I see your dilema, Twiggy - but the theory is flawed

You start off at 250 lbs with a lot of body fat and some lean mass - you need to eat to support your muscle and your fat loss, approximately 2000 calories (remember, 10-12x is a guideline for minimal calories). At the outset eating even 2000 calories is difficult - you're just not hungry.

The thing about LC is that because it is protein adequate and if you are eating sufficient calories from fat to sustain metabolism what you lose (reflected on the evil scale) is FAT. This is evident in the nature of losses with LCing - whooshes of scale weight and times when only inches are lost. What is happening? You are building muscle and it is replacing the fat you are losing. What does this mean? You are raising your metabolism. This translates into being able to consume more calories (while weighing less) and still losing.

As you approach your goal / target weight you should be increasing carbs ever so slightly and calories as well to slow loss down. You want to coast into Maintenance, not come crashing down.

At 125 lbs you would only be eating to sustain metabolism if you were still losing fat.

Maintenance calories are that which you can eat w/o gaining or losing weight. Guidelines for Maintenance are 15-18x your body weight (assuming, again, a normal metabolism). 18x 125 is 2250 calories

The general theme I am seeing a lot lately is "Oh NO, 10x my body weight? I can't eat that much" and what you are saying is "At 125 lbs ten times my body weight isn't enough" - but 10x isn't the upper limit, it is the bare minimum for those with a healthy metabolism. There are studies that show consistently eating less than 1300-1400 calories a day will permanently slow your metabolism. This means that you're stuck at that level of calories forever if you want to keep the weight off. That isn't living!

Nat