maintaining after weight loss

amvis

i am currently a few pounds away from my goal weight.My tdee is around 1850 and i currently eat between 1400-1600 depending on how i work out.so for those of you who started maintaining your weight after their weight loss how many calories would you eat.do you start eating at your tdee level soon after you reach your goal weight or do you add in calories gradually?

DancingMoosie

I changed my settings here to maintain and set my activity level to sedentary. It means that I have to track all activities, but I feel it is more accurate than picking an active setting when each day for me varies greatly. And because my maintenance calories are not much more than setting a deficit, I just went ahead and increased from the get go. That, and because my doctor had already told me to increase my calories. Its weird though, because if I net what my doctor suggested, it would be over my maintenance calories, so I just try to gross at least that many and net close to maintenance.

Just to give you an idea, I had set my calorie goal to 1350 to lose, but my maintenance calories at sedentary are 1500. My doctor suggested I eat 1800. So, I do usually consume 1800, but then if I burn 300 in exercise, I net my maintenance of 1500.

dieselbyte

Your best bet is to "reverse diet", where you slowly add calories back into your diet. When you diet over and extended period of time, your body becomes increasingly efficient at using a lower level calories to funcition. Basically, your BMR drops. If you were to suddenly increase your calories to maintenance or above, your body is still only used to burning 1400 calories. The extra energy (calories) will most likely be stored as fat, unless there is a sudden, identical increase in your activity as well. Slowly adding calories back in will allow your BMR to increase, so that your body can more effectively burn the calories. It's suggested to increase your calories by 100-150/week, until you reach your "maintenance". Your diary is locked, so I don't know your macros, but the increase in calories should come in the form of carbs, since most likely you may have cut your carb intake during your diet. You may even be able to increase over what you consider "maintenance", without adding any significant weight (only water weight from the increase in carbs, not fat weight or increased fat stores).

I used this approach personally, and I was able to increase my caloric intake greatly. My weight has increased slightly from a higher carb intake, but I have the same bf%.

stetienne

Just remember to stick with the discipline you've shown so far. Some people see all those extra calories available and immediately sprint to the end of their chain, so to speak.