More progress... in ounces... but at least it is progress. I lost a half pound today. I am now 15.75 pounds from my ultimate goal. I am wearing a fitted blouse that I have not been able to wear for a long time, so that feels good.

I am calculating daily calorie intake just to keep track of what I am actually eating from a more technical perspective. It is averaging about 1000 calories a day. Using an online calorie calculator (http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm), I determined that to lose weight slowly I could eat up to 1400 calories per day and to lose weight quickly, I could eat up to 1100 calories per day. For my current weight, the site recommends losing 1 to 2 pounds a week. The extreme weight loss rate is considered acceptable for people who are extremely obese and need to lose a large amount of weight. I'm not so sure I agree with that, having on more than one occasion been extremely overweight. When a person is extremely overweight, it is MUCH harder to reduce the volume of eating to such a minimal level, without feeling hungry and becoming light-headed and experiencing overall weakness. This makes it much more difficult to stick with a eating program and experience enough satiation to stay with the program. I am not endorsing the site nor does it appear to be a scholarly site. It simply had a weight calculator that was convenient and easy to use.

The calculator also says that my daily need to maintain my current weight is 1700 calories. Since a pound of body fat equates to 3500 hundred calories, and I am eating 1800 fewer than that per day, I should losing one pound every two days!  Clearly, that is not happening so what's wrong with all these values and calculations?  As I said in previous postings, I sincerely believe that my body is extremely resistance to shedding fat due to the many diets I have been on over the years, my body's ability to process food and use its energy very efficiently, and my genetic background of coming from obese ancestors.