At what point do you switch over to maintain?

formerlynobel

Last year, I set out to lose 10 pounds, which I feel is totally attainable because I was at that weight in my early 20's. I am now 27 and am just slightly more active now but can't seem to get back down there. At one point, I was nearly 20 lb over my goal weight, but I cut that deficit in half by cleaning up my eating. I work out 5-6 days a week for about an hour a day and even recently completed the Insanity program.

I've been logging here for nearly three months now and have only seen myself gain 2.5 pounds when I expected the opposite to happen. I don't think the stuff I eat has changed much, but I do stay within the calorie limits given to me most of the time. I even started using the food scale sometimes, which I never did before. In that sense, I have cut down my consumption of junk a bit since I started logging. I have it set at "lose 1 lb/week."

I don't want to have to follow a "lose 1 lb/week" guideline forever, but it seems like this isn't working. I don't think "lose 2 lbs/week" is realistic for me, either. While I know that this isn't a lot of weight to worry about and that the scale is just a number, it worries me that this number will just keep getting bigger as I get older, even if my clothing size stays roughly the same for now. My goal is to get to a maintenance point, even if it's not exactly at my goal, but I don't want to be hanging at +12.5 lbs of it.

For reference, I am 5'1", 117.5 lb. I don't lift a lot of weights, so although I'm generally toned, I don't think muscle is adding that much to my weight. Oh, and MFP has me set at 1200+exercise, and I usually eat most/all of those exercise calories back.

inkandsheep

I think for those of us with less weight to lose, it's slower. I'm just under 5ft3 and started off being 141 pounds. I'm 29. I've lost 11 pounds since starting on MFP in April. I had my MFP set to lose 1lb/week and 1200 cals. In reality I've lost a lot slower but have still lost. I really have stayed within my calorie limits all the time - I went over by about 100 cals on a few days here and there between late April and early July. (I've now upped my calorie allowance a bit to lose even slower so my diary will show things differently.)

How much extra are the exercise calories you're eating back?
If you work out a lot, have you noticed your body change even though the scales haven't? Are you eating generally healthier foods?