Maintaining, but still losing

Bumped up calories again to 2,200 per day and eating a bit of junk, which I have only done twice in the last two months. My weight is now dangerously low at 62 kg. I know this just by looking at myself. So giving myself a relaxed day today. A few biscuits, some toast with honey.. etc. etc.

Yes, I know. I just don't want to get into ****ty eating habits again by going all out, except for a day. I have been watching it. When you first saw me here, I was on 1,600 calories a day and now up to 2,200 a day, so I have definitely been trying. I have been doing like you said, where I'm bumping up calories once a week/once every two weeks and seeing how my body reacts.

I have switched my calories to TDEE, which I think is a good way to go. I had a huge blowout day yesterday to eat loads and felt a lot better too. With my level of exercise per week, I do about 4 1/2 hours of moderate/intense exercise a week, so this set my calories at 2,200 per day. However, I still plan on eating whole and healthy foods and following through with my 10 veg a day, which makes me feel great. I'm now at 63 kg. and hoping to get up to 64 to 65 kg., which, with my changes towards strength-based exercise and increased calories, should happen.

So I kept increasing my calories and have gone back up to my weight that makes me look less anorexic. Thanks to a lot of support as I was a bit worried to gain too much weight, but once I was gently upping my calories, it helped. I went from maintaining at 1700 calories per day to 2250 per day to put weight back on. I was just below 62 kg. at my lowest point and now back up to 65 kg. through a gentle increase in calories. I did like everyone said and just ate more calorie dense foods like bread and adding healthy fats into my diet again really made a difference in losing too much weight. So my maintenance calories are now at 2,100 calories per day and eating back my exercise calories as well. In terms of having a cheat day, I do that once a month where I have pizza or a big fat burger with chips and I treat myself still to Belvita breakfast biscuits on my exercise days, which also helps for motivation as well - a sort of, it's an exercise day, I get to have a small treat (not a healthy thing, but better than chocolate cake or pastries) and still within my calorie limit. In terms of exercise, I still walk throughout my commute and my exercise schedule is now finally set in stone where I do one bootcamp reformer pilates class (55 minutes), one jivamukti yoga class (60 minutes), two 30-minute runs and two spin classes (1 hr long each). I will also be incorporating a 20-minute routine in the mornings of 10 minutes of skipping rope, 5 minutes of yoga and 5 minutes of pilates/strengthening (nothing too major as I have a severely injured body). So far so good!

Tried to even remotely lower my calories and still found I'm at 2,250 calories per day for maintaining. I think that the most accurate calculator that helped me work out my maintenance calories was this one, mentioned earlier - http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced

I personally think if MFP really wanted to improve their calorie calculators, they should have more room for those of us that may work in an office all day and sit at a desk, but then end up commuting loads or actually walk on our commute.

Found myself switching to good protein sources after workouts and a healthy carb source before workouts. It's helped.

Also, got my workouts throughout the week under control, where I'm working out about 5 hours a week, including my shiny new kettlebell.. Onwards and upwards..

Thanks man. Yeah, I'm at 2,250 for the next week and see how that goes. I've been eating a little bit of my exercise calories back, but not too much, so I can have a pizza or a burger with some chocolate once a month. But that's it.

By Saturday, I'll check it again and ramp it up if I need to. Doing about 4 hours a week now of training, with a mixture of skipping rope, 2 x kettlebell training, a solid run on the canals of London, a spin class at home, a couple of jivamukti yoga hours and a bootcamp reformer pilates class. I didn't mind swimming, but again, that messes with my shoulders too much, as I have terrible shoulder and neck issues from being a retired fighter. Used to swim loads! Helped with my asthma actually and was great for fighter training to control your breathing. Hence, why I seem a bit like a wimp with my workouts nowadays. Yeah, it's taken about a year for my body to get used to being less athletic and just a bit more lean.