Struggling with maintenance calories

thankyou4thevenom

So I started to look for my maintenance calories as I'm starting to lift weights. I do however have a huge mental blockage over eating that many calories. I can do it, I can eat them. I just feel fat when I do. Then comes the internal battle of I'll always be the fat one, etc..... I'm a little scared the voices in my head will get too loud and I'll go back to eating less even though I know it's a horrible idea.

How do you cope when eating at maintenance? Got any tips?

myopus

I'm not at that point yet, so bumping for you

cardbucfan

No tips, I have the same voices in my head and I'm still not there yet. For me, I have always worked out pretty hard but I ate A LOT and I still ended up here so it is really difficult for me to make myself eat more food. I can certainly do it-I'm not one of the people who has a hard time getting my calories in, but I don't WANT to. I'll check back and see if there is some good advice here.

2hungariangirls

Bump for us all!

PixelTreason

I have no advice as I struggle mightily with this exact issue myself.
I want to start weight training but have no idea how I will be able to make myself eat *over* maintenance to do so. I have a hard enough time reaching maintenance calories.

Bumping for you though so you'll hopefully get some replies (that I can read, too!)

Good luck to you!

thelovelyLIZ

I just make sure the calories are coming from good foods. Quality over quantity is important sometimes.

TavistockToad

i am at maintenance and it was odd eating more, but i love my food so its never really been too much of a struggle!!!

just try and up the cals really slowly, 100 cals at a time for a couple of weeks, so you get used to eating a little bit more a bit at a time. make sure you are still making healthy choices most of the time - i dont feel bad for eating nuts and extra slices of lean meat etc, but i know what you mean about feeling fat when its bad stuff, even if it fits in the cals. just remember that it will take a while to find the exact number of calories that your body needs, so dont feel you have to jump straight up by 500 or 600 cals at a time.

good luck!

cmriverside

You can continue like that and end up on meds the rest of your life. Like a lot of us who created hypotyroidism by undereating.