Question About Maintaining

K

Kaxxi

New member
Hello,

I've been having a hard time finding an answer to this question online, and wanted to see if anyone here would know.

So for the past year I have eaten approximately 1200 calories a day and lost my goal weight. Everything I have read says that this is the point where I eat maintenance calories, but the problem is that I seem to gain weight whenever I eat anything over 1200. And I still lose if I keep doing what I'm doing. Am I misunderstanding maintenance? Are you supposed to gain a little when you start eating a normal amount? Does it even out if I just keep doing it?

Some background, I am a 26 year old female, 170 lbs. My goal is to stay below 170. Was 283 when I started this. I don't really work out, just walk for about 40 mins 4 or 5 times a week.
 
through calorie restriction, there is a good chance you have decreased your basal metabolic rate (BMR). in other words, you body is getting used to the decrease in calories so it gradually lowers your metabolism to compensate. Google "ways to increase your BMR".
 
btw, i should add that it wasn't my plan A, but for the past ~3 months i have paused in my weight loss, which i suppose could be looked at as maintenance. but over this time i have seen a swing of about 8 lbs up and down. when i see i am reaching a high i adjust... when i see i'm reaching a low, i suppose i've been slacking off. hey, it's winter even in SoCal. i can take a little cool, but recently it's been unusually cold and wet.

point being, i doubt if anyone could maintain an exact weight. remember even a pint of water weighs a pound.

in my case, i really haven't given up intermittent fasting, but i've decreased my fasting time pretty much to a daily minimum and frankly i have no problem breaking that daily. after 6 months of this, i'm just not that hungry very often anymore.
 
When you would adjust after gaining a few, do you mean you went back to eating your diet calorie amount? Is it unhealthy to bounce back and forth between dieting and eating your "maintenance" level?
 
maybe i should explain my diet. to me a diet is what you eat, nothing else.. i don't count calories or try to eat a certain % of any macronutrient. all i do is restrict the times i eat. most days it is a 4-6 hour window. then i fast the rest of the 24 day. days i feel like i need to cut back, i try to not eat as many carbs, but i'm not fanatical about it. the only thing i have restricted and will continue even when not so-called "dieting" is sugar. i have quit almost everything that is either naturally high or artificially high in sugar.

yesterday i weighed in pretty low, so it was basically an average day. i had eggs and bacon (just picked up a new cast iron skillet and wanted to break it in a bit) with a bagel/ butter. i then cooked up some chicken and added a bit to some Chicken Tortilla soup (sadly with a bit of added sugar, but i haven't found a recipe better than the OTC Ralph's soup. ...i'm working on it). then i finished my eating day off with a chicken breast sandwich, drinking mostly iced tea yesterday. that was it for a ~5 hour eating window between noon and ~5pm. about noon today i will have fasted for the past 19 hours. anything over 14-16 hours would be sufficient for this to work as an intermittent fast.
 
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