Alright so I'll admit my subject line was a little dramatic, but it's important.
Many of the oh so wise ladies on here have really pushed the importance of the balance between exercise and diet. They also really promote calorie counting which is SO important. I'm here to back up their wise words with my personal experience.
I started a large lifestyle change January 4th adding in 4-6 hours of cardio and 2 hrs of strength training per week. I also started tracking my calories at the same time. After about 6 weeks of working out quite a bit and seeing little change on the scale and little change in my measurements (taking both is very important), I was frustrated.
I examined my caloric intake over that time and realized that my calorie defecit was much larger than it should have been. In order to sustain my body and carry out that much exercise and lose weight at a rate of 1 pound per week I should have been eating 1900-2200 calories a day, I had been eating about 1300.
The last two weeks I started eating what was reccomended for me (1900-2200 calories/day) and low and behold the weight has started coming off. 4 pounds in the last week. I realize that its hard to draw a large conclusion off such a short amount of time but I can feel in my body that I'm getting enough food to function/exercise as well as start to see some progress.
Anyway, I just wanted to share because I think when we're not losing weight we think okay eat less, and that's not always the best idea. If you aren't eating enough your body goes into starvation mode.
