Shirls at Shirls Spot recently asked how I decided how many calories to eat each day. I thought I'd share what I told her. By the way Shirls has lost over a 100 pounds which I think is fantastic and she has a great blog...so be sure to check it out...it is one of my daily reads.I've read that the number of calories it takes to maintain resting body weight is your weight times 10. Your resting body is your body asleep...or laying down 24/7. The resultant number is the RMR or resting metabolic rate.
So, I decided what I wanted to weigh for the rest of my life, multiplied it by 10 and made sure I ate, on average, that number of calories. Because I weigh more than my desired life time weight I am losing weight. Eventually I will quit losing and maintain that weight...on the same number of calories.
There will be no maintenance phase because I'm already eating the maintenance calories for my desired weight to lose the excess weight.
Because this number of calories is generally higher than most diets it is easier to sustain. Good thing too since it's the amount of calories I need to eat for life it I want to stay at a stable weight.
There is a big possibility that once I reach my desired lifetime weight I may actually be able to increase my calories without gaining. Why? Because I don't sleep all day....I move around and do stuff...so theoretically I'm burning more than my RMR.
When I came up with this idea, I thought to myself, why hasn't anyone else done this? Guess what...they have. I found a book at Books A Million written by a mother and daughter who had failed at every diet and were desperate for something that would work. They concluded that they'd have to come up with their own plan since they hadn't any success on other plans. As I perused the book I discovered they did the same as I---ate the number of calories it would take to maintain their desired weight---and their result was the same as mine---they lost the excess weight.
I wish I'd jotted down the title of the book so I could share it with you, but I didn't. Perhaps I can find it next time I'm at BAM. The book was in the diet/ nutrition section of the store.
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Shirls shared a beverage idea with me and I loved it, so am sharing it here. It's called London Fog. I love the name. Simply, it's steamed milk, frothed, and then Earl Grey tea is added and steeped in it. I made it today and it was yummo. Earl Grey is probably my favorite tea so I was pretty sure I'd love it. And I did.