help needed!

clyn27

I was doing 1200 calories a day. I know a lot of people don't agree with that little but it didn't seem like too little to me. I work a desk job and being that it was winter and I have a very small house unless I was actually working out there was very little physical activity going on. I ate back half my work out calories and felt very satisfied. I was actually very surprised at how much food I could fit into that goal. Well now I am at the end of my weight loss. I am at 123lbs. I would like to be at a toned 125-130lbs. When I first started with this eating better and exorcise thing I thought I just wanted to be thin. Well now I am thin and still don't like what I see in the mirror. I realized I actually need to be a little heavier and toned a little to not look awful in a bikini. I have switched my goal to maintenance and started lifting a little bit and doing less cardio. My only problem is Im finding it hard to get in all the calories "I need to". I need higher calorie food options that wont stuff me to the max. Any help would be great

TeaBea

Calorie dense foods...............nuts, nut butters, olive oil, avocado, full fat dairy. Systematically removed the "diet" food from your list....light bread, fat free, sugar free whatever.

The reason people don't recommend 1200 is that it is likely under your BMR (calories your body uses to function) ....that means 100% of the calories you ingested was not enough...so your body used stored fat (yeah!) AND existing muscle mass for fuel.

Eat lots & lots of protein and strength train to (re) build lost muscle. Meat (less lean), 2% fat (at least) greek yogurt, whole eggs, etc.

Cardio tends to burn more calories than strength training.....do less cardio, and you need (a little) less food.

ColeCake292012

Well, I don't think I could've said it better myself TeaBea!