Maintenance help!

paradi3s

I've been on a 1,200 calorie intake for a whole month now to prepare for our campus' pageant but am now ready to start maintaining. My maintenance calories is 1,760, but I'm just wondering if I should start consuming 1,760 cals immediately, or add 100 cals per week until I reach that number? I'm just a bit afraid of gaining weight/inches. I did it before after dieting for 4-5months, but started reverse dieting by upping 100 cals a week. Im just wondering if its different if i just dieted for a month? Sorry for being such a noob haha. Tha k you in advance :-)

nxd10

Many people ramp up, but 100/weeks seems pretty slow. I did 250.

Remember, you may gain a little weight when you first raise your calories (because you gain water as you replenish glycogen stores I'm told), but it will bounce back quickly. I didn't gain any, however, and many people continue losing for a bit after they up their calories.

paradi3s

nxd10 wrote: »

Many people ramp up, but 100/weeks seems pretty slow. I did 250.

Remember, you may gain a little weight when you first raise your calories (because you gain water as you replenish glycogen stores I'm told), but it will bounce back quickly. I didn't gain any, however, and many people continue losing for a bit after they up their calories.

Hmm, I'll try 280 since it's only been less than 4 weeks and I've been on maintenance for a few weeks before dieting. I'm already underweight at 105-110 lbs anyway, so any added weight may actually be good for me! Thank you! :-)

paradi3s

Bump

jcim1ru

I added back slowly (about 250 calories a week) until I stopped losing weight, then I stayed steady at that calorie intake and monitored changes. It educated me to the fact that what MFP considers normal activity for a person with a desk job and what my normal activity is as a person with my desk job (work at home) are about 450 calories different.

paradi3s

jcim1ru wrote: »

I added back slowly (about 250 calories a week) until I stopped losing weight, then I stayed steady at that calorie intake and monitored changes. It educated me to the fact that what MFP considers normal activity for a person with a desk job and what my normal activity is as a person with my desk job (work at home) are about 450 calories different.

Just realized that going back to maintaining the weight can almost be as hard as losing it! Thank you for your comment, really informative. :-)

dontjinxit

My math is adding 200 calories every time I lose a pound. I still have 2 pounds to lose and probably about 400 calories to add back still, so I kind of planned it. No idea how it'll actually go.

paradi3s

dontjinxit wrote: »

My math is adding 200 calories every time I lose a pound. I still have 2 pounds to lose and probably about 400 calories to add back still, so I kind of planned it. No idea how it'll actually go.

I started adding in 140 cals instead, so it'll take exactly 3 weeks til I get to my maintenance level (or the one MFP recommends). Best of luck to us! :-)

dontjinxit

paradi3s wrote: »

dontjinxit wrote: »

My math is adding 200 calories every time I lose a pound. I still have 2 pounds to lose and probably about 400 calories to add back still, so I kind of planned it. No idea how it'll actually go.

I started adding in 140 cals instead, so it'll take exactly 3 weeks til I get to my maintenance level (or the one MFP recommends). Best of luck to us! :-)