Ready to start maintaining...

nataliedanielleneale

I put myself on an EXTREMELY restrictive diet in April- I began eating less than 600 calories most days- yes, this was very stupid. I have, now, gained my common sense and increased to 1200+ for maybe the last two months. I've been increasing very slowly (currently eating around 1350) and so far have not put any weight back on. Originally my goal weight at 5ft5 (165cm) was to be 50kg- now I've realised that I'm happy at 51.6kg, and if I lost any more, my back would literally be skeletal.!
I weighed in at 51.6 kg last week and I'm the exact same today. I'm a bit disappointed that I've maintained my weight at this week's weigh in it's not that I want to lose any more, I just wanted to increase calories and without losing I don't feel comfortable to surely 1350 calories can't be my maintenance?!
What should I do? Carry on increasing or stick with 1350? If I increase, by how much?

Ian_Stuart

My suggestion would be to start working on some other fitness goal that isn't weight related.
I can recommend this article: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

Or start training for a race of some sort. Learn a martial art. Take up dance. Constantly fighting to maintain a weight simply for aesthetic reasons is a quick way to start hating yourself. You now have your body at the weight that you want. Do something with it that makes you happy or what was all this struggle for?

DemoraFairy

You're not going to lose every week, just because you didn't lose for one week doesn't mean you're eating at maintenance. Plus if you're only weighing once a week you can't know if you didn't lose weight, you might have lost during the week and just be fluctuating today. Happens to me all the time, which is why I weigh everyday and track it so I know exactly what's happening. This week for example, last Monday I weighed 120lbs, today I'm 119.8. If I didn't weigh every day I wouldn't know that almost every other day I've been around 118, getting down to to 117.8 on Friday.

Anyway, I'm not trying to convince you to weigh every day if you don't want to, just saying you might have lost weight and just don't know it. I'd say go up by 100 calories a week to see what's right for you.

MACnificence

No only because you didn't lose this week sure doesn't mean you have found your maintainance calories , unfortuetely weight loss is not that linear . Up your calories again this week , 100 calories is a good rate to up by when upping calories slowly
It may take a while to find where you actually maintain weight but you really what to find out what's the most you can eat without seeing an upward trend on the scales and with that being said you will more than likely have fluctuations this is 100% normal so give yourself a range and not a static number say -/+ a few pounds
Alot of people restore glycogen stores when they reach maintainance this isn't fat gain so you need to prepare and allow for the possibility that this may happen this can be a few Ibs but it won't be noticeable and again it is not fat so don't worry about it basically its your body going back to normal after being in a deficit

nataliedanielleneale

I used to weigh myself everyday- several times in fact, morning and night. I think I became too obsessed with the number on there and if it ever went up, I'd find myself utterly miserable until it went back down again.

TavistockToad

its doubtful that 1350 is your maintenance calories.

You shouldnt have one maintenance weight anyway, because of fluctuations, so a range of between 51kg and 52.5kg would be more realistic. I would add an extra 100 cals this week, and see what the scales say next week.

I also agree with the post about having a fitness goal to focus on instead of a weight goal.

Ian_Stuart

Based on my rough calculations, your TDEE is about 1550 calories assuming you don't exercise regularly.
Average in that range and you can fine tune from there. Gaining or losing a pound or two isn't even a visible change. I swing sometimes 3lbs a day depending on how much liquid I drink and if I sweat a lot during workouts. Only people who are severely overweight should be focused on the number on the scale. You are in the range that you should be in and fluctuations within that range are perfectly normal. Become stronger. Become faster, Become more graceful. Use your new, thinner body to do something amazing or doom yourself to fretting about every calorie you eat from here on out!
If you threw yourself into a physical activity of some sort you could eat much more freely and not gain. Read the article that I linked above. She was losing weight and getting leaner while eating 3000-4000 calories a day! When I was lifting regularly I had a hard time eating all of the calories that I needed to eat to keep up with the demand. I'm not saying that weight lifting is necessarily the answer for you, but to have the body you were trying to achieve and do nothing to push it and test it is a true shame.