What number of calories to maintain?

SeptemberFeyre

Hello everyone! I'm wanting to maintain over the holidays, but have no idea how to figure out how many calories to stay under to do that. Recently, when I took a short break from couting calories, my weight went back up within 5 days. I'm a female at 185 lbs and 5'8" and am lightly active. I'm currently on 1350 calories a day, but end up eating 1400 half the time. I've been losing about a pound a week. Thanks for any help!

queenliz99

Change your personal settings in your profile to maintenance.

Abby2205

If you are losing a pound a week at 1400 calories, then maintenance is 1900 calories (assuming your activity and exercise remain the same). As for gaining it back in five days, how much did you eat and how much did you gain back? It's unlikely you gained a significant amount of fat in five days; water yes, fat no. For example, if you ate 3300 calories for five days, then theoretically you would gain 2 pounds of fat.

SeptemberFeyre

Thanks Abby! I ate more than normal and didn't pay close attention because I was in an 'I'm tired of dieting' slump. Most of it was water weight, but I did gain at least half a pound or so. I just need to keep logging things when I take a break. How did you come up with 1900? I need to learn the formula

wrenak

One pound is 3500 calories. If you're losing 1 pound per week you're eating at a 500 calorie per day deficit (3500 / 7 = 500), so adding that 500 to 1400 gives you 1900.

SeptemberFeyre

Thank you queenliz, I wasn't aware I could do that. Don't know how I missed it!

SeptemberFeyre

Thanks wrenak!