Okay, so while losing weight, I was lucky and never really needed to go below 1400 calorie weekly average WITH a day of "free" meals which probably brought the average closer to 1800. All the while, I was worried about having to live on that for the rest of my life because I was still always hungry. So, in June, I begin to maintain and slowly increased calories 100 average a week until my weight didn't go down or up for 2 weeks in a row. Doing that I go from 121 to 117. Then, I decide that I will keep track of what I eat on my "free" day each week to try and get a total amount of calories for maintenance. I realize that I am maintaining on 2200-2400 calories a week! I cannot be the only one is what I think. I read posts and have never read one that says they maintain on anything more than 1800 so I must be missing something here. Does anyone else maintain on this amount of calories??? I am not super muscular, I have lots of extra skin. I only weight train 3 days a week, full body for 30 minutes and only do 5 hours of cardio a week and rarely go above 80% MHR...actually stay closer to 60-70% I am now worried that this is a fluke and overnight I will gain 20 pounds or something!! Please someone tell me that you also maintain at this level.

I think you must have meant 2200-2400 per day!

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! We are all different. I also think the calories charts we all use differ somewhat. I know that when I use fitday (my usual but now sporadic tracking), the calorie count is lower than if I use another site. Not much, but enought to make a difference over the week.

Congratulations on your loss. You look great!

Mel

Christina, for me it seems to depend on where the calories are coming from. I can maintain on a higher calorie level if I eat more lean protein and less carbohydrates. Technically this shouldn't make a difference, but for me it does.

Just like it takes different calorie levels for different people to lose, it takes different calorie levels to maintain. It is what it is. Your calorie requirements may change over time, they may not. There is no "normal" in this respect (or rather if there is, it doesn't matter).

I was watching a television show on a female athlete who needed 3500 calories to maintain. She ran marathons and such, but still I don't think that makes 2200 -2400 freakish.

I maintain on about 2700 calories a day I think. I havent added in awhile, but what I eat on most normal days is pretty close to what I used to eat on most "ugh" days which was typically 2700 - that seems to be where my "hunger level" is. Plus I tend to have a pretty big day on the weekend with my long runs (3500 plus). (FWIW I lost on ~2200/day)

If you are uncomfortable then keep tracking religiously and weigh more frequently. You arent going to gain 20 lbs overnight, even if something does switch. Put an upper limit on your weight taking into account normal fluctuations and be prepared to jump back if you cross it.

I have a friend who has a confused thyroid. She will be mildly hyperthyroid for a few months and then rather suddenly go mildly hypothyroid (are those the terms?) Anyway...she settles her weight by weighing daily and having a VERY narrow window of acceptable weights all based on her history. She knows exactly how much TOM weight is normal for her etc. I think she targets 122 and has a window of 120 to 124 (because she can just as easily lose too much quickly as gain) with 125 being acceptable for the 3 days preceding TOM.

I'm currently maintaining between 2200-2700 a day. It's quite tricky to eat that many calories while eating healthily, I'll tell ya!

It's only surprising to me that you can maintain on so many because you're quite petite. But with the weight training and the cardio, you're burning plenty off. Be glad! Just keep an eye on it; track your calories and watch your weight. If you start to gain weight, it will be very easy to drop your cals by 100 or so. And no, you won't gain 20lb overnight! If they're going to come, they'll creep up on you.

Thank you so much everyone for the replies. I do feel better now. I was worried I was doing something wrong somewhere because there were people younger, who work out alot more and have a ton more muscle than me who I see maintaining on 1400-1600 calories a day. I guess I should just count myself lucky and enjoy it until I see it changing. I do tend to eat very healthy and with moderate amounts of carb (40-50%) and at least 120 grams of protein a day so, perhaps, this is helping me eat at a higher level. Thanks again for making me feel less freakish!!!

Hey there,

I don't get up that high, but I have been surprised at how much I can eat on maintenance compared to how much I had to restrict myself to lose. I think that exercise actually changes some folks' metabolism--so that they are burning more calories than they were able to before weight loss/exercise.

Jay

Exercise helps as well as...if you were bordering on insulin resistant before but have gotten healthy enough to fix that, that boosts your metabolism quite a bit. I think it has a lot to do with why I (like Lily) can lose on 2400 calories of healthy food, but gain on 2400 calories of junk. I dont think it takes that much for the system to start to sliiiiide.

I had an unfortunate run in with a can of reddi-whip earlier this week and I was amazed at how quickly some of my other symptoms returned and hardcore fast. Depression, irritability, insomnia, night sweats shazam

Great thread ladies. Keep the comments coming!