The stroke of brillance happened like it normally does - instantly, like a smack upside the head.
It dawned on me that if the formula for losing weight is to burn up more fuel than you take in, then I need to know what the numbers are. That way I can figure out what I need to do to keep the weight coming off in the best manner possible. It's just a matter of mathematics. No fad diets, no half hearted guesses or uneducated assumptions. Just numbers, in black and white.
So I went to my trusty Google and came up with several very useful links. I learned something that was not only interesting, but really good news too. Turns out, for what I weigh I can eat more than I have allowed myself. To maintain my weight I have to take in 2800 calories per day. To lose 1 lb a week, I have to decrease that number by 500, and the MOST I should cut it by is 1000 calories. If I cut it too drastically, then my body shifts into starvation mode and I could end up storing fat instead of burning it. (i.e. hitting those aggrevating walls)
So this means that I can raise my caloric intake to 1800 (woo woo!). With what I burn on my walks (about 130 calories), and adding in some weight training to build muscle mass, I should be able to maintain a 2 lb weight loss per week. I've learned that building muscle mass actually aids fat burning by increasing your metabolism.
So if this is true, you really can eat your way to being thin. I'll weigh in tomorrow to see where I'm at, and then weigh in a week from now to see how this "diet" stands up against the 1500 calorie diet. And if this works, and isn't as painfully drastic as I thought it needed to be, that smack upside the head came just in the nick of time.
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