Weight loss: getting it right...?

[Crankin]

I am barely 5' 1" and I don't think I could survive on 900 calories, either. I am not really strict about counting, but I would say I eat about 2,000 a day, maybe 1800 on days when I don't exercise. As I get older, it's definite balance of the kind of exercise I do, the intensity, and how many carbs I eat.
The only time in my life I had to lose weight (other than after my pregnancies) I lost 25 pounds by changing the way I ate (no junk food, not too much meat, lots of fruits and veggies) and starting to exercise. But, that exercise was mild compared to what I do now. I've never gone back to "bad" eating, but I go out a lot and I love to cook. For years, I controlled my weight by intense exercise, but that doesn't work so much now; I need to pay attention to the food part of the equation.

[Catrin]

I am 5'3 in my stocking feet, and if my net calorie intake drops below 1200 calories, even when not exercising, I will either gain weight or just stop losing. With exercise I need to be careful to not allow my net calories to drop much below that - I know my HRM calorie calculation is an approximation so I assume that it runs 20% high on calorie use estimation and proceed accordingly.

Goldfinch, have you had a chance to discuss this with a dietitian? Obviously you are reaching your weight loss goals, but you want to make certain you aren't setting yourself up for any long-term issues with consuming too few calories for your activities. Everyone is different of course, but I would be starving if I only had 1,200 calories on a day when I had rode 10 miles, let along longer. Consuming too few calories can lead to your body burning muscle and you don't want that.

For me, after loosing 55 pounds in a little over a year, my weight loss has slowed to an agonizing speed - which means I have to focus even more on the content of my calories as well as the number of them.