Originally Posted by
cyccommute
. A recent study...I can't find it right now...says that weight loss is difficult to maintain because the body will utilize all of it's mechanisms to get back to the previous equilibrium even years later. In other words, you'll have to maintain a lower caloric input than a person who didn't gain weight just to maintain the weight loss.
Yes, I have read the studies too. I sometimes use the example of a friend of mine who is about my size but never has gained weight. She has always worn the same size clothes as she did when we were in college together in the early 70s. Late last fall we went to a restaurant together and had the same meal. She was stuffed and said she felt bloated after the meal. I said I could have eaten the same meal twice. I did not feel full and certainly not bloated.
Because I am countering biology I think using tools like Tony discusses very helpful. Daily weighing and calorie counting and watching trends to catch myself before I am lost. What I am struggling with right now is building strength. I do not like to see the scale go up but I might have to allow a bit of that to increase my lean body mass. I am sure that I still have too high a fat to muscle ratio. It has been harder than I thought it would be to judge how much to eat when there is no real good way to measure body lean vs. fat mass beyond taking body measurements and judging strength. Is the scale trending up slightly because I am getting fat? Or because I am getting more muscle mass? That will be the issue.