Adding It All Up

After about two weeks of counting calories my weight is down by about 2 pounds.

On the surface this makes no sense, because I'm not really changing the way I eat, only started counting and measuring and weighing what I'm eating to try to figure some things out. I even had at least one night of drunken pizza eating in there.

Even though I haven't really changed what/how much I'm eating, and my calorie intake is roughly the same each day, I have learned a few things and started trying to address them, and I guess that's what's making the difference.

I had a tendency to not eat much/enough early in the day, which led to overly-hungry afternoon snacking and a bigger dinner, so I was having a huge influx of calories at the very end of the day. This was immediately apparent once I started writing everything down, and I've made a conscious effort to spread the calories out over the day.

The majority of the time my portions are right on the money - 1 oz of cheese, 1 slice of whole wheat bread, 1 tbsp mayo, etc. But I did find a handful of items I eat on a regular basis where the serving size has crept up a bit (e.g. my ounce of walnuts had crept up to more like 1.5 oz), and those few extra calories here and there can add up to a bunch. Now that I've spent some time with the ol' diet scale on the counter I've gotten a solid refresher course in portion size.

I also have a theory that perhaps it's time to cut down the total number, even though it's technically realistic. I started thinking about it and I've been eating the same (relatively healthy, moderate) diet since I started losing weight. I've lost 40 pounds... I kind of forgot at some point my body needs less because it's smaller now. So, even though I'm eating what would be recommended for someone my size, it's not necessarily right for someone my size who's body has gotten used to that level of caloric intake after several years of losing weight at that level.

Haven't had the extra cash to blow on a nutrition consult, so I'm going to pull back just a little (maybe 200 a day), keep counting and see what the scale says.