I woke up today to weigh in at 114. Wow! Totally interesting. I have been eating around 2000 calories a day for the past two weeks. I had one day where I went down to 1800 simply because things got a little crazy at work and I couldn't eat all of my snacks. One day. That was it. I know I also had a couple of 2200 calorie days in those two weeks though...

So how the !@$#% much do I need to eat to maintain? I'm pretty much following the advice of the calorie calculator at freedieting.org but clearly it's totally underestimating what I need to eat...by quite a bit!

There's the added issue where I just can't eat all that food!! It's really tough when you eat a lot of non processed food and get full quickly. I've resorted to pretty much grazing all day. I normally don't eat in the evening because I'm just not hungry, but a smoothie usually helps me out if I'm under my calories for the day (It's also refreshing post workout!). It feels like I'm CONSTANTLY eating though!!

I remember reading up on maintenance and learning that formerly obese people have to eat less than those who weren't obese...but I guess that's not happening?

So here are my stats if anyone wants to take a shot at guessing what I have to eat:

5'3" 114lbs, 23 years old (but I'm going to be 24 next month so...)

I exercise 6-7x a week, pretty intense, sometimes twice a day. I don't like being idle so I exercise. I'm a teacher so I'm always up and on my feet during the day too.

Here are the dates I hit different weights on my scale:

2/3 - 118lbs
2/16 - 117 lbs
2/21 - 116 lbs
3/2 - 115lbs
3/8 - 114lbs

I know some of you probably want to call me a few choice words, but I hope the collective knowledge of 3FC can help me out. I want to you know, maintain and give my body a well-deserved break from the losing phase.

I'm thinking of buying some protein powder and making true protein shakes...maybe those can help me add calories Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance for reading

I have NO idea how to help, but this made me chuckle

LOL I thought I proofread it. I will fix it

So is your goal weight 115 ? It seems you are right there.
You might want to check this out, go to The Maintenace Library and check the post Maintenance Methods.

No, my goal weight was way back at 140. Throughout my weight loss my scale was weighing me in 10lb heavier and I didn't find out until I hit 120 or so.

I declared goal back at 125 (when I thought I was 135). I don't mind where I am now, but I don't want to go any lower.

I am looking at your stats it looks like your goal weight is 115. I recommend that you check the post I suggested, it may be helpful to you.

OK, my question is - why are you exercising 6-7 times a week for 1-2 hours a day? Are there other active things you could do that are not so intense? That right there would lower your caloric need.

I say this because some day, when you have more things demanding your time, spending that much time at the gym isn't going to be easy to fit in.

Believe me, I'm all for exercise and I think it's really important, but ask yourself - is this amount of exercise maintainable? Maybe it is for you and maybe you are a person who really needs that much activity, but for most of us, it's a lot. I'm trying to imagine juggling that while taking care of a home and kids. That would be extremely tough.

Otherwise, if you want to keep that much activity, you just need to find some more high calorie foods and you can't tell me that's hard to do - add some nuts in, some more peanut butter, some more avocado and voila - you've added 500 calories right quick with very little food.

When I first reached maintaince, I could eat way more calories than I can now. I've posted about it before. When I first reached my goal, I continued to lose weight, (around 15 more pounds) eating 1900ish calories a day. NOW, 2.5 years later, if I eat that much I gain. It took my body a long time to adjust. Anyway, the only thing I would suggest to keep from losing more weight is to eat more calorie dense foods. Add more olive oil to dished, add more nuts, flax seed, or other good oils. Eat full fat dairy, or include egg yolks if you are not eating them now. These foods add a bunch of calories, very little volume and are healthy, (except for maybe the dairy fat).

Hopefully you will always be able to eat a "normal" amount of calories to maintain, that would be great for you. I predict that you will eventually hit a plateau...A person will not "waste away" on 2000 calories a day! (unless there is some funky medical issue involved, and still, very improbable.)


Oh yeah, and like Melissa mentioned, that is a butt load of excercise. Sure, being young and childless, I'm sure it's easy to fit in, but add a hubby, 2-3 kids and the PTA and that's going to fly out the window!

Hi girl,
I noticed your weight dropping down & down further & I think you know this ain't a limbo contest how low can you go. Being you were content at 135, which was really 125 & now your 11 lbs lower, that is a big big difference..

Yup, I too think you have to start eating more caloric dense foods like almonds & peanut butter, I remember you said you love peanut butter, instead of 1/2 an avocado eat a whole one, these will bump up your calories & not much extra food, olives, an extra piece of cheese on your wrap.

I know your eating pb2, but why not have the full fat peanut butter for more calories. Also I think you could ease up a tad on the exercise, if you burn too much in the gym, your body will require/ need more food. Besides too much of anything isn't all that great either..
If your scale is dropping too low, I think your scale is telling you to eat more, so I say stop and listen! Maybe you need 2200 -2500 calories to maintain if you plan to continue to exercise on that level. Continue with trial and error, because no two maintainers are alike! Just my 2 cents, I am not an expert, but I've been a maintainer for 5 years next week, so I know a ting or two!

You're a heavy lifter, right? Pulling from NROL4W (Chapter 7), I come up with an RMR of 1167 and expected caloric expenditures of 2100 (using the 1.8 "active workout day" multiplier) or 2334 (using the 2.0 "strenuous work & workout day" multiplier). If those are accurate for you, and it sounds like they might be low given that you're working out sometimes 2x per day, I can see why you're still losing.

I'd start adding 100-200 calories per day for a few weeks, then if you are still losing, add more. The suggestions above of adding in calorie-dense foods are right on. Look at the content of what you're eating and figure out ways to bulk it up with more density.

If you're

The most accurate tool for measuring caloric needs I've found is right here: http://bwsimulator.niddk.nih.gov/. It's based off of the findings of a large study, and for me at least, it seems really on target.

Based on your stats and reported activity levels, Sontaikle, I get a daily calorie allowance of 2733 for you to maintain 115 lbs. You can run it yourself to check if you like, but since you've given the dates of your most recent pound loss that number seems to be pretty close to target to me.

sontaikle, I just read a post of yours on another forum, you state that you don't measure or weigh that you believe your eye to be accurate. I believe that you don't know how many calories you are eating. I find that if I estimate that I am eating much more calories than I think I am or it can be the other way I am not eating enough calories. Eyeballing is notoriouly inaccurate.

That's a good point, too. The first thing we tell people who come in and say, "I'm not losing... why?" is to make sure they're measuring accurately. I absolutely think this can work the other way, as well.

Sontaikle, forgive me if this may seem rude, but I'm going to be perfectly blunt here. Why haven't you increased your calories yet? You have been asking this same question for weeks now and getting the same answer: increase your calories. Yeeeeetttttt...you have failed to increase your calories and you continue to lose weight. Apparently, 2000 calories is not maintenance for you, so stop pretending that it is.

You either really like the fact that you're still losing weight or you're afraid of regaining. It doesn't matter to me what it is, but you've got to seriously face facts here. There are only two solutions to your problem: a) Increase your calories (or decrease your exercise) or b) Stop asking this question (and continue on your weight loss journey.

Seriously, it is getting to the point of insanity. As previous posters have suggested, there are several ways to increase your calories without terribly increasing your volume of food. So, you can either take their suggestions to heart and do them or, please, for the love of God, stop asking this question because you do not intend to do anything about your apparent "problem."

You really don't need help figuring out how many calories to maintain. Just as you didn't need to figure out how many calories you needed to lose. You learn by doing. To lose weight, you eat fewer calories than you're eating now. To gain weight, you eat more calories than you're eating now - and then you adjust based on what you see on the scale.

For most people, maintenance is not about staying at one weight, perfectly forever. It's about continuing to intentionally gain and lose as you need to. You give yourself a weight range (some plans call this lee-way), and when you're out of lee-way you adjust. If you fall at or below the loe end of your lee-way range, you eat more that week. If you fall above your lee-way weight range's highest weight, you eat less that week. And you do that forever.

Calorie needs can and often do change, so your weight is going to continue to go up and down, you just want to be gaining and losing the same 5 lbs, not the same 50 or more.