How to adjust an LCHF once goal is met?

JohnnyLowCarb · March 2017

Ok, I may be jumping the gun but I am over half way to my ideal weight, but was wondering how you may have adjusted from losing weight to going into maintain mode. When I started my diet on Jan 2 I only focused on calories, lost around 2 lbs per week (not bad I thought). When I started my LCHF I am losing 4 lbs per week (holy moly). Maybe it's simple to just go eat more calories to get into a maintain mode, maybe some introduced more carbs....not sure - but I am a planner and want to know what some of you have done. As always - THANKS!

Momma_Raucks · March 2017

I too am interested in how one does this the right way

Sunny_Bunny_ · March 2017

First step is decide if you want to introduce more carbs or not.
If you do, figure out what your new limits might be and basically, you just follow your new plan at maintenance calories. Hopefully by this time, you've figured out how to eat to satiety and eliminated unecessary eating that could be a problem for long term maintenance and you won't even need to contribute tracking and such.
If you're not planning to include more carbs, again you just eat more food.
This is typically the stage when adding extra fats to things comes into play. This is where the 500 calorie coffees and butter smothered veggies come into the picture.

kpk54 · March 2017

@johnnylew I've not followed your journey so just a question: do you engage in intentional exercise as part of your weight loss program? If so, when did you start exercising and was exercise a part of your initial focus on "just calories" and/or your current LCHF focus. How many weeks did you do calories only and how many weeks have you been eating LCHF.

I'm not doubting any of your n=1, I'm just curious about the 2 pounds/4 pounds. You are wise to begin planning your transition into maintenance. My experience has been that maintenance has been more challenging than loss. As an FYI: neither loss nor the first 15 months of maintenance were keto.

MFP estimates have always worked fairly well for me in that I lost pretty easily (for a 53 week duration) though not at the projected speed and I maintain at about what MFP indicates should be maintenance calories. As I increased my calories, I didn't have an increase in weight (temporary or otherwise) most likely because I was eating higher carb all along. Also my calorie increase was only 300 per MFP. Sad, I know. I lost via a small calorie deficit and a guessimated burn of about 300 calories for exercise based on my 53 week n=1. I have thankfully been able to slack off on exercise which is somewhat physically uncomfortable and awkward due to my neurological movement disorder. In that respect, I do what I can for my overall health. A stationary recumbent bike was my friend during weight loss.

I'm currently reading "The Hungry Brain" by Stephan Guyenet and have listened to most of his videos which tend to be 1 dimensional since he is a neurobiologist and his focus is brain controlled behavior. Nevertheless I recommend reading this book. If you must, just skip to page 223 where he starts talking about cleaning up your eating environment and reducing eating cues. Whether one believes in CICO or not (he does place value in the basics of it) the book might be enlightening. His research perspective IMO is as important in maintenance as it is in loss. His position is the brain in hardwired...I not attempt to explain. Good read.

TL:DR You cannot go back to pre-weight loss habits and intake and not gain and your body (brain) may try to fight you every step of the way which is why so many do not maintain their loss over the long term. I've maintained for 2.5 years which is NOT long term.

JohnnyLowCarb · March 2017

@kpk54 Thanks! I did 6 weeks of calorie only dieting and been on 3 weeks of LCHF. The weight is coming off double the rate of calorie only. All makes sense since the first weeks had carbs. Appreciate the advice and resources.

Catawampous · March 2017

I'm coming to this place myself. I have 15lbs until goal. Frankly, I am terrified!

tcunbeliever · March 2017

I bounce to maintenance for 2 weeks every other month. For me I use the calories as calculated by MFP (1250 deficit vs 1740 maintenance) and I keep my percentages the same (10% carbs, 70% fat, 20% protein)...this does give me more grams of carbs since I have more calories available, but so far it hasn't caused any issues switching back and forth.

kpk54 · March 2017

tcunbeliever wrote: »

I bounce to maintenance for 2 weeks every other month. For me I use the calories as calculated by MFP (1250 deficit vs 1740 maintenance) and I keep my percentages the same (10% carbs, 70% fat, 20% protein)...this does give me more grams of carbs since I have more calories available, but so far it hasn't caused any issues switching back and forth.

Very cool approach, IMO. "Like".

swezeytba · March 2017

When I was within 5 lbs of where I thought my goal might be I actually stopped tracking anything but carbs just out of curiosity because maintenance has always been where I have had trouble. I can diet like a fiend, but how to let go a little bit without letting go all the way has always been my issue.

So I kept my carbs super low and ate moderate protein and fat to satiety without really counting calories or keeping track of grams of protein or fat. I am very slowly still losing...About 1 lb every 2-3 weeks which has thrilled me that I may have finally gotten to the point where I can listen to my hunger cues successfully.

Once I actually get to my goal I guess I will have to eat a little more to keep from losing more.

2t9nty · March 2017

I started a weight loss program in January of 2016. I started LCHF in October and have been very happy with the WOE so far. I am 60+ pounds down since starting all this, and the last 20(ish) has been on the LCHF. I am a T2 diabetic, and find that controlling the carbs has had a huge influence on my glucose readings. By huge, I mean that they went from 200's to low/mid 100's within a few days. Within a week or so I was mostly low 100's. This was very dramatic for me and convinced me that the WOE was working for me.

I will continue on the LCHF once I lose another 20(ish) pounds just to keep the blood sugar in check. I will up protein and fat to get in "maintenance mode." I might just increase the fat. I am not sure. I don't think I will tinker much with the carbs, but I might experiment a little. As close as I can tell, 20 - 30 net carb grams a day is a happy place for me and my meds/activity level, etc. I don't want to mess that up.

retirehappy · March 2017

I had asked about this in another group. The most helpful advice was to slowly up your calories each week until you gained a lb. This is a lb. of real gain, not just too much water retention. Fat is slow. Water weight etc. comes off quickly.

The macros are kept the same, you are just eating more of what got you to your goal that way. You might want to tweak carb/fat but keep protein modest, recalculate your needs at the new weight.

The other bit of advice I will be following is once I am maintaining, I will set a new 3-4 lb. weight loss goal. That will cover little bounces that just happen to everyone.

kpk54 · March 2017

Oh, and I suggest also: read the Maintenance Forum in MyFitnessPal. While it may not give specifics regarding adjusting macros in LCHF it is full of suggestions that have helped many who are currently maintaining their weight loss via whatever method they chose to lose their excess adipose and maintain the lose. The loss/maintenance "diet" are sometimes different. Sometimes not.

motorcyclekopp · March 2017

I recently hit my goal & starting this Saturday (after my weight in), I plan on focusing on muscle building from here on out. I'm going to try doing it while still doing Keto. If I change anything at first, I might try Jason Wittrock's Keto Cycle program. After several weeks (or months), I'll make necessary adjustments based on the feedback from my numbers.
-That's the plan at least.

mandycat223 · March 2017

When I started maintenance 18 months ago, I made one good (for me, at least) decision that I've stuck to: eating the exact same things I did while losing. I just enjoy more of them. Once you've started down this road, even small amounts of those cookies, candies and ice creams from back in the day are going to pile on the pounds faster than they did back in the day. Just don't go there.

DietPrada · March 2017

I am low carb because my whole family on my dad's side has diabetes. I've avoided it so far. Watching what it did to him before he passed away at an early age I have no intention of returning to a carb rich diet. I've been keto under 20g a day for 4 years. I have about 20lbs to go to a healthy BMI. The last couple of months I've increased my carbs to about 40 - 50 a day, still in ketosis but I can have a few extra things like pumpkin etc. I'll probably keep my carbs at this level and eat maintenance calories when I get to goal.

ladipoet · March 2017

Catawampous wrote: »

I'm coming to this place myself. I have 15lbs until goal. Frankly, I am terrified!

@Catawampous ...That was how I felt once upon a time too!

I transitioned from weight-loss over to weight-maintenance in late July 2017 with the help of a friend (bless him)! It had taken me just shy of 2 years (22.5 months) to reach my weight loss goal (successfully eliminated 167 pounds). I was eating at a calorie deficit of roughly 1400 calories (1380-1425) per day during the weight-loss portion of my journey (understand that I'm a 5'6.5" tall woman). When I made the transition to maintenance, I also began a strength training regimen to focus on toning up and building muscle. They say you are allegedly supposed to up your calories by 100 cals every couple of weeks or so until you hit the point where you are no longer losing weight. I went from eating 1400 calories to 1600 calories, which at first turned out to be a little too high for me so I reined it back in to 1500 calories; however, as I've continued with strength training I've also been getting a body fat test every 4 months or so and this has helped me better understand what's been going on with my body and it's caloric requirements, etc. In the past six months I've managed to increase my body's lean muscle mass by about 5-6 pounds so while I'm no longer "losing weight," I'm still losing "body fat" and during that time I've also gone from 23.6% body fat to 16.6% body fat. The focus on strength-training combined with a good balance of cardio (just started focusing on getting the metabolism up this way about a month ago) on alternate days (at least for me) now has me eating 1600 calories per day and I expect that as this trend continues, my next body fat test will likely justify another small increase upward in daily calorie consumption (yay)! Even though I continue to weigh myself daily, I also take my measurements at least once a month because now that my weight is relatively stable, I find the body measurements is really where I can see changes taking place. In the past six months based on measurements alone, I'm down 2.5 inches in the hips/tummy area (yay again)! Here are some pictures:

I tried to attached the pdf. image of my most recent body fat test but it MFP keeps telling me "File is not allowed." It must not like the file type for some reason so I'm just gonna type that info in below for those who are interested:

DATE WEIGHT LEAN LB. FAT LB. BODY FAT %
09/10/2016 139.6 106.65 32.95 23.6%
01/14/2017 133.4 111.30 22.10 16.6%