Can't maintain but keep losing...

You are definitely not alone in this. I have had the same trouble. I reached my goal last year in July and I am about 13 pounds lighter now than I was then. It can be hard to figure out how much you actually need to eat. And I have the same fears that if I start eating more I will gain and keep gaining. Or if I exercise less I will start to gain, but I really don't want to cut back my exercise. I think @Detritus_1965 is exactly right. It is hard to change your mindset. For now I still log because I feel like if I just ate what I thought I needed I would be likely to undereat. And it is frustrating because my fitbit tells me I am over my calorie goal almost every day. (I have determined that my fitbit underestimates my calorie burn so I purposely go over, but being in the red every day messes with my head some.)You really will need to either eat more or exercise less. I have manually set my goal on mfp so I don't usually go over here. In addition to some of the other suggestions, I would recommend that you start drinking some calories too. I have started drinking gatorade after I run. Or you could drink juice or something if you just want to add calories but aren't particularly hungry. You might also consider an exercise like yoga if you want to do something active but that isn't a big calorie burner.

Am curious why you are walking 2 hrs a day. Since you are beyond trying to burn calories, maybe save time and substitute some higher intensity training, which gives additional health benefits.

Regardless of what the app suggests for you, it's a simple process to fine tune your maintenance level. Do exactly what you were doing but add 2 tbls of peanut butter on toast to your day, that's a 1/4 kilo a week right there.

In all your weighing, make sure the error is towards gaining weight, you may be too harsh and tipping it towards losing weight.

I am also having a bit of a hard time with maintaining. I continued to lose for a few months after I reached my goal. Now I am mentally stuck between knowing I'm a bit underweight and not wanting to gain again for fear that I won't stop gaining. I already eat a lot, since I run a lot, and I eat back all my exercise calories. I often end up eating more than my goal, and since I'm not gaining I have figured out that my goal is probably too low. But it is discouraging to see the red number at the end of the day, even if I know that it won't hurt me to be over on my calories. I think I've found a balance, finally, but I'll only know for sure if I stay here for more than a week or two. There's a little voice in my head that wonders, "I wonder if I can lose the extra fat that still lingers?"

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

I have cut my exercise in half over the last 4 days and increased my calories by 250. Still not seeing the scales go up (in fact they went down to start with). I know I shouldn't complain though as it means I can eat way more than the average person my height and weight.

I will get there one day. Just better not to stress about it and with a BMI of 20 I am still a healthy weight.

Cutting exercise down causes the chronic water retention typically there for muscle repair to go down. 4 days is not enough. Give it time before increasing calories again.

You talked about having PTSD. Walking is very good for emotional/psychological stress. It gets you out of the house and can take you out of your head. You could walk slower to burn fewer calories.

What about some easy to drink beverages with calories? I like Silk Protein Nutmilk -- 130 calories a cup and 10 G protein. It doesn't have peanuts. You could also look up recipes and make your own shakes.

I second the suggestion for avocado -- it's great in salads and you can also put it on toast.

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

I am also having a bit of a hard time with maintaining. I continued to lose for a few months after I reached my goal. Now I am mentally stuck between knowing I'm a bit underweight and not wanting to gain again for fear that I won't stop gaining. I already eat a lot, since I run a lot, and I eat back all my exercise calories. I often end up eating more than my goal, and since I'm not gaining I have figured out that my goal is probably too low. But it is discouraging to see the red number at the end of the day, even if I know that it won't hurt me to be over on my calories. I think I've found a balance, finally, but I'll only know for sure if I stay here for more than a week or two. There's a little voice in my head that wonders, "I wonder if I can lose the extra fat that still lingers?"

I am having the same difficulty- I lost the weight and met my goal then, maintained a week or two but began losing a little here and there. Now , I'm having difficulty putting a few back on (fear of putting too much on too quickly, etc.) I have MFP set for .5 kilo per week- and the same "little voice" saying the same "...what if you go over your calories-- you'll reverse all you've worked hard to achieve."

Weight is a funny thing and our bodies do react (of course) to how much we feed it. I think it's really important that you 'aren't stressing about it anymore'. That's really good for you, but it's hard.

Know that when we eat more than maintenance, our bodies tend to increase our Non-exercise Adaptive Thermogenisis NEAT. It's just basically, how much our bodies subconsciously move over the day.

From day to day, there are so many changes that cause gain (eating salty things causes you to hold water for a few days, starting resistance training causes your muscles to fill up with water) that you really shouldn't fuss about.

Adding on top of all of this is a few of gaining weight, subconsciously you might be shorting yourself calories. You might know that thin people tend to overestimate how much they eat and overweight people tend to underestimate how much they eat.

I'd suggest maybe you do a little test on yourself (if you feel up to it), try to gain 5 lbs. Really try. Like average weight over a week of measurements, not just for one day. It's actually pretty hard.

Now if you are worried about fat gain, just start lifting weights on a structured program. Maybe swap a run or two for lifting. You are in no danger of fat gain. It sounds like you're quite active, nothing to worry about.