More Calories?

[trying_healthy]

After calorie counting for a few weeks now, i am only eating 1200-1500 calories a day, and i am not finding it too difficult to stick to as the foods i am eating are filling me up nicely. This got me thinking and worrying. If it is a lifestyle change that im making, then once i reach my goal weight will i keep losing weight? Will i have to eat some bad foods in order to maintain? I enjoy the foods that i am eating now and am always full so would like to continue eating them but i dont want to end up losing too much weight. Sometimes i even eat less than 1000 calories on a busy day and dont realise untill the day is over.

Anyone with any knowledge about this type of thing ?

 

[moonlights]

I think it's probably too early for you to need to worry. The typical pattern is to be super committed early in a diet and then after a few months little extras slip in so if you can avoid that you'll be doing brilliantly. Speaking for myself (as well as friends and people I know etc) finding it hard to eat enough is very rarely the problem after you've hit goal! However, if it's a big worry you can think about adding a couple of 'treat' meals in over the week - a nice pudding and some roast potato on Sunday for example - to get your overall weekly total up and allow you to eat less on other days. Or add in a couple more healthy snacks like maybe a cereal bar a day. It all adds up. But like I say I wouldn't worry about it too early on : once you've got to goal you may feel like you do want a few more little extras.

 

[HellieCopter]

That's pretty much what I was going to say!

I wouldn't worry about maintenance until you're nearer your target weight. It does throw up a whole new set of challenges but with a few tweaks you'll find a calorie level that suits you to stay the same.

What you'll probably find is that you'll stop counting as carefully, have some weeks where you eat more freely (meals out, celebrations etc) and then others where you drop back again just to avoid a gain. It's rare that you stay exactly the same weight whilst maintaining. People usually play around with 2 or 3 lbs either way.