Ok, I've been curious about this for a while and finally started keeping track and as it turns out, I have been consuming less calories than I'm supposed to need just to survive and yet I'm not only not losing weight, but I'm actually gaining some.
I'm not dieting, and I don't care much if I lose weight or not, because I'm not really overweight, but I was surprised that I haven't considering I don't eat a lot and have finally started working out quite a bit more than past couple of months. So I started tracking:
Today, I ate approximately 1,562 calories. Yesterday, 1,600. The day before 1,745. I'm probably padding these quite a bit since I'm trying to make sure that I am actually eating as little as I think I am.
I work out in some form or another at least 5 days a week, always at least 20 minutes, and sometimes 2 hours. I average say, 200 hours per week.
Not a lot of it is weights or resistance, so I'm not creating tons of new muscle that is heavier than fat. Plus, my clothes tell me I'm pretty much where I have been.
So, I'm curious how this can be. I understand the simple math, that I have to eat less than I expend, but since I've proven to myself that I am, in fact, doing that, I'm stumped.
The only thing I can come up with is that especially with my thyroid shutting down last summer, it has slowed my metabolism down so I'm not using what is generally accepted to run the basic functions. I've seen all kinds of estimates, usually 17 calories per lb to maintain all your functions, and more conservative estimates of 14. Using 14 times 140 = 1,960.
Overall, this is a good thing, right? It means I'm more efficient.
Or am I missing something?
(PS, I'm not looking for diet tips. I'd prefer not to gain anymore weight but I don't really care if I lose existing weight. I work out to keep my cholestorl levels down, not to get skinny. This was just an interesting side issue that came up.)