Can not reach maintenance goals!

emmadonaldson95
emmadonaldson95 Posts: 179 Member
edited May 2016 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Sounds like a silly thing to whinge about and clearly has an obvious solution but if you look at today or tomorrow (prelogged) in my diary you'll see I'm eating 3 full meals a day but just not getting even close to my maintenance.
Obviously the answer is eat more but with 3 full meals and a few snacks and doing little exercise atm while studying I'm not sure where to add those extra calories in because i'm not hungry. I eat whenever i feel i need to basically.
It's driving me nuts i only started maintenance yesterday but i dont want to lose too much more weight or ill start to look a bit eew.
Could do with some external suggestions because i'm stumped

Replies

  • Buff_Man
    Buff_Man Posts: 623 Member
    Have patience young one! It'll take time for things to settle down. Try adding more fats? Also your maintenance seems high? Mind would be the same and I lift 4 days a week
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Ditch the low fat dairy for full fat and get some peanut butter.

    Job done.

    Yep, get rid of anything low fat. Most Full cream dairy tastes so much better anyway. I could eat my body weight in peanut butter lol It is very high calorie.
    Get into smoothies, mine average around 600 calories, and are delicious.
  • emmadonaldson95
    emmadonaldson95 Posts: 179 Member
    Buff_Man wrote: »
    Have patience young one! It'll take time for things to settle down. Try adding more fats? Also your maintenance seems high? Mind would be the same and I lift 4 days a week

    What kind of fats would you recommend like what foods?
    Yeah i think 1900 is high considering I'm like 123lb i was planning on aiming for something closer the 1600. But atm I'm barely getting 1100 haha
  • emmadonaldson95
    emmadonaldson95 Posts: 179 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Ditch the low fat dairy for full fat and get some peanut butter.

    Job done.

    I actuallt bought peanut butter for the first time ever the other day and I'll give it a try tomorrow thanks :)
  • Erik8484
    Erik8484 Posts: 458 Member
    Buff_Man wrote: »
    Have patience young one! It'll take time for things to settle down. Try adding more fats? Also your maintenance seems high? Mind would be the same and I lift 4 days a week

    For the longest time i thought my maintenance was low, until i realised that i was actually just regularly underestimating my calorie intake (i was eating out for lunch and guessed it wrong. What i thought was maintenance at 2250 was actually maintenance at 2500.

    Or you might be unlucky.

    For what its worth, im 5'8, 140-145 lbs, lift 4 days and no cardio.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    First and easiest thing to change to get your calorie count up is ditch all the "diet" food choices and replace with their regular food alternatives, from your diary:
    Low cal sweetener
    Skimmed milk
    Half fat mozzarella

    But also you are actually eating tiny amounts of food!
    Your lunch sounds tasty but only 242 cals. Why only one slice of ham and one flatbread?
    Dinner again sounds tasty but your food must be lonely on your plate! Another portion of veg or some carbs would help.

    I wouldn't describe either of these two meals as "full meals".

    A single Twix as a treat, why not two?

    Starchy carbs and fruit will easily add some calories.

    It does get easier with time to relax your iron grip on your intake, habits take time to make and break.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Ditch the low fat dairy for full fat and get some peanut butter.

    Job done.

    ^^ this
  • myfitnesspale3
    myfitnesspale3 Posts: 276 Member
    Increase your carbs and sugar to stimulate appetite, and you will tend to eat more calories without forcing it.
  • Traveler120
    Traveler120 Posts: 712 Member
    Why do you need to force yourself to eat when you're not hungry just to reach some set calorie amount? Just eat intuitively, follow natural hunger signals and you'll be fine.

    I'm in maintenance right now and don't track my calories on a day to day basis (I log weekly on cronometer to check that I'm getting all vitamins & minerals). Some days I eat more, some less, but by the end of the week, my average intake ends up at around 1800-2100 but I don't fuss about reaching a certain amount every day. If I'm hungry, I eat to my fill, and if I'm not I don't. No need to complicate things unnecessarily.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,145 Member
    You could always drink your calories - fruit juice, milk, shakes.
  • ps348dla
    ps348dla Posts: 1 Member
    Hi, my name is Dawn, and I've been a Fitness Pal user for a a couple of years now. This app has helped me tremendousy with maintaining weight loss and staying on track with healthy eating, but I haven't connected with too many other users. So, recently I encouraged a friend to join, and she's been using the app daily. She wants to be able to access my recipes, but so far we haven't been able to connect via My Fitness Pal. Even though we are email, Facebook and phone contacts with each other, when I bring up these lists she doesn't even show up--can anyone help me? Also, how can I make my recipes show up to this community in searches? I didn't find anything about this in settings. Thank you!
  • emmadonaldson95
    emmadonaldson95 Posts: 179 Member
    Traveler120 wrote: »
    Why do you need to force yourself to eat when you're not hungry just to reach some set calorie amount? Just eat intuitively, follow natural hunger signals and you'll be fine.

    I'm in maintenance right now and don't track my calories on a day to day basis (I log weekly on cronometer to check that I'm getting all vitamins & minerals). Some days I eat more, some less, but by the end of the week, my average intake ends up at around 1800-2100 but I don't fuss about reaching a certain amount every day. If I'm hungry, I eat to my fill, and if I'm not I don't. No need to complicate things unnecessarily.

    Well I'm concerned I'll keep losing, i think i already lost a little too much and no longer fit in half my clothes :/
  • Owlfan88
    Owlfan88 Posts: 187 Member
    emmadonaldson95 wrote: »
    Traveler120 wrote: »
    Why do you need to force yourself to eat when you're not hungry just to reach some set calorie amount? Just eat intuitively, follow natural hunger signals and you'll be fine.

    I'm in maintenance right now and don't track my calories on a day to day basis (I log weekly on cronometer to check that I'm getting all vitamins & minerals). Some days I eat more, some less, but by the end of the week, my average intake ends up at around 1800-2100 but I don't fuss about reaching a certain amount every day. If I'm hungry, I eat to my fill, and if I'm not I don't. No need to complicate things unnecessarily.

    Well I'm concerned I'll keep losing, i think i already lost a little too much and no longer fit in half my clothes :/

    I had the same issue of being so used to the smaller number of calories that eve when I reached maintenance, I kept losing. Another 13 pounds actually. I've been very slowly trying to add weight. I'm Almost back up to my lower limit now. One thing I found helpful was to set my goal to gain 0.5 pounds/week (even though I want to gain slower), so I see a higher number in the morning and can still stay in the green. Agree with cutting out diet Anything.

    Sending you a friend request.

  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    emmadonaldson95 wrote: »
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Ditch the low fat dairy for full fat and get some peanut butter.

    Job done.

    I actuallt bought peanut butter for the first time ever the other day and I'll give it a try tomorrow thanks :)

    I'd also drop the other "diet" food. You have Weight Watchers foods in your diary. Light cheese and low fat dairy. Sugar free sweeteners.
    Switching those things alone will add calories without adding more food to eat.
  • emmadonaldson95
    emmadonaldson95 Posts: 179 Member
    Owlfan88 wrote: »
    emmadonaldson95 wrote: »
    Traveler120 wrote: »
    Why do you need to force yourself to eat when you're not hungry just to reach some set calorie amount? Just eat intuitively, follow natural hunger signals and you'll be fine.

    I'm in maintenance right now and don't track my calories on a day to day basis (I log weekly on cronometer to check that I'm getting all vitamins & minerals). Some days I eat more, some less, but by the end of the week, my average intake ends up at around 1800-2100 but I don't fuss about reaching a certain amount every day. If I'm hungry, I eat to my fill, and if I'm not I don't. No need to complicate things unnecessarily.

    Well I'm concerned I'll keep losing, i think i already lost a little too much and no longer fit in half my clothes :/

    I had the same issue of being so used to the smaller number of calories that eve when I reached maintenance, I kept losing. Another 13 pounds actually. I've been very slowly trying to add weight. I'm Almost back up to my lower limit now. One thing I found helpful was to set my goal to gain 0.5 pounds/week (even though I want to gain slower), so I see a higher number in the morning and can still stay in the green. Agree with cutting out diet Anything.

    Sending you a friend request.

    Haha i'd better not lose anything like another 13lb or ill be in real trouble im only 123lb now hahahaha. Thing is i was never big so I've basically just gone back to what i would have eated day to day prior to this. I'm finishing up some foods in the cupboard so yeah there's still low calories chocolate bars and cereal bars etc. But i would always have picked low calorie dairy options such as skimmed or semi skimmed milk, low fat creme fraiche etc. Only major change is im still using cooking spray not oil.
    Perhaps i shouldnt worry seeing as this is similar to how ive always eaten.
  • Owlfan88
    Owlfan88 Posts: 187 Member
    I don't know how often you like to weigh yourself, but I found using a trending weight very helpful to see if I am basically maintaining or whether my weight is trending up or down. I'm using Trendweight now since I've got a Fitbit, but before that I used happy scale (for iOS). There is also one for android (libre ?). I would highly recommend watching to make sure you aren't continuing to lose because you aren't eating enough calories according to your diary. Think back to before you started losing - did you snack more, or have an occasional or weekly blowout meal?

    I know I used to snack on sweets a lot more and get less exercise, so I need to eat more now in order not to lose more.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,792 Member
    Owlfan88 wrote: »
    I don't know how often you like to weigh yourself, but I found using a trending weight very helpful to see if I am basically maintaining or whether my weight is trending up or down. I'm using Trendweight now since I've got a Fitbit, but before that I used happy scale (for iOS). There is also one for android (libre ?). I would highly recommend watching to make sure you aren't continuing to lose because you aren't eating enough calories according to your diary. Think back to before you started losing - did you snack more, or have an occasional or weekly blowout meal?

    I know I used to snack on sweets a lot more and get less exercise, so I need to eat more now in order not to lose more.

    The Android one is Libra.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,792 Member
    emmadonaldson95 wrote: »
    Buff_Man wrote: »
    Have patience young one! It'll take time for things to settle down. Try adding more fats? Also your maintenance seems high? Mind would be the same and I lift 4 days a week

    What kind of fats would you recommend like what foods?
    Yeah i think 1900 is high considering I'm like 123lb i was planning on aiming for something closer the 1600. But atm I'm barely getting 1100 haha

    Maybe high, maybe not. Mine's a bit above that (established via experience, not calculator estimate), and I'm 5'5", 120, and 40 years older than you are (and yes, I weigh all my food & log meticulously).

    You got some good advice about how to get more calories (full fat foods, nuts & nut butters, lose the light/low-cal options in favor of caloric equivalents). Try that, eat more calories, see how it goes. You won't gain huge amounts overnight, even if your current goal does turn out to be a little high. If you start to gain weight, just back it down a bit.

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