Eating enough calories on maintenance

JKinHalfMoonBay

Hi! I reached my goal weight last week and went into maintenance--yea! During the weight loss period, my goal was 1,200 cals a day, which I found a good amount of food. I didn't really feel hungry between meals when restricting to 1200. MFP calculated my maintenance cals to be 1,600 and I'm struggling to meet it each day, especially when my daily exercise is considered. When I've completed my diary for the last several days, I get a message that if every day was like today, in 5 weeks I'd be about 5 lbs less than I am now. At 117, I'm really as thin as I should be, so losing more weight would not be ideal. I really don't want to force myself to eat more than I'm hungry for and I find I'm satisfied with the amount I've been eating on maintenance. I don't feel hungry or dissatisfied on about 1550-1600 a day. What are some strategies for increasing the caloric value of meals without feeling like I'm stuffing myself?

zyxst

Add fats and full-fat dairy. Drink your calories (milk, juice, etc.).

sijomial

Different food choices.
Adding snacks.
Stopping eating "diet foods".
Ending food exclusions or restrictions.
Drinking your calories.

JKinHalfMoonBay

Thanks for the tips! My concern with full fat dairy is that I already go over my fat allowance every day. And I typically go over with sugar, too, which makes me reticent to drink juices. I haven't been eating "diet" foods. Just real, minimally processed, usually homemade, healthy foods. I had a non-fat latte today just to increase my calories. Now that I'm in maintenance, I'm mostly interested in micronutrients, making sure I get enough calcium, iron, fiber, protein, etc. each day. So I guess my next question is, how much over one's fat & sugar goals is too much for health?

sijomial

I always regard protein and fat as minimum goals and carbs (including sugar) as "whatever".
Ask yourself why too much fat or sugar is actually a problem as long as you have a generally healthy and balanced diet.......

Think long term diet adherence and enjoyment not over-managing macros and micros.
As you are eating more at maintenance than when losing it's much easier to hit all your bases without having to be precise or prescriptive.

cwolfman13

MollyBloom616 wrote: »

Thanks for the tips! My concern with full fat dairy is that I already go over my fat allowance every day. And I typically go over with sugar, too, which makes me reticent to drink juices. I haven't been eating "diet" foods. Just real, minimally processed, usually homemade, healthy foods. I had a non-fat latte today just to increase my calories. Now that I'm in maintenance, I'm mostly interested in micronutrients, making sure I get enough calcium, iron, fiber, protein, etc. each day. So I guess my next question is, how much over one's fat & sugar goals is too much for health?

The fat "allowance" is just some fairly arbitrary and generalized thing...it doesn't matter...there are people who eat 70% + of their diet in fat...

At anyrate...little things can make a big difference and add up...

When I'm cutting, for breakfast I'll usually have a 1 egg and 3 egg white omelette with a side of oats...in maintenance I'll have a regular 4 egg omelette and add almonds or peanut butter to my oats...

When I'm cutting I'll forgo a morning snack...in maintenance I don't.

For lunches and dinners I take slightly larger portions in maintenance...I'll eat desert...I'll have a beer or two, etc, etc.

JKinHalfMoonBay

Thank you all for this info. It looks like I should relax about the fat/sugar thing and just do what I can to get enough calories each day.

red99ryder

Congrats on hitting your Goal , you got this covered

Good Luck

TangledThread

What everyone said but also give it time. I started out that way but the longer I maintain the more I eat and the hungrier I get and the more I can eat. 1500 used to be too much and now 2300 isn't enough. You will get used to the higher numbers pretty quickly.

AnnPT77

And depending on how you eat, the default MFP sugar goal can be really, really silly.

While losing, when I first joined MFP, I was going waaaaay over the sugar goal every single day, when the only added sugar I was eating was a tiny amount of fruit-juice concentrate near the bottom of the ingredients list in my single 30-calorie tablespoon of all-fruit spread. The rest of the sugars were all from the inherent sugars in low/non-fat milk products, a bit from some veggies, and the sugar in 2-3 daily servings of whole fruit.

My solution was to stop tracking sugar on MFP, and track fiber instead. Problem solved!

Sure, eating a bunch of sugary non-nutrient-dense food with lots of added sugars probably isn't a great nutritional strategy for most people, but partly because it tends to displace more nutritious calories. But essentially none of the mainstream health guideline sources (such as the World Health Organization) say you need to worry about inherent sugars in dairy or fruit, in the context of a generally well-balanced way of eating.

JKinHalfMoonBay

Thanks for the responses!

Will give it some time. Wow, given that I'm struggling to get 1600 in, 2,300 seems like an enormous amount of food. Made it yesterday after a very indulgent dinner.

Ann--I'm pretty much doing the same. The only added sugar was the 1 tsp in my morning & afternoon tea. The rest came from dairy or fruit. It didn't make a lot of sense to be concerned with naturally occurring sugars but MFP kept giving me that scolding message about going over my sugar goal so I was worried. Getting enough fiber is much more important for practical reasons.

Gamliela

Interesting and informative thread for this maintainer.
Scruples over fat content and natural sugars gone!
Thanks for the discussion Molly and best wishes on maintaining.

trigden1991

Don't forget that at one point in your life, you had to consume more than your maintenance calories to have gained weight. Think of the things you ate then and add items back in. No food is "bad" for you.

quiksylver296

I changed my sugar tracker to fiber. I never see the sugar scolding anymore. LOL

lorrpb

I think it's great that you want to track micronutrients! Nutrition and health are soooo important, despite many comments on MFP saying these things don't matter! All the defaults by MFP are averages and allow for a range. How much over on fat and sugar are you? If it's a small amount, not to worry if it's like 50% over, then I would say reevaluate things. Also keep in mind that if you are over on fat and sugar, you have to be under on something else, i.e. protein. Protein is essential for muscle maintenance and growth. I tend to focus on getting enough protein, then fat & carbs usually fall in line. If you need more calories, add protein and healthy fat, like olive oil, nuts, and avocado. Also, be aware that many micronutrient totals on MFP are not accurate because this info does not appear, or is not accurate, for all food items in the database. Keep it going!

nxd10

Fats are very easy to add - as someone says, milk and butter or nuts and you're there. It may be you underlogging accidentally. That's fine, as long as you're consistent. If you're not hungry and not gaining or losing, go with that for a while. I find my appetite comes and goes.

myfitnesspale3

Increasing sugar and carbs proportion of total calories, will tend to increase hunger, which makes it easier to eat more.

Increasing fats proportion will make it harder to eat more since it has little effect on blood sugar and will not stimulate hunger.

AnnPT77

myfitnesspale3 wrote: »

Increasing sugar and carbs proportion of total calories, will tend to increase hunger, which makes it easier to eat more.

Increasing fats proportion will make it harder to eat more since it has little effect on blood sugar and will not stimulate hunger.

Exactly which foods stimulate hunger, and which are filling/satiating, seems to be a very individual thing. Whether the reasons are psychological or physiological, in this area we all tend to be different, but a little experimentation will sort it out.

sijomial

myfitnesspale3 wrote: »

Increasing sugar and carbs proportion of total calories, will tend to increase hunger, which makes it easier to eat more.

Increasing fats proportion will make it harder to eat more since it has little effect on blood sugar and will not stimulate hunger.

@myfitnesspale3
That's not a universal rule. It may be like that for you but it certainly isn't for me.
Starchy carbs I find the most satisfying and filling. Foods that are predominately fats and protein I can over eat massively.

Hunger isn't the only driver for eating remember, a lot of us got fat because we enjoyed eating just a little too much.

DancingMoosie

I'm wondering if you are getting enough protein, since you are over in sugar and fats. How much protein do you get daily? Protein is important to retain muscle..