Oh, and, if you’re looking for healthy, low calorie food that will work well for your itty bitty (and hopefully temporary) calorie consumption? Commonsense says fruits and vegetables and lean meats and low calorie starches are what you aim for…not 1200 calories in chips ahoy. Eating 1200 calories in chips ahow would be what a dumb, failure-bound person would do. Don’t be dumb and failure-bound when you are trying to be an accomplished goal-achiever.

One last thought, if you consume roughly 2000 calories per day for the rest of your life, it’d take 2-3 years, but you would lose all of the weight that makes you over weight, and level out at the perfect weight for you - probably a weight that’s at the lower end of your goal. Do you hve patience to wait for a couple years? Most people don’t, so they spend hundreds on gimmicks, just to find themselves chunky, still, after 2-3 years. Oh, if they would’ve only had the patience and discipline. In addition, if you consume 1200-1500 calories per day while reaching your goal, this DOES NOT, I repeat DOES NOT mean that you must continue to consume such a tiny number of calories to maintain your new wonderfully healthy weight. No. Once you reach your goal, then you switch to roughly 2000 calories per day, the amount that MOST average humans burn by metabolism on a daily basis. Yes, unbelievable isn’t it? So go ahead. Work hard for a few months consuming fewer calories, and then increase your calories back to 2000 and be happy that you achieved a major, major feat without buying anyone’s expensive weight loss gizmo!

There is a shred of truth to the above post, however. Yeah, if you set your limit too low, your body will start holding onto your fat for dear life - literally. You must not set your daily limit too low, and you should work up to a large daily calorie deficit, like 1000, and as a rule of thumb, as a woman, you should NEVER consume fewer than 1200 calories each day, as this is the number of calories required by your body to perform necessary functions to live healthily. Go to Fitday.com, it’s what I use. Figure out the number of calories you burn each day based on your height weight age and activity level, then plug in your weight goal and work toward that goal. Yes, work toward that goal. Don’t go buy pills or do something irrational and expensive, just do your daily calorie counting and you will reach your goal. It’s a simple as pie.

I should add, however, that doing exercise is the easiest and healthiest way to reach, say, a 1000 calorie daily deficit. If you exercise for 50-70 minutes and burn 500 calories, then you can EAT 500 more calories …since you worked out! Genius right? I know. So burn 500 calories/day, and set your calorie limit to be 500 less than you’re already burning in a day, and boom…you’ve got a 1000 calorie deficit for that day and you’re working toward your goal. It’s how it’s done…I’m telling you. I speak from experience! Although, I would aim for a 500 calorie daily deficit though. It’s much more reasonable and realistic, and heck, that’s still 52 lbs of weight loss in one year. I’m okay with that.