I Lost 40 Pounds

In the last two weeks I have noticed that my weight loss is slowing down. I spoke with a nutritionist about that, and she told me that now that I am getting so much closer to my "goal" weight (I don't have it set in stone, though; I realize that it's emotionally healthier to accept what I can reasonably achieve and feel satisfied with it), my weight loss will not be as swift as when I was obese (wow, I'm not obese anymore). Proportionally, my daily caloric intake to maintain current weight is much closer to my future caloric intake required to maintain a more ideal weight than when I was 40 pounds heavier. 

I admit that I feel a little disappointed that the pounds are not "melting" away as they did in the first 150 days of my diet. I figured that I was losing the equivalent of one stick of butter every four days, and I impressed myself with that. Now it takes me about a week to lose that, still not too shabby. I want to keep it off, so naturally calorie counting and averaging is as important now as it was on Feb. 6, when I started my diet. My current average is 1544 calories per day. That number is much closer to the calories I'd need to maintain the goal weight. Then I'll need about 1943 calories per day. When I began my diet, I would have needed closer to 3,000 calories per day, but at that time I was eating only about one-half the calories I needed for maintenance. It makes sense that I was losing weight so quickly because maintaining my obesity required so much more food consumption. I expect that I will reach my goal around the winter holidays, and maybe into the year 2012. Come back and visit to see how I'm doing.