1200 calories

Today, a friend shared this blog link with me... and I wanted to share it with the world because the woman who wrote it makes a LOT of sense.
http://sophieologie.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/1200-calories/
GREAT post.


Almost a year ago now, I moved to Chicago and thought I should shape up...that was really the start of this weightloss journey. I joined a gym right away! After being in the city for about a month, through friends, I met a trainer who told me to use the MyFitnessPal ap to track my calories and that it would help me lose weight. When I used that ap, I did the max of everything as I was determined to be strict and lose weight as quickly as I could (in a healthy way, I thought). When I started, I was 196 lbs (I'm 5'9.5") and the ap told me to eat 1200 calories, net, a day... so, it would allow me to add in my exercise (at least cardio) and I could intake those calories as well. The HIIT workouts I learned from that trainer were great and I had fun, and at least felt like I was doing something right... but I wasn't losing any weight. I was also ALWAYS hungry. I had more trouble sleeping than normal and it just wasn't working. At New Years, when everyone else in the world was promising themselves weight loss, I was just depressed.
So...some time passed... I went out to Utah for my best friend's wedding at the end of March. When I returned to the MidWest I saw a few of the photos from the party and didn't know the face I was looking at. The face of the girl I thought I'd put to rest back in 2008 (when I went from 215 to 160...just dieting). So I decided it was time to finally eliminate that stranger and get back the ATHLETE piece of my identity.

...most of you know how then I got injured but I did whatever cardio I could do (I'll write another entry about this error later), but my REAL breakthroughs and BEST progress with losing fat came when I met LGR and he told me I wasn't eating enough. I got to eat more and I was lifting weights without being afraid of muscle.

This year, I lost 30+ pounds of fat... I really don't know exactly how much fat I lost, but what I can tell you is that I've lost over 15% body fat.