Yesterday - I added two (count em...two!) snacks. I was genuinely stomach-rumbling hungry, though, as I both woke up earlier than I normally do and worked out MUCH harder than I normally do.

I'm still horribly frustrated by my scale and seriously debating suggestions to up my calories...but can't imagine how on earth that'd make it drop back down, or more importantly, what CHANGED that I had a valid maintenance range before and suddenly my body is gaining on less. Something has to give, though...I can't eat LESS on the exercise I'm doing (tried...very dizzy and exhausted and starving) and if I exercise MORE, I get so hungry I have to add snacks!

How did I get through a year and a half of maintenance to have this weird gain suddenly crop up? I swear, I'm not doing anything differently...

Plan for today:
B - Orange, Egg white scramble with broccoli, turkey bacon, salsa
S - Asian Pear, Laughing Cow
L - Leftovers: Pork Tenderloin, Couscous w/ Roasted Veggies, Roasted Asparagus
S - Muscle Milk Lite
S - WW Low Carb Tortilla, 1 tbsp hummus, turkey breast, lettuce wrap, 2 small dill pickles.
D - Grilled lamb shoulder kabobs served with homemade tzatziki and sauteed veggies in a WW pita, side salad
S - NSA Ice Cream Bar

E - 60 min Yoga Booty Ballet, 60 min Cardio

mandalinn, what does your calorie range look like? i'm just curious to see where you're coming from and what you might bump it up to..

Corazonas - welcome to the maintainers!

I'm currently 1400-1600, with 8.5 hours of exercise a week. I bumped the exercise up from about 6 hours a week starting in January, and since then have gained 8 lbs. Without increasing my food and with an increase in exercise. I've TWICE upped my calories to see if it would help and it has resulted in a gain, each time. At least some of the gain is water weight that disappears for 2 days out of each month and then packs back on (I have PCOS and if I so much as think about -real- sugar, I gain 5 lbs of water weight).

Doc has already tested thyroid and etc. and everything came out normal, so there's something in the formula that isn't right. I have a HRM I wear 24/7 and it says I burn between 2500-3800 cals a day, depending on exercise intensity.

You'll get used to me whining about this problem...it's ongoing and irritating to say the least!

Amanda, I was going to ask if the increased exercise had stalled the weight loss, I didn't realize you gained after you upped it. I still don't get it... Maybe increased calories along with the increased exercise would help, I just don't know!

You aren't whining - you are venting! Big difference!

about the real sugar. and seriously- whining, venting, whatever i am VERY interested to hear all you guys have to say. it's makes me want to almost have a panic attack just thinking about all the mistakes and little gains/losses it's going to take for me to find a good spot to stay in for a long time.

for example, i don't think i exercise nearly as much as some of you- i'm adding it up in my head right now- i think i'm only doing about 3.5 hours a week. omg i never realized the number before... it's even lower than i thought!! pair that with the fact that i'm only eating 1400 cals a day it seriously stresses me to think about getting to a point where i start gaining... it's not like i can go much lower with the food! so i'll have to bump up the exercise... anyway, i'm rambling but very very interested... id like to get to a comfy spot before sumer

edit- oh and thanks for the welcomes guys i've kind of been feeling like 'where do i fit now' at 3fc for a couple days

You could be fine on 3.5 hours per week - if I remember, MindiV does 20-ish minutes per day 5 days per week. I've upped the exercise lately because I'm doing things I enjoy, and I really want to have great looking arms. It does let me eat more calories, which I'm also enjoying.

maybe, but i really think i should be doing more... especially stuff with my kids. like i've been taking them for walks after dinner for about 30 mins (one in the stroller, one out) so i want to keep that up. that's on top of the exercise i already do...

but the calorie thing is what just boggles my mind. TDP says i need about 2325 to maintain. i can't IMAGINE eating that much every day and not ballooning up. and while I don't really rely on them because there's no way for them to be totally accurate, i looked to it for some advice and it was pretty close with the cals i was consuming to lose. So it's almost like I'm afraid to bump up my cals for fear of gaining but I'm going to have to at some point, even if it's a little. Just kind of don't know where to start...

I put in sedentary for my activity level and TDP gives me 1821, then I log exercise separately. If I put in my actual activity level it gives me close to 2400. Did you put in a higher level?

The advice I received at the beginning of maintenance was to bump calories up 100 per day for a week or two weeks, see what happens. Move up or down the next week accordingly, until the weight stays level. I kept losing the first several weeks of that, some people gain a little early in. 100 calories a day was easy to do without making me lose control. I think I added in peanut butter every day, actually.

My doc questioned whether it was muscle. Which, given the fact that I have androgen-heavy PCOS is possible, for a few pounds of it anyway (I tend to put on muscle like a man). That hypothesis is supported by the fact that I haven't shifted clothing sizes at all (things aren't even tight) with the additional pounds. But muscle still doesn't account for all of it.

It DID start when I added the extra exercise. On what planet, though, does that result in a weight GAIN? I mean, even if a bit of it (2-4 lbs being a LIBERAL guess, even with the PCOS and hormone issues) is muscle, there still has to be additional fat, right?

It would show up in your body fat percent. Do you know what your numbers are for that?

Jay

Tuesday:
B - raisin bran, strawberries, milk
S - one rugelach
L - pita wrap w/rotiss chicken, romatoes, and garlic sauce, one pita, some hummus
S - another rugelach
D - @italian restaurant: fusilli puttanesca, some sort of flatbread
S - another rugelach
E - walked around zoo & park

Add a 100 calorie pack of chocolate covered pretzels to my daily snack list... still haven't kicked the stress snacking habit...

thanks for the advice shannon- i have added 100 a day for the past few days just because i didn't know what else to do. so i'll stick with it and see what happens. i went overboard this weekend just a little and saw a little scale jump on sunday but actually haven't been on it since then. official WI days were tuesdays for me so I think i'll stick with that and see where I am on Tuesday. I have to give myself a little wiggle room so as long as I don't get back up to 135 or anything I won't begin to freak out.

so i just checked on TDP at sedentary to maintain and it's at 1,937... i'm not going to do any major jumps like that still but that seems like a much more reasonable number...

Amanda - thought of you when I picked up a copy of February's Martha Stewart Living magazine - they have about a 10 page spread on cupcakes! SOme look yummy! Also on The Pioneer Woman blog, she just did a 2 day session with Bakerella on cupcakes. Lots of fun! (I just love her blog anyway, and she has great tips and info on photography and cooking)

I made cupcakes for Sarah's coworker's birthday...themed on candy bars of all things. Both chocolate, one with PB buttercream and a piece of peanut butter cup on top, the other with vanilla buttercream, a caramel drizzle, edge rolled in cookie crumbs, with a Twix piece on top. They were, I heard, a hit with the birthday girl (who has a thing for Twix bars).