Hi everyone, I've been eating around 1200 calories a day with hard exercise 2-4 times a week, and I've realized that I'm happy with my 5'3 1/2 123 pound figure.

I want to be able to EAT EAT EAT more than 1200, and I'm hoping to find my "sweet spot" for maintaining. This will just be a little blog of how my weight fluctuates to find that spot.

This week, increasing from 1200 to 1300 and keeping the same/maybe a little bit more of my exercise regime. Hopefully my weight won't spike up!

Even if it spikes, don't panic. Just the extra food alone will weigh more in your body. It takes time to stabilize after each increase. Or you could be one of the lucky ones that lose more after an increase, who knows, but good luck and congrats on your success.

Kasapara, I think given you've been eating 1200 cals a day and exercising really hard, you can expect that your weight is going to go up a bit if you eat more.

Do not try to exercise even harder! Things will even out over time, but not if you panic and restrict/work harder if the scale goes up. Remember that you've been running on a deficit for awhile now, and may need to make more muscle, bone, other tissues--if the scale goes up it may not be fat increase.

Good luck!
Jay

I have to completely agree with the two posts above me! When you start eating more, there will be more weight of the food in your body AND I'm pretty sure that when you eat a bit more carbs (and I'm sure some of the extra calories will come from carbs), you end up storing more water in your cells along with the extra glycogen, or.. whatever Something sciencey!

And it is true, if your weight goes back up a bit it is not necessarily fat. With you eating at 1200 calories and your body being at a constant deficit, it has surely had to let go of SOME muscle that might start to build back up now that you have some calories to work with. In my case, once I got down to my lowest weight (~93 pounds) and my nutritionist helped me to start adding back healthy calories, she told me that my body also needed to rebuild/repair my organs.. o.O

You might be interested to know though, that when I got down to about 95 pounds I was eating 1200-1500 calories per day, and exercising 5-6 days a week for half an hour. I increased my calories SOMEWHAT slowly (by 100 calories a day each week), and ended up at 1600-2000 calories per day and exercising only 20 minutes 3-4 days per week. My weight spiked up for a bit, but then it kinda settled around 98 pounds. My metabolism was NEVER very fast before I lost the weight, and hopefully my experience will at least provide some sort of hope.

You'll do great! Just make sure you give more calories an honest chance and don't overexercise, because if you let a tiny scale increase scare you too much you might get unnecessarily stuck at this caloric intake forever! And you could be eating more, and maybe feeling better

I'm approaching maintenance and thinking about how to transition. I'm really interested to see your progress, so thanks for sharing!

Congratulations on reaching maintenance! It's an exciting time, but can be a little scary as well. It took me about three months of very slowly raising my calories from 1200 to find that sweet spot. Be patient and definitely don't panic if the weight goes up a bit.

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I really appreciate it, and I'm going to need the support. I have a hard time dealing with increases in my weight, even though I know that the fulcuations are normal and are probably bound to happen when I switch into maintenance mode. Hopefully I'll be able to not overreact. Also, I'll keep my exercising to the same amount!

Tai: oh wow! 3 months, that's crazy! I hope I'll be able to be that determined and persistent. Out of curiosity, how much did you increase your calories by over that time period?


So here goes day one, ate around 1300 calories. It's weird how full I feel, I've gotten so used to eating 1200 that I felt like I ate all I wanted today (I'm not switching the type of healthy, low calorie food that I was eating before, just amount) and had to even slightly encourage myself to eat to the 1300 range!

Going on day 3 of eating around 1300 calories.

So far, so good! Haven't gained at all and have been holding a solid 123! What's even nicer, that extra 100 calories seems to be a luxury to me, and I don't feel deprived food-wise at all! I can't even imagine eating around 1600-1700 a day, I'm so full from just 1300

Still 123... weighed myself twice and once came out as 122.5 then 123. Weird. Possibly I'm losing?

Think I'm going to try for 1350 calories today and see how it goes

I would stick with one level for more than a few days before raising calories again. Say, until a week has passed. Don't worry if you drop a little more--better to have that happen while increasing your cals.

Jay

Decided to take your advice, just to play it safe.

Was 123.5 this morning, but that .5 doesn't bother me at all, especially because my school work load was insane for the last 7 days and I didn't exercise once.

Haven't posted here in awhile!

All is going well with slowly switching my calories. I went from 1350 to 1400 to 1450 to 1550 and I've been eating around here for awhile and weighed in today at 122.5

I'll continue to post here with daily meals/exercise just to be accountable!

I LOVE HOW MUCH MORE I CAN EAT.

Congrats! I experienced the same thing too....more calories with my exercise remaining consistent and I lost a couple pounds. Right now I am holding steady at my low of 160lbs

Thanks Slim CB!

It's SO nice to be able to eat... I've discovered that I CAN have cookies and other less-healthy food occasionally, and I'm loving it!

Out of curiosity, how many calories do you eat to maintain?

I got down to as low as 1400 when I was losing. Right now I am averaging 1700-1800 for 6 days with one treat day (usually a Friday).