At the film festival: movies and meanderings

I saw some great great movies this and last week. For fun, my favorite is THE FAIRY. Also called LA FEE. Want to have some fun? Here go take a look and have a laugh. Here are some scenes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEe1Wdgy4DU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buWIN7iUlJ8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V6jk9t5T94&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy3fn92aKyY&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy3fn92aKyY&feature=related

You don't have to know French to enjoy them. Fiona and Dom are a couple, and in the 2 actors make a lot of comedies together. One you can rent is The Iceberg, or Rumba. But I like the Fairy the best.

Other Movies I Liked or Loved:

My Piece of the Pie - its very good, it might get a release. Funny, smart. Never dull. The main actress, French she's hilarious. Here it is:

http://www.libertasfilmmagazine.com/lfm-review-my-piece-of-the-pie-tribeca-2011/


Free Hands - with Ronit Elkabetz. Great movie. Absolutely great. you might be able to watch it at mubi.com.

Family Portrait in Black & White:

http://www.toronto.com/article/683556


Price of Sex - this film is amazing and really, a serious topic and one that I am glad the filmmaker made. Here is the website:

http://priceofsex.org/


Marathon Boy - ok you runners, this one is IT! About this little boy who could run marathons! And its a true story, a documentary, here it is: I saw it yesterday -

http://www.marathonboymovie.com/

A movie I really want to see is El Bulli - Cooking in Progress. Its about a restaurant that closed down, from Spain. Has a lot of food in it. So look for it, I gave up seeing it to go out to dinner with friends, but I am going to try to find this movie.

Footnote is a really good fast paced movie too. You can see this one later, Sony bought it so it got a distribution. Its a really good movie, not a dull moment:

http://www.westendfilms.com/films/current/footnote

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/cannes-sony-classics-buys-israeli-drama-footnote-27369

The Girls in the Band is another good movie to watch, if you like music, and history. Its about women in jazz who played and got little recognition, and interviews with women musicians. Really fun to watch.

http://www.thegirlsintheband.com/home/

I heard that The Mill and the Cross, and Le Havre, both movies coming out soon or already out, are great. So I didn't go see them. But plannng too. If you like art and Bruegel, then you should see The Mill and the Cross.

Oh, one of the very best movies was Miss Representation. I love this movie, and I think everybody here on LS, every friend and everyone will like it. Here it is:

http://missrepresentation.org/

WATCH THIS! A PREVIEW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gkIiV6konY

Then, I also liked Okay Enough Goodbye. Here it is:

http://www.okenoughgoodbye.com/home_1.html

RESTORATION directed by Madmoni, is another one I liked a lot. It won awards around the world so far: at Sundance in the USA, and at Karlovy Vary in Czech Republic, and top prize in Jerusalem. I think it will come out. It is sometimes called Good Morning Mr. Fidelman. Michelle, this one will be in Philadelphia on November 12th. Really really a good movie!

https://gershmany.org/films.php?filmid=66
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The funny thing about going to a festival like this, is that for every 1 movie I did see, there were about 10 more I could have seen that I did not see, equally as good!

I am happy that the Media director invited me back for next year. But anyway back to health.

I had a lot of psychological phases at the festival. I was thinking about the challenges of weight loss and maintenance. How one after a while, lives sort of a mathematical life. I felt one day that I don't want to time my exercise anymore. I wondered what it would be like now not to track and not to track exercise either. And even though I might be able to do it, I think it would create more, not less, anxiety. Because by writing stuff down, then I know. For me, its not accountability. Its just that then I know what I have had and its easier than thinking about it, worrying, or just not knowing. It FREES me mind so that I don't have to think about it.

I also remembered that about 15 years ago at this festival, I sat so much that I could not walk and my back hurt. This is probably what happened at the film festival. For many days I was limping on my left leg. Now its getting better.

The whole eating this is not easy. I really wish everyone success. Personally, I think the easiest way is NOT to have to think about what you eat every day. Why be creative? I mean, if you want to, hey, good, be creative. But for me, its easier to have a few automatic things. Like, do you decide to breathe every day? If you had to make a decision on how to breathe every day, would you like it? We have to eat every day. And our bodies need to move. So I am thinking that I like to have a few set things I eat for breakfast. I don't have to be inventive and a great chef in the morning. And lunches too, a few choices. But why make life complex? I also think a simple formula works. For me, I think I am settling on something like: breakfast 250-300, lunch 400-600, and dinner 500-700. Thats a range of LOW of 1150, MEDIUM of 1375, and a HIGH of 1600, depending on activity. Its simple.

ok hope you all have a great day!

Conscious and Not Conscious

Conscious and Unconscious

For many years, I would say maybe between 2002 and 2009, and other years too, I lived a life where I chose to eat whatever I wanted. I enjoyed going to Chinese Buffets, Japanese sushi all you can eat restaurants, eating shrimp, salads with lots of olive oil, and having wonderful omelettes with toast and potatoes. It was fun. I didn't and had no interest in thinking about how much I ate. I had no idea how many calories I was eating, and I wanted it that way. I did not want to live like a calculator. I did not want a life like that.

Now that I have been on LS for A YEAR AND A HALF! (WOW!), tracking every day, I realize that I can't go back. I can't.

Its not like you can just say 1 2 3, now I am going back into unconscious oblivion. You can't. The brain knows too much. Not that I want to go back. I don't. But my brain already knows, like: I know that 2 oz of dry pasta is 210 calories, a protein drink is 90 calories and 23 protein. A chicken breast is 110 calories. Two eggs are 140 calories. A Luna bar is about 180-200 calories . A TLC Pumpkin Pecan bar is 120 calories.

A half cup of Fiber One is 60, with Almond Breeze it's 80. But a half cup of Kashi Go Lean is 70, with almond breeze its 90. I have it all memorized. An apple is 80. There are a few types of high fiber tortillas and wraps, some are 60 (the small ones at TJ), some are 80 with 12 grams of Fiber, and some are 100 with 13 grams of Fiber. Yogurt, the kind I like, is about 120 or 130 a cup. I could go on and on.

Most canned soups, teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, frozen dinners, canned beans, and sauces in general are NO because the sodium is outrageously high. I don't do them. Most ice cream is pretty high calorie except some of the sugar free or fat free is about 100 in a 1/2 cup which is not too bad.

Peanut butter is generally 210 for 2 tablespoons, but the Better n Peanut Butter is 100 for 2 tablespoons, thats pretty good. Rye bread is about 80 calories a slice. Some of the thicker breads are 120-140 a slice. The diet breads are more like 45-50 a slice. But for a really really good bread that does not taste like diet, Daves Killer Light Bread at 65 calories is just about the best bet flavor wise.

I can't go back. Its there now imprinted in my brain. Does my body have intuition and is it really able to tell me when I have eaten enough? Or is it that my brain is so programmed now, that it automatically knows how much I ate, which it thinks is intuition? No matter.

And GET THIS! When I am on the Elliptical Trainer, I can close my eyes and I can tell you how fast my heart is beating. I can feel it. I can say 140 or 130 or 136. I can tell. Thats interesting too.

In a way, it must be really difficult, or really hard for people who have been tracking to GO BACK or to STOP TRACKING after they have been tracking for a long time. Because they then consciously know that they have this food information; and they can't simply say "Oh, I had no idea". They DO have an idea.

In order for that person to stop being conscious of food amount and calories, he or she has to go overboard, and make a really big effort to like, put his or her head almost "underwater", to block out the information, I imagine.

Because if you, say, knew calorie amounts, and said, "oh I know this pizza is 1400 calories but I am going to eat it anyway"...well, that seems to involve more responsibility than just eating a pizza and saying "oh, I didn't know it was THAT caloric!"

How do we teach Intuitive Eating to people at a young age? I mean, if we taught young people about counting, they might grow up and eat too much like calculators. I mean, with too much figuring stuff out. Too many figures. But how about teaching people to eat intuitively? To listen to their bodies.

I don't know what people experience who lose some weight and then turn around and try to head back into oblivion. Must be tough.

If things get overwhelming, I think one solution that might work is to set up what some call Safety Meals. If you don't want to be super conscious, if you don't want to count every little thing, couldn't you just put together 3 days of  Automatic Eating, of eating for 3 days that would please you, and fall within your caloric parameters? Then you could just do your Safety Weekend, whenever, and get yourself back into gear.

Maybe I'm just rambling.

Brother and Dad

I love my brother. He is 3.5 years younger than me. Today we had another talk on trying to figure out where our 87 year old father should live. After we came home from looking at an Assisted Living Senior residence, I brought my father to my house and cooked us dinner.

"How did you like the place we looked at today, Dad?" I asked.

"What place?" he said.

"You know, the place where we had lunch? You had a mushroom omlette?" I said.

"I did?". "Yep".

"Remember, Dad, you were sitting near the nice fat man, and talking about World War 2?"

"I sat next to him?" "Yup"....I continued..."And remember we went to look at some of the apartments. And one of them had a view of the rooftops that you didn't like? Do you remember the view from the other apartment there?"

"I don't know" he said. "Water?"

He had no memory at all of this place where we had lunch. None. But when I made him dinner, and he ate chicken and sweet potatoes, he said to me, when he was almost done with dinner, "why am I so full already from eating this dinner?"

And I said, "because you ate a lot for lunch. You had a mushroom omelette, and then you had apple pie and ice cream for dessert." "I did?" he asked. "I had apple pie today?"

My brother and I had a nice phone discussion about Dad. I explained that I understand that we are essentially beginners. It is new to us. We are learning our way around the whole thing. Learning the meanings of words and services like Assisted Living, Memory Care, Independent Living. We are trying but the whole process is new. We have tried to have a methodical organized process (we have a spreadsheet).

My brother told me that the reason he likes this place where we had lunch today is because he likes the friendliness, the sense of community, that Dad would feel comfortable and safe. I think it can be pretty daunting, I mean it certainly would feel daunting to me, to suddenly move into a place, have to have breakfast with strangers,  lunch with strangers. I don't make friends that fast. Maybe he would like it? But maybe he would just go into shock or something.

I understand why my brother likes this little sort of humble, not show off place where we went today. Yet I was worried about what would happen if Dads dementia gets way worse, and he he needs physical care, to get dressed, to even use a bathroom? That I thought it is important to have him stay somewhere where he would not have to move should things get worse. And my brother said, if things got really bad, he would want Dad right there in his house, and that he would take care of Dad at home.

I admire him saying this. I had the same impulse. But realistically, its very demanding, very difficult, very tough to be changing someones diapers, walking them here and there. It can take all your energy and time. My brother is not such a young man. I know how he loves our father. So do I. But it would take huge amounts of patience, energy, and would probably tax his marriage to have my father, in a weakened state, needing so much care, to live with them on any long term basis.

My brother explained how he hates that institutionalization, the whole thing, and I agreed. I did. But I don't know an answer. I suggested we at least find a place that has 3 levels of care. We don't have to use all 3 levels, but at least he would not have to move out if he got worse.

I am not afraid. Because I know there is a lot of love around, between my brother and I, and our spouses. And I think the right answer will come. My father is such a likeable fellow that we all just want whats best for him. I think he would be happiest around us. Not sure how. He is about the least demanding person I know.

In the meantime, my brother hopes we make a decision this week. We have a cousin who had his mother in a place too, a while ago. We should talk with him. I know how hard this is for my brother, and I am so glad he is there. I am frankly worried about him. He needs to take better care of himself. He has high blood pressure and the stress gets to him. I need to find a way to alleviate the burden for him. I think I deal with stress much more effectively than he does. I know I do. He suffers. I dont know what I do, but somehow, I kind of deal with things a different way. They don't eat at me. Well, glad I could write things out on this post.

My Friend E

Got together tonight with one of my best girlfriends, E. We have been friends since I was in my 20s...a while ago. I should tell you really first, what E looks like. She looks like Gwen Eiffel, the news commentator.

The funny thing about E is that on the inside she is conservative, as she puts it "A Southern Baptist", wholesome, good work ethic, traditional, faithful, romantic. Straight shooter. But when you look at E she looks almost opposite.

Tonight as I pulled to open the glass door to the place we were meeting, I saw a vaguely familiar looking woman in the distance, flashing me this big wide friendly smile. A Ravishingly Wildly Exotic Gorgeous Woman there, dressed in sort of a warm orange/red sweater jacket, with big gold hoop earrings. .

 "Is that E? She looks fantastic!" It was E, E in a reddish brown shiny curly hair short wig that framed her face so perfectly, exposing her high cheekbones, newly revealed as she has in the past year, lost 40 pounds off her 5 ft 3 frame, going from 225 to 185 pounds, but looking far slimmer.

As I approached, I cupped my hands around her cheeks, looked into her eyes, and said, "E! You look fantastic! That wig is GORGEOUS! Gorgeous! You never looked better in your life!"


E's wig really makes her look exotic. Wild woman. Fun. Nobody would ever think she is really a pretty straight laced, conservative person. Like, she will not go camping certain places, and will not walk on park trails even in the city cause she's afraid of animals and bears. She is afraid to fly in a plane. She does not drive a car. She does not use her debit card because she doesn't know how. She cannot do math, cannot write well, cannot pronounce many words correctly.

But what E really does well is be E. E has more charm and personality than 100 other people put together. She words really hard, she is super polite, she is thoughtful, and she has just a certain charm or poise about her that makes people want to be with her, hire her, have her around, as her spirit is just so pleasant, that people just feel better about themselves and about life when she is a part of it. I think its something like that.

Anyway, E is on this crazy diet that I don't like and would never do myself. She eats hardly anything for breakfast or lunch: I think she has a piece of fish or chicken for 2 meals with green vegetable or a salad. And then for dinner she eats something regular and has 1 carb: like bread or wine or chocolate. Something like that.

Yes she will lose weight on this. But time and time again she has done these diets, and then after a while she hates it and goes off and starts eating the other way again. I asked her if this was the diet that she would like to continue for life, because I thought the most successful diets are ones where how you eat when losing weight is similar to how you will eat when maintaining weight, just different portions or calorie amounts.

E is really muscular, just naturally muscular,and I am sure if she did strength training she would be even more muscular, and would then boost her metabolism, and then she would not have to eat this puny amount of food as she is now. I mean, this is LESS food than I ate when I was losing. It is! Maybe she eats 150 calories for breakfast, and maybe 200 for lunch..Maybe. Not much.

She is almost 7 years older than me, and looks about 15 years younger than me. Today when we were talking about life, she said, "Oh its just DOWNHILL from here!"

And I said, "No its not! I feel great. Its so great that we have had these years to live! And we're active and healthy." And  she said, "yeah, you're right."

Life is good. We get to walk and run and laugh. Swim and talk and eat. Go places. See things. See movies. Plant a garden. Watch kids have fun. Take walks. I don't know.

I used to call myself a happy idiot. Cause I was kind of born a happy person and seem to be happy for no apparent reason. Maybe I am not a happy idiot. Maybe I am just a naturally happy person and thats all.

Life is just good and I am grateful to have the opportunity to be alive every day. So thats a little blurb on My Friend E.

How do you Feel about Eating?

How do you Feel About Your Eating?

So many times the way we feel about our own eating affects our progress and how we will do in reaching or maintaining our weight loss goals.

How do you feel?  

Some examples of what you may say to yourself are provided below.

Which one or ones are you? 

And if you do not fit the examples below, how do you sound in your own head or what do you say to yourself or feel about your own eating throughout the day?



Maybe by looking at how you feel about what you eat, and what you do, its possible to make strides towards progress.

1. The Over Calories Fear Head:  Oh my gosh how will I get through the day without going over my calories...AGAIN? How will I ever make it? And if I don't make it, I might gain ALL my weight back! And more! I better really watch  every ounce because I am headed for disaster before i even eat a thing. I have to eat like a bird. I will never make it.

2. The Save the Cals for Evening: If I don't want to mess this up, I better eat a very very little bit for breakfast, cause I have to SAVE my calories for dinner and for evening snacks too! Cause I am pretty hopeless then!


3. The When Can I Eat "Normal" Again? Whoa is me. How will I do this? I have to eat all this healthy food in order to lose weight. I can't wait until I can get back to eating NORMAL. I don't want to eat this crap. It's ok, but it's not good! How many days left til I can cheat or have a NORMAL day?


3. The Enjoy Yourself & All Your Choices, Have a Good Time Eater! Wow! I might have a calorie limit but I have so many great choices! I can have wonderful breakfast! Look at all the choices! I can have eggs, cereal, English muffin, toast, pancakes, omelettes, peanut butter & jelly sandwich. I can have whatever I want. Waffles. Ham n cheese sandwich. Oatmeal. So many great foods to choose from. As long as I can eat within the calories for the day, I will be fine. So I am going to enjoy the day and choose carefully the foods that I feel like eating, so I can sit down and enjoy them. ! I am also looking forward to a great lunch and dinner and feel confident that I will be in touch with my body and know what and how much it needs.

4. The Buckle Down and Get Serious, but its No Fun ! person:  I just have to buckle down and do this. I know I have no discipline but I just have to try. I put together a few menu options so I feel prepared. And I will just have to get thru this, one day and then the next. I am a lousy dieter but I am going to buckle down and get serious.

5.  Everything I did is Wrong, but I can Change:Lost But Ready for Help: Most foods and everything I have been eating in the past has been wrong. I am not to blame. Yet every year I put on more and more pounds. Now I see that I am totally confused about eating. I need guidance. I need to read and educate myself. As I lose weight, I will take the opportunity to learn more about what I like to eat, its nutritional value, and certain foods make me feel.  Integrating what I learn about food every day will give me new ideas and new keys to success. I am happy to shed the old automatic panic days of eating, and instead feel good about trying new healthy foods. I might not be perfect at the start, but I am committed to changing and learning every day to find the right combinations.

6. OK, I know I Have to Do Something! But I won't Give up Blank. What do you expect me to do, STARVE?  this is a panic, pissed off voice. You have certain foods that you just absolutely do not want to live without, because you feel you CANT live without them Pizza. Chinese. Ice Cream. Whatever it Is. You are SURE, without even asking, that you cannot eat these foods on a DIET. And you are SURE you are going to get REAL hungry and REAL grouchy on this so called diet. So there you are. You know you have to do something because its threatening your health. But you are really scared, cause you love the food you love. You do not want to give it up, and the thought of giving it up makes you MAD. Yet, you never have talked with anybody at all about the possibility that maybe you CAN have the food you LOVE and LOSE WEIGHT at the same time!

7. I know I have to Exercise to Lose Weight. I can eat a very little amount, but I cannot exercise because of: (this that pain, back, surgery, heart beat, whatever it is, real or imagined). Despite reports to the contrary, this person still operates with the idea that the LESS they eat the MORE they will LOSE WEIGHT. So they think of all calories as BAD. Essentially they are afraid of themselves and eating. So they try to lose weight on say 600-1000 calories a day. And they do NO exercise. They feel inside hopeless, because when they do try to exercise its difficult, there is very little they can do comfortably, maybe the maximum time they can do anything is 5 minutes. So they say, why try? They have done maybe 1 or 2 types of exercise in their lives, and since they did not do those well, they figure why try something else. Will only fail at that. And for eating: they know what to eat. Lean meats and vegetables and low sodium. They think this must be the answer. So NO pleasure is involved in their diets, and they just believe this is what they MUST do to get the weight down.

8. The Planner: I don't know what I can or will eat, but maybe if I sit down and think about it, I can come up with some ideas and then eating won't feel so overwhelming to me. I am nervous. I feel I should have it together by now, but I don't. I don't now about this diet thing. I have failed before but I guess I can give it a try. I have to just sit down and make a plan, and shop accordingly. But I am so busy I just don't know if I have time and money to do all of this now.

9. The Grocery Store Freak Out Eater - Going shopping is too hard. I can't think. Too many rules and regulations. I just can't do it. I'd rather just go to Mickey D's or somewhere and get some quick food when I'm hungry.

Publish Post

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more on january 11

More on January 11


Yesterday I tried to mentally bring down my heart rate while on the elliptical. I don't think it worked.

I hope people who have a lot of weight to lose really can lose it because bottom line, I think that all the extra weight is life threatening. Life threatening. Means they could drop of a heart attack any time. Dangerous stuff.

My cousin told me last night that a friend of hers, 66, died suddenly Friday. Thats too young to die. I don't know what to write to my friends who have really a lot of weight to lose, because some of them just don't seem to 1)confront what is stopping them 2) or just can't seem to do it. I really do understand that it isn't easy. I am no expert. I did it, but I went through years of not facing the issue AT ALL, just eating, living, and being fat. But if you ARE trying to lose weight, really trying, why fool around?

If its hard to figure out what to eat, get help. It IS hard. It takes a while. It takes a while to find some activity you can do that you might like. And there is that stupid hopeless feeling that can come at any time. Don't listen to that hopeless feeling. Don't.

Next year is going to come anyway. 6 months is going to come anyway, and you CAN in 6 months, lost AT LEAST 30 pounds, minimally, with no so much effort if you are 100+ pounds overweight. But not if you just don't take it that seriously.  I want to be polite on Livestrong and respect friends' individual struggles, as they respect mine, (or have), but sometimes I just don't know what to write without interfering.

Yesterday I was not in as good a shape on Elliptical as I want to be. Others around me went faster. Ok, I am not in my 20s, but I can still improve. It might snow here tonight. My husband canceled his music classes he teaches far away. I am kind of hoping it snows, so I can stay home. I am in the mood to go to Ikea, which is only 3 miles away. Nothing deep this morning. I like not being stressed out. My hope is to find another work project that does not stress me out a lot.

Bad Bob Dylan Hair Day

Golda as a young woman

Dylan older & tired lookin

Deb in June before hair got some curl again

if i am lucky enough to live into my 80s, something like this?

c'mon deb, snap out of it!

Deb Sunday morning no makeup

his hair is consistently curly, not like mine

and it stands up.

but its getting better. notice the ringlets on the btoom. there is hope.

Calorie Thinking

I know some of you have just started, some of you are in the middle, and some, including myself, have been here for quite a while. One really important question that seems to come up, and that matters a lot if you are trying to lose or even maintain weight, is calories.  

Today a close LS friend of mine wrote to me too, as she noticed that LS had recently changed their calorie numbers, which are based on activity level. I wanted to communicate to as many of you as possible about calories, because it really is so important for helping us all reach our goals.,   For me, and for a number of other people on Livestrong, the website "www.freedieting.com" is very useful.

This calorie calculator below, when filled in with your information, will tell you how many calories you need to MAINTAIN your current weight.  

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm  

It bases the calorie number on your level of activity. So how do you know which level of activity to put yourself at? And why would you want to know the # of calories to MAINTAIN when what you want to do is LOSE?   Well, most if not all agree, that a loss of  1 pound per week equals a calorie DEFICIT or MINUS of 3500 calories. 3500 in a week, divided by 7 days, comes to a deficit of 500 calories PER DAY. 

Yet a deficit of 500 calories a day does NOT NECESSARILY MEAN you have to eat 500 calories less than the MAINTAIN number. It can be a combination of eating less and exercising more.

Say you figure out from Free Dieting that you should be able to eat 2500 calories, doing Little or No Exercise, to maintain the weight you are now. And you want to  lose 2 pounds a week. Losing 2 pounds per week requires a 1000 calories per day Calorie Deficit.

So you start with your 2500 calories. And you decide that you will divide the calorie deficit into Diet and Exercise. You will eat 600 calories less, and you will burn 400 calories per day thru exercise.  Then each day you ride your bicycle for 400 calories, and you instead of eating the 2500, you eat 1900.

But how do you know what Exercise Level is correct for you to get to the right calories? How do you know what activity level to set for yourself? Here is what you can do.    If you can:

1. Weigh yourself on a certain date and time. Lets say February 1.

2. Then CAREFULLY and HONESTLY track everything you eat. Do this for say 2 weeks straight. Everything. Honestly. Measure It. Record your daily weights, same time of day, same scale, etc. for 2 weeks. Every day.  

3. Then, when you are on Daily Plate, and you scroll down to the very bottom RIGHT, you can run a spreadsheet, from say, Feb. 1 thru Feb. 7 (one complete week)...You can find out your Average Calories Consumed per Day. And then you can look at your activity you did during that week.   

4. Now try out different levels using the  Free Dieting website. Try out what it says if you did Little or No Exercise, or the other Levels: Exercise 3x a week, 5x a week etc. Look at your average calories consumed each day. And look at how much weight you lost. Then you can see which level  matched what happened during that week? And the next week? See how the numbers match the website.   

Examples:

a) Lets say you set the Level at a 3x a week Exerciser. It says you should be able to eat 1800 calories to lose 2 pounds a week. But after 2 weeks, you did not lose 2 pounds a week, you only lost 1. Then you might want to adjust the Exercise Level on FreeDieting, to Little or No Exercise. It means that for now, your metabolism is slower than what they think it is. 

OR

b) Based on the Free Dieting website, it looks like you should be able to eat  1600 a day to lose 1 pound a week. So a few weeks go by, and when you do your spreadsheet and see what happened, it turns out, you lose 3 pounds a week. This tells you that for whatever reason, your metabolism is faster than what you think...

In these cases, fiddle with the exercise levels. The Exercise Levels are just guidelines to help you figure out the right calorie amount, they are not absolutes.

  I find it is MUCH easier not to think about eating back calories or whatever its called. With Free Dieting, I just pick an Exercise Level, see what they say I need to MAINTAIN, and adjust from there.

Right now it tells me that I should be able to eat 1708 per day to maintain my weight, if I exercise 5x a week.    I do not think this is true. For me, its probably more like 1550.    My main point here is that you cant take the numbers that Livestrong provides OR that Free Dieting provides as absolutes. You can however look at your own results, honestly track what you eat, and FIND OUT which numbers work the best for you. Hope this is helpful.