Scared of Maintenance!

CMNVA

Hi everyone. So, after getting on the scale today and losing yet another pound, I've decided it's time for maintenance.

I am almost 53, female, 5'7" and currently teetering between 139 and 140. I started MFP in September at 156 with a goal of 142 lbs. At first I was not exercising at all and was set to sedentary (I'm a desk bound person). I started with 1200 calories. I did that for about 2-3 weeks and then upped by calories to 1380, where I've been ever since. My weight has come off in spurts, but basically I have lost 16 lbs in 90-something days. In the last two weeks, it seems to kind of be rolling off more quickly. I suspect that with my weight loss my Synthroid dosage may need to be adjusted so that could be part of it, but I think maybe I'm edging in to going to far.

Now, as I said, I've been at 1380 calories for awhile and have learned to live with that and be okay with it. I don't eat out much at all and there are times that I'm pretty hungry so I could stand to eat more, I'm sure. I've also completed C25K during this time and am now slowly jogging 3 times a week for exercise.

Today I reset my goals at 1600 calories which seems like a LOT of food am I'm kind of freaking out a little bit about it. I *do not* want this weight to come back and I fear that eating more is going set me on a "yee-haaa" sort of cycle of going to far (this has happened in the past).

Any tips? Support? Words of encouragement?

I know I should probably be starting recomp now. I'd *LOVE* to build more muscle but it's probably not something I can really get on board with until after the holidays are over and I will need time to figure out even how to begin.

Anyway, any thoughts you have would be welcomed!

LivingtheLeanDream

You have been losing steadily over 1lb a week, so your maintenance cals are around 500 cals a day more you can eat at maintenance than when trying to lose. As you are also now exercising this will mean you can eat more too.

You can up your calories slowly to get accustomed to higher calories - that also means you wont see a spike up in your weight. You can bump your cals right away by 500 a day but you will see water weight gains as your glycogen stores replenish, this will be a temporary gain.

Its a great idea to think about a recomp, I'm over a year into one myself and am really liking how strong I have become along with great muscle definition all over. There are lots of threads on the forums about recomping tips, hopefully someone will post the links. For me personally I do all my workouts at home, youtube was great for videos on strength training, I used Fitness Blender and Jessica Smith for mine, using dumb bells, which I now have several sets of with varying weights.

Don't freak out about eating 1600, it is still too low for you - I'm alot smaller (5ft 2") and if I only ate 1600 I'd lose at least 0.5lb a week. ( I maintain eating around 1900-2100 calories, I am active in general)

Well done on your weight loss, now you can enjoy extra food and enjoy being at maintenance as it rocks

CMNVA

Thanks for the pep talk! I am going to try to ease into this since I have a tendency to lose control and overeat once I am not rigorous. I do need to read more on the recomp. I did that a few weeks ago and the information was overwhelming. I have done a few FitnessBlender Barre videos and I liked them (I know that isn't for recomp, I just love ballet type stuff). It's good to know that you can accomplish a lot at home. Between a long work day and a commute, I'm not big on going back out and night to a gym.

HappyGrape

I was really nervous few months ago. People don't talk about it much but I feel it's natural. I know how to loose and I know how to gain but learning to maintain is all new to me

I feel much more confident right now, just keep monitoring the situation and make small adjustments as needed

Owlfan88

@CMNVA , I'm very similar to you, 50 and maintaining around 135. I walk about 30 min a day for exercise , getting 10-12,000 steps most day in total. I am doing rather lazy logging these days, but found that I can generally eat 2,000-2200 calories a day and maintain. Surprised the heck out of me, but when I first started maintaining, I found I kept loosing (got down to 128 and lots of comments that I had lost too much).

My guess is that you will find that 1600 is not too much and you may in fact lose more on that level. Time will tell. If you aren't already, I strongly recommend some sort of weight trending app - to help you not freak out over blips of weight gain.

WinoGelato

I agree with the others that I bet 1600 is still a deficit for you, but time will tell. I also agree with the advice to up your calories slowly - maybe 100-200/day each week until you get to that 1600 level, and then see if you keep losing slowly, and then maybe up them a bit more.

When you were losing at 1380, were you eating back exercise calories? Have you tried plugging your current stats into MFP and setting goal to "Maintain My Weight" to see what NEAT calorie goal it gives you? Have you calculated your TDEE on another site?

For what it's worth, I'm 5'2 and 42 years old and maintaining a range of 118-122 (important that you know that maintenance is a range, not a constant number due to normal weight fluctuations). My TDEE is 2200 per my FitBit, I've always eaten back all the calories I get from it and was able to lose and now maintain pretty effortlessly with that approach. So I definitely think you will find 1600 is still too low for you, but good luck, and enjoy the extra food! What a great time of year to have extra calories to play with!

CMNVA

I have never eaten back my exercise calories. The reason for all that is that when I first start on MFP, it took a while for anything to happen. Even at around 1200 calories it was slow. Then I stalled for many weeks. I upped my calories a bit and start some mild exercise and then I sort of got on a 1/2 lb a week thing. Now, after 3 months, it seems like my body woke up and I am losing a rate better than I did in the begging. Very odd.

As for maintenance levels, it will be interesting to see if I lose on 1600 calories. I actually tried to lose on that much initially and nothing happened at all.

kami3006

Good advice in this thread. I just wanted to add that when you start increasing your calories you many notice a jump in your appetite due to hormonal changes from the increase. It's normal and will even out. Also, you may see an increase on the scale as your body replenishes glycogen stores you depleted while staying in deficit. Don't panic, it too will even out.

Maintenance is often mentally difficult for folks. It's daunting as you don't want to gain after working so hard to lose. Slowly increasing calories works well.

I hope it all goes well for you.

griffinca2

CMNVA, Don't be afraid of maint. Instead of jumping directly to 1600 cals a day, start by adding abt 100 and see how your body reacts. Keep that for a week or so, then add more. Also, if you start adding weights to your workouts you should be able to add some muscle, which will enable you to eat more.

lorrpb

Congrats on your success! I'm 61, 5'7" and just reached maintenance too. You're freaking yourself out about maintenance. 1600 is only 220 cals more than the 1380 you've been eating. That's an extra snack per day or 1-2 desserts per week or some pizza and beer on Saturday night. Continue to track your cals as you have been, readjust as needed, and you'll be fine. Keep it going!