Once at a healthy weight

Do you lower your calorie intake?

Or do you stay eating what you were eating before to gain?

sorry If this is a dumb question.

not dumb, the idea of having to keep eating so much one i'm weight-restored scared the heck out of me!

my friends from therapy who are weight restored still eat a ton, and are happy, healthy, energetic, and skinny. if someone has chips they all want some. same for candy (we meet over a restaurant.) if it's someone's birthday there's definitely giant cupcakes and if anyone is missing it's "who-can-have-the-last-one??!" it's okay to exercise by that point, but none of them do. one girl had to gain on 4600 calories, now she eats ~3500. so yeah, they lowered some, but not one eats less than 2200 calories a day now. and they're not gaining or losing any. 

i'm with you on this one, dekkos, and wish i could speak from personal experience. but it looks like it will be okay to me. let's just get to our restored weights first. 

once you have achieved your healthy weight you slowly decrease your calories until you stop gaining. this is your maintenance calorie level. 

I've been curious about this too..

I'm also wondering, can your metabolism be faster when recovered than it was before? Because before, I had a ridiculously slow metabolism (hence why I was so overweight). I don't even want to ponder what my maintenance level was.....

As your weight increases and your health recovers you'll find your body naturally needs more energy.   Larger, healthier people with good appetites need more energy than smaller, unhealthy people with no appetite.  The amount you need to gain can increase as time goes on.   If you're gaining now on 3000 a day, you could need 3500 or 4000 to keep the process going.

Make sure your healthy weight target is well inside the right range for your height rather than a bare minimum.  When you get to that healthy weight trim your intake very slightly.... 200 cals or so initially.  As a young man your body will still need plenty of energy and you may be surprised how high your maintenance intake really is.

Thank you guys and all of your answers.

=]

Think of it this way - if you go back to old habits, you will eventually start to lose the weight you worked so hard to gain.  But if you continue on a healthy diet, eating enough to fuel your body, then you'll never have to diet again.  I too think you will be surprised at how much you can eat now.  Enjoy every bite.

Congratulations on your success.

Dekkos: I raised my intake once I started to maintain. My metabolism started to speed up once I hit my goal weight, and then (because the doctor said I WAS HEALTHY) I started to exercise, which made me need to eat even more.

I've also noticed my tummy is never stuffed it is like a botttomless pit.

is this normal?

Original Post by dekkos:

I've also noticed my tummy is never stuffed it is like a botttomless pit.

is this normal?

 OMG, me too...O_O

I know I'm supposed to be gaining weight, but I can't stand feeling out of control like this.....

heh, heh... mine too. :)

i know all the dense food tricks because i hated having to eat so many calories at first, but now the only super dense things i eat are those i enjoy for the taste. my calories come from normal foods for the most part- light, dense, whatever- but definitely nothing hidden and so ensure or supplementary pills. i eat so freaking much it's crazy, and i enjoy every bite of what i eat.

and when i reach my goal weight, metabolism + body will just even out, so no reason to go back to restricting. pretty cool, i think.

Original Post by blueberry_lips:

and when i reach my goal weight, metabolism + body will just even out, so no reason to go back to restricting. pretty cool, i think.

 Man, I really want to believe that my body will do the same. It just seems so unlikely because I'm eating the same number of calories I ate before I became borderline obese. I see no reason why this can't happen again.. :-/

goobyb, you just have to trust yourself & your body. it's difficult, and at first you'll feel like you look huge. for example, I didn't need to gain, but I definitely needed to raise my calories. I've gained a few pounds since the beginning. at first I was horrified, but recently I realized that my body pretty much does look the same at 110 that it did at 102-104. probably even better, actually (I have more muscle definition & look more athletic/toned). it WILL get better. good luck!

There are calories calculators online that will tell you your maintaining calorie intake... So input your new info there  height, weight, etc... and it will tell you how many calories you can eat a day to maintain.

If you want to be really safe, as those are just suggested, keep exercising!!