Another calorie question

jellebeandesigns

I was losing at 1900 cal/day figured I would drop it to 1300-1500 and lose more but i gained 4 lbs!!!! So do I bump to 1900/day or 1200 + exercise cal. My diary looks like I don't work out I do though- I run 3-6 miles 4xs a week and 10+ miles on Saturday and lift weights 5 days a week. I am trying really hard to make positive food choices but it's a slow change

risenonlytofall

Was this an overnight "gain" or did you stick with it for a significant amount of time (a month or more)? As long as you're losing weight at a pace that agrees with your body and makes you feel good about yourself you shouldn't worry about trying to change things.

jellebeandesigns

It was a month long change.

risenonlytofall

It sounds like your previous system was working for you, so I would stick with that, or transition slowly over a few weeks or months to a lower intake. Really all you can do is keep experimenting ideally until you can find something you would feel comfortable doing for the rest of your life. That's how I tend to think about it at least!

Smokey19

With all the physical exercise you are doing I would not lower your calorie intake because your body needs the calories to function properly. Lowering your calories is putting your body into starvation mode and your metabolism will lower so it can conserve the calories it gets from what you eat.

_stephanie0

sometimes our body needs more calories than the media tells us we need. not many people actually need 1200.

i would stick to the 1900. it was working. losing weight slower is actually better. this way you lose fat, not muscle, and it will be much easier to maintain the weightloss