Diet and Nutrition

Question
I've lost weight not TOO long ago.  All total it was about 45 pounds or so.  Now, I'm trying to figure out exactly how to maintain.  

I'm 5' tall and weight somewhere around 111 to 112 pound.  I get a good bit of exercise.  I try and do around an hour to an hour and a half a day.  On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday it's usually fairly vigorous exercise from aerobics videos to jogging to cardio weight lifting videos with free weights. (The extra half hour somedays is usually just a leisurely walk with my husband.)  Saturdays and Mondays I usually just do a moderate 50 minute walk that ends up being about 3 miles.  

At one point I was down to about 110 or so, and I knew I didn't want to continue to lose weight.  I got back up to 111.6 which is where I'm at right now.  I'm trying to figure out how to maintain, but it seems like I am only eating around 1500 calories and still just maintaining.  That seems too low to me for the exercise I'm doing.  Is there a reason for that?  Am I not eating enough, and it's slowing my metabolism?  Can you give me some insight into what I should be doing to maintain?

Thank you.

Answer
OK, so you are exercising about an hour a day (which is super!) and eating about 1500 calories.
How did you get to 110 pounds?  It sounds like you must have been doing exactly this!

Now when you wanted to stop losing, what did you start doing differently?
There has to be a balance in between what you were doing to lose, and what you did when you started to gain.
By the way, I wouldn't count going from 110 to going to 111.6 gaining.... you have to weigh your self several times over a period of time to be sure this is actual body weight gain and not fluid fluctuations... you might get on the scale right now and have it say 110 again.  
So track your weight at least weekly over about 3-4 weeks to see a real trend.

As for the calories you are eating, people often underestimate.  You may consider logging your intake online on one of the many websites that help you count calories, just to see if there's a chance you are really taking in closer to 2000 calories.

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