There are ways for you to increase your calorie count while still eating healthy. You can look for more calorie-dense foods—such as nuts—that will pad your calories a bit without causing you to feel as if you're stuffing yourself.

It's the same issue I've been having. I needed to get a bit creative since I had gotten used to eating 1200 a day and I'm nearing maintenance.

You cannot sustain yourself on 1300-1500 calories forever (unless you're short and looking to get down to a lower weight). What would happen when you get to maintenance?

I do write it all down, its 1300-1500 thanks guys for all the help, hopefully my body is just being contrary, I'm just scared, I have a lot of high hopes that I'll lose weight once and for all now that I have no choice but to have this lifestyle change. But hopefully all this worry will be for naught and my body will behave

maitenance for my goal weight of 150lbs is about 1800 for my height (from what the web says), its only 300 calories difference. i dont get weak or hungry at my current calorie count and feel healthier at this count then when i was eating 2000-3000. I dont want to force feed myself. I do tend to zig zag my calories like 1300 one day, 1500 the next, 1400, 1300, 1500, etc hopefully tricking my body to not get used to one number

i know im probably sounding argumentative and i dont mean to be , i just can't imagine force feeding myself to lose weight

i have padded before after eating all my meals im usually at the 1200 calorie mark and the other few hundred is crackers lol

My Mother had the gall bladder issues for awhile, so I hear ya on that one. She finally had hers taken out. To this day there are still foods she can't eat. But she does feel better.

Hang in there! We're here anytime you need us!

It is not necessary to eat more calories. I eat 1400-1500 and have for most of this journey and I workout out an hour 5 times a week. I don't feel starved either.

thank you everyones bodies are different. some people do need more and some don't. My friends 8 inches shorter than me and can't survive on less than 2000, but we are different body types

I learned through experimenting with my diet, especially carbohydrate levels, as well weighing daily and keeping a symptom log as well as a food log, that my weight and metabolism can be effected by a lot of variables.

For example, I discovered that I lose more weight on 1800 calories of low-carb than on 1800 calories of high-carb (and not just the first two weeks - which is mostly water weight, because the body tends to hold more water on high-carb).

It didn't really jive with "a calorie is a calorie," but because I was keeping a symptom log (not for weight loss, but to try to find patterns in my arthritis, fibro, and respiratory symptoms). However, I learned that on low-carb dieting my body temperature is more than a ful degree higher (my normal body temperature on high-carb eating is well under 97.6). This is a pretty good indication that my metabolism is actually higher on low-carb.

I have no idea whether body temperature increase is a common or rare effect of low-carb eating (I've never heard of any research even looking for a connection between body temperature and carbohydrate intake).

I'm not saying low-carb will work better for you, but it is a possibility.



I'd also recommend being extremely diligent with your food journals, even on days that you eat off plan. In the past, I've had weight loss stalls because of very infrequent binges that I didn't take into consideration. So while I was staying within my calorie limit very dilligently most days, but I was also having occasional binge days that were infrequent enough that I didn't think they could possibly be interfering with my weight loss, and yet they did. Even a couple very-off plan days in a month, could interfer with weight loss.

For example, if I was eating 1200 calories Monday through Saturday, but then on Sunday eat 8200 calories, my actual average calorie intake is 2200 calories. And I also learned that (at least for me) it not only was it very easy to underestimate calorie intake, it also wasn't at all difficult to consume 10,000 to 15,000 calories and even more in a day - so when I say one "very off plan day" could undo all the hard work of up to a month's worth of work, I'm not exagerating.

It's also easy to underestimate calories (by a large degree) just by using estimation calorie counting (using a food scale cuts down on this source of error).


I'm not saying this applies to you. You may already be very precise in your calorie counting, but it is a very common source of error.


You also may be dealing with water retention. Are you "giving up" (and therefore not counting calories) after you've seen gains for several weeks? Or are you muddling through...

That was another problem for me. I would gain weight or fail to lose weight for three or four weeks or even six or eight weeks, and I'd eventually "give up."

I've since learned that our bodies don't always work on a weekly or even monthly schedule. I can do everything right and still not see a loss for a month (and then, I might see a rather big loss).


Also, by weighing daily, I learned that exercise (more than my usual) tends to cause some short-term water retention.

So does illness or injury (the body needs to use water for recovery and repair).

I also gain weight during TOM no matter how dilligent I am with calories - up to 8 lbs (and when I was much heavier, it used to be much more).

Before I weighed daily to learn to understand my fluctuations, I had always assumed that TOM weight was mostly because of out-of-control eating. Now, I realize that most of the weight gain is actually only temporary water gain (but I used to let it frustrate me to the point that I would think "what's the use," and I'd give in to my cravings and then gain REAL weight).


Don't be afraid to experiment, but make sure you give each experiment more than a few weeks or even more than a couple months, before you decide your efforts aren't being successful.