Hello maintenance: where everyday will feel like Thanksgiving!

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CindyFooWho
CindyFooWho Posts: 179 Member
edited May 2016 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
So now that my newly-purchased small-sized clothing is getting too loose (not good), I decided to switch to maintenance. Yay.

I've been living the *1200 calorie dream* for a year now and suddenly MFP is giving me 1680. I mean...that's a FEAST! haha! Throw in some exercise calories and I'm not sure I CAN eat that much anymore. I feel like I just won the lottery.

McDonalds anyone?
(I kid, I kid)
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Replies

  • xbowhunter
    xbowhunter Posts: 1,001 Member
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    Welcome. Oh what a feeling!!! Funny I am allowed the exact same calories as you... :)

    Enjoy!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    Why do you kid? Nowt wrong with McDonald's if it fits your cals and macros.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    I am not sure I personally would bump up 480/500 calories a day... maybe 40 to 50% of that..

    I sure will go to Micky D's with you.. forget Thanksgiving... time for fries!
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    I am not sure I personally would bump up 480/500 calories a day... maybe 40 to 50% of that..

    I sure will go to Micky D's with you.. forget Thanksgiving... time for fries!
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited May 2016
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    mozilla and MFP are tripping again on me... double post ... sorry
  • tulips_and_tea
    tulips_and_tea Posts: 5,714 Member
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    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    mozilla and MFP are tripping again on me... double post ... sorry

    It's not just you. I've noticed a lot of double posts the past few days. Not sure what's going on.
  • CindyFooWho
    CindyFooWho Posts: 179 Member
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    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    I am not sure I personally would bump up 480/500 calories a day... maybe 40 to 50% of that..

    I sure will go to Micky D's with you.. forget Thanksgiving... time for fries!

    I agree. I stopped 2 pounds short of my goal because I'm going to increase my calories a little at a time and see when I stop losing.

    The 1680 just looks so pretty in my diary right now :smile:
  • jrwms714
    jrwms714 Posts: 421 Member
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    I'm with you on the amount of cals you get in maintenance ... that plus gym cals and some days I just can't eat it all. So I usually don't. TDEE just didn't seem to work as well for me as maintenance plus gym cals. I know that it's important to eat those gym cals back, and mostly I do, but sometimes I am just too full. So enjoy your extra stuff - you've earned it.
  • tahxirez
    tahxirez Posts: 270 Member
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    As long as I'm eating my "normal" food it really is a lot of volume but even though I'm new to maintenance I've found that it doesn't take long on the weekends with a few higher calorie indulgences to hit goals. I'm really just trying to balance the week at this point because the day to day has not been pretty. I did go a little crazy last week but I was only 60 calories over weekly goal and I can clean that up in no time. This whole maintenance thing has messed with my head though, I miss my little buffer zone to protect me from gain :)
  • CindyFooWho
    CindyFooWho Posts: 179 Member
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    jrwms714 wrote: »
    I'm with you on the amount of cals you get in maintenance ... that plus gym cals and some days I just can't eat it all. So I usually don't. TDEE just didn't seem to work as well for me as maintenance plus gym cals. I know that it's important to eat those gym cals back, and mostly I do, but sometimes I am just too full. So enjoy your extra stuff - you've earned it.

    It begs the question, how much WAS I eating before? I guess the cool thing is that we've really become accustomed to eating more reasonable portions during this journey. Will have to continue to log and work to be sure that this way of thinking sticks.
  • 85Cardinals
    85Cardinals Posts: 733 Member
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    You'll probably get tired of all the cranberry sauce after a while.
  • kirstenb13
    kirstenb13 Posts: 181 Member
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    tahxirez wrote: »
    As long as I'm eating my "normal" food it really is a lot of volume but even though I'm new to maintenance I've found that it doesn't take long on the weekends with a few higher calorie indulgences to hit goals.

    Yes, this. My maintenance is at 2500-2700 and even higher on weekends but I have no problem eating that much and more a couple of days a week.
  • Noreenmarie1234
    Noreenmarie1234 Posts: 7,493 Member
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    You can probably eat more! I thought my maintenance would be 1500, but I eat 2300-2500 with exercise a few times a week and I am a tiny girl!
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
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    Congrats on making it to maintenance. Now you can enjoy some extra calories. :)
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    OP you may want to transition to that amount slowly, adding 100-200 cals to your goal each week till you get to your appropriate maintenance level.

    The benefits of this are:
    You may avoid a spike on the scale from water retention as your glycogen stores are replenished from eating at a deficit for so long.

    You may still lose a little more in the process.

    You have time to figure out what foods fit well into your new calorie allotment.

    You learn what your true maintenance level is, for many people the MFP number could be underestimated. Add cals in slowly a week at a time until you get to a level where you do maintain for several weeks, then you will know your correct number.

    Also, maintenance is awesome. Ive not experienced any of the issues with hunger that other people refer to. Keep in mind that maintenance is usually a range of about 3-5 pounds that people comfortably fluctuate within, not a set number on the scale.

    Good luck and enjoy some McDs!
  • CindyFooWho
    CindyFooWho Posts: 179 Member
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    Christine_72 wrote: »
    I'm just impressed that you managed to stick with 1200 calories for a whole year :smiley: I can't last a week lol

    Ooooh, that 1200 has been a VERY fluid number. It took me a full year to lose 25 pounds, haha. But that's fine, slow is good.

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