Exercising and Maintaining - How many calories should I eat?

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jodsap
jodsap Posts: 22 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Looking for a little bit of guidance here.
I have lost 73lbs and have been in " Maintenance " calorie eating for about 2 months. Although I have not lost any weight in about four + months, hence why I just nudged my calorie intake all the way to Maintenance.

I am happy to say that I really haven't had an issue, per say, with gaining weight now that I am in maintenance. I bounce back and forth between 137 and 142. My body hit 137 and said " No Further! This is where I want to be!! " I am 5'2" and 40 yrs old.

Here is my question - I have increased my workouts in the last month. I do Walking, Zumba, Bootcamp and Kickboxing 4-5 days a week. My current calorie intake is 1750 per day and I have myself set at " lightly active " because I work a desk job. I eat back ALL of my exercise calories because I can feel the drop in my endurance during my next workout if I don't. I think I should increase my calories, but I have NO IDEA what to increase it to. Should I set myself as " moderately active" ? I am working more on muscle,strength and toning right now - If I increase my calories and my weight goes up, how do I tell if it is fat or muscle? Is this literally a " how my clothes fit " estimation?

SO the long short story is - Should I increase my calories? What should I increase them to? Is it weird to be almost freaked out at the concept of eating more when I have spent over a year eating less??

Thanks!

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  • GrandmaJackie
    GrandmaJackie Posts: 36,400 Member
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    I read just increase by 100 calories every couple weeks! If you start gaining more than you want to stop! I eat between 1400 - 1700 but have an active job! Also run plus take a walk on most days! Everyone says I don't eat enough but this works for me! If I'm hungry I will eat more!
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    Congratulations on your weight loss!

    Maintenance is all trial and error. I have been in maintenance since about January. I ended up losing ten more pounds that I initially wanted to, which is great because I am in the healthy weight range now. I work at a desk job and I have my activity set at active because sedentary and even lightly active was too low for me because I lost weight faster than what I'd set my goals for.

    I run three times a week and weight lift three days a week, and walk or do some other lightly active thing on the other day of the week. I have been maintaining within a 3-4 pound range, and that's okay with me.
  • terbusha
    terbusha Posts: 1,483 Member
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    If you want to maintain weight, you need to eat the calorie level that allows you to do so. If you want to up your calories, do it slowly by reverse dieting. Add in 50 calories/day/week. This will raise your calorie level slow enough so that your body will compensate by upping its metabolism.

    If you want to work on gaining muscle (tone up), then you should transition to a higher carb diet. I don't know what you are doing now, but 40/40/20 to 30/50/20 (protein/carb/fat) is good for this.

    Allan

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