calorie intake with alot of exercise

hello....i'm totally confused....i'm not sure how much of a caloric intake i'm supposed to be taking in....i had my surgery on may 16, 2007 and have lost 122 lbs and am a normal weight now...i went from 280lbs to 158lbs and shooting to lose about 10 more pounds...anywho i do circuit training at butterfly life (like curves) for an hour 4 - 5 times a week and hike 9 miles  about 3 times a week....i've tried to up my calories to 1200 a day but my friend seems to think that isn't enough...i eat something small about every 3 hours and i'm still losing about 1 -2 lbs a week...i don't want to lose muscle so does anyone know how many calories i can take in without putting on weight again?  thanks

if you head over to fitday.com, you can enter all your exercise, the foods you eat, etc. and run a report.  It will tell you where your calories are coming from, and how many you need to maintain your current weight or to lose weight. 

The same thing happened to me - I got down to my goal at the time and just kept losing. I work out a lot (I run everyday, plus I am training for an Adventure race (a triathlon of sort)) and work out almost 2 hours everyday. I need a lot of calories to just make it through the day! At the time I slowly increased my calories, added about a hundred for a couple of weeks, then a hundred more the next few weeks, and so on. And I tracked everything to see how my body reacted. I have finally figured out that I can eat about 2500-3000 calories and maintain.. as long as I exercise and it is good calories (I allow myself treats occasionally but try to limit those). If I don't exercise then I need to watch it. Maybe you could just try to slowly increase your calories - I know it's scary ****pt thinking if I did that I would gain everything back!) but if you are that active and still losing then it might be good to add some calories. I did notice that I had a lot more energy when i added the calories and it helped with some dizziness that was happening when I exercised.  All in all it was a good thing that has paid off - my body has transformed itself and I have much more muscle than before. Good luck!

Can I ask...how did you do it?  I am one of those who is gaining because I am not gettingin enough calories (actually retaining water) and I either run (3.5 - 5 miles 3-4 days a week), ellipticle (if I don't run) for 1 hour, plus, dance class several times a week.  I'm pretty active. I saw the nut. today and she told me that I needed to increase my calories and carb intake as I begin to train for the 1/2 marathon in August. But, I just cannot for the life of me figure out how to eat more. so, any advice you can offer would be great! Thanks!

Isn't that a wild feeling, having someone tell you that you need to eat more? I never would of believed I would of heard those words before surgery! For me, adding the calories was fairly easy due to my hypoglycemia. I'm one of those who developed it after surgery and struggle to keep my sugar up. I have to eat every 2-3 hours otherwise I'm a mess. At first I just had little snacks to take with me (cheese and crackers, protein bars, etc) but I found out I need a little more than that. So, now I always eat a protein with a carb, such as string cheese with a banana or fat free yogurt with raisins. I do eat lots of carbs, mostly good ones (fruits, vegetables, whole wheat) and that seems to help a lot with my maintaining. I know that when I drop most of the carbs I can lose fast! I guess the main thing for me was adding the carbs - I get in plenty of protein (about 100gm a day) so adding the carbs wasn't a big deal. And eating frequently is a big part of it as well. I eat about 7-8 times a day, mostly small snacks but i do try to eat 2 larger meals as well. Here's a sample of what I eat (on a good day - I'm PMS'ing today and good grief I have been eating everything in sight! So you won't be seeing my food selections from today!) pre-workout snack: Peanut Butter Protein pudding breakfast: 2 fried eggs (with Pam spray) snack: Atkins Protein bar, 1/4 c. raisins lunch: Chicken and veggies in a tomato sauce snack: small banana, fat free yogurt snack: crackers and cheese, apple dinner: 4 ounces grilled chicken with 1/2 c. grilled zucchini and 2 TB. parmesan cheese snack: 3 granola bites calories: 1886 fat: 59 carbs: 233 fiber: 30 protein: 113 This is actually a little less than I usually eat but i have been trying to lose a few more pounds before my Adventure Race camp next week. I will usually add another protein bar, maybe an apple with peanut butter or strawberries with SF cool whip. I try to mix it up as well, I can get  bored with the same thing. But I pretty much stay away from pasta, rice and bread - they just don't sit very well. Hope this helps a little - it's been a struggle to find what works for me and this has worked so far.  Good luck! Pam

This is great info...thanks!!!!! it IS funny (and VERY scarey) when you are told that you don't eat enough and THAT may be why you are gaining weight.  Gaining weight!!!!  YIKES! Fortunately, though, I've gained 8 pounds over the past 7 weeks....4 pounds of water, 1 pound of fate and 3 pounds of muscle.  But...I agined - haha. Thanks again for the info.....