Finding Maintenance difficult.

nea2702

I was just wondering if anyone else finds maintaining so difficult? I started off weighing 276 pounds and am now weighing 162 pounds. So i am happy where i am. I may even have lost a little too much. But i am ok with where i am... Losing the weight was pretty easy once i got my mind right and knew what i had to do. But i just cannot get the maintenance part right. I am allowed, according to MFP around 2300 calories a day but if i eat that, i put on. But eat a few hundred calories less and i lose. I know its a matter of experimenting until you get the figure right but i find maintaining so frustrating. And the other problem is, i just don't want to eat the extra calories as i am satisfied with what i eat daily. But i know i need to increase the calories a little more each day. Its just working out that right number.

kommodevaran

You have to find the balance, but it will take time, keep monitoring your weight and food intake. Keep in mind the concept of "water weight". Just as your initial weight loss came with an extra amount of water from reduction of carbs intake and less food in your system, eating more will replenish your glycogen stores and more food in your system adds to your total body weight. Water weight is sudden and big and often unexplicable, you can't control it, but it stops; fat comes on or off slowly and steadily, in relation to how much you eat over time, and won't stop unless you stop doing what you're doing.

seska422

My comfortable way of eating is a bit below my maintenance level. I've been eating for a slow loss and then having a high calorie treat meal once every week or two as needed.

There is no one right number for maintenance since your calories in and out aren't exactly the same every day. Maintenance is a moving target. Many use a weight range of 5-10 pounds and adjust their calories if they are getting high or low within their goal weight range.

sijomial

As long as you are reacting to the weight trend and not fluctuations then you are starting to nail down your maintenance calories as you now have evidence it's between 2300 and a few hundred less.

There really is no rush to get the number dialled in so let that stress and frustration go. Make small manual adjustments and wait weeks to see the impact. When you are losing weight you judge progress by short term results. Maintenance is long term, weeks and months are an irrelevance. Weight maintenance also doesn't mean being the same weight all year round.

Also remember your maintenance levels won't stay the same for life, you change, your circumstances change.

Two examples:
I nailed down my maintenance calories pretty quickly but after a few months being steady my weight started to trend downwards. Could speculate that was my NEAT being slightly suppressed while dieting and returning to normal once I was fully fuelled.
When I retired from work my maintenance shot up significantly as my activity level is much higher and I have more time for exercise plus my food choices have changed.

Francl27

It's normal to gain weight when you start eating more though, your muscles retain more water. It doesn't mean it's fat. That's why so many people move to maintenance and freak out then assume that their TDEE is much lower than it really is.

pkweier

I’m with you OP been trying to find my maintenance number since September. I know in my head I will gain a little weight although it will not stay as I adjust it’s seeing the number that freaks me out. I’ve lost and gained it all back so many times don’t want to go down that way again.

fb47

nea2702 wrote: »

I was just wondering if anyone else finds maintaining so difficult? I started off weighing 276 pounds and am now weighing 162 pounds. So i am happy where i am. I may even have lost a little too much. But i am ok with where i am... Losing the weight was pretty easy once i got my mind right and knew what i had to do. But i just cannot get the maintenance part right. I am allowed, according to MFP around 2300 calories a day but if i eat that, i put on. But eat a few hundred calories less and i lose. I know its a matter of experimenting until you get the figure right but i find maintaining so frustrating. And the other problem is, i just don't want to eat the extra calories as i am satisfied with what i eat daily. But i know i need to increase the calories a little more each day. Its just working out that right number.

Just because mfp tells you your maintenance is 2300 calories, it doesn't mean it's always right. I always struggle to know if I am Active or very active when it comes to mfp, so I adjust accordingly. If I am always gaining weight with mfp number, I just reduce my calories by 100 or 200 calories and see after 2-3 weeks if it's a good decision or not. There's a lot of trial and error since no one knows what's our real maintenance. It's never the same number, so you have to ballpark it.

SummerSkier

on maintenance month 4. Learning this is always going to be a moving target - cals in and weight. We just have to strive to make the sine curve of weight flatter by monitoring it. I thought when I hit maintenance that BOOM I would be able to eat a set # of calories to maintain. But it just doesn't work that way. I am also eating more than I expected I would. So, my body is I think learning to convert the extra to energy vs putting on weight. (that could be totally wrong just a thought). Like all have said, just keep an eye out. I don't really believe anything my fitbit or MFP tells me because those are just recommendations. Every one is individual so you have customize your own program. Also slowly increasing my cals appears to have kept the fluctuations smaller. Instead of say going right up to 2300, say add 100 every other week or so and keep adding until Happy Scale or whatever ap you have tells you that the moving avg is stabilizing. I also suspect in the summertime my cals will be higher. Mostly I am hanging out in this forum and reading everyone's experiences and suggestions. There are some folks here who have been maintaining for a LONG time. What I see is that it's not magic, just that they don't ever let it get out of hand over their range before taking action. Unfortunately I think it is a lifetime pursuit now but much better than all the Yo yo ing of 20-30 pounds I have done for 40+ years.

ladyhusker39

sijomial wrote: »

As long as you are reacting to the weight trend and not fluctuations then you are starting to nail down your maintenance calories as you now have evidence it's between 2300 and a few hundred less.

There really is no rush to get the number dialled in so let that stress and frustration go. Make small manual adjustments and wait weeks to see the impact. When you are losing weight you judge progress by short term results. Maintenance is long term, weeks and months are an irrelevance. Weight maintenance also doesn't mean being the same weight all year round.

Also remember your maintenance levels won't stay the same for life, you change, your circumstances change.

Two examples:
I nailed down my maintenance calories pretty quickly but after a few months being steady my weight started to trend downwards. Could speculate that was my NEAT being slightly suppressed while dieting and returning to normal once I was fully fuelled.
When I retired from work my maintenance shot up significantly as my activity level is much higher and I have more time for exercise plus my food choices have changed.

I wish every single person on this site would read this.

PAV8888

It doesn't sound like you're using a weight trend app and a time period of 4-6 weeks (I guess as a guy 2-3 weeks) to see whether your trend goes up, down, or stays within a ~3-5lbs range....

LivingtheLeanDream

Have a goal range of sa +/-5lbs, keep an eye on the scale and if you're exceeding your range then you know its time to be more vigilant over calorie intake.
Maintenance is great, whats not to love about getting to enjoy a few hundred more calories a day.

lorrpb

Most people find it helpful to set a 5-10 lb maintenance range. When you get to the top or bottom of your range, adjust calories by 100-200 per day til you get back to mid-range. I find that NORMAL weight fluctuations of 3-5 lbs are more noticeable in maintenance because they are not masked by an ongoing loss. As said above, its helpful to use a trending app that smooths out the fluctuations. Congrats on reaching maintenance!

DX2JX2

I'm 3 months into maintenance and am only now starting to get it. Like you, I was too concerned with short term fluctuations (the same way I was during weight loss) and mistakenly thought that 'long term' trends for maintenance purposes was about a week.

Guess what - for maintenance purposes even a week is too short a time to get a good read on your trends. You want to think more in terms of monthly chunks.

Think of your weight trend throughout the year as a wave, since making that wave completely flat is pretty much impossible, you want to aim to have the wave shaped with gradual ups and downs. Some months you'll be slightly up, but then you'll gently reverse course and the next month you'll be slightly down, etc. The important part is to try and find that balance.

I find it easier to keep level if I try to maintain a reasonable calorie count every day but I don't sweat it if I have a bad day or week here or there. There's only so much damage you can do in a short period of time and I have all the time in the world to put it back to right.

I've found tracking software to be very helpful in monitoring my long term trends. I use the software that came with my fitness tracker but a simple excel spreadsheet would do the job as well.