Struggling to find good portion sizes

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violaninja
violaninja Posts: 12 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I've reached my goal weight of 110 pounds, and I'm having trouble determining how to use my daily quota of 2000 maintenance calories. While I was losing weight, I generally ate around 1200 calories per day and was full. Now, I don't know whether I should eat bigger portion sizes (which often leave me stuffed) or healthy higher-calorie foods. My mom wants me to eat bigger portion sizes. She thinks that anyone who diets but isn't obese is anorexic, has hypoglycemia and an extremely high metabolism, and is convinced that 9 oz. of meat is a healthy portion size for me. Is my lack of appetite unhealthy and a result of shrinking my stomach too much? Should I comply with my mom's wishes and stuff myself or just eat more avocados, nuts, and healthy carbs?

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  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
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    May I ask how you arrived at 2,000 calories? I'm not doubting you, just wanting to make sure you calculated correctly. Usually people only up their calories by 300-500 calories over weight loss for maintenance...800 seems like an awful lot. So I'm just curious.
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
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    Also, how did you decide to eat only 1,200 calories? That's also typically very, very low (too low).
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
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    For you, I'd say go with the higher-calorie foods (avocados, nuts, etc.). If there's something you really want to eat, have a bit more.
  • violaninja
    violaninja Posts: 12 Member
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    Oops... I didn't use the MFP net calorie calculator; I looked it up on WebMD (which says that a moderately active person of my age and gender should eat 2000 calories). The MFP calculator says I should eat 1600, which seems a lot more reasonable to me.
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
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    Oops... I didn't use the MFP net calorie calculator; I looked it up on WebMD (which says that a moderately active person of my age and gender should eat 2000 calories). The MFP calculator says I should eat 1600, which seems a lot more reasonable to me.

    Ah, okay. I'll do ya one better. PM me your height, weight, age, how active you are during the day (i.e., do you work at a desk all day or chase children around the house, for example), and how many times and for how long you exercise.

    I'll do some calcs to double-check how much you should be eating. I'm no expert, but I used the same calculator to tabulate my own goals and lost 65 lbs. Hopefully it'll help.

    Then we can talk how best to eat those extra calories.
  • lighteningjeanne855
    lighteningjeanne855 Posts: 566 Member
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    Some easy ways to add calories:

    Cream in your coffee.
    Full-Fat Everything: yoghurt, crackers, salad dressings.
    Butter on your vegetables.

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