Hey guys! I have a question!

I'll reply to both of you here. I tried to write an abbreviated version of events so I could get my question out there but ....apparently, that just raised more questions! I have been menopausal for almost two years. After not having a period for a year and a half, I got it again twice over the summer. Up to that point, I looked great, felt great, everything was going well eating and exercise-wise. But that threw me back into the cycle of bloating and cravings that took forever to get through. So I started keeping track of my calories again and writing my food and exercise down in mynetdiary.com. I really like that app. Both my husband and I use it. I put in for a weight loss of about 5 pounds, the proverbial 5 lbs! I got my target calories for that, which was about 1500 a day. After a few weeks, I hadn't lost a pound. I started exploring changes in weight loss and metabolism, etc and came across an excellent article in Muscle & Fitness about when to eat, what to eat, etc. everything we all know but it was in a good, concise format. So I changed up some of my food, stopped eating 3 hours before bedtime, and got on the scale after a week and found I had gained 2 lbs! It was probably just a coincidence but still .... So I thought maybe I was eating too many calories for my age. Maybe at 56 I should eat fewer calories than at 46. I found a great site and the difference was about 100 calories a day. On that site, they talked about breaking plateaus, etc, and I saw the article on zig zagging calories. It's the same amount of calories over the course of the week, just broken up into mostly average days with 2 higher days in there. I started that this week and lost the 2 pounds. Coincidence? I have no idea! Lol. My BMR is around 1580. I had it tested when those first came out and I'm sure it's about the same. If anything, maybe it's off 100 calories due to aging but I don't know, I am still extremely active throughout the day. I work outside, wash my own car, walk the dog a couple of times, sometimes more, clean the house, do projects around the house, etc. On top of that, I work out 5 to 6 days a week, alternating an hour of Zumba, Zumba with weights, and a sort of Pilates workout with weights. My diet has been very clean the last 6 weeks or so. My weak spot is sweets but I haven't even been eating those the last few weeks. I have stuff in the house right now and I'm not even interested in eating it! So with all that said, it struck me that if I'm going to have days that average about 1200 to 1300 calories and 2 days that go between 1500 and 1800, should I be adding those workout caloires burned in on the high calorie days. If I don't, doesn't it just make it all low, then lower calorie days, defeating the whole purpose? The calories burned are estimates, I guess, on the site but they seem fairly reasonable. Some Zumba is about 350 calories and some is up to about 500 calories for an hour. Walking the dog is like 120 or so. Nothing that really jumps out as extreme. See, all this is what I was trying to save you from!!

Well, the thing is, if I go up 5 lbs now, then in a few months or whenever, it's another 5, then another 5. I don't know if it's a combination of the time of life, thyroid stuff and the insulin resistance but if I don't keep things under control, I'll be put of shape and overweight in the blink of an eye. So I guess it's more of a maintainence thing rather than a "I have to look better than I've ever looked in my life" thing. The Zumba cardio DVDs are really challenging in the latest set. The weights, not so much but I can't do what I used to do with weights. It hurts my joints too much so I stay with light weights, high reps on upper body stuff, just to keep myself from getting jiggly all over. Lol! And it works for me. If you saw me, you'd say I looked great. And I do look great! that's kind of my point. I'm not freaking out over trying to lose weight or anything, I just want to make sure I stay in shape, lose a few pounds when I need to, challenge myself when I can. That's all. The calorie thing, it kind of makes sense to me. I'm 56. I've been working out regularly since I was 15. I'm not athletic or anything. I didnt play any sports but I've always worked out, cardio and weights, being active etc. and I bet I've always weighted more or less the same thing all my life although I probably never weighed myself at all in my 30's and most of 40's. And even with the thyroid thing and the insulin resistance, I take medication for it so maybe it's close to a level playing field with someone who doesn't have those things. So it makes sense to me that my metabolism just hums along no matter what I do, because everything I do is always within the same range. And really, at this point in my life, I'm not going to be making any big changes in my physical activities. So if it shakes my body up a bit to eat, say 1300 calories for 3 days, then 1500 the next, then 1800 the next, then back to 1300, it makes sense. It has to work a little harder to burn those extra calories. I appreciate being able to talk to you about it! Who else am I going to talk to?! Lol! I'm glad you're still here.

Yes, FSN, I have been watching my glycemic index and limiting any sweets, basically to zero! Lol! I really have to. Like I mentioned to Jean, I can eat whatever I want for a couple of week's or so but then I really need to reign everything back in. It's really HARD to eat a lot of calories when you only eat healthy calories. I was trying to eat about 1800 calories yesterday and it took quite a bit of food. If I had just eaten an ice cream sundae with a brownie, I would have made it in no time. Lol I will try to stick around. There isn't anyone to talk about this stuff with here in the outside world. )