Increase calories?

Lulupal00za

Hey everyone,
I've been on a 1,200 calorie diet for about 6 months now. I try to avoid carbs and eat a lot of protein. I also have a cheat day once a week where I eat whatever I want.

For exercise I lift weights, but I don't spend all day doing it. I just do one or two exercises a day like squats or deadlifts, etc. I've increased my max significantly in every weight I'm currently doing over the past 2 months. As in, I am able to lift what my 1 rep max was 2 months ago 3 sets of 4 reps or more as of this week... if that makes any sense. I also walk/ jog 3.6 miles a day, and I try to incorporate HIIT on the row machine as well. I always replace my calories according to myfitnesspal.

I've lost about 25 lbs doing all of this and I'm down to about 109 lbs. I'm 5'1". So, I'm not worried about weight loss so much now as I am about losing fat in some of my problem areas.

Anyway, last week I took a break from my fitness routine because of some stress in my life. I basically just ate whatever I wanted whenever I was hungry (cookies, fast-food, whatever). I didn't gorge myself, I just ate whenever I was hungry, and I ate whatever sounded good. I quit keeping track of calories on myfitnesspal. I continued to go for walks. I continued to lift weights although I was pretty relaxed about it. I didn't do any HIIT. I'm back on track this week and to my surprise, when I stepped on the scale this morning, I found that I still lost weight. I don't think it was muscle, because like I said, I was able to lift MORE this week.

SO, my question is... should I increase my caloric intake? I'll admit that I'm often pretty hungry throughout the day. I try to have snacks that are relatively healthy like fruit, protein shakes, jerky etc. and I feel like I'm eating all the time. I'm also a stay at home mom so while I'm not constantly on my feet, I'm still pretty busy.

aliakynes

That's a pretty good sign that you should be eating more. It's likely time to start shifting into maintenance or very close to it for a cut.

JGonzo82

^^^agreed. Bump up cals, especially on the days you lift.

Lulupal00za

Thank you for your replies. Any suggestions on how many calories I should be eating?

aliakynes

Scooby puts you at 1521 before exercise so start there. Eat that much every day for a few weeks. If you're still losing, add 50-100 calories each week until you stop losing.