How many calories?!
 

How many calories are you eating per day to lose weight? maintain? Please note your height.

I cannot go over 1200 cal a day without gaining! I am baffled by this because I am very active and have quite a bit of weight left to lose, but I'm hungry. There are days when I burn more calories through exercise than I consume and still gain. I was looking at Canada's food guide (idk, if many of you are Canadian, but anyhoo, I'm sure the US has some sort of similar standard recommendation). You can google this if you're interested, but it recommends a crap ton of food per day (6-7 servings of grain products OMG!:dizzy:)

The amount of food they recommend someone can eat is absurd! I currently eat 4-5 servings of fruits/veggies a day, 1-2 grains, 0-2 dairy, and 2-3 protein. I eat about half of what this food guide recommends. It varies, but almost always under 1200 calories-otherwise I gain! I had an individual pizza a few days ago, and went to 1600cal that day and gained almost 5lbs and it's been days and it hasn't come off yet (so not water/salt retention).

That was a bit of a rant, but the mathematics of weight loss are just not working for me!

Hi, I'm 5'7'' and I'm averaging 1700 now, and when I stay on plan I lose about 2 pounds a week, sometimes more. Have you been eating at 1200 all this time that you've been losing weight? How many carbs would you say you are consuming daily? Some people are very carb sensitive and don't lose as fast when they eat higher carb, so maybe you could take a look at that? Also, just because it's been days and that 5 pounds is still showing up doesn't necessarily mean that sodium isn't the culprit . . . sodium bloat can last a long time. Especially if it's around TOM - sometimes I "gain" two or three pounds of water weight right before my period and then it goes away. Is there any way that you've been taking in more caffeine/drinking less water recently? That can mess with the scale weight too, I've found.

Just in specific regards to the water weight, YES it can take more than a few days for water weight to come off!!

You did NOT gain 5 lbs (which = 17,500 EXTRA calories above what your bodies needs, because 3500 calories= a pound) in just one day! I promise!

I ate a bowl of miso soup and some grilled fish and I gained 4.5 lbs overnight a few weeks ago. Miso soup is essentially a big bowl of salt (which is why it tastes so good!). It took- I kid you not- a full ELEVEN DAYS for that water weight to be pried off of my body. Once I started drinking upwards of 4-5 liters of water it came off more quickly.

I don't know how much water you are drinking, but an individual pizza from a restaurant certainly needs TONS of water to go along with it. Up your water intake- get 4 or so liters a day- and REALLY watch your sodium. I try not to go above 1500 a day (which is really difficult) and it helps a lot.

Good luck!

Prairiegirl: I cannot believe there is someone else having the same problem as I am! Except I'm clocking in at about 600 to 700 calories, gyming 4 times a week and still not losing!!!! I slipped up on Sunday and ate about 1000 caloreis, and I'm up today. Go figure!

Hi, I eat about 1,500 calories a day. I am 206 lbs, and 5'8".

What kind of food are you eating? What is the sodium? Lots of people do not realize how much sodium they intake, which causes you to retain water. I limit my sodium to 1,200 mg a day. When I consume more than 2,000 I gain weight, but it is water weight, not fat. Read the food labels. Anything in a box, can, jar, bottle are usually high in sodium, because that is what they use to preserve it.

I eat anything between 1300 and 1700 calories...as long as I am in that range, I do not worry about how many days at what calorie level. It might be that I am kind of calorie cycling and so my body does not have the time to adapt and plateau. I am losing about 0.15-0.25lbs per week (do not laugh..lol). I had really planned to stop at 135 lbs at 5ft 4" but I am eating more than enough and still losing. I did start back exercise this week and I think I am probably gonna lose a little more.

I found that eating 1200 calories caused me to GAIN weight and so I kept upping my calories. To lose 1-2lbs per week with exercise, I eat about 1350-1450 calories.

Thanks for the advice.

I am careful about sodium and eat a "clean" diet. I eat mostly (90% of the time+) fresh fruits, vegetables (or frozen with no sugar, no nothing added), beans, legumes, (some canned, but only in water), whole grains (mostly oatmeal and quinoa), fish (sometimes canned, also only in water) and eggs. I don't eat a lot of processed food. I do eat a protein powder that has a small amount of sodium (100mg) and almond milk (180mg of sodium) and some prepared dressings, marinades, olive oil, etc...

I "treat" myself once a week or so, usually to a restaurant meal with friends so that I don't lose my mind, but my treat almost always results in large weight gains that I don't lose throughout the week. Overall my weight is starting to climb and it's very, very frustrating.

I have been at this for a couple years, been tested for vitamin deficiences, thyroid, etc....my body just wants me to be obese and my doctor tells me I'm fat and to lose weight, but provides no guidance! LOL I have tried a lot of different things, but haven't figured out what really works.

I will try to increase my water intake, but currently drink quite a bit...but I don't actually track how much...I drink about 4 glasses a day at home and fill my water bottle at work about 3 times/day...this would be about 3 litres, more on the days when I run. I could also watch carbs, I do eat oatmeal a few times a week and could probably cut that out.

Have you considered going to see a nutritionist? Its not, in my opinion, "normal" to gain weight the way you are eating. If your doc has ruled out a medical cause, maybe a nutritionist would be helpful to look at what and how much you're eating and see if she can help you with some ideas....i, personally, think you're probably eating too few calories, but you've been working at this for a long time and if that's what you need to eat to not gain, then i defer to you on that topic.....
most insurance companies will pay for at least a few visits to a nutritionist and you might find it helpful. The one thing I'd tell you is to commit to follow the nutritionist's instructions for a few weeks and see if it works....you might initially see a gain only to start to lose a few weeks down the road.
Good luck!

I did this for on and off for about 17 years until I inadvertently got help for my ED-NOS via therapy, then started nutritional therapy. My RD put me on a 1600 calorie/day diet and I gained 15lbs. I'm a small person so it really chunked me up.
After following her advice (actually cutting down to more like 1300 calories) for a little under one year, my metabolism and body seemed to have snapped back into place and I'm losing again. She warned me that I'd probably gain because of the damage I had done to myself, and that I'd start losing again after 6+ months.

It's worth it to keep your calories up enough so that you don't have to starve yourself just to maintain.

I am losing around 1lb a week at roughly 1400 cals a day, with 2 days at close to 2000. I am not sure how this is happening because I've never eaten this high while losing. My guess is that I was severely restricting for awhile and when I started this cycle of overeating, then going OP for a few days, then overeating, I maintained. I believe my body must have gotten used to eating higher cals. Now my overeating days are less caloric and my OP days are higher and I am still losing. Slowly. I am 5'6, roughly 145lbs at this point. Your metabolism has probably adapted based on how long you've consistently stayed at 1200. You may need to eat above that for awhile and accept a gain until your body adjusts and then you can start losing again if you drop down the calories after a period of raising them. It's called a re-feed. You can google it.