Lose weight by eating at maintenance calories for goal weight?

allyphoe

It works fine. I switched my goal calories over to maintenance a couple months ago. I actually eat about the same number of calories as before, but I have more "under goal" days, which works better for me.

Traveler120

abetterluke wrote: »

Kalikel wrote: »

It kind of seems like you're making it harder than it needs to be. Plug your info into the MFP and follow it. It's easy and it works.

See in my mind it seems like this is the most simple way. Why eat a different amount than I'm eventually going to eat anyway? If I plug it in for 2lbs per week MFP puts me less than 1500 cals. I've been eating 1500 cals and I'm tired and have very little energy most of the time. That's what triggered this question in the first place. Maintenance for my goal weight is about 2000 cals.

So by doing it this way I'm actually eating more.

That was my exact rationale at the beginning of the year. I wanted to get used to the calories as well as the types of foods I saw myself eating long term, including indulgences. It's worked very well. I've adjusted the types of food a bit but the calories have been roughly the same.

I was at 152 lbs in January, and decided my goal was 125 lbs. I'm 5'5". I assumed that if I was active during maintenance (5-7 hrs/week) I could maintain at 1700 (1300 from BMR + 400 from exercise). I've been eating that amount from day one. My main source of deficit was exercise so I was doing twice as much as I'd need at maintenance. Now that I've reached and passed my original goal of 125, I've noticed that when I reduce my activity to 5-7 hrs/wk, I stop losing weight and maintain, which shows that my estimates were spot on.

kiela64

Traveler120 wrote: »

abetterluke wrote: »

Kalikel wrote: »

It kind of seems like you're making it harder than it needs to be. Plug your info into the MFP and follow it. It's easy and it works.

See in my mind it seems like this is the most simple way. Why eat a different amount than I'm eventually going to eat anyway? If I plug it in for 2lbs per week MFP puts me less than 1500 cals. I've been eating 1500 cals and I'm tired and have very little energy most of the time. That's what triggered this question in the first place. Maintenance for my goal weight is about 2000 cals.

So by doing it this way I'm actually eating more.

That was my exact rationale at the beginning of the year. I wanted to get used to the calories as well as the types of foods I saw myself eating long term, including indulgences. It's worked very well.

I was at 152 lbs in January, and decided my goal was 125 lbs. I'm 5'5". I assumed that if I was active during maintenance (5-7 hrs/week) I could maintain at 1700 (1300 from BMR + 400 from exercise). I've been eating that amount from day one. My main source of deficit was exercise so I was doing twice as much as I'd need at maintenance. Now that I've reached and passed my original goal of 125, I've noticed that when I reduce my activity to 5-7 hrs/wk, I stop losing weight and maintain, which shows that my estimates were spot on.

That's really awesome! That's a lot of dedication & I imagine it's super rewarding that your math was right! A big kudos to you

I'm working primarily with diet at the moment, so I'll need to increase exercise as I lose in order to keep the rate of loss up, sort of the opposite to you.

hamlet1222

the beauty of this method is that you don't get to your target weight and then have to start eating more, I think a lot people feel liberated on reaching their goal weight, start eating a bit too much to celebrate, and then they're back to yo-yo dieting. With the method you describe, you don't have to change anything about your eating once you're at your target, you just carry on. Eating your maintenance intake for your goal weight might feel like being on a diet when you start, but once you get there hopefully it'll feel normal.