how do I start maintaining without putting pounds on?

00mid

Should I go from 1200 to 1300 cals in the first week, 1400 in the second and so on? Or would it be okay if I increased by 200 cals each week? Currently I'm eating 1200, and I haven't reached my goal yet. But my GW is 130lbs, I'm 5'3. I exercise 5 times a week for a minimum of 30 mins.Acording to MFP my maintenance calories is 1700.

sijomial

No-one knows anything about you including the size of your recent calorie deficit. You could be 4' tall losing slowly or 6' tall and recently losing weight rapidly for example.

Maybe give people some clues to go on? Then perhaps someone your size and activity level (whatever that is) can tell you their experience.

00mid

sijomial wrote: »

No-one knows anything about you including the size of your recent calorie deficit. You could be 4' tall losing slowly or 6' tall and recently losing weight rapidly for example.

Maybe give people some clues to go on? Then perhaps someone your size and activity level (whatever that is) can tell you their experience.

Sorry, I'll add to OP.

sijomial

Really you should be tapering off the rate of weight loss as you get closer to goal.
One way would be to eat back your exercise calories if you aren't currently.

If you lose the last few pounds slowly you are less likely to get a sudden bounce in water weight when you start to increase calories.

It may take some experimenting to find your true maintenance calories (remember the MFP 1700 maintenance estimate is really 1700 + exercise calories).

You will certainly need a range of weight to maintain within rather than one set number to allow for natural daily and monthly fluctuations.

Katgan

I was losing 1.5 to 2 pounds per week and had to make an effort to stop losing once I reached my goal weight. I continued to exercise the same and tried eating more but continued to lose, even though I didn't want to lose more. I had to cut back on exercise and increase portions. Now I eat at my maintenance calorie level.

mom2ava07

I'm also wondering the same. I dropped 3.5 lbs in a week which has put me 1 pound to my goal. I been eating 1250-1400 calories with exercise when I can and eating back half of those like mentioned above, it would've probably been ideal to increase calories more the closer I got to goal, but when you are losing it can come addicting to be honest and hard to slow that down.

For me, I wanted to be 145ish, but planned on getting to 140 so I can likely maintain within a 5 lb range. I'm 141 now, so I'm going to gradually add in calories and try to get my exercise back to regular schedule. I think with gradual calorie increases (150 or so more per day per week until I find maintenance). And just prepare myself for water weight gains initially, and regular fluctuations. Maybe you should try the same gradual addition?

SLLRunner

00mid wrote: »

Should I go from 1200 to 1300 cals in the first week, 1400 in the second and so on? Or would it be okay if I increased by 200 cals each week? Currently I'm eating 1200, and I haven't reached my goal yet. But my GW is 130lbs, I'm 5'3. I exercise 5 times a week for a minimum of 30 mins.Acording to MFP my maintenance calories is 1700.

When I started maintaining over a year ago, I set my calories on MFP to maintenance and started eating that amount. It was such a small leap from losing the last few pounds at .5 pounds a week that it has worked out perfectly for me,

It seems to me that you have a big leap from 1200 to your maintenance of 1700. Since you are not at your goal weight yet, raise your calories to lose a half pound a week and go from there.

kdiamond

I'm a little over 5'3" and weigh 110 and my maintenance calories are about 1850. I add in some extra on days I work out harder than normal or take away a little on days I don't exercise. Basically speaking I will average it out over a week's time. When I originally started maintaining around 10 years ago I didn't take a technical approach to it I just added a little extra snack here and there, and I eventually figured it out. If you are counting every calorie, I'd probably start with 100 calories daily for 2 weeks, then another 100 calories for the next 2 weeks, etc. Gradual is always better.

paradi3s

I used to consume 1200 calories and when I started maintainingI added 100 cals a day for a week until I started consuming 1759 cals, what MFP recommended. Based on my experience, I didn't gain but lost a bit along the way.