Trying to Maintain Help!!!!!

Hey all, I am trying to maintain or stabilize my weight. So far it has been very hard to get out of the counting calories and restricting mode. Over the las year i went from a size 12 ( 175) pounds @ 5'5 to a size 2 120 pounds @ 5'5. I dont' want to lose anymore, and I can see my body melting away, loss of energy, loss of muscle and need to do something.

I currently work out daily and burn -600 calories on average. At the end of the day after eating salads, and all my daily foods i am at a mere +500 calories...meaning i actually ate only 1100 calories.

Does anyone have experiences with stabilizing......at my height....I need to know how many calories i should counsume each day without gaining. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO scared of gaining.

use this to calculate your daily calorific needs- it calculates first your BMR then you add your activity level- i find it ultra useful!

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

 

then, what I might suggest, is start eating just under that Cal number, say 300 under or so, and adjust it weekly until you find what you can maintain on. see, i read some studies which showed that formerly obese people tend to require less calories (up to 15% less) to maintain their "normal" weights than always lean people do- an explanation as to why dieters tend to regain back their lost weight plus some.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?re s=9C0CE7DD1338F931A25757C0A966958260

http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg14619 744.400-bodies.html

 http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-7378307.h tml

 http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~votruba/17EXER.html

Hi Chemistrygirl76,
I rely on this website to calculate the exact calories I am supposed to eat according to my height and body frame:  

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bridge /7836/luc1.index.html

A moderately active woman at your weight (120lbs) will metabolize 12 calories per pound.
Therefore:120lbs x 12 = 1440 calories.

To maintain your weight you can go up to 1440 calories. Max.

If you notice a weight gain, it means your body cannot metabolize 12 calories per pound. With a slower metabolic rate of 10 calories per pound, that would be:
120lbs x 10 = 1200calories.
Good luck!

Hi Chemistrygirl,

Although I can promise you I am a lot older, the rest of my stats are very similar. I am also 5'5" and if I had to guess I'd say I weigh about 120. Since I am in recovery for anorexia, I do not own a scale but I also wear size 2s and occasionally size 0s.

I work out six days a week with three days being running or aerobics and three days being weights or yoga/pilates. I eat 1700 a day to maintain where I am.

I hope that comparision helps you a little bit.

You will not maintain eating the amount of calories you are eating. I know this because I started out at 1500 and have had to increase so that I don't continue to lose weight.

thank you everyone for the sites and help.  contrary- you mentioned you eat 1700 calories a day and can maintain......is that a flat 1700 ? say you work out and burn 500 calories ...do you boost your cals to 2200 for the day??  that's my last question.

thanks  Janelle

I once worked with a pair of nutritionists who also were trainers (www.nutritiontwins.com).  You might try seeing someone similar who could monitor both your exercise and diet and help you come up with some good numbers.

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Before I came to CC, I had no idea, I was eating so little.  First off you need at least 1200 if you are just sedentary.  Secondly eat what you burn at the gym.  This way you won't keep losing.  It will be hard at first because it feels like you are really eating alot.  I workout almost every day (sometimes 3-4hrs) so in addition to my 1200 cal, I eat sometimes 2800 cals!  I have succesfully maintained.

Chemistrygirl--sorry for the delay in replying.

I eat an average of 1700 calories a day. I don't bother with trying to eat back anything, I just stick to that number. Sometimes my meals end up with me being a bit low or a bit high but that's my target and where I generally fall.

I also tend to eat the same things for breakfast and for lunch with some variation at dinner. That makes counting and knowing where I am for my calorie budget a lot easier.

Breakfast is almost always 1/2 cup of oats with 2 t brown sugar, and a small piece of fruit (either 1 cup sliced strawberries or atm I'm eating clementines). Lunch is about 2 C of a veggie soup I make that's pretty spicy--sometimes I make it with chicken, sometimes not. I also have a half a peanut butter sandwich (2T peanut butter), plus 100 grams each of baby carrots and cherry tomatoes. As an aside, the bread I use is very high in calories (150 per slice) but full of nuts and whole grains so to me it's worth it.

I snack on another piece of fruit, maybe a Kashi granola bar or 3/4 C Kashi heart to heart cereal etc. Usually by dinner I've had about 1000 of my calories so I can have a dinner my husband enjoys (he's a real meat eater, that one!) and I also have room for treats like the occasional ice cream or glass of wine or whatever.

The reason I never bothered to calculate the eating back my burn rate is basically I'm lazy and can't be bothered.

I also want to get to that maintanence place. Right now I am eating aroun 1600 maybe more some days and have gone up to around 110 from 94 pounds. YESSS! So getting to the maintaining stage would be great. I guess I will just continue doing what I am doing. My nutritionist says that once you get to maintanence you can basically eat whatever in moderation as along as exercise is part of your routine...like Contrary I sort of plan my meals, that way I know how many I am consuming, but I def change it up to keep it spontaneous! Good Luck....let me know how everything is going!

I use to be able to maintain my weight, after i got depressed and lost a stone. ):

If you eat about the same, you stay the same.. Works for me, should work for you.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I am slowly increasing my calories and trying to add in more "safe" foods to my diet. I realize I can't keep losing, that I need to find that happy medium.....it is just extremely hard because, I still have "guilty" thoughts of gaining.

I just want to be able to eat normally without beating myself up mentally over every little calorie.

i'm 5'5 and maintaining off of 1300-1500 calories. I came from dieting off of 1200 calories and have just bumped it up little by little to reach that range. Just keep an eye on the scale every so often and check things out. If you gain (which will be a slow process because it's not like you're adding in 1000 calories or anything, just 100) then cut back on them a bit.

Started out eating 1200. 2 weeks later I began 1300. I was still slightly losing, so I decided to just range it between 1300-1500 and it balances me out. Of course that's without exercise. If I exercise I can eat a decent amount more (depending on how much i burned that day, i add them back into my calories)

Good luck with the maintenance. Hope to see you around those forums too.