New to MFP!

Meranda29

Hello! I've just signed up for MFP 3 days ago and I am very excited to get myself on track! Around 4 years ago, I started gradually putting on 20 pounds, which on my 5'2" frame was a lot. I've always watched what I ate and quit when I was full, but wasn't ever able to lose any weight. As I filled out my profile/activity level, MFP assigned me a 1200 calorie a day goal to lose 1.5 pounds a week.

As I tracked my calories for my normal eating habits, I learned that I was only eating around 900 calories a day! And now, I'm upping my calorie intake (hello dessert!) but finding that if I work out, then I have to eat more to maintain the 1200 and I end up at the end of the day needing 300 extra calories and I was full and didn't want to think about eating again.

I'm sure I was unwittingly putting my body into starvation mode before and that's part of the reason for not losing weight. Does anyone else have this experience? I feel like I'm on the opposite end of the eating spectrum and am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that if I eat more, then I will lose the weight I want. I leery of working out too much because I don't want to stuff myself to eat back those extra calories.