Week 17 Progress Report: Should I Keep Cutting My Calorie Budget?

Sorry I’m late again; I’ve overslept the last couple of days. First, the weekly progress report:

Starting Weight:	256.4
Original Target*:	272.0
Adjusted Target:	254.6
Actual Weight:	254.0
Loss/Gain:	– 2.4
Total Loss:	48.6
% of Goal:	35.1%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.9
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

As you can tell from the monthly progress chart, the scale says I went backward near the end of the week, but I still ended up doing better than my planned loss rate.

Yesterday was the end of the plan month. Here are the numbers:

Starting Weight:	262.4
Target Weight:	254.4
Actual Weight:	253.8
Loss/Gain:	– 8.6
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.0

Overall, I think I’m doing better. Yes, I still tend to take advantage of my daily steps and weekly bowling because subtracting the calories burned gives me leeway on the budget. But the most that gives me is about 240 extra calories on a busy day (about 400 on a busy Sunday).

Last night, for instance, I overdid it a bit on dinner — at least, as close as I could estimate it — so I ended the day without my usual bedtime snack to keep the numbers in the green. (Besides, I still felt full by bedtime, so it was no hardship.) When I weighed in this morning, I’d lost 0.8 pounds, so I figure my estimate was a little high but good.

Speaking of this morning’s weigh-in: Going below 254 put my calorie budget under 1,700 kcal/day. A 56-year-old man, 5'8", weighing 158 pounds needs about 1,838 kcal/day for a sedentary lifestyle (your mileage may vary). So in theory, I could stop subtracting from the budget right now and eat as though I were already at my goal weight, and still lose weight. Of course, the loss rate would slow over time until I would be losing less than a pound per month, but I could do that. I could eat like I’m doing for the rest of my life.

However, I still plan to continue reducing my intake until my budget hits 1,500 kcal/day, after which I’ll continue to eat at least that much for health reasons. I’m trying to find the balance point between the patience necessary to stick it out and the impatience needed to keep losing at a trackable, dependable rate per week. At some point, the rate will probably taper off because 1) as I lose weight, activity burns fewer calories per minute, and 2) I can’t feature myself turning into an exercise junkie. But if I stick at 1,500 kcal/day and my current activity level, the lowest the rate would drop would be to about 2.5 lbs./month, or just over 0.6 lbs./week. By that time, I’d be at my posted goal … most likely below it.

Having said that, I tend to be an improviser rather than a planner. So what I actually will do when the time comes may be different. In the meantime, as of today, I’m so close to the 50-pound mark that actually checking the box may be a bit of a let-down. But I’m also that much closer to another intermediate goal, < 250 pounds by Sept. 1. As Jesus said, today’s troubles are enough for today; tomorrow will bring its own.