I took off a lot of weight three years ago and decided to maintain my subsequent weight at just below the middle of the healthy/normal BMI range. So I stay within 145-149 lbs, at 5'10" (I am 59). To do this comfortably, I usually eat between about 1500 and 1850 calories a day. Originally, I maintained this weight by eating about 2200 calories a day and cutting back now and then when my weight started creeping up. In the end, I decided to cut my daily calories to maintain this weight evenly. It is working well--I have not had to temporarily cut back calories in the last eight months, so eating is now straightforward.
*
If you told me a few years ago that I would be happy eating this amount a day, I would not have believed you. But then I was always gaining weight and having to diet. The reason I am happy at this level now is that I never seem to feel hungry. I have got to this point by identifying which foods satisfy me. I do not eat any processed food, and I eat a relatively high proportion of carbs.
But the idea of strict "calorie restriction" never appealed to me. I am not sure how that is defined but guess it would be by keeping one's weight below its natural level. Since I am around the mid-point of a healthy BMI, I presume I am not doing that. I look slim but not emaciated; I have good muscles and do not have that "big head on a thin neck" Mekon look that severe undereaters have.
All the same, despite never feeling hungry, I never fail to be surprised at how little I now eat. The secret has been to adopt a daily policy of eating one meal, one snack, and a tea. (By tea, I mean the old-fashioned custom of a light evening supp. When I grew up, that was a sandwich or two and a cake or two.) I have come to believe that one reason obesity has increased is that people now expect at least a couple of proper "meals" a day, whereas in the old days we did not. (I also think many people fail to realise they should eat less once they hit their fifties.) I like to have a big breakfast with potatoes, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, or whatever. At lunchtime, I have a snack of nuts and dried fruit. For tea I have a bowl of something like porridge or fruit with cream and raisins. I also take cream in my coffee and milk in my tea, which I suspect help me keep going.
I had not thought my regime counted as calorie restriction, as such, even though, by my past standards, I am restricting them. But I have seen some calorie counts on here that are not much different to mine.
Edited by Gerrans, 17 February 2014 - 10:26 PM.