Advice needed! Maintaining weight after low cals

KateCassie

I’ve been ‘dieting’ for three-ish Years now and more or less eat the same things everyday. I’ve recently come to see that this isn’t healthy but I’m unsure of how to proceed.

I eat 1100 max calories per day, but ride horses and run about 3k everyday. My step count is usually 14/15k. My problem is that I’m not losing weight with these amounts, at least not drastically, more just maintaining my current weight. I’m now scared to eat more calories because I feel like my body has accepted this as ‘normal’ and anything over will cause me to gain weight..

Advice would be much appreciated! I’m currently dealing with Orthorexia and the stress is driving me insane!

caroannv

Cut back on all the cardio, lift weights and eat more. I was in a similar situation. Once I started building muscle, I was able to eat a normal amount of food and still lose or maintain weight if I wanted to

ceiswyn

I’m surprised that you’re maintaining on 1100 with such a high level of activity. How are you calculating those calories? Do you weigh everything, and are you sure the DB entries you’re using are good? (eg not using a cooked rice entry for dry rice)

PAV8888

Do you have anyone you're working with in regards to the Orthorexia? What are their thoughts in terms of how you should proceed?

KateCassie

ceiswyn wrote: »

I’m surprised that you’re maintaining on 1100 with such a high level of activity. How are you calculating those calories? Do you weigh everything, and are you sure the DB entries you’re using are good? (eg not using a cooked rice entry for dry rice)

Everything is weighed and measured correctly, logged and entered into a food tracking data base. I don’t know if I’m ‘maintaining’ but the weight loss is very very little if any. I don’t actually want to lose anymore weight, but I’m so nervous about increasing calories and gaining.

I can’t really cut back on the cardio- 1. Because it’s my hobby- the horses need exercise and 2. Because part of the Orthorexia thing is exercise obsession and not doing my stupid little routine causes anxiety 😑. It’s a vicious circle

Hannahwalksfar

Do you have a therapist and dietician?

jan110144

Curious re your height and current weight. If you are at goal, I would suggest slowly adding calories (e.g. 100/day for a week) and let the results guide your next step.

I am 5'7.5", weigh 130 and maintain at around 2100 cals per day. I also ride (upper level dressage) daily, do strength training 2-3 x per week, and pool exercise a couple of times a week. My net calories average out around 1600 per day. With occasional days above target each month, I maintain at a very consistent 130.

kshama2001

There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

PAV8888

Losing weight slowly when you don't want to be losing more weight means that you're still in a deficit when you don't want to be...

The way you phrased your original question is making people assume you want to lose weight when based on context you DON'T want to.

Therefore the ERROR is that you're continuing to be in a deficit and continuing to lose ANY weight.

Your past few months of losses are NOT definitive as to how many calories you can add before swinging the other way around into sustained regain.

Your body will have to repair itself from persistent under-nourishment first. And by currently over-exercising for your nutritional intake you're increasing your risk of injuries

You really do need to increase your calories / decrease exercise or create a combination that has you at the very least at maintenance and from sub-texts maybe even a tad above so that you can recover.

Are you working with anyone on all this? It may be very helpful for you to do so!

PAV8888

ceiswyn wrote: »

I’m surprised that you’re maintaining on 1100 with such a high level of activity. How are you calculating those calories? Do you weigh everything, and are you sure the DB entries you’re using are good? (eg not using a cooked rice entry for dry rice)

kshama2001 wrote: »

There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Based on what I am reading she does NOT want to be losing weight; therefore advice geared towards creating a deficit would be a bad idea at this point for this OP

kshama2001

KateCassie wrote: »

I’ve been ‘dieting’ for three-ish Years now and more or less eat the same things everyday. I’ve recently come to see that this isn’t healthy but I’m unsure of how to proceed.

I eat 1100 max calories per day, but ride horses and run about 3k everyday. My step count is usually 14/15k. My problem is that I’m not losing weight with these amounts, at least not drastically, more just maintaining my current weight. I’m now scared to eat more calories because I feel like my body has accepted this as ‘normal’ and anything over will cause me to gain weight..

Advice would be much appreciated! I’m currently dealing with Orthorexia and the stress is driving me insane!

@KateCassie we're interpreting this differently - what are your goals? If to lose, how much more? How tall are you?

PAV8888

kshama2001 wrote: »

KateCassie wrote: »

I’ve been ‘dieting’ for three-ish Years now and more or less eat the same things everyday. I’ve recently come to see that this isn’t healthy but I’m unsure of how to proceed.

I eat 1100 max calories per day, but ride horses and run about 3k everyday. My step count is usually 14/15k. My problem is that I’m not losing weight with these amounts, at least not drastically, more just maintaining my current weight. I’m now scared to eat more calories because I feel like my body has accepted this as ‘normal’ and anything over will cause me to gain weight..

Advice would be much appreciated! I’m currently dealing with Orthorexia and the stress is driving me insane!

@KateCassie we're interpreting this differently - what are your goals? If to lose, how much more? How tall are you?

Title: Advice needed! Maintaining weight after low cals

Second post by op:
I don’t know if I’m ‘maintaining’ but the weight loss is very very little if any. I don’t actually want to lose anymore weight, but I’m so nervous about increasing calories and gaining.

2. Because part of the Orthorexia thing is exercise obsession and not doing my stupid little routine causes anxiety 😑. It’s a vicious circle]

ceiswyn

So... the OP is in fact not maintaining on 1100 calories, but continuing to lose. Well that makes more sense.

So... increase calories slowly, say 100 at a time, and stop adding when you reach maintenance? You are not going to suddenly wake up and find you weigh fifteen stone! If you find you overshoot and start to gain over time, you can adjust down and lose it again. You know how to lose a couple of pounds!

snickerscharlie

I'll echo what's been asked previously but not yet answered : Do you have a treatment team for your orthorexia?

staticsplit

I'd say with that amount of cals that's orthorexia veering towards anorexia. In my mind ortho is more eating near-ish the right amount of calories but very overfocused on 'clean' eating. See: many fitness influencers.

If you don't already have a team, echoing the others to say see if you can find a registered dietitian as well as therapy. We're just a bunch of strangers on the internet. We can only help you so much, especially since you haven't shared things like height/weight.

Best of luck.