Help a hungry girl at maintenance??

sarah5423

Hi all! I've been on MFP since Feb and have lost 28lbs which I'm really happy with BUT I want to eat more, I feel I need to eat more....

I hit my target weight about 6 weeks ago, even though I'm still unhappy with my body shape as I have not been lifting weights - I know this is important and it is my plan to do so when I can join the gym.

So I decided to concentrate on maintaing my weight and ensure I am 100% in control and able to do this for the rest of my life. But I've found that I'm maintaining on very few calories, I make very good choices 90% of the time, my weakness is dark chocolate in the evening or some small treat but no alcohol, rarely any bread, rice, pasta, no soda etc. Lots of chicken, tuna, eggs, salad, veggies, rolled oats, greek yoghurt, fruit and so on.... I drink 2-3 litres of water a day but don't log this. I do however log every other thing I eat or drink, I don't have a HRM so calories burned are estimated. Unless I go out for a meal which is rare I weigh everything to the gram so I don't believe I'm underestimating what I eat.

My stats are as follows:

Height: 5'2

Age: 29

Weight: 102 - 103 lbs

Calories eaten per day: average roughly 1300

Net calories per day: roughly between 1050 - 1160

Total workout hours per week: minimum 3 x 50 minutes bokwa classes. Roughly 3 hours per week walking/jogging

I've just started back with 30DS and hope to do this 2 x per week inbetween class days.

Don't get me wrong I'm not starving as I generally choose good quality foods but I would love to be able to maintain at an extra few hundred calories per day to allow myself to relax a little. I'm not one to binge and my first choice wouldn't be a McDonalds as a treat but to have a quiche with the crust or a sauce with my chicken would be amazing.

I can't believe that I have to burn 2 - 300 calories per day and stick at about 1300 calories of food for the rest of my life - this just seems too low.

So I suppose my question is, is there anyone out there that has been in the same situation - did you just up your calories and hope that you didn't gain or did you increase your exercise? Tell me this is not it for me?

TavistockToad

how long did you try eating more calories, and how many more did you have?

sarah5423

Up until maintainence maybe a few weeks before that I was rarely netting 1000 a day - I know I'm going to get hammered for this but it was working and eating more scared the hell out of me. So in theory I've been eating more by just a couple of hundred for about 8-9 weeks - I have had one holiday where I ate more than usual but still good choices and I gained 2lbs in a week probably netting 1500 - 1600 (maybe more) per day....

TavistockToad

Up until maintainence maybe a few weeks before that I was rarely netting 1000 a day - I know I'm going to get hammered for this but it was working and eating more scared the hell out of me. So in theory I've been eating more by just a couple of hundred for about 8-9 weeks - I have had one holiday where I ate more than usual but still good choices and I gained 2lbs in a week probably netting 1500 - 1600 (maybe more) per day....

to be honest you need to give it more than a week. try netting 1500 for a month and then see where you are.

maintenance should be a range (4-5lbs) to account for fluctuations, so anything between 102 and 106 would work for you?

also, add the extra cals 100 per week, as this will minimise the initial gain. so if you are netting 1000 now, aim for 1100 this week, 1200 next week etc etc.

Its_Nat

Bumping this to keep track of. I'm nowhere near maintenance, but it's interesting to see what works for everyone.

sarah5423

Up until maintainence maybe a few weeks before that I was rarely netting 1000 a day - I know I'm going to get hammered for this but it was working and eating more scared the hell out of me. So in theory I've been eating more by just a couple of hundred for about 8-9 weeks - I have had one holiday where I ate more than usual but still good choices and I gained 2lbs in a week probably netting 1500 - 1600 (maybe more) per day....

to be honest you need to give it more than a week. try netting 1500 for a month and then see where you are.

maintenance should be a range (4-5lbs) to account for fluctuations, so anything between 102 and 106 would work for you?

also, add the extra cals 100 per week, as this will minimise the initial gain. so if you are netting 1000 now, aim for 1100 this week, 1200 next week etc etc.

Thank you for your reply amd I agree with what you are saying but what I'm concerned with is the fact that I'm already maintaining so therefore would I not gain by adding more calories?

ihateroses

Figure out what your actual maintenance calories are.

I can tell you that you are not eating maintenance right now, you are still eating to lose weight (even if you aren't actually losing).

sarah5423

My TDEE at sedentary is 1430 per day so in theory I should be able to eat this! Then I should be able to add my exercise calories to that (although I wouldn't use all estimated by MFP)

Last week I ate (not net) on average 1360 calories per day - my net daily average comes out at 1060.

So would you suggest I try to eat the given 1430 and some exercise cals as a starting point?

ihateroses

My TDEE at sedentary is 1430 per day so in theory I should be able to eat this! Then I should be able to add my exercise calories to that (although I wouldn't use all estimated by MFP)

Last week I ate (not net) on average 1360 calories per day - my net daily average comes out at 1060.

So would you suggest I try to eat the given 1430 and some exercise cals as a starting point?

Yes!

LauraThirty

Up until maintainence maybe a few weeks before that I was rarely netting 1000 a day - I know I'm going to get hammered for this but it was working and eating more scared the hell out of me. So in theory I've been eating more by just a couple of hundred for about 8-9 weeks - I have had one holiday where I ate more than usual but still good choices and I gained 2lbs in a week probably netting 1500 - 1600 (maybe more) per day....

Hi there, I know it feels like you have, but you didnt gain 2lbs in a week on 1500-1600 a day. It would take eating 7000 extra calories over your maintenance goal for the whole week to put on 2lbs of fat... which would mean eating around 3000 or more a day. It sounds like water weight to me.

I recently switched to maintenance as a target but remain anywhere between 200 cals over on the odd ocassion and 900 cals under and I started losing again. To start with I put on about 6lbs in 1 day... according to my scales anyway! But I knew it wasn't physically possible to be a true reflection and stuck at it. Boy am I glad I did. Eating maintenance with a varied "under" won't work for everyone, but to me it's something I can stick with for life and even if it takes me 2 years + to lose the weight, I know it is realistic for me to stick with.

elisa123gal

See, this is what scares me. If you have to eat 1000 to 1300 calories a day the rest of you life; what kind of life is that? There are some on here who eat more during weight loss phase so they won't be stuck having to eat low calories forever. I've seen posts on here from people who stick to the 1200 calorie weigh tloss plan then are stuck at that forever or they gain.

I think you should eat more..even if you gain..then reset your system so you can be at your goal weight and eat more. Go to that scooby fitness site.