helpful tips for maintaining/gaining a bit of weight back

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geventing
geventing Posts: 11
in Food and Nutrition
Hey there, I'm curious to know if anyone out there has some good recipes/tips/snack ideas that would help me. Over the last year and a half I've dropped around 102 pounds, and now weight between 158-160 and I'm an 18 year old female who's 5'11. My issue now is eating enough to maintain my weight (And even put a couple of pounds back on) because I'm so used to eating in a dieting fashion. I exercise everyday, walking at about 4.9 for around 70min and then working out 3X a week for a little over an hour. It's been very hard for me to wrap my brain around eating the amount of calories charts are telling me I need to eat, and I was wondering if anyone else out there had had this problem before? I've gotten better about it (I think I was a little borderline anorexic for a bit) but it's because I think I'm doing the right thing...but I'm not, I think I'm just afraid I'm going to get overweight again. I've gotten a bit underweight and I want to make sure I don't burn muscle with my exercise and everything-please don't tell me I shouldn't exercise the amount I do because I'm not willing to change my exercise schedule, as it helps keep me sane and my body feeling good. ANY advice/tips/recipes/etc... would be great-thank you!!

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  • shaycat
    shaycat Posts: 980
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    It is hard to go from being so use to eating a small amount of calories to the lager maintaining calories. I have the same problem.
    I just try really hard to work healthy snacks into my diet. Maybe have a protein shake after working out?
  • geventing
    geventing Posts: 11
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    I'd thought about that, I'm not a huge one for eating large quantities of food inbetween or close to my meals because I find it annoying. I like whey protein powder (Steve's actually) so that's not a bad idea, do you have any good recipes? :) thank you!
  • Swanson83
    Swanson83 Posts: 226 Member
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    I am in the process of switching from losing to maintaining and I am having a hard time with the calories increasing as well. I am going to slowly increase my calories. I had my settings at losing 1.5lbs/week and now I switched it .5 for this week. I am going to see what that does as far as my weight and then hopefully make it up to just maintaining by the beginning of April. It took me a while to get use to decreasing my calories I am guessing it is going to take time to increase my calories the healthy way. After my work outs (which include running) I try to grab a gatorade the G2 fruit punch. It doesn't have loads of calories and it doesn't fill me up. I am NO expert but this is just an idea.
  • shaycat
    shaycat Posts: 980
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    You might want to try eating a bigger breakfast. That is how I upped some calories. Also try adding a banana in somewhere.
    I just set my goal back from maintain to .5lb a week. I think I was eating a bit to much. Maintaining is hard work.
  • Tshuggah42
    Tshuggah42 Posts: 14
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    I've been trying to gain weight my whole life. I'm 5'10" and a half started out at 150 lbs. I stared a diet about a month ago and gained 4 lbs. So that's about a pound a week. And the biggest thing about this diet that makes it work is the fact that you have to keep you belly full at all times. And the way you do that is by eating a snack in between every meal. Through out the day, I eat 6 meals. I Break my Fast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner and a Snack. And by snacks I'm talking about Fruits, Nuts, Cheese, Yogurt, even dried fruit will work. After 4 hours of eating you metabolism rises, breaking down everything you've eaten, thus making you lose weight. So the secret is to eat every 2 and a half to 3 hours, always keeping your belly full. And by snacking on healthy stuff, you gain muscle, and not fat.
  • geventing
    geventing Posts: 11
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    wonderful, thank you everyone!

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