 calories.I struggle to get to 900, but that is my daily goal. I feel that as early out as we are that much calorie consumption can slow loss. Right now what works is the fact that we can take in so little and feel okay. But I do understand about wanting to have a properly functioning metabolism. I plan on keeping my calories at my docs goal and when the time is right, increasing calories to reset my metabolism. Please do discuss this with your doctor, you dont want to sabotage yourself. As for loose skin, mine isn't bad but its there. The more I workout the better it looks :-D Best wishes to you

I am around 800 a day and I feel fine. I am losing weight and I eat with my family. I pretty much eat what they eat but I am still on soft foods so some things I have to substitute.
If you eat too much at one time all of the time you can stretch your sleeve but it will NEVER be the same size that it was prior to surgery. I actually have videos of what you can expect a stretched sleeve to look like here http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/blog/2407/entry-6050-the-size-of-your-new-stomach/
Something to keep in mind is that not everyone's sleeve is the same capacity longer stomachs will become a long sleeve and this may allow for one person to comfortably eat a higher than normal caloric ratio when compared to others. If you are eating healthy, the calories consumes should not be a problem. Keep following your DR & NUT's guidelines.

I agree with SleeveOfSteel, in that it's perfectly safe to consume more in order to feed your daily functions. Everyone has a different energy expenditure, so the round numbers don't work the same for everyone. Do a 350 lb man and a 190 lb woman need the same number of cals? That's why we see so many people comparing themselves to other's losses. If you take the more balanced approach, it's likely that you will be able to establish habits that will last long term. However, you will need to accept the fact that you MAY lose slower. But if you're truly doing it for health, then it won't matter! Stay focused on your goal, and continue to seek support. Moving up to 1200 so soon may have you thinking a month from now, oh, I need 1500, then 2000 and it will continue to go up and up as the swelling goes down and you can consume a larger quantity. The easiest way for us to wreck the process is focusing on things that "go down easy." Nearly anyone can get cals sky high if we turn to sliders (especially long term as we lose the newbie motivation to make healthy choices). If we follow the "rules" of Protein first, we will continue to feel restriction/fullness even if you eat small quantities throughout the day. At this point, going that method would still land your cals pretty low. It will be a journey, but you will constantly have to ask yourself if you're making changes that you can maintain for life? If you are, then you'll be fine! Keep up the great work, and congrats on your losses so far!

Yes! And it will help you retain your lean body mass, which will contribute to a sustained metabolism throughout weight loss . You can still burn by focusing on the activity you do when you're NOT working out (NEAT: non exercise activity thermogenesis) such as fidgeting, cleaning, shopping, wrangling kids. Because let's face it, we're NOT working out (23 hrous= 96% of your day) a lot more each day than we ARE working out (1 hour = 4% of your day). All the crazy people who tell us to park far away and take the stairs all these years were on to something. I wear a Bodymedia Fit, which uses sensors to track steps, heat reflux, and etc to calculate daily burn. To my surprise, I have better burns on days when I am out and about all day- more than the days when I have a good workout but am a couch potato the rest of the day. Moral: don't feel tied to a cardio machine to push through your pain and burn calories, do something you can enjoy and sustain! You can avoid looking "skinny-fat" this way, bc lifting weights is what transforms the SHAPE of your body. Focus on compound lifts that engage multiple muscle groups through pushing and pulling (most bang for your buck).

Yes! And it will help you retain your lean body mass, which will contribute to a sustained metabolism throughout weight loss . You can still burn by focusing on the activity you do when you're NOT working out (NEAT: non exercise activity thermogenesis) such as fidgeting, cleaning, shopping, wrangling kids. Because let's face it, we're NOT working out (23 hrous= 96% of your day) a lot more each day than we ARE working out (1 hour = 4% of your day). All the crazy people who tell us to park far away and take the stairs all these years were on to something. I wear a Bodymedia Fit, which uses sensors to track steps, heat reflux, and etc to calculate daily burn. To my surprise, I have better burns on days when I am out and about all day- more than the days when I have a good workout but am a couch potato the rest of the day. Moral: don't feel tied to a cardio machine to push through your pain and burn calories, do something you can enjoy and sustain! You can avoid looking "skinny-fat" this way, bc lifting weights is what transforms the SHAPE of your body. Focus on compound lifts that engage multiple muscle groups through pushing and pulling (most bang for your buck).

Mike - agree whole heartily with your points.
I wish the average WLS Center program did a better job at emphasizing this. Mine did not mention this at all, but I eventually figured it out after reading posts like yours and many months ago from Susan (Admin).
There is a time and place for extreme caloric deficits that help many succeed (including myself) on the post op diet. However, do try and advance out of the extreme caloric deficits after month 5 or 6 in order to not kill your metabolism. It is a gradual ascent and may take a few months of tweaking to get your eating and workout plan to a happy equilibrium.
It is *so* much easier to achieve the weight and physique goals if eating enough calories from a set of well balanced meals, focusing on the macro nutrient ratios. Without the calories, you are constantly fighting your body for measurable progress. My calories are currently at 1600-1800 and I hope to raise them even more based upon TDEE to achieve some specific body transformation goals over the summer months.
Unfortunately I did not learn and embrace this until after weight loss finished a!nd lost a lot of muscle as a result. My progress crashed and burned for a couple months as metabolism was in a state of decline. Fortunately, I have turned things around in the last few months and am continuing to going forward. I enjoy not having to stress at all about eating or really having to pay attention to "dieting" in order to achieve weight lifting progress. It feels so natural.
Learn from my mistakes people!!!

You dont't need cardio to lose weight... losing weight is all diet and eating at a caloric deficit... its that simple. Eat fewer calories than you burn daily and you will lose weight. If you list weights with intensity its just as good if not better than a cardio session IMO. Lifting with intensity is key though, it will keep your heart rate up while working out.
I dont hear it on these forums enough but be careful how few calories you eat daily. While most people here advise to eat very few calories, extreme caloric deficits upwards of 1500 cal a day, Is destroying their metabolisms. They lose weight quickly, lose a ton of muscle, and then a few months out wonder why they are not losing even when eating so little... its because the months of eating at an extreme caloric deficit has messed up their metabolism and now they have to focus on repairing it.

Do what works for you! If you're losing weight at 1200 cals then that's perfect. I eat/ ate more than most sleevers too. I was up to 1200 cals around 4 months. I Made goal around 9 months post op- it was a very modest goal (169 at 5'4") I'm nearly 2 years out and have maintained at 1800-2000 cals a day. Adjust your cals if you are not losing, otherwise keep doing what you are doing! In another post a girl asked me rudely why I had the surgery if I was just going to eat "that much" I replied I didn't have the surgery to not eat a lot. I had surgery to lose weight and be healthy. And I did! -Lisa

I agree with Fiddleman 100% on this. You have to feed your metabolism, and spacing out your meals and Snacks every two to three hours, consuming quality carbs, Proteins and fats, will kick it up into high gear. Starving your body, fasting for long periods of time, makes your metabolism slow down to conserve energy. The more you feed it, the faster it burns it all away. I know it is time consuming to plan your meals, but it is a necessary evil to achieve what we all want to achieve--a skinnier, healthier version of ourselves.

Hi Globetrotter, how's it going so far? I know this method requires the most precious commodity- patience! It's tough, but it will be worth the sanity in the long run! I'd predict that you saw an increase initially, but hopefully it levels off as your body resets. Please keep us updated, and good luck!

You got that right! Eating all day from wake to sleep. Lol. Meals are generally 150 calories or less so the BMR really likes these small bursts of energy every 2-3 hours.

I remember the nurses after surgery complimenting me on my desire to get up and walk constantly. I was confused, because that's what we were told to do! They said that more often than not, bariatric patients wake up expecting to be skinny and have no desire to follow the guidelines. I was shocked to hear that, considering the risk, but some of the posts on here really prove it's true! The good thing is that they are on here trying to learn. The bad thing is that some give BAD advice to each other, and it's hard to tell who you should listen to until you've been around a while.

Keep going, you're doing great! If you are struggling on the last day, repeat the week until it gets easier! No shame in working our way up. I have 1 run left in week 6 but am kind of putting it off, because I've been weight training and biking, so my legs are a little tired. I never thought I'd be able to run like this! Keep it up! I encourage you to read about form and technique as much as possible. It's helped me a lot.

I am sharing this article as food for thought, especially for the slow losers! (The bottom line is to follow the Dr.'s instructions) Many people have found what works for them, but for those of us who feel like we are doing "everything right" and encounter frustrations, a little reading couldn't hurt:
This week, several people have brought a recent case-study to my attention and asked me for comment. In it, a 51 year old female began marathon training along with a (self-reported) low calorie diet and either appears to have gained weight or not lost weight (she also showed a very depressed metabolic rate, nearly 30% below predicted). By raising her calories gradually, her body fat (as measured by BIA) came down and her metabolic rate increased. Now, without more details, it’s hard to really comment on this and the link to the case study is the total amount of information available. But we’ve got an older (either post-menopausal or peri-menopausal) woman, undisclosed anti-depressant medication, self-reported food intake and a method of body fat measurement that is, at best, problematic (read Methods of Body Composition Measurement Part 2 for more details). Odd things happen metabolically around menopause, some medications can cause issues, food reporting is notoriously inaccurate and BIA isn’t ideal to track changes. Then again, the measured metabolic rate change is pretty interesting; something was going on. That said, I’ve mentioned in previous articles that one oddity that I’ve seen (and personally experienced) over the years is one where the combination of very large caloric deficits and very large amounts of activity (especially higher-intensity activity) can cause problems for people either stalling or slowing fat loss. Like my previous article on The LTDFLE, or Long-term Delayed Fat Loss Effect, this is one of those oddities that seems to crop up more often than you’d expect. It’s also one where there’s not a ton of research but I will happily provide a good bit of speculation on what I think may be going on. I’d also note that the combination of big caloric deficits and large amounts of activity clearly isn’t detrimental to everyone. Some folks can get away with it but, for many, it tends to backfire more than anything else. First, Some Background Back in my early 20′s, I remember a very specific client I had. She was a little bit, well, to be honest nuts. She was older, I think she had gone through menopause but I wouldn’t swear to that. In any case, she started working with me, determined to lose weight and immediately jumped into something like 2 hours of cardio per day and cut calories massively. She claimed 600 calories per day and I won’t even try to describe her diet; it was insane (Breakfast was supposedly one-half an egg and to this day I’m not entirely sure how you eat half an egg). Now, I didn’t know much at that point but I had this general idea that too much activity and too few calories was a bad thing. For weeks on end I entreated her to either cut her activity or raise her calories. She adamantly refused; how could that possibly work? I tried to point out that what she was doing wasn’t working either and she could hardly do worse by trying something different but that line of logic went nowhere. In any event, at one point she went on a cruise or a vacation or something. And what do you think she did? Exercised less and ate more like everybody does on vacation. And she came back something like 5 pounds lighter (some of which may very well have been The LTDFLE mind you). “See, see.” I told her, “You ate more and exercised less and good things happened.” And she immediately went back to a massive caloric deficit and over-exercising. But that’s how it goes sometimes. Later in my 20′s, mind you, I’d do the same thing during the now infamous Bodyopus experience (probably the singular experience that taught me what NOT to do during a fat loss diet). Frustrated by stalled fat loss (I had dieted far too long at that point in the first place), I worked even harder, cutting calories further and adding more activity. That coupled with some genuinely awful ‘carb-loads’ took fat loss to a standstill. In addition to those case studies, this is a phenomenon that I’ve seen elsewhere including the support forum, I imagine readers run into it constantly: people (frequently but not always women) who try to combine excessive caloric deficits with massive amounts of activity (often with a lot of that activity being high-intensity activity) and nothing is happening. And if you can get them to reduce activity (or just cut back the intensity to reasonable level) or increase calories, things invariably start to work better. . What’s Going On: Let’s Talk About Cortisol Cortisol is one of those hormones that I imagine everyone reading this has heard about and about which a lot of misinformation exists. Simply cortisol is a stress hormone, released by the body in response to nearly all kinds of stress. In the fitness/bodybuilding world, cortisol has gotten an almost exclusively negative reputation (cortisol is ‘bad’ in the way that testosterone and thyroid are ‘good’) although this is simplistically incorrect. Rather, whether cortisol does good things or bad things in the body depends on how it’s released. Simply (and I’d simply, ha ha, refer folks to Robert Sapolsky’s amazing book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers for a detailed look at this; I also talk about cortisol in The Stubborn Fat Solution), acute pulses of cortisol tend to do good things and be adaptive and chronic elevations in cortisol tend to be bad and be maladaptive. For example, the morning cortisol pulse helps to promote fat mobilization. In contrast, a chronic elevation of cortisol (especially in the face of high insulin levels) tend to promote visceral fat accumulation. As a non-fitness related topic, acute pulses of cortisol tend to be good for memory (why we often remember stressful situations in such detail) while chronic elevations (as often seen in depression) make memory go down the toilet. And there are endless other examples of where acute cortisol pulses are good and chronic elevations are bad; again see Sapolsky’s book for details. In any case, dieting in general is a stress. And of course training is a stress. And the more extreme you do of each, the more of a stress occurs. And I suspect that a lot of what is going on when folks try to combine excessive caloric deficits with massive amounts of activity is that cortisol just goes through the roof (there’s another issue I’ll come back to at the end that relates to this). Simply, you get these massive chronic elevations in cortisol levels. Tangentially, this is also one reason I suspect that various types of cyclical dieting help with some of this issue. For at least brief periods, when calories are raised to maintenance or above, you break the diet/training induced elevations in cortisol. This of course assumes that the person isn’t mentally stressed to the nines by raising calories like that but I’m getting ahead of myself. . So Why is This Bad? As noted above, chronic elevations in cortisol can cause a lot of bad things to happen. One of them is simply Water retention and I’ve mentioned in previous articles that water retention can mask fat loss, sometimes for extremely extended periods. I talked about this in some detail in The LTDFLE and suspect that some of the ‘fat loss’ is actually just water loss when calories are raised and cortisol mediated water retention dissipates. Reducing total training (volume, frequency, intensity or some combination) does the same thing. But that’s probably not all of what’s going on. Another effect of chronically elevated cortisol levels is leptin resistance in the brain. I’m not going to talk about leptin endlessly here again, you can read the Bodyweight Regulation Series for more information. When the normal leptin signal to the brain is blocked, a lot of things can go wrong metabolically and I suspect that this is part of the problem. In this vein, although not necessarily related to cortisol per se, at least one study found that the addition of 6 hours per week of aerobic activity to a very low calorie diet (in this case a Protein sparing modified fast) caused a larger decrement in metabolic rate than the diet alone. The body appears to monitor caloric availability (simplistically caloric intake minus output) and if it gets too low, bad things can happen. This is why I so strongly suggested AGAINST the inclusion of much cardio in The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook; it causes more harm than good. Invariably, the biggest source of failure on that plan is when people ignore my advice and try to do a bunch of cardio. And fat loss stops. In any case, there are several different plausible mechanisms by which the combination of excessive caloric deficits an large amounts of activity can cause problems. Whether it’s simply cortisol related water retention, a drop in metabolic rate due to leptin resistance or something else, something is going on. From a more practical standpoint, for a lot of people, the combination simply doesn’t work. Mind you, some seem to get away with it but not all. . An Additional Variable There is another variable that I have noticed over the years in looking at this issue. As odd as it sounds, it has to do with personality. In discussing this, for example, I’ve often noted that the people who seem to have the biggest issues with the whole lots of cardio/big caloric deficit tend to be a little bit ‘tightly wound’ (to put it politely). A bit less politely they are stress cases. You can almost ‘hear’ the stress in their typing. Every post has lots of exclamation points and there is this undercurrent of “I MUST LOSE FAT NOW!!!!!!” in their posts. When fat loss stalls for a day, they freak out and want to cut calories or go add another hour of cardio. You can almost ‘see’ the tension in them as they sit hammering at the keyboard looking for solutions. And this is an issue because these types of folks already over-secrete cortisol. As a true oddity, there is the issue of amenorrhea (loss of menstrual cycle). Typically it’s been thought to be related to body fat levels or caloric intake and this is a general cause. But there is often a type of amenorrhea seen in women without any of the normal predisposing factors. In this case, it’s all due to mental stress. Basically, there is a subset of folks who are already high-level stress cases. They tend to be drawn to harder is better in the first place, tend to be resistant to change (like my client from my early 20′s) and their already high level of cortisol production is simply amplified by the combination of too much activity and too few calories. And suggestions to raise calories and/or reduce activity are invariably met by resistance (again, like my client from ages ago). What they really need is to just chill the hell out. But invariably the approach that they are intuitively drawn to is the wrong one for them: moderate deficits and moderate activity always work better in those folks. It’s getting them to do it that’s the hard part. Tangentially, I suspect that the classic hardgainer is of a typical type but that’s another topic for another day. . Summing Up So that’s that, a look at one of the oddities of fat loss, the situation where the combination of excessive caloric deficits and excessive amounts of activity seem to hurt rather than help fat loss, along with some gross speculation (and just enough research to make it sound like I know what I’m talking about) on what may be going on. In a practical sense, of course, most of the background isn’t that relevant. The simple facts for the majority of folks is this: you can either cut calories hard OR do large amounts of activity. But you can’t do both. Well you can do both, you just probably shouldn’t under most circumstances. Share and Enjoy: Where am I: Blog > Fat loss > Physiology of Fat Loss > Why Big Caloric Deficits and Lots of Activity Can Hurt Fat Loss
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html
For those of us stressing over numbers but are feeling & looking better & healthier- Should we really chill the hell out?

What do you do to track everything? Everyone claims the numbers should add up, but most of us know that they don't! Have you had your RMR tested? Do you wear a HRM? Maybe getting a better look at your numbers would be helpful. 3 years and never going above 750 cals has undoubtedly crashed your metabolism. If you do extreme low carb, then it would make sense that eating more makes you gain, as you are restoring your body's glycogen stores. You said you tried to eat more, but you also said you never go above 750 cals. If you did try to eat more, did you slowly increase 50-100 cal per day every week for several weeks to allow your body to reach an equilibrium? What type of foods do you eat? Packaged or all whole foods? What are your macronutrient ratios? How much Water do you drink? There are lots of things to look at, but please don't be discouraged by those who are trying to let you know what worked for them. My questions are not to accuse you, but to dig for something that may help. I'm not a vet or an expert, but I do read a TON about TDEE, BMR, RMR, eating to fuel your workouts, and etc. If you're interested in more information, I would love to forward you the articles. I stopped losing when I started working out more. I slowly increased my calories to 20% below TDEE and have been losing steadily ever since (slowly), and I am OK with that. I chilled out on the cardio and added weight training, which is really changing my body. I wear a HRM 24-7 to keep a good grasp on my activity and log everything in MFP. I wish it wasn't necessary, but it helps keep me accountable. Nothing works the same for everyone, but I think people are sharing in an effort to be helpful, not to be put on a pedestal.

I eat 1200 calories a day and have lost over 100lbs. I don't want to eat less as all the studies and research to date shows eating less screws with the bodies metabolism. That's how I got obese in the first place, and I want to eat as normally and as healthily as possible.
I work out a minimum of three times a week and do a minimum of three hot yoga classes a week.
Weekends, or nights out, I will have a few wines and I make sure I burn those extra calories off by upping my work out to match. I use a polar watch and heart rate monitor when I work out to accurately measure the calories I burn.
All in all, I am living a really good life. I want to establish the patterns in my life now that will carry me through and ensure once I am in my goal weight range that I can maintain and stay in my goal weight range. Previously, for me, I could lose weight, usually by dropping to ridiculously low calorie levels and working out like a woman possessed, but I could never maintain and always put the weight back on plus more.
This is why I won't go under 1200 a day now. This is why I won't work out every day. Because I know these things are not maintainable for me in the long term.
Perhaps you may find your own loss is compromised by eating so few calories and working out as frequently? Maybe not. But I do know one thing. Don't freak out for eating calories well less than is recommended for an active adult female to eat in a day. Just let it go and move back to what is right for you tomorrow.

I do not have much to add to this thread, but I think it is important to try and achieve a state of equilibrium in the body.
You already know that eating at such low calorie deficits like 800 calories a day kills the BMR over time. You are able to fix this as others have pointed out on a different thread. Find your TDEE and work on increasing your caloric intake o be 200-300 calories below that with respect to the training/cardio you do. It will take some time to get your BMR back into an equilibrium state, but I think that is what you are really after.
BMR Equilibrium within the macronutrient ratios of eating will allow you to eat, for example, 1800 calories of good quality lean Proteins, leafy vegetables, good starches (think: brown rice or oats) and the occasional splurge. Your body will become a finely tuned engine for efficiently processing food 24 hours a day.
I do not count much of anything now days, but stick to a very solid and clean set of food choices that regulates my fat burning process around the clock. I eat enough to sustain my daily training sessions (always an hour or less). I try and make every training session high quality and effective. 6 am is usually a Protein shake and an energy square. An hour Before training (8am) I eat a banana with Peanut Butter. After training I eat a recovery Protein Shake (whey with bcaa chain). As my training is usually at 9am (M, W, F and Sat), I eat about 2 hours after training for lunch and then again at 3pm and so on all the way until 9 pm. Repeat. On T, Thur, I train at 4 pm so flip the morning eating strategy to afternoon in order to nourish my body before, during and after training. It works out pretty nicely and my body likes the food it gets.
For me, drinking high quality Protein shakes when I rise (extended release) and when I go to bed (casein - long acting) is important to start the day off right and to keep my BMR working for me all night long. I am rarely hungry as I eat every 2-3 hours. If I do get hungry in between my 2-3 hour eating times, I have some extra lean Protein. Each meal is between 200-500 calories. I am eating between 1400-2100 calories a day and am able to still cut the fat and build the lean muscle. My body fat percentage is currently at 17%. Shooting for 10% in 4 months from now, down 15 lbs of fat and up 5-10 lb of lean muscle. Not sure if 10% is achievable in 12 months, but will certainly give it my focus.
Once you reach a state of equilibrium, you will no longer need to be a slave to low carb or low calorie diets. Your body will stop trying to store whatever energy it can find. You can eat to live and stop the insanity of starvation dieting.
As others have stated, get your Water in! And lots of it.
Water is the primary means for us to hydrate and also to flush toxins out of our bodies. Toxins cause the breakdown of cells (oxidation process) which mutates otherwise good cells into Inefficient and mutant cells. Inefficient cells are terrible at supporting the transport of nutrients to muscles, the brain and other parts of the body. Eating to meet the macronutrient needs of the body requires a clean body to properly keep it running at optimal efficiency.
Toxicity in the body leads to inflammation. Inflammation leads to storage of more fat and more fat leads to the retention of water to support stored fat. More importantly, stored fat from inflammation is usually visceral fat around the organs. this is the worse kind to have as visceral fat is known to shorten life expectations.
By drinking or eating your daily antioxidants in the form of fruit, vegetables or supplementation, you can slow down and correct the cellular breakdown and create a healthy environment for the processing of nutrients in your body. Secondly, the waste and toxins formed by training hard or by eating processed foods and junk is a precursor to the inflammation process so you need to constantly be drinking water to flush it out. I drink about 1.5 gallon throughout the day. We all want to minimize of eliminate excess inflammation in the body to create a state of health.
This may seem like a full time job. At first it is, but it gets easier over time until eventually it is a lifestyle. I also do work a full time desk job that usually ends up being 12-15 hours in actuality a day ( luckily it is at home currently). I am a software developer by trade so can work some pretty long hours, but still I find one hour a day to get in exercise and also am able to manage the healthy lifestyle of eating and supplementation. I also still have a couple hours of down time at night and the weekends with family. It is very possible to have this lifestyle and also carry on with life's responsibilities. I do not really watch tv much, but do get out to some movies occasionally over the weekend. I do not have children, but do spend a lot of time with my pets. Love my dog to death!!
Sorry that my comments are quite general, but I think you can do this.

Your metabolism is shot. The years of maintaining a caloric deficit has screwed up your metabolism. The weight loss slows down or becomes harder to lose because your BMR has been slowly dropping and as months even years go by you starting eating a little more.
These online BMR calculators online are great tools but will not work for someone who has been eating at a caloric deficit for a while with a shot metabolism. You will need to get your BMR checked by a professional.
Once your know your BMR I would eat at a caloric deficit at not more than 500 calories a day. It will take you about 2 months to lose that 10 pounds but you wont ruin your metabolism any more if you do it this way.
Once your back to your goal weight slowly up your calories by about 150cal a day, hold your daily intake of 150 added for about a week or 2 then increase it by another 150 for another week or two. You want to slowly build your daily calorie intake to a healthy level approaching 2000cal. I know it sounds like a lot but slowly adding calories over time to your diet will boost your metabolism and get it working again. Once your metabolism is working as it should you can play with eating at caloric deficits to lose even more weight.
I believe you have to always be changing it up with your caloric and macro intakes or your body gets use to it. Eating at a caloric deficit for a long period of time is screwing up peoples metabolisms and when their BMR drops they wonder why the weight loss stops.I hear members trying to give advise but its rather simple actually. Your metabolism is shot from the long caloric deficit diet and its resulting in NO calorie deficit. They are eating barely anything and not losing weight. Lucky you can repair your metabolism.
I am a firm believer in refeeds, carb cycling and manipulating calories. I change up my caloric intakes every other day to keep my metabolism working hard.

That's great! I recently increased my calories while maintaining my workouts and started Losing again. I hope it continues, because I feel so much better working out. I can't live on 600 cal and watch my muscle waste away with the fat. I'm starting to see that leaning how to make better choices that I can stick with for life is MUCH more valuable that losing all my weight super fast along with my muscle. Not saying I don't wish it weren't going faster, but at least it's moving! You are doing AWESOME!! I've been reading a lot about BMR and TDEE. I plan to go that route when I get closer to goal. Eatmore2weighless.com

I am sharing this article as food for thought, especially for the slow losers! (The bottom line is to follow the Dr.'s instructions) Many people have found what works for them, but for those of us who feel like we are doing "everything right" and encounter frustrations, a little reading couldn't hurt:
This week, several people have brought a recent case-study to my attention and asked me for comment. In it, a 51 year old female began marathon training along with a (self-reported) low calorie diet and either appears to have gained weight or not lost weight (she also showed a very depressed metabolic rate, nearly 30% below predicted). By raising her calories gradually, her body fat (as measured by BIA) came down and her metabolic rate increased. Now, without more details, it’s hard to really comment on this and the link to the case study is the total amount of information available. But we’ve got an older (either post-menopausal or peri-menopausal) woman, undisclosed anti-depressant medication, self-reported food intake and a method of body fat measurement that is, at best, problematic (read Methods of Body Composition Measurement Part 2 for more details). Odd things happen metabolically around menopause, some medications can cause issues, food reporting is notoriously inaccurate and BIA isn’t ideal to track changes. Then again, the measured metabolic rate change is pretty interesting; something was going on. That said, I’ve mentioned in previous articles that one oddity that I’ve seen (and personally experienced) over the years is one where the combination of very large caloric deficits and very large amounts of activity (especially higher-intensity activity) can cause problems for people either stalling or slowing fat loss. Like my previous article on The LTDFLE, or Long-term Delayed Fat Loss Effect, this is one of those oddities that seems to crop up more often than you’d expect. It’s also one where there’s not a ton of research but I will happily provide a good bit of speculation on what I think may be going on. I’d also note that the combination of big caloric deficits and large amounts of activity clearly isn’t detrimental to everyone. Some folks can get away with it but, for many, it tends to backfire more than anything else. First, Some Background Back in my early 20′s, I remember a very specific client I had. She was a little bit, well, to be honest nuts. She was older, I think she had gone through menopause but I wouldn’t swear to that. In any case, she started working with me, determined to lose weight and immediately jumped into something like 2 hours of cardio per day and cut calories massively. She claimed 600 calories per day and I won’t even try to describe her diet; it was insane (Breakfast was supposedly one-half an egg and to this day I’m not entirely sure how you eat half an egg). Now, I didn’t know much at that point but I had this general idea that too much activity and too few calories was a bad thing. For weeks on end I entreated her to either cut her activity or raise her calories. She adamantly refused; how could that possibly work? I tried to point out that what she was doing wasn’t working either and she could hardly do worse by trying something different but that line of logic went nowhere. In any event, at one point she went on a cruise or a vacation or something. And what do you think she did? Exercised less and ate more like everybody does on vacation. And she came back something like 5 pounds lighter (some of which may very well have been The LTDFLE mind you). “See, see.” I told her, “You ate more and exercised less and good things happened.” And she immediately went back to a massive caloric deficit and over-exercising. But that’s how it goes sometimes. Later in my 20′s, mind you, I’d do the same thing during the now infamous Bodyopus experience (probably the singular experience that taught me what NOT to do during a fat loss diet). Frustrated by stalled fat loss (I had dieted far too long at that point in the first place), I worked even harder, cutting calories further and adding more activity. That coupled with some genuinely awful ‘carb-loads’ took fat loss to a standstill. In addition to those case studies, this is a phenomenon that I’ve seen elsewhere including the support forum, I imagine readers run into it constantly: people (frequently but not always women) who try to combine excessive caloric deficits with massive amounts of activity (often with a lot of that activity being high-intensity activity) and nothing is happening. And if you can get them to reduce activity (or just cut back the intensity to reasonable level) or increase calories, things invariably start to work better. . What’s Going On: Let’s Talk About Cortisol Cortisol is one of those hormones that I imagine everyone reading this has heard about and about which a lot of misinformation exists. Simply cortisol is a stress hormone, released by the body in response to nearly all kinds of stress. In the fitness/bodybuilding world, cortisol has gotten an almost exclusively negative reputation (cortisol is ‘bad’ in the way that testosterone and thyroid are ‘good’) although this is simplistically incorrect. Rather, whether cortisol does good things or bad things in the body depends on how it’s released. Simply (and I’d simply, ha ha, refer folks to Robert Sapolsky’s amazing book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers for a detailed look at this; I also talk about cortisol in The Stubborn Fat Solution), acute pulses of cortisol tend to do good things and be adaptive and chronic elevations in cortisol tend to be bad and be maladaptive. For example, the morning cortisol pulse helps to promote fat mobilization. In contrast, a chronic elevation of cortisol (especially in the face of high insulin levels) tend to promote visceral fat accumulation. As a non-fitness related topic, acute pulses of cortisol tend to be good for memory (why we often remember stressful situations in such detail) while chronic elevations (as often seen in depression) make memory go down the toilet. And there are endless other examples of where acute cortisol pulses are good and chronic elevations are bad; again see Sapolsky’s book for details. In any case, dieting in general is a stress. And of course training is a stress. And the more extreme you do of each, the more of a stress occurs. And I suspect that a lot of what is going on when folks try to combine excessive caloric deficits with massive amounts of activity is that cortisol just goes through the roof (there’s another issue I’ll come back to at the end that relates to this). Simply, you get these massive chronic elevations in cortisol levels. Tangentially, this is also one reason I suspect that various types of cyclical dieting help with some of this issue. For at least brief periods, when calories are raised to maintenance or above, you break the diet/training induced elevations in cortisol. This of course assumes that the person isn’t mentally stressed to the nines by raising calories like that but I’m getting ahead of myself. . So Why is This Bad? As noted above, chronic elevations in cortisol can cause a lot of bad things to happen. One of them is simply Water retention and I’ve mentioned in previous articles that water retention can mask fat loss, sometimes for extremely extended periods. I talked about this in some detail in The LTDFLE and suspect that some of the ‘fat loss’ is actually just water loss when calories are raised and cortisol mediated water retention dissipates. Reducing total training (volume, frequency, intensity or some combination) does the same thing. But that’s probably not all of what’s going on. Another effect of chronically elevated cortisol levels is leptin resistance in the brain. I’m not going to talk about leptin endlessly here again, you can read the Bodyweight Regulation Series for more information. When the normal leptin signal to the brain is blocked, a lot of things can go wrong metabolically and I suspect that this is part of the problem. In this vein, although not necessarily related to cortisol per se, at least one study found that the addition of 6 hours per week of aerobic activity to a very low calorie diet (in this case a Protein sparing modified fast) caused a larger decrement in metabolic rate than the diet alone. The body appears to monitor caloric availability (simplistically caloric intake minus output) and if it gets too low, bad things can happen. This is why I so strongly suggested AGAINST the inclusion of much cardio in The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook; it causes more harm than good. Invariably, the biggest source of failure on that plan is when people ignore my advice and try to do a bunch of cardio. And fat loss stops. In any case, there are several different plausible mechanisms by which the combination of excessive caloric deficits an large amounts of activity can cause problems. Whether it’s simply cortisol related water retention, a drop in metabolic rate due to leptin resistance or something else, something is going on. From a more practical standpoint, for a lot of people, the combination simply doesn’t work. Mind you, some seem to get away with it but not all. . An Additional Variable There is another variable that I have noticed over the years in looking at this issue. As odd as it sounds, it has to do with personality. In discussing this, for example, I’ve often noted that the people who seem to have the biggest issues with the whole lots of cardio/big caloric deficit tend to be a little bit ‘tightly wound’ (to put it politely). A bit less politely they are stress cases. You can almost ‘hear’ the stress in their typing. Every post has lots of exclamation points and there is this undercurrent of “I MUST LOSE FAT NOW!!!!!!” in their posts. When fat loss stalls for a day, they freak out and want to cut calories or go add another hour of cardio. You can almost ‘see’ the tension in them as they sit hammering at the keyboard looking for solutions. And this is an issue because these types of folks already over-secrete cortisol. As a true oddity, there is the issue of amenorrhea (loss of menstrual cycle). Typically it’s been thought to be related to body fat levels or caloric intake and this is a general cause. But there is often a type of amenorrhea seen in women without any of the normal predisposing factors. In this case, it’s all due to mental stress. Basically, there is a subset of folks who are already high-level stress cases. They tend to be drawn to harder is better in the first place, tend to be resistant to change (like my client from my early 20′s) and their already high level of cortisol production is simply amplified by the combination of too much activity and too few calories. And suggestions to raise calories and/or reduce activity are invariably met by resistance (again, like my client from ages ago). What they really need is to just chill the hell out. But invariably the approach that they are intuitively drawn to is the wrong one for them: moderate deficits and moderate activity always work better in those folks. It’s getting them to do it that’s the hard part. Tangentially, I suspect that the classic hardgainer is of a typical type but that’s another topic for another day. . Summing Up So that’s that, a look at one of the oddities of fat loss, the situation where the combination of excessive caloric deficits and excessive amounts of activity seem to hurt rather than help fat loss, along with some gross speculation (and just enough research to make it sound like I know what I’m talking about) on what may be going on. In a practical sense, of course, most of the background isn’t that relevant. The simple facts for the majority of folks is this: you can either cut calories hard OR do large amounts of activity. But you can’t do both. Well you can do both, you just probably shouldn’t under most circumstances. Share and Enjoy: Where am I: Blog > Fat loss > Physiology of Fat Loss > Why Big Caloric Deficits and Lots of Activity Can Hurt Fat Loss
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html
For those of us stressing over numbers but are feeling & looking better & healthier- Should we really chill the hell out?

Great idea! I was just reading this today if you'd like to look: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/womans_lean_sexy_bible.htm
There are lots of forums on MFP including: "eat more to weigh less" and "in place of a road map." Interesting reads and advice from people maintaining at TDEE and mostly strength training.

Quest bars. Short ingredient list. Low sugar & carbs, too. Be careful, they can be addictive!