My metabolism is coming back

I'm 5'0" 105lbs and I net 1,500 cals a day on most days. When I net more I gain a little, but it's easy to lose. I just eat less for a few days. My BMR is like 1,200 so I figure eating 1,500+ and maintaining means my metabolism is good??

I lost quite a lot of weight with bariatric surgery, and have now reached a healthy & comfortable weight and am in maintenance. I try to net about 1560 cal/day (female, 48, 165 - 170, and net means I eat back my calories). I weigh myself weekly, and I tend to fluctuate between 165 & 170. Sometimes I'm higher, sometimes I'm lower. As long as I'm somewhere in that 5 pound range, I don't worry too much about gain vs. loss; I think it tends to be just normal fluctuations in water retention and other stuff. Because even when I'm being "bad", I don't eat enough to actually gain 4 pounds in a week's time, and I don't have a revved up enough metabolism to lose 4 pounds in a week's time (and I've recorded 4 pound weight gains and weight losses in a week's time).

If you are being mindful of how much you eat and what you eat (for some people, the type of food can mess you up, even if you are keeping your calories in check), and you are getting in enough fluids, appropriate exercise, and reasonable sleep, you will likely find your maintenance balance if you monitor over time and tweak a little bit. Once you find you are staying in a 5 or 10 pound range consistently, and you feel good and your clothes fit properly, you have probably found a good maintenance balance. At that point, you won't worry too much if your weight goes up and down a few pounds every week.

If you creep up out of that "comfortable" range, review what you've been doing for maintenance, shake things up with different food combos, different exercise combos, etc. to get back down into your "comfortable" range again. Losing weight is a big lifestyle change, but once it's gone, you still have to work to keep it off; maintenance is learning how to tweak all the good things you were doing to lose the weight in the first place, and find the optimum combination of food, exercise, water, and other good habits to keep the weight from coming back.

And most important of all, if you do see a bounce up and realize you've fallen back into some old bad habits, don't beat yourself up about it. You're human, and like all of us, there will be occasional stumbles. Just look forward and do your best to get back on track. If you lost the weight in the first place, you've figured out some of your problem areas and the triggers that cause them. You can fix that. Regrets and guilt will only hamstring you. Better to focus on what is good for you and going after that.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks, I did the same thing. I think my metabolism came back with a bang, because even though I reached my goal weight, I kept losing, despite slowly building up my calories. So made a bit of a bigger jump in calories to 1,920 for a 5 ft. 10 in., 36yo female. Here's hoping I stabilise soon, though a bit nervous.

Don't be surprised if your weight continues to drift down at 1920. That's only 20 calories more than I eat to maintain at 123 pounds for a 5'7", 60 year old female.