Weight Maintenance Help Please

amy_1987

My first time here, so please be kind!

I've lost 4 stone since in around 15 months, and am now down to my goal weight of 7 stone 12 pounds (I'm short), and have gained a lot in fitness, muscle and general health. This was without help of any kind, just weights and cardio at the gym, combined with some very basic calorie reduction and a little effort to reduce sugar intake (chocolate and sweet things).

But it's gotten a little out of hand, and I'm eating around 900 calories on 4 days a week, and 1400 on the other three. I'm having some serious side affects, like not being able to sleep longer than 5 hours, and other more embarassing ones! I've signed up for MFA very recently, and to maintain my weight it says I need 1600 calories a day (which is terrifying as I'm now so fearful of getting fat again), but seems reasonable. My issue is, it's set me to 32g of sugar a day, which seems unreasonably low given the GDA for a woman, and I'm hitting it by lunch. All I'm eating is weetabix, one apple, and porridge in that time! So is this unreasonably low, or am I really eating too much sugar? And does 1600 calories per day sound about right?

I'm focusing a lot on improving my health at the moment, trying to make better choices about wholewheat options and massively increasing my vegetable intake. I'm also a vegetarian. It just seems so hard to find balance, I'm more of an all or nothing person.

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated please.

Edit - I calculated my BMR at 1307 if that helps.

allshebe

Ignore the MFP sugar goal. It doesn't differentiate between natural sugar (not bad, in moderation) and added sugar (what you want to try to mostly avoid). Sugar is just a type of carb. Eat as much sugar as you wish, that fits in your macros, as long as it doesn't make you hungry (does me) or you don't have a illness (like diabetes) that makes it necessary to avoid sugar.

amy_1987

By fits in my macros do you mean doesnt take me over the carb or calorie goals? Sugar is the only goal I'm over on, but I have noticed my sodium is always around 973mg, which seems low on the goals?
Apples always make me hungry, but I get such cravings for weird things like fruit, veg, garlic and herbs.

allshebe

Yes - so long as you don't exceed calorie goals in particular (I don't worry as much about relative ratios of carbs, proteins and fats so long as I'm averaging about where I want to be). If apples make you "weirdly" hungry (like a craving, rather than genuine hunger), I'd mostly avoid them. For the most part, there is no bad food - you just want to make your food choices mindfully, knowing that if you opt for the big slice of pecan pie or triple hamburger, you'll need to give up something else to stay in your goal range or elect to go over for the day (not a problem, so long as you do it mindfully and infrequently).

psuLemon

I would suggest upping your calories slowly... something like 100 calories a week until you hit your goal. This will mitigate some water weight gains caused by increase amounts of calories. And it's also quite possible that in the 4 months you were at extremely low levels for calories that your metabolism has slowed down, meaning you won't follow the trends. Once you get to 1600 calories though, sit there for a month to help determine if that is your true tdee. If you lose weight, you need to up calories. If you gain within that month, you may have to drop for a little until your RMR adjust to a higher level.

allshebe

I am losing at 1500 per day (actually eating at least 1300, not eating back exercise - which is mostly "minimal"). Seem to have lost a pound this week and have actually come close to 1500 every day this past 7 days. I agree you need to gradually up total calories until you reach a balance. I've read that it's sometimes better to set your goal at 5 pounds less than where you are happiest so you have a 5 pound "buffer" zone fro TOM, other incidental, temporary gains and increased water/glycogen storage as you go to maintenance and increase carbs to maintenance levels.

momzeeee

I'm in maintenance and eat 1,800-2,000+ calories a day ( 5'6"). I have no problem maintaining with the high calories and continue to lose a bit of weight here and there

As for sugar, I aim to keep it under 50 a day, regardless of where it comes from. I'm no longer labeled pre-diabetic, but I am very aware of my sugar intake now.

amy_1987

Thankyou very much I will check out that buffer zone math on MFP!