How far below goal did you go before you figured out your maintenance?

higgins8283801

My goal was 125. I have been adding 200 calories a week to my deficit and have lost about a pound in 2 weeks.

I know this is normal but how much did you lose after reaching goal before you leveled out.

Aviva92

my goal kept changing as i saw i could go lower. i guess probably around 10 pounds from my ultimate goal.

PinkyPan1

I lost an additional 8 lbs when I went on maintenance. I have settled at this weight and have been maintaining for 6 months. I think this is the weight I am most comfortable at. My goal was 120lbs.

gothchiq

This is not what happened to me, actually. I seem to hover around my goal weight and not keep losing. At the moment I am like 3 pounds above though. I think that I'm gonna switch from maintenance back to losing for a bit, just to get that "buffer." Like have that goal weight be the highest I get rather than the median in that 3 pound buffer zone that seems to exist. I know 3 pounds sounds like nothing but I am short lol.

Ianultrarunner

Over shot my goal by 15lbs because of over zealousness and took over a year to correct.
Decided eventual goal based on peak running/racing. Really did not know at start to be honest.

sijomial

Nothing really that was outside my normal day to day weight fluctuations. Seamless transition from slow loss to a maintenance range.

By the way hope you have a range of weight that is acceptable to you rather than one set point? You are likely to end up chasing your tail otherwise.

higgins8283801

sijomial wrote: »

Nothing really that was outside my normal day to day weight fluctuations. Seamless transition from slow loss to a maintenance range.

By the way hope you have a range of weight that is acceptable to you rather than one set point? You are likely to end up chasing your tail otherwise.

I do 125 was the low end. As long as I stay between 125-130 I'm good. But as of yesterday I was down to123.6. I am guessing I should maybe try and increase calories by 400 this week?

deksgrl

My goal was revised to a higher one when I realized reading here that my problem wasn't that I weighed too much, but instead I just had too much fat. Which is why I wasn't happy at my lowest weight before and still wanted to go lower. So the goal became how to reduce fat instead of how to reduce weight, aka "body recomp". My scale broke at Christmas and I've never been happier.

nxd10

My body changed several times over the 3 years I was in maintenance. Each time I dropped 3-5 pounds before I figured out what was going on and brought myself up to a good weight.

williams969

I guess I "sorta" over shot my goal (140 is the number in my head, but set MFP to 135 for the "cushion/range/bottom number"). I've been upping my calories since I hit 136 back in December, and I've been holding at a very stable 137lbs for the last 6 weeks (Xmas doesn't count--that was a 1-1/2 week "blip" ), despite upping by 50-100 daily each week.

I'm finally at "full" maintenance eating (according to Fitbit/MFP), and we shall see what the scale does over the next 6 weeks. At first, while slowly transitioning to maintenance, I was *secretly* hoping for an "accidental" continued loss, but it hasn't happened for me.

But now, I'm actually glad to see I seem to have a maintenance "range" of calories. Takes the "pressure" off of me; i.e. "having" to eat a specific number every day. I *can* be a little lax in my logging some days, and I can eat a little under sometimes (yes, sometimes I don't wanna eat 2,200 calories, 1800 is more than enough for my appetite some weeks).

LivingtheLeanDream

gothchiq wrote: »

This is not what happened to me, actually. I seem to hover around my goal weight and not keep losing. At the moment I am like 3 pounds above though. I think that I'm gonna switch from maintenance back to losing for a bit, just to get that "buffer." Like have that goal weight be the highest I get rather than the median in that 3 pound buffer zone that seems to exist. I know 3 pounds sounds like nothing but I am short lol.

+1 my body settles at its happy weight and it's a fight to get lower so these days I just let it stay in my mid to upper goal weight range - come longer days/summer I'll get below that point again so I'm not bothered.

missyjane824

I didn't. I got to 130 and decided I could probably get to 125 so that when I went to maintenance I would be around 130. Never got below 129 and was stuck for a long time. I started lifting heavy at the end of December and couldn't hold a deficit to save my life so I went to maintenance. Not currently logging as I think I would be too quick to try and not eat enough for the recomp. Rough estimates put it around 1800 - 2000 with a sedentary job, getting average of around 12000 steps a day and lifting 6 days a week.

After the glycogen replenished and all that jazz I'm now at 142 as of yesterday. There's some extra water weight in there so expect I will drop back down around 139 next week but I'm ok if I don't. I'm riding this train for a good while and will see where it takes me over the next several months.

larrodarro

I reached my goal weight of 176 last June and have never got below 172. But I seem to have been stuck at 173-4 for weeks at a time. I had really wanted to gain back about 5-10 pounds of muscle, but I only lift twice a week, so I haven't progresses on that at all. I guess 173-4 is where my new normal is.

My calorie goal is 2080 + cardio calories. Most days I get within 100 of that, but not always. And with gardening season coming up, it is going to be hard to eat enough to offset that. I guess I will have to go back to some of the calorie dense foods I gave up.

Larro

michellesz

Around 10-15 lbs. I never thought in a million years I would start at 235lbs and get to 165lbs. When I reached that goal, I bumped it to 160, then 155. I continued to lose. started to feel I had lost more than enough & focused on slowly increasing calories while eating healthy, exercising & maintaining to build muscle & stay within about a 10 lb range focusing more on how I feel than a number on the scale

deksgrl

larrodarro wrote: »

I reached my goal weight of 176 last June and have never got below 172. But I seem to have been stuck at 173-4 for weeks at a time. I had really wanted to gain back about 5-10 pounds of muscle, but I only lift twice a week, so I haven't progresses on that at all. I guess 173-4 is where my new normal is.

My calorie goal is 2080 + cardio calories. Most days I get within 100 of that, but not always. And with gardening season coming up, it is going to be hard to eat enough to offset that. I guess I will have to go back to some of the calorie dense foods I gave up.

Larro

You aren't eating enough to put on muscle. You'd probably have to do a bulk and cut cycle to get to your desired goal.

pkw58

I reached my initial goal weight of 139 in like March of 2012... but as I continued through the "stabilization" phase of my fitness journey, I dropped another 11 pounds. My new normal is a range between 125 and 131. I feel great and my clothes fit and I had a performing arts Doctor/Therapist validate this is an optimal weight for me.

Harunan

I'm already about 13 pounds past my initial goal weight (145) and plan to lose a few more. My goal changed when I reached it and saw I still had some work to do. But my calories have increased a bit within the last 3 pounds or so.

dragthewaters

I only lost about 3 pounds, since I was weighing myself every day. MFP's maintenance estimate was way off. Which I guess is good for me since I get to eat more than I thought I would!

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

My original goal wasn't ambitious enough as it turned out-- my doctor at the time told me to shoot for the low 140s and said I wouldn't be able to go any lower than that. I did that for awhile and then decided to see if I could do 135. I could. Then I did 125. When I got there I decided what I really needed to focus on was body composition (wish I'd realized it sooner) and lost another couple of pounds ramping up to maintenance. I built that back in muscle plus a little more over the next year or so. And now thanks to health issues I'm hovering around 122 again.

So it's been kind of a moving target for me. And that's fine, honestly. I think being a bit flexible about it is a good thing.

sijomial

deksgrl wrote: »

larrodarro wrote: »

I reached my goal weight of 176 last June and have never got below 172. But I seem to have been stuck at 173-4 for weeks at a time. I had really wanted to gain back about 5-10 pounds of muscle, but I only lift twice a week, so I haven't progresses on that at all. I guess 173-4 is where my new normal is.

My calorie goal is 2080 + cardio calories. Most days I get within 100 of that, but not always. And with gardening season coming up, it is going to be hard to eat enough to offset that. I guess I will have to go back to some of the calorie dense foods I gave up.

Larro

You aren't eating enough to put on muscle. You'd probably have to do a bulk and cut cycle to get to your desired goal.

FIFY...
You aren't training enough to put on muscle. You'd probably just get fat and then slim again if you did a bulk and cut cycle which won't get you closer to your goal.

A calorie surplus won't add muscle without enough of training stimulus. Would be really hard to get much muscle gain from just two sessions a week unless you are really genetically gifted and at 54 that's unlikely.