Maintenance and difficulties of being a small person

[Del678]

This is prob more of a vent... I'm short. When people around me talk about calories in vs out they use numbers that just seem outrageous to me. You loose weight eating 1500 calories, seriously? So jealous!
I eat between 900 and 1050 (nutritionally packed) calories plus exercise to loose half a kilo a week. Try meal planning with that. Just two meals out mean I have a zero loss week.
You can also never mention you weight goals to a tall person of they think you're anorexic. Magazines are always bashing on celebs who weight less than 50kg but seriously, I am 50 now and am still covered in fat with high cholesterol. 6 years ago I was 46.5kg. Even at that seemingly (to others) stupidly low weight, I had wobbly thighs, breasts, hips. But I could NEVER say that goal to others.
Worse I've realised in the last week and a half my maintenace calories has lowered since 8 years ago which is prob why I've gained lately. I'm not even 30 so I'm dreading what it will be when I'm 40 or 50!
I always joke that my fit and healthy (and oh so not frumpy) mum only eats almonds, as I rarely see her eat a full plate but now I'm realising that will have to be me if I want to be like her.
Stress of being healthy!

[Dominique]

It would seem to me your "problem" isn't so much how much you eat, but what you eat. You would need to eat more proteins and less fat (or at least switch from "bad" fats to good ones). You would also need to do strength training, so as to gain lean mass (muscle). Given your current weight and the way you look (on your profile's photo), your goal could in fact be to gain weight, but lower your body fat %.

Have you had your body fat % determined? Do you have a Fitbit Aria? I'm in a situation where I want to increase my lean mass and lower my body fat, and I found the Aria useful for that. Some people report wide fluctuations in body fat measurements with their Aria, but I've found it to give very consistent measurements. I have no idea how accurate they are in absolute terms (I have nothing to compare them against), but they are definitely consistent and seem to match changes made in my diet and workouts (been increasing proteins and strength training lately, and that has started to show on the Aria).

[JenniLacey]

I am a 31 year old mom of two and 5'2, 115 lbs. I eat around 2500 cals to maintain my weight because I work an active job, run an hour a day and lift weights. I lose weight eating 2300 cals or less. Being short has nothing to do with it. I eat about 900-1000 cals by noon. 1500 cals would even be far too little for me to eat, by the end of the day I'd be chewing my left arm off from hunger. I can't dip lower than 2000 cals or I start dreaming about food and am absolutely starving.

Perhaps you're not losing weight at 1500 cals because you feel you should be able to lose 1-2 lbs/week. If you're already a healthy weight you shouldn't be aiming for more than a 1/4-1/2 lb per week loss. When you have little too lose you can't expect to have goals that are too aggressive and suggested for overweight people. Also, activity/exercise helps. If you build muscle, you can eat more because muscle is metabolically active, fat is not.

In my own experience when I try to create too large of a calorie deficit from my calorie needs I experience slower than expected weight loss. The problem is likely a combination of you already being thin plus eating far too little and your body is working against your efforts to prevent starvation. The moment I increase my calories, the scale starts to move again. Try aiming for a deficit of -250 to -300 cals from total daily energy expenditure and see what happens.

[LCHFmom]

@JenniLacey - Man, do I wish I had your energy!

@Del678 - Im 37, 5'3"  and I cannot eat much more than 1000 calories or my weight loss stalls. 🙂  

 So, I hear ya there.   What I am really finding is that I look to achieve the most in terms of nutrients for the calorie.  And it  looks like you are really doing pretty much the same thing.  Have you considered flipping your current diet regime ?

[Del678]

Being a small person does have a lot to do with BMR, all other factors the same. Yes, if you have a super dooper active lifestyle your cal can be higher. However even when I was 18 and had a active job, did an hour of cardio every day, lifted weights twice a week, and did yoga class there was No way I was able to eat 2500 calories. 😞
I'm no longer aiming for rapid kg loss now I'm in a healthy weight range as you say. My concern is that it is getting harder and harder to maintain a healthy weight range the older I get. it's scary. 🙂 the best weight-loss method is not gaining it in the first place.
Not only am I married to a nutritionist and ex-body builder, I have consulted an independent nutritionist/microbiologist so I'm confident my diet is giving me what I need and know all about muscle!

[Del678]

Haha I'm still a good few inches shorter than both of you :S
Yes I'm always being told to eat more protein! So try and change up the protein sources each week. I tried the eating more to loose more but didn't work out too well and I gained even though the more was 100% healthy and nutritious 😞
I've pulled the old bike out of storage for change up with workouts. Got this bike when I was 11, and it's still a bit big for me!
Hopefully regular changes will help keep it off.

[JenniLacey]

I didn't always have these energy levels. They came from losing 60 lbs, getting fit and drastically cleaning up my diet.

1 lb/week at your weight is a huge loss. In fact, it's probably too aggressive. As a PP pointed out, building muscle and actually gaining weight should really help. Then you can always go back and cut fat with a small deficit while continuing to lift weights. This will help improve your body composition and clear up those wobbly bits.

I can't count the number of women I see that believe the answer to a healthy body is starvation level diets and weight loss and then wonder why it isn't working. Not all weight = bad weight and body composition is far more important than scale weight. The less you eat, the more you're going to slow your metabolism. The more muscle you lose through weight loss, the more you'll slow your metabolism.

As strange as it may sound, if you want a healthy fit body and to be able to eat more than bird food. You're going to have to eat more, build back some muscle and toss your scale in the closet. Take body measurements instead. I'm not sure what sort of advice you're being given but any nutritionist that thinks eat 900 cals a day is going to help you to build muscle and isn't telling you that eating so little is actually hurting more than helping, I would be questioning. Especially an ex bodybuilder who doesn't know you need to gain weight with a calorie surplus to build muscle and that starvation diets wreak havoc on your metabolism and will not result in gaining muscle as your body fights to use every calorie to prevent starvation. That would tell me he doesn't even know the fundamentals of body building, let alone proper nutrition. 

[Del678]

As I said above, I am no longer looking at rapid weight loss. My concern is difficulty in maintenance as I get older - and how other people tend to judge each other based on their own experience making it almost impossible to have open and honest conversations about diet and exercise with people who are different from yourself.
People like to push their own successful experiences on others, blaming the recipient if it doesn't work but human beings are complex. no one type of exercise suits every person, because of money, career, location, injury history, quick twitch vs slow twitch muscles, muscle imbalances and flexabilities, birth defects etc. Not the same diet suits everyone because of age, race, intolerances, fuel needs, hormone, gender, medication, metabolism conditions. Not everyone has the same goals, whether athelticism, body fat %, proportions, fitness levels, muscle strength, agility, flexability. Based on the very few things @JenniLacey has said, I can think already of 10 ways our bodies and body histories are different.
The internet is great because you have a greater change of finding someone else with the same combination of factors as you, but it doesn't work when people insist their method will work on everyone.

[Inga]

Del, I feel your pain. I am stuck here 'round the 1200 cal/ day unless I significantly increase my exercise and I am 5'6". Blame it on age, slow metabolism, TS, hormones,  whatever, but I try to look on the bright side... I need less food, that is good, right? I sent you a friend request, my food log is visible to friends if you want to see what I log every day.