Maintenance Questions...

JenRunTriHappyGirl

I am so close to going into maintenance that I am getting nervous. For anyone in maintenance mode, did you slowly up your calories or did you do it all at once? How did it work? How did the first couple of weeks go? I am a weekly weigher and I am afraid that my body will go into shock.... according to MFP, maintenance mode is over 500 calories more a day..... that seems like a lot to me. At this point, that is like another entire meal. I am worried that if I do that my body will run with the calories all the way down to my jiggly *kitten*. Anyone have any experience, advice, tips, etc? Thank you!

tinah1126

I am wondering the same thing.... I am 9-15 lbs from goal...depending on where I decide to stop and I was worried about the same thing. I am currently doing 1200 calories a day and not eating any exercise calories back but my maintenance caloires are 2004-2153....way more than I am currently eating. I think I will just add 200 calories a week and see if I gain, lose, or stay the same. I would love to hear from others as well as to if they just went straight to maintenance calories or slowly added back. Please add what your calorie goals were while losing and what maintenance is as well!! Thank you for posting this!!

alpine1994

I only upped them by 100 cals a day at first. After a couple weeks of course I lost another like 4lbs and it took me like 1.5 months to do that when I was actually TRYING to lose! So after that I have found that I have an easier time sticking to my ".5 loss/week +100 cals" amount during the week, and then pretty much eat whatever I want on the weekends. I have been doing this for 3 months and am still below my goal weight. I hover around 142-144. My goal was 145. My exercise hasn't been great since I just moved and can't do my usual Jillian Michaels DVDs (neighbors downstairs would NOT appreciate it) so I'm trying to figure out a new routine. If I exercised more I would eat more.

I know it's really weird and scary at first! You don't want to undo all of the time and effort you put into losing, but after a couple weeks you find your groove. I still log most of the time and find that it helps me stay on track, especially after particularly naughty weekends!

tomcornhole

Just started maintenance a month ago. According to the calculators, I was in a 23% deficit to TDEE. And I was losing weight at a rate that matched the predictions (1.37 lbs / week). So I thought I knew what my maintenance calories were. I was at 2,100 cal / day and my TDEE was 2,800 cal / day. So I felt confident on how this transition would turn out.

So, I added 200 cal / day. I thought that would result in an initial stall and then continued slow weight loss. So far, I have maintained my weight +- 1 lbs. That baffles me, but I will roll with it a while and see what happens. But after a month, I think I have found my maintenance calories and it isn't nearly as high as I expected. We'll see.

What you don't want to do is change a bunch of things at the same time. Just add some calories and evaluate for a month. Then add more or make other changes you might like and wait a month.

krrs1980

Slowly add them back in. That's what I did and it seems to be working. I've been maintaining for two months now. Good luck!!

majope

If you're close to goal, it's better to have a smaller deficit and lose the last few pounds more gradually--set MFP for half a pound a week, and you'll have a daily deficit of 250 calories, not over 500. It's a lot easier to go to maintenance from there than to make a large jump in calories.

fly_butterfly

Personally... I am going to continue eating the way I am when I hit my goal. I'm satisfied and feel great. If my body continues to lose more weight after the "goal" I set, well so be it. I am not going to change the way I am eating (by adding more calories) because I have tried too hard to "re-train" my brain how to FINALLY eat properly. I don't want to "test the waters" because I think I hit my goal. My body doesn't know that's my goal. (If this makes any sense.)

Just my $0.02. :flowerforyou:

Francl27

I'd increase by 200 calories and see from there. Well, it's my plan anyway, if I ever reach my goal, lol.

JenRunTriHappyGirl

I have 0.6 pounds to go before I am GW... I decided to go ahead and increase my calories today by 100... this gets me at losing 0.7 pounds/week. I plan on staying there until I reach GW and then adding 100 calories at a time for a month or so each to see how it goes. It should get better... my knee is healing so my workout load should increase over the next couple of months too. Thank you all!