This is probably in the wrong section~ I just put it here because Calorie Counting has been the routine I'm following...So if it needs to go elsewhere please could a mod move it

Ummm, So basically for the last few months I've been doing calorie counting, 1200 a day which for my height (5ft6) has been fine; I eat well, I'm not really hungry most of the time, I've gotten into shape and reached my goal. However, now I'm kind of at the stage where, it's like "what now?" I could up my calories to 1400 and keep it level...but I'm frightened that I'll put weight back on...and I'm not comfortable with upping my calories because I don't feel like I need more in a day, and I'm still not completely and utterly happy with my body. I like the idea of staying at 1200 and gradually loosing a few more pounds until I reach 120, (it'll probably be at a rate of 1/2 a pound a week/every two weeks, so yano, slow.) I've looked into it and 120 is a healthy weight and bmi for someone my height, but I think that if my friends and such find out that I'm still losing weight, they'll start to say it isn't healthy/ it's too extreme?
I'm not sure what to do...any advice please?

Check out the Maintainers forum. They have lots of good tips and support in there - the stickies are a good place to start. Basically, they understand that the hard part is really the keeping off weight. Losing the weight seems like it should be hard, but it's the forever of keeping it off that gets people.


Congratulations and good luck!

This is only my opinion so take that for what it is worth. I also don't know your frame size, but I feel that 120 is quite low for someone 5'6. I'm 5'5 and a medium frame and my ideal body weight is 125-129 and I think that is too low for me and I'm not sure I could sustain that and am aiming to be in the 135-145 range.

That said, if you are comfortable at 1200 and you feel like you'd like to lose more weight and you don't feel unhealthy about then go for it. I really feel like this is a personal journey and you can't let your friends or significant others influence your decisions. Once you do decide to start adding calories back take it 50 at a time just to slowly move towards maintenance. And don't get scared if the scale ticks up a little bit in the begining, your body will take some time to adjust.

Congratulations!

My Mom is 5'5" and she was at a healthy weight at 115-120; every body is different. Have you had your body fat calculated? You want that to be in the healthy range too (BMI is just a height weight comparison). You can always check with your doctor to find out whether a lower weight is safe for you.

120 lbs at 5'6" would certainly be slim, but if you have a small frame, I don't think it's at all unhealthy. But I wouldn't get fixated on it as a number either - you may find that even say 4 lbs makes a difference in how you feel and look right now and want to stop at 125 or 123, and that's fine too.

As for adding back calories once you are at a weight you want to maintain at, my plan is to continue eating what I eat now (generally 1200-1500 a day) for my regular meals, but give myself a little more flexibility to enjoy a meal out or some food treats from time to time without worrying that much. So I'm not really planning on eating that much differently on a day to day basis. Maybe that's a way for you to handle it too, if you are happy with what you are eating right now and don't want to change it at all. But if you'd rather be eating a little bit more every day and are just resisting for fear of gaining, I'd just start very, very slowly, like an extra 50 calories a day, and see what happens, and then go up another 50 at a time until you are comfortably maintaining. And don't forget that you will still fluctuate a bit, that's totally normal. So I'd look at it in one or two week intervals in terms of seeing if you are maintaining, don't start trying to adjust things every single day.

And as someone else mentioned, definitely check out the Maintainers forum here, lots of great advice and support!

Thanks guys~ I'll check the maintainers area out!
Also, thank you Peanuts~ I think I definately like the idea of keeping the same kind of habbits as I have now, but having a little more leeway~ ^.^