Ahhh, maintanance calories! Confused!

Happyme2009

Hello.... I am 38 years old female, 5'7 tall.
I went from 151 lbs down to 129 lbs and stopped.... although my original goal is 125lbs. .... posted in Success Stories, if you would like to see photos, there is a link in my profile.
Problem is, I wanted to maintain, as I was relatively happy with my shape.
But I got scared. So instead I changed my profile to half a pound loss per week. That gave me a net of 1500 cals, from 1280 as I was before.
Now another problem is that I eat. Clean, but a lot! I am hungry all the time/
So before,when I lost, I was eating about 2000 cals a day, but burning about 700 cals in the gym every day... I love exercising.
Since I upped my cals to 1500, I stopped doing so much cardio and focused more on strength training. Eating remained relatively the same, maybe more by a couple of hundreds.... now I am even hungrier since I do weights! But weights don't burn as much as cardio....
So it looks to me like I am struggling to maintain, I went up a couple of lbs, much more than continuing to lose half a pound a week as it was set up, instead of "real" maintanance, which would have given me a net of about 1750 cals.
So.... what should I do?
These extra calories don't want to help me!
Should I reduce my intake back to about 1300 nets, or should I leave it at 1500 and continue doing lots more cardio than strength training????
Help!
I would like to build more muscle, but not add fat.....
Or maybe I should post in the "fitness" section????
Please help.....
Losing was easier!

goodtimezzzz

well to build muscle and not gain fat you def need to up calories slightly And do strength training and moderate cardio! and when u say build muscle you mean???

Happyme2009

I mean I want to look like a fitness model

tubzzy77

First off Good job losing that weight. Second your post is kind of confusing but it sounds like you want to maintain your current weight but have more muscle definition. It sounds like you are having trouble figuring out how many calories to consume to maintain your weight and add muscle but not fat. You know your body better than anyone else so you should eat at maintenance and continue your strength training. See how your body reacts and go from there. If you are gaining too much weight after a few weeks cut back or vice versa if you are losing too much.

Remember looking like a fitness model is super tough work. Its difficult to maintain that low of bodyfat for an extended period of time. good luck.

waldo56

When you raise calories it is natural to gain a few pounds of extra stuff in your guts and glycogen.

How long ago did you make the switch?

You could be really undereating too, depending on how you count strength training calories. I find MFP's numbers to be laughably low. The high effort calisthenics gives a burn about 3/4 of my running pace, which is far more appropriate than a burn that is a fraction of my walking pace that the strength training entry gives, I certainly burn a heck of a lot more calories strength training than I do walking. And it works perfect as my weight moves at exactly the rate I expect, up or down.