Paleo Judy's Journal, 28 Apr 21

It’s odd that 1400 isn’t doing it for you, it must be well under your maintenance calories. I’ll be interested to see what new recipes you find. Hope the migraine better soon. 

Yes, I'm not sure what is happening with the RDI of 1400 calories. I have put my details in on a maintenance calculator and it says 1640 for little or no exercise and 1913 when I put in light exercise 2 or 3 times a week. It does say the calories may be less than this if you have recently lost weight, because the body can adapt to the new level of calorie intake. From the graph on FatSecret, it looks like I am mostly maintaining at 1400 calories. When I go over the 1400, I put on weight. Leaves me in a bit of a quandary about whether to do things to try to boost my metabolism, such as extra protein and exercise, or whether to take the calories down to about 1000 to 1200 calories. 

Have you thought about switching it up across the week? I do 800 twice a week but then 2000 on Fri and Sat which still averages 1400. Maybe the fasting/refeeding pattern has some benefits . 

Hi...1000 to 1200 calories seems really excessive. Have you tried 1800 calories a day and 16/8 intermittent fasting? 

Thank you both for your suggestions. I think the answer to my problem probably lies in the maths. If I'm honest, I do go over quite a bit. If I look at the latest page on the calendar, I went over 6 times out of 20, so about a third. I also go under quite a bit, but maybe not by as much as I go over. Think if I aim just a little bit lower and try to be more consistent, that might do the job. I have gone down as far as 800 calories in the past, but only on days when i feel OK about it because I'm not so hungry i.e. usually because I've eaten everything in sight the day before. Don't think I've got the willpower for the Fast Diet or frequent fasting, but the 16/8 idea might be worth trying i.e. keeping to a window of 8 hours and not snacking late at night. Trouble is I don't like feeling hungry, so I always reach for something to eat. Just want 3 balanced meals and a couple of snacks (usually a chocolate and packet of crisps) every day and not to feel hungry, with some little bits of walking or very light exercise. Let's face it, if I'm not losing weight, I'm probably filling my face too much and sitting around watching TV! 

Hello, I had the exact the same problem like you. Even eating 1200 kg a day I don't lose weight and I walked 105 km so far this month. However, when I calculate the amount of carb and fast sugar (biscuits, chocolate) I reached 60-85 g of sugar à day!!!!!!!! While the maximum amount is 25g so cutting down rubbish will help for sure!! Good luck :)  

Put it this way 1200 or below is not good or healthy at all. More than likely, you’re eating more than you think. Ready made meals that say 400 etc regardless if supermarket or weight watchers aren’t exactly that, sometimes they can be like up to 20% more (or less). Same with any food really. That’s why packaged stuff is risky, you could eat a full 100g choc bar thinking oh it’s 550kcal that’ll to my dinner but it may in fact be 115g which then adds an extra 15% on. 1200 though- that’s what a toddler is recommended to have. So just be careful for health reason :) stay safe For instance- not all slices of bread in a loaf are the same size and thus calories.  

100% I agree- I just wanted to note that often what people think they’re eating is easily overestimated. But in all honesty the rule of 80/20 is what I live by. Whole foods and occasionally packaged sweet stuff. After all, chocolate bars etc don’t grow from the earth. Hoping people’s journeys are well!! 

Thank you everyone for all the advice. Manou I mostly eat fresh food, so the sugars will mainly lurk in snacks, sodas and salad dressings. I've had a look through and don't think I'm doing too badly on added sugars. Worst was Old Jamaica Ginger Beer at 16g per can, which would be about 4 teaspoons of sugar. The only snack I've been having lately is Kind dark chocolate, nuts and sea salt, which isn't too bad at 5.7g sugar. Will keep an eye on this in future. Valson think it's a valid point that it introduces more of an element of doubt if you have any processed foods. Tricky when you have to lose weight but at the same time not go too low on calories. I actually think it's OK to confuse your body by switching about. Seems to work well for a lot of people. Splashjordan the point about being accurate is valid. It's true that if you estimate it will be less accurate. Spanish Fat Fairy Will bear the hypnosis in mind. Not sure about the chocolate and cheesecake though. Janus Woman I do think it's good for your metabolism to switch about. For me, I'll be better just going up or down when I feel like it. It was good to point out that the RDI was well below the official maintenance level, because it made me look at my own maintenance level on an app. I was amazed how much difference it makes to include 2-3 days with some light exercise, so I'll have to put some fitness videos on and do a bit of jumping about. Steelydan: Think the idea of not eating too late in the evening is something I could try. It's a matter of getting into a routine. Anyway - given me plenty to think about. Hopefully will get some improvement. Think my main problem has been that little shifts above RDI and little shifts below RDI have probably cancelled each other out.