Expert: Joanne - 4/9/2008

Question
Hi I am a 31 year old woman ,and I weigh 130 pounds.I eat about 1200 calories a day.I don;twant to lose anymore weight,and I'd like to know how many calories I should be eating to maintain my weight.I work out 6 days a week 4 days cardio 2 days strength training.

Answer
Shakeema

I think that you should go and have this assessed by a dietician and have them work out how much you should be eating.  I don't want to say for definite, eat this many, and then you gain weight and are unhappy or something!

I would say that the majority of people should be able to go up to about 1500-1800 calories to maintain your weight, maybe as many as 2000, but this depends on your metabolism and whether eating as few calories as you have been may have slowed it a bit (although it shouldn't be too slow I wouldn't imagine!), your age, height, previous weight, what you are actually eating on a daily basis, your daily activity level all determines how much you can eat, so there really is no definite, but I think that someone trained in dietetics and nutrition should be able to give you a better idea.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help!
Joanne