Seeking Advice: transition to weight maintenance.

flagrantavidity

Hello Everyone! (Longtime listener, firstime caller.)

I am a 32 year old male, short at 5'7". In December 2014 I weighed 207#, obese. By December 2015 I was at 186 Pounds and I decided I wanted to "look good naked." I was hoping to get to 160# by June which is my birthday month and the start of beach weather.

Make a long story short, as of 5/31 I weigh 140 Pounds, I blew my goal out of the water.

Basically, I started tracking calories. Counting and tracking calories lead me to cut out a lot of things from my Diet. Things I cut included sodas, alcohol, and fast food. I also found a food source called Soylent, I started consuming Soylent for 2 of 3 meals, I made whatever I wanted for dinner as long as it was home made while limiting myself to 1800 calories per day and from January '16 - Feb '16 I did not exercise, I was sedentary.

Part way through February I decided I wanted to change my lifestyle - not just "diet." Lifestyle change includes diet change, I continued to eat Soylent for 2/3 of my meals and started incorporating exercise. I purchased a fitbit to track and long my exercise. I continued my 1800 calorie limit although I found I would regularly only consume about 1300 calories. My exercise includes walking over 5 miles per day, 7 days a week. I run for two miles twice a week, my goal is to get my run down to 16 minutes for two miles - currently my best time is 22 minutes. I use a fitness ball and ab-roller to work out my stomach 3 times a week. I also do general calisthenics such as push ups in the morning several days a week before I hop in the shower. I also recently incorporated dumbbells into my routine twice a week.

I recently learned that I am most likely consuming too little in calories for the amount of activity I do. I am now pushing myself to consume 2000 calories a day. I am afraid that by regularly eating only 1300 calories my metabolism may have slowed down. Yesterday I started my plan to consume 2000 calories but I am afraid my body will now "hold onto" some of those calories. Today I feel gassy and bloated compared to my normal eating routine.

My eating habits are pretty healthy in my humble opinion, I have been logging my food an activities on twitter to help make my accountable for my eating habits.

My question is, what is the best way to maintain my current weight? I hear all types of horror stories about people loosing a great deal of weight just to gain it back on. Since losing over 45 pounds since the beginning of the year I am happier, I have more energy, my blood pressure is normal again, my cholesterol is really good with HDLs in the 70s, I simply want to maintain weight.

AnnPT77

If you're experiencing distress (digestive and/or psychological) from a big jump in eating, consider upping your calorie goal more gradually. Since you've been quite low, perhaps add 200-250 calories to what you've previously been eating, hold there for a week or two, add 100-200 more if you're still losing, rinse and repeat until your weight holds steady at a desirable level. There's the potential for a bit of water weight jump when you hit your actual maintenance calories, so don't panic if you see it.

Then set a maintenance weight range (y'know, plus or minus 3 pounds or 5 pounds, whatever), weigh yourself regularly on a schedule that works for you, and take action if you are above/below your range for a couple of scale readings in a row.

You won't suddenly gain massive amounts of weight overnight, you'll see some gradual changes and have time to take action . . . and you've already amply proven that you can lose if/when you need to.

Take a deep breath, relax, eat additional healthy calories, and continue to get stronger/fitter: You've got this!

kirstenb13

If you have lost 45 lbs since the beginning of the year you have been running an average calorie deficit of 1000 cals/day so I would guess your maintenance is higher than 2000 if you regularly eat 1300. But just look at the data you collected over the last 5 months, this should give you a good idea of how much your body actually needs. Increase slowly until you get to that point and see if you maintain (your weight won't shoot up all of a sudden just because you eat more than 2000 calories a day) or if not adjust, but give it all a good aount of time or you won't see the real trends.

5stringjeff

The best way to transition from dieting to maintenance is to slowly add calories to your diet. Most people will add 100-150 daily calories per week until they reach their maintenance eating levels.

The tougher part of maintaining is the mental part. A lot of people have trouble allowing themselves to eat more. Trust the math, and weigh yourself as needed to make sure that you are still within your weight range.