Body Shrinking

karryon7

I was on a 1200 calorie diet for 4 months...lost 19 lbs ... But now my weight has gone to the target weight but my body is continuing to get smaller and snaller...any thoughts?

karryon7

Oh forgot to mention I stopped the 120p calorie aftet the 4 months and went to the calories for maintaining weight

AnnPT77

Smaller as in still losing weight? If still losing weight, then my guess would be that you are eating what MFP or some other calculator says is your maintenance calories . . . but that its estimate is too low. It's just a statistical estimate: It will be close for most people, a bit off (high or low) for a few, and surprisingly far off for a very rare few.

If I ate what MFP says my maintenance calories are (when I tell it accurate settings!), I'd lose over a pound a week. Since I want to actually maintain, I have to eat those extra 500+ daily calories.

It's unusual, but it happens.

If that's what's happening to you, multiply the average number of pounds per week you're losing by 3500 (approximate calories in a pound), divide by 7 (days in a week), eat that many more calories daily, on average, see how that goes. Adjust again later if necessary.

springlering62

By any chance, did you take up weight training when you committed to losing the weight four months ago? Running? Pilates? Other exercise?

Your body will continue to change if you have.

I’ve been at maintenance for six or seven months, even intentionally gained a few pounds back, yet my clothes continue to get looser. I chalk it up to continuing weights, and I also think the exercise bike I got last month is probably responsible for my thighs noticeably thinning out.

Many exercises will have this effect, but weight training has the reputation of being the most noticeable.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/977538/halp-heavy-lifting-made-me-supah-bulky/p1

karryon7

Thanks for the replies. But the thing is my scale keeps saying I am at a good BMI weight but my body is getting smaller and my clothes are also getting looser. Yes I did do some walking and light weights but now I only walk 3 days a week. So decided to use the app to intentionally put back on 3lbs for now and see what happens.

yirara

karryon7 wrote: »

I was on a 1200 calorie diet for 4 months...lost 19 lbs ... But now my weight has gone to the target weight but my body is continuing to get smaller and snaller...any thoughts?

so you lost 4.75lbs per month, or just over 1lbs per week. This comes down to a calorie deficit of just over 500 calories per day. How big was your chosen deficit? This might give you an idea on how high your maintenance calories are.