12W12S2P: Under

As of my weigh-in yesterday morning, I now weigh 199.5 lbs. This is the first time that I have weighed under 200 lbs. in at least 5 years, and possibly in ten. This is, to put it mildly, a Big Damn Deal.

And I'm still not particularly happy about it.

Right now I am just not keeping up the pace I think I should be -- the LoseIt! plan I am following is the 2-pound-a-week plan. It is telling me I should be eating 1,202 calories per day or less, and even on the days when I don't exercise, I am usually well under that number. Over the last 10 days (not counting today), I have averaged 1,069 calories a day. Twice I was under 1,000 calories. This is not very many calories. I should be losing weight at a good clip.

But yet I am only averaging around a pound lost per week. This is still fine, I suppose, but it's not what I am hoping for. And I have been thinking recently that once I got under 1,200 calories allowed per day, I was going to switch over to the 1½-pound-a-week plan. It would allow me more calories, something closer to a "maintenance" plan -- gradually work my way back up to eating "normally" and take my time with the transition. It would have delayed my reaching my goal weight, but I figured it would make it easier for me to keep the weight off.

I'm not sure what to think about everything now. Part of me thinks that the reason why my weight loss has stalled out somewhat is because I am so restricted -- is my body going into "starvation" mode? If I switch over to the 1½-pound-plan, I'll get about 250 extra calories a day. Will that give me a boost, kickstart the weight loss again? I have heard of that working for other people. Will it work for me too?

I haven't decided yet, and I'm afraid to experiment just yet. For the time being -- or until I lose some more weight, I guess -- to stick with the plan I have in place, and see where it takes me. Obviously I'd still like to keep losing 2 lbs. a week, but I'll take what I can get.