Less than a pound till my "goal"

emilysusana

When you got to your goal weight, did you immediately move into a maintenance pattern (even if it's gradually, I've read on here that a lot of people add calories little by little), or did you lose a little "extra" just in case? I've been so excited to get to my goal weight because, yay, a bit more food, but now that I'm practically there it almost sounds hard to move myself into the "maintenance" category. Should I set a new goal a couple of lbs lower or just get ready to give maintenance a try? Can anyone relate to this feeling? Any advice?

leajas1

Historically when I reached my goal, I gained it all back This last time, though, I decided to break the cycle and moved right into maintenance by reverse dieting (adding back 100 - 150 calories each week until I stopped losing). I sat there for several weeks just to prove to myself that I could do it. Then I lost about 3-5 lbs more to give myself some cushion. Congrats to you!

trigden1991

It really depends on you and why you set that goal. Moving to maintenance (whether slowly or straight away) will likely cause the scales to move up slightly. If you are happy with your body and know the scale number won't affect how you feel then there is no harm moving straight to maintenance.

zyxst

I went right to maintenance when I hit my goal. I did gain because of the extra food in my body. I don't eat all my calories as I'm working on learning to eat when I'm hungry rather than I'm bored/I have calories left. My TDEE is set to what my Fitbit average is minus 50 calories. I've lost 7-9 additional pounds this year, depending on fluctuations of the day.

Just keep in mind that you will likely gain when you first start eating more. It's pretty normal and stick with the program and it should fall off/stabilize.

cwolfman13

IDK...I never had some specific number I wanted to hit. Whether you up slowly or not, the scale is likely to move up because you are going to replenish glycogen stores (which is a good thing) and you're going to have more inherent waste in your system...this didn't bother me, but for whatever reason people seem to be obsessed with some exact number which is baffling to me.

Beyond that, you had better realize that maintenance is a range, not a static number...nobody weighs exactly XXX Lbs all of the time...you are going to fluctuate up and down and need to look at the average trend over time...but a lot of people fail there as well...I truly do not understand the obsession with some arbitrary number.

kgirlhart

I started gradually adding in calories when I was about 3 pounds from goal. My goal was a range, so once I hit the top of my range I switched to maintenance. It has taken me awhile to figure out exactly what my maintenance calories are and I have lost about 8 pounds below my original goal. I am actually still trying to pin down the calorie range I need to eat. I would go ahead and start adding in calories now. If you are only 1 pound from goal then you are really at your maintenance range.

kimny72

I never really had a goal weight, just decided to keep going until I felt comfortable with where I was at. Then I adjusted my calories to maintenance level.

Now that I've lived at my current weight (with around 5 lbs up or down wiggle room) for almost a year, I decided I'd like to try to lose another 5 lbs or so to see how that feels. So once the weather warms up a little, I'm going to go back to a 250 cal deficit and see what happens

I don't know if that really answers your question, but I hope it helps!

rsclause

when I reached my first goal I lowered it because I clearly had more to lose. When I hit my new goal I went a few under so I could establish a range around it. Not sure why because life got in the way and I put fifteen pounds back on. I am now only ten over but I will need to give up beer to get back to my zero belly fat weight again.

AnnPT77

I overshot my goal intentionally by a few pounds, but lost a couple more while trying to "reverse diet" back to my maintenance level. Then I set a maintenance range that encompassed my usual levels of daily fluctuations. (Essentially, I was trying to start maintenance at the bottom of my maintenance range, rather than the top/middle.)

I found gradually adding calories a useful strategy, for me, mostly for psychological reasons, but also because it gives an experimental approach to finding your own maintenance level. If you add 100 calories/day, then wait to see what happens to your weight, you likely will end up waiting longer after each add, because it takes longer for the true effect to be visible underneath the daily fluctuations. That can lead to a bit of extra weight loss (very slowly), especially if your maintenance calories turn out to be higher than you'd first guess.

nxd10

I had a 5 pound zone. I celebrated when I hit the top. I stayed at a deficit until I was at the bottom. Then I made sure I was there for a few weeks before I upped my calories by half of the deficit. I made sure I was stable for a year and then upped the rest. It's been more than 4 years.

HappyGrape

I am at the top of my range right now. When I hit maintenance, I had 2 weeks vacation at DisneyWrold and it was important for me to hit the maintenance mindset month before I went away 58 to 60 is my range. I went in maintenance mode at 59, I am little under 60 right now but considering going in small deficit again.

I like this quote
"Maintenance is all about making minor course corrections when we gain back small amounts of weight, not avoiding weight gain altogether"

Previously I didn't put much thought on maintaining and end up slowly gaining the weight back. This time goal weight wasn't not like an end point for me, healthy living is. What I am trying to say is you don't have to figure it out forever. You are likely to need to continue monitor and adjust your plan

AnnPT77 answer is very insightful
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LivingtheLeanDream

nxd10 wrote: »

I had a 5 pound zone. I celebrated when I hit the top. I stayed at a deficit until I was at the bottom. Then I made sure I was there for a few weeks before I upped my calories by half of the deficit. I made sure I was stable for a year and then upped the rest. It's been more than 4 years.

+1