Almost to goal...worried about maintaining

rachellsayer

I have 2lbs to my final goal weight. I set myself a 5lb range I want to stay in but I'm not sure how quickly to go about adding back in the calories once I reach my final goal. It seems like I'll gain the weight back if I jump straight from weight loss calorie level to maintenance calorie level. I let MFP tell me how many cals that would be and I'm looking at an 800 calorie increase once I reach goal!

Thoughts? Comments? Advice? Suggestions?

sijomial

If you are losing 1.5lbs a week (guessing from you 800 cals increase estimate) then suggest you start adding calories now - before you get to goal.
A soft landing rather than a sudden stop.

You might get a water weight bounce but can't get fat again unless you consistently eat above maintenance for a very long time.

jane837

Lots of people on here found their maintenance calories by scaling their calories up slowly ("reverse dieting") once they got close to maintenance. This way, it's a gentler transition.

If you want to try this method, now might be a good time to start increasing your calorie level by a small amount, say by 100 calories/day each week, to slow down your weight loss gradually until you find the true calorie level where you're maintaining (which may or may not line up with what MFP estimates your maintenance level to be).

Hope that helps! You can probably search the forums for other threads on this topic.

LivingtheLeanDream

sijomial wrote: »

If you are losing 1.5lbs a week (guessing from you 800 cals increase estimate) then suggest you start adding calories now - before you get to goal.
A soft landing rather than a sudden stop.

You might get a water weight bounce but can't get fat again unless you consistently eat above maintenance for a very long time.

+1 ☺

dopeysmelly

jane837 wrote: »

Lots of people on here found their maintenance calories by scaling their calories up slowly ("reverse dieting") once they got close to maintenance. This way, it's a gentler transition.

If you want to try this method, now might be a good time to start increasing your calorie level by a small amount, say by 100 calories/day each week, to slow down your weight loss gradually until you find the true calorie level where you're maintaining (which may or may not line up with what MFP estimates your maintenance level to be).

Hope that helps! You can probably search the forums for other threads on this topic.

^This worked for me too.

OP: It's not an exact science, just try and relax a bit, and don't worry if the weight keeps coming off for a few weeks. It's settles down eventually.

rachellsayer

Thanks! I appreciate the help!

Kristy5225

dopeysmelly wrote: »

jane837 wrote: »

Lots of people on here found their maintenance calories by scaling their calories up slowly ("reverse dieting") once they got close to maintenance. This way, it's a gentler transition.

If you want to try this method, now might be a good time to start increasing your calorie level by a small amount, say by 100 calories/day each week, to slow down your weight loss gradually until you find the true calorie level where you're maintaining (which may or may not line up with what MFP estimates your maintenance level to be).

Hope that helps! You can probably search the forums for other threads on this topic.

^This worked for me too.

OP: It's not an exact science, just try and relax a bit, and don't worry if the weight keeps coming off for a few weeks. It's settles down eventually.

Do this^^^ I started on maintenance almost 3 weeks ago and have just been gradually increasing daily calories. I haven't had any blibs on the scale so far and am just going to work toward the magic number, knowing it may take a while to work out what that is. Also my deficit daily intake was 1200 and my maintenance intake is 1680 according to MFP... there is no way I could just add an extra 480 calories in one go.