Exercising More...up calories?

I'm 5'5 and the lowest I've seen on the scale is 120 which was like two weeks ago. I only weigh myself once a week when I go back home over the weekend. I have been consuming around 1600 calories for about 4 months and have gone from 127ish to 120. Although 7 pounds isn't much I feel and look very light and energetic. Now that I am back to school I'm much more active than the summer. I walk at the bare minimum one hour a day around a VERY hilly campus and exercise 5-6 times a week for an hour (spin, step, body conditioning, weights, etc).

I just cannot do 1600 calories anymore...I feel too restricted, left with no energy, and unmotivated to exercise. So I have upped my calories to 1800. I feel great and put in so much more energy in my workouts. I would like to lose EITHER maximum 5 pounds...or more importantly an inch or two off my 20inch thighs and like half an inch off my 15 inch calves -_-. I don't care if it comes off slowly..I'm thinking of 5 pounds (or the inches) by Janauary 1st of next year! I don't really care much about the scale...I just want to lose the fat on my thighs and calves. Has anyone had a small deficit (literally like 200-300) a day and still lose FAT on their body?

I think a small defecit over a long period of time is better than a large deficit over a short period of time. your more likely to keep it off then. Good idea! It good your eating, maybe you could even go up to 2000 or more? 1800 doesn't sound like enough considering the amount of exercise your doing. I think you need even more.

1800-2000 calories would be fine.  Just make sure the calories are good calories and you'll be fine!

I third that! I've had plenty of success losing weight on a smaller defecit. I believe in the slowly-but-surely method. You're way more likely to keep it off, and while you're losing you don't feel so crappy!

Good luck!

Yes, I have lost on a small deficit. about 300 cals plus a bit of exercise. I'm very short and my maintenance calories are 1600. So to cut calories but not go below 1200, it's only a 400 deficit. And I'm too hungry on 1200--tend to overeat when I go that low, so I stick with an average of 1300. I exercise a little to bump up the deficit a bit. You are exercising a Lot, so I'd definitely eat more and have a smaller deficit If I were you. Especially if your body feels good and you have energy. At one point I was doing a very intense exercise routine and eating 1600 consistently and I was constantly worn out and exhausted, and guess what--totally didn't lose any weight, got some minor injuries from overusing my body on not enough fuel. I increased my calories keeping the exercise the same and finally lost weight and felt better...

Do what you are doing and listen to your body!

sokkies

Dont think of it as losing weight, think of it as the way you live your life. Food is fuel, eat it if you need it. I was on 1600 to and went up to 1800 and even 2000 sometimes and found it made very little if any difference to my weightloss, ie I kept losing weight, roughly 1kg a week until I hit my plateau weight of 73kg from 84kg. What I found had the most impact was the amount of exercise I did and what I ate. eg . If I do less I burn less and lose less and 1600 cals of cupcakes, chocolates and buscuits increase my weight incredibly quickly (like 4 times quicker) as apposed to 1600 cals of fruit, veg and lean meat.

I often feel warn out, Im 38 fit and surfed my whole life and played soccer and other sports but I am wearing out, its natural. Activities like Yoga help with fatigue, it helps calm your inner self and stretches all of your muscles and soft tissue which helps with recovery. I started running alot and that hammered me, especially my joints so I went back to skipping (my fav activity besides surfing) and found skipping much less strain on my muscles n joints, so I think its a matter of finding some high impact / low strain activities that you enjoy and just treat it like this is what you do, its your life choice, get back to being / thinking like a child and enjoy what you do. I hope that helps.