Met with my nutritionist yesterday. She’s pleased with my long-term progress and thinks I should keep doing what I’m doing for the most part. We recalculated my BMR and protein requirements based on my new weight.

With a weight of 179, my BMR is 1517.

If I apply the Harris Benedict equation (I just love writing that – it sounds so scientific!) for a moderate activity level, I see that I need to eat 2351 calories a day to maintain my current weight.  That assumes I am working out 3-5 times a week at a moderate pace. (I do more than that, but I’ve gotten a little resistant to weight loss after 3 years of losing, so I use the lower formula to be sure I hit my goals.) So I should be losing 2 pounds a week if I keep my calories to under 1400 calories per day.

While that is not very different from what I have been eating, we are going to try changing the balance of carbs to protein to fat. Instead of doing 40% Protein and 35% Fat and 25% Carbs, I’m going to begin increasing my carbs and shift to a 40% Carbs, 30% Protein and 30% Fat ratio. I’ll do this by using more non-meat sources of protein, such as beans and quinoa. That should give me a lot more energy for the increased workouts that I’m doing and help me reduce some of the belly fat that I still have hanging around.

So I need to revisit my meal planning and come up with some sample meals that fit the new criteria. Livestrong.com/myplate is a great tool for that. I just go to an unused day and start adding different foods/amounts and looking at the resulting numbers for the day, including the percentages. Here is a one day menu plan that would work on my new plan: