Has anyone gone over maintenance

Are you trying to maintain your current weight? 1200 seems like too little per day if this is the case.

If you truly need to eat only 1200, you really only have 3 options.
1. Exercise to burn some calories
2. Plan the rest of your day around the 451 calories you have remaining
3. Eat over 1200 for today.

What will work for you? I am set to lose 1 lb per week and have 1420 per day. Some days I eat a few calories over, some days under, but never below 1200. Do what works for you. Make it a lifestyle change.

Racheldasilva174 wrote: »

PinkPixiexox wrote: »

Is 1200 your maintenance? This is a very low amount. I'm very petite and quite light and I maintain at around 1800. Every one is different, of course - but I just wanted to make sure that 1200 is the correct maintenance amount for you first of all?

When I go significantly over my maintenance (significant to me is a few hundred calories over), I'll cut my calories the next day by a couple of hundred, and then the following day too if necessary - until I'm all evened out again. There are definitely ways around it, so don't feel bad for having an indulgence! In fact, enjoy it. You're human

My maintenance is around 1600-1700 cal I must of did a typo but I can't exercise much due to acne and time so I try to cut food out. Today I was feeling under the weather and had a big slice of pumpkin pie on top of my breakfast of toast with low sugar jam and an oatmeal cookie.

if your maintenance is 1600 - 1700 calories and you have 451 calories left from you deficit...you have plenty of calories to work with before you would go over maintenance...1700 - 1200 = 500+451 = 951 calories before you would go over maintenance.

Racheldasilva174 wrote: »

Today I managed to eat fine up until I binged on a soft cookie and big slice of pie. I would exercise to burn it off but I can't risk breaking out in more acne even though I keep good hygiene. For a 1200 cal goal I have 451 cal left and I didn't eat lunch or dinner. What should I do

One cookie and a slice of pie isn't a binge. It's a minor indulgence. A binge would be something like eating twenty cookies and the entire pie. People maintain their weight just fine in spite of the occasional indulgence, as long as it isn't a constant thing.

You also are on maintenance - you should be going over and under in equal amounts. That is, if you're over by few hundred one day and under by a few hundred the next, it works out. You don't want to always be under or you're not really on maintenance anymore.

I may accidently go over every once in a while. No big deal really.

Unless I truly don't understand the meaning of binge, a soft cookie and a piece of pie is an indulgence not a binge. Everyone is entitled to an indulgence once in a while. Now if you start eating dozens of cookies and whole pies then you can start talking to yourself about binge eating. Nobody eats perfect all the time, cut yourself a break.

A cookie and a piece of pie is not a binge. It's dessert.

What? I go over maintenance all the time. I work with a weekly average.

brianpperkins wrote: »

@Racheldasilva174
Quite frankly, your threads throw up a lot of red flags for me. 104 pounds and obsessed with food according to one of your threads ... starting another thread in the maintaining weight section that states you don't want to reach your maintenance calories (that is counter productive to maintaining) ... you repeatedly use the word "binge" when your behaviors don't match the term ... multiple indicators of an unhealthy relationship with food that you've displayed over a period of time.

Ditto. This thread alone threw up flags for me, then I read the prior ones.

@Racheldasilva174 - I hope you have followed through with comments you made in earlier threads, and are finding help to deal with your unhealthy relationship with food!

During the weight loss phase you are eating at a deficit. You cannot gain weight if you are eating fewer calories than your body needs to function - yet you have a few threads asking whether after "binging" you should stop eating for the day even though you have not yet reached your calorie deficit limit. This is apparently to create a bigger deficit out of fear that what you perceive as "bad" foods will make you gain weight (even though you are not consuming enough calories to sustain your weight). As several people have noted, you are not binging if you have a reasonable loss or maintenance calorie goal and you are still under it by ~30% for the day after "binging."

Calories are calories. You need a certain quantity to sustain your weight. If you eat more than that, you gain. If you eat fewer than that, you lose. Period. What you eat is irrelevant.** You could eat all graperfruits, or all ice cream, or a healthy balance and the amount lost (or gained) would be identical.

The composition of what you eat has more to do with feeling satiated, creating cravings, etc. In other words - what you eat has a bigger impact on whether you will be able to sustain your way of eating, than whether you will lose weight IF you are able to sustain it.

**ketogenic diets may vary this equation a little, because they (at least theoretically) force a more costly conversion from food consumed to energy the body can use to operate. But you're not on a ketogenic diet (low to very low carb), so from a calorie consumption => weight gain or loss, feel free to eat pie, cookies, popcorn, skittles. What you choose to eat has more to do with your ability to sustain a healthy relationship with food (and provide your body with the nutrients it needs) than it does with whether the scale numbers go up or down.

Please find someone to help you create a healthier relationship with food, before it turns into something much more extreme.

RunRutheeRun wrote: »

Francl27 wrote: »

I go over maintenance once a week. And I stay under the rest of the time. It all balances out.

^^ I do this too... and been maintaining my goal weight for 2+ years

I'm glad to hear this works for people! I am approaching maintenance and am trying this method.