Preparing for Maintenance

usernameMAMA

So I am about 15 pounds shy of my goal. I'm thinking about upping my calories to start getting my body used to maintenance but I don't know if I should wait until I'm 10 pounds to goal or if I should start now. Also, any suggestions on how I should? I've seen some people say to raise calories by 100-200 and maintain that for a week, then up it another 100-200 for a week, etc. I'm not sure what to do here. Right now my calorie goal is set at 1400 per day. Any help is appreciated:)

fitmusiclifeviola

I've been approaching my goal, w/ ~5-10 lbs to go and have reduced my goal from losing 1.5/week to 1/week (1400/day doesn't tell me which of these it is). Eating the extra food has felt very liberating, but not nearly as much as I expected. I've also been a bit more sore lately, though I'm not sure if it is because I've been slightly more active than normal (not much), or just some stress. Overall I think it's a good idea to gradually increase calories and see how your weight loss adjusts. When I'm within 5 lbs I'm planning to reduce my deficit to .5 lbs/week. Adding 100/calories per week will be much faster than that. My thought with my plan is that I'll get closer to 10 weeks of adjustment so that I can really be in a habit during that time. Then if I go back over my goal and I want to lose, I can just go back to the losing .5/week, and it won't be such a drastic change. Hopefully I can then feel out how much I should be eating without counting everything, which is a goal of mine for 6+months from now. Tough for me to imagine a 'lifestyle change' that includes always forever counting calories. But that is just me.

Laura8603

Personally, if you are still losing steadily, I would stay the course until you are at goal. After goal, I recommend you continue to weigh yourself regularly (I weigh daily, but weekly or monthly might be enough for you). I give myself a 3 pound limit. If I get there I immediately cut back to lose them. 3 is much easier to lose than 20. Maintenance is sooooooo much tougher than losing. Good luck!!