Saturday, July 22, 2023

Week 1 Maintenance Completed!

I completed my first week eating at my desired maintenance of close to 2300 calories a day!  The actual average was 2265 calories.  This was one of the scariest things I've ever had to do. I overcame a lot of fear this week with food and eating. I trusted the science (even though it's a theory lol) and forged ahead day after day so scared I'd end up a whale at the end of this week.

Not only did I not end up a whale but I shrank across my body!!

-1/4 inch Neck
-1/4 inch Bust
-1/4 inch Waist
-1/4 inch High Hip

I did gain in some unimportant places - +1/4 inch under bust and +1/4 inch in calf. I imagine the under bust is just from the sheer amount of extra food my body is processing. The calf is probably from the intense leg workout Thursday night and the hill climbing from yesterday's hike.

On my old scale I stayed the same at 158. On my fancy new smart scale, I am up exactly 1.0 pounds at 163.0. And that is most definitely the extra food and its glycogen stores of water.

To say I'm ecstatic is actually an understatement!! To know I can eat at the maintenance I desire is pure bliss to me. Here are my actual calories for each day of this past week:

Saturday - 2302
Sunday - 2170
Monday - 2144
Tuesday - 2324
Wednesday - 2300
Thursday - 2321
Friday - 2297

I decided to continue another week at maintenance before I start my cut in August for 3 weeks where I'll drop down to 1800 calories. Then I will do maintenance for a week after that before my next cut. You can read more about this in my post on the MATADOR study here: https://www.morethanjustpounds.com/2023/07/the-matador-study.html

I now have an exit ramp for when I'm done losing and I feel safer because we can't stay at the deficit forever or it becomes our new maintenance level and I don't know about you but this girl is not going to be stuck eating little!



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