That was how I understood it too. Since I'm short and older, I'd love to see exactly how you are maintaining.

I re read it, two other did, and we 'all got it'.

But: 1000 calories on a low carb way of eating is way too low for a full grown (even if you ARE short, as the OP suggests is why) woman.

I ate about 2400 cals untill I hit around 190 lbs. then dropped to a cycling (with weight lifting/exercise) calories (although carbs were never over 40net) type calories then to lose the rest of my weight.

1000 calories on a HIGH FAT LOW CARB way of life just slows the thyroid down and doesn't teach you 'how to maintain'. I certainly wouldn't want to only eat 1000 calories the rest of my journey and life.

Hope that explains it.

Yes, thanks Pam. That's clear now.

You've gotten some excellent advice here. I too quit smoking - going on 29 years ago - and put on 15 lbs so fast it made my head spin. And I'm still working on taking it off. Replacing smoking with exercise seems to correlate with success in staying quit.

Nicotine is a mild stimulant and there is no doubt that the metabolism drops when you eliminate it.

I know you say you can't exercise because of your knees, but there are many ways to accomplish that. Can you walk? Even slow walking is good exercise; keeping your joints moving will reduce the pain. Weight training has the advantage of building muscle around the bad joint, relieving the stress on it. And muscle burns more calories than fat. Pilates is gentle on the joints and a good instructor will help you modify it to suit your situation; Callanetics, as Kirsteen mentions, is another good option.

Congratulations on quitting and good luck in getting your weight back under control.

good advice Kristeen about Callanetics - I tried that years ago and remember really liking it - but back then I would just ride my bicycle all over out in the country and was an avid Jazzercizer. I had a knee arthroscopy and was told that cycling would be easy on bad knees - also water exercises. I was told I no longer had a shock absorber there so no more running and jumping - I did modified versions of jazzercise and bellydancing for exercise. Now I am facing a hip replacement next month and someone has suggested something called T Tapp which is supposed to be for people who can't exercise. I am going to look into it.
Kat

thanks for the advise all!
Will have a look at doing some callanetics, I live in Australia so it not very well known but I will have a look on line.
As for the callories your all right 1000 is way too low maintain a normal, productive a happy life.I will have to come to a realisation that I am getting older (BOO HOO! - I'm 36 but still look like I'm in my 20's ) so I will look to increase gradually, I'm making some coconut bark( with flax seeds crushed- yummo) shortly so I'll be snacking on that tonight.
Thanks again, I will let you know how I'm going