? About Maintaining

anewlife1980

Hey everyone, wanted to ask you all something as I am sure you can help. My husband is 6lbs away from his goal so he has switched to maintaining now so that he can work on getting his body set up for that. I have read alot of previous comments on maintaining & the general idea is to eat to the calories they give you (new amount is higher), still maintain the exercise level, continue with the healthy eating & weekly weigh ins. We know that its easier on your body to eat back about 100 extra cals/day vs trying to eat it all right away. Here is the issue:

Hubby is 36yrs old, 6'2 & currently has lost 79lbs to now weigh in at 221lbs. Before switching to maintain mode, his calories for the day were 2020, now that he switched over, his daily allowance is approx 2500. But he can't come close to eating near that. He never came close to the 2020 so he def can't do 2500. His normal daily intake is around 1400 give or take (this is 3 meals/3snacks a day). A little less if he has salad as his main lunch option & we do fish as our main supper item. The only way it would be higher is if he got a sub from subway as a treat (once or twice a mth) & then it would come in around 1850ish.

So my question is, if he can't possibly eat that much in a day, will this affect his maintaining? Won't he just continue to lose?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Live4theLift

If you dont get enough cals to maintain you will lose weight, simple. But i will say eating 1400 cals a day isnt exactly good for him, at 221 lbs he could be eating 1800 cals and still lose weight hell prob even 2100 and still lose weight. Once he starts eaing more and more upping his cals every day or week or so you will find it easy to eat that much. Get an extra sandwich or a few spoon fulls of Peanut butter (1/4 cup of natural PB is about 380 cals) if you put that on bread your sandwich is about 550 cals for a snack really.

anewlife1980

If you dont get enough cals to maintain you will lose weight, simple. But i will say eating 1400 cals a day isnt exactly good for him, at 221 lbs he could be eating 1800 cals and still lose weight hell prob even 2100 and still lose weight. Once he starts eaing more and more upping his cals every day or week or so you will find it easy to eat that much. Get an extra sandwich or a few spoon fulls of Peanut butter (1/4 cup of natural PB is about 380 cals) if you put that on bread your sandwich is about 550 cals for a snack really.

He isn't intentionally eating less, he just is eating alot of fruits & veggies & eats a great meal 3 times a day plus snacks but he loves veggies so often broccoli & ranch dip is a snack item, or baby carrots. So while he def eats enough to fill him up, its just low cal items. We both said he will have to start adding in some higher calorie items but to make up approx 1000 more a day is ALOT.

QuilterInVA

If you don't eat enough, your body will burn muscle as fuel. He's way under eating. A sub doesn't have to be a treat, it can be lunch. He needs to at least eat higher calorie foods.

omma_to_3

For starters, I would recommend not jumping all the way up to 2500 calories. I would start adding 100 to 200 calories a week and gradually work up to his maintenance (just because MFP tells you his maintenance is 2500, doesn't mean that's true - it could be less or more).

And, it should be fairly easy to add calories back in. At least I know I could easily do it LOL. Move back from low fat to full fat dairy items. Increase the amount of lean meats you eat. Allow yourself rich sauces again. Add in nuts, nut butters, cheese. Mmmm...I could easily add 500 calories of cheese every day!

And let's not forget dessert. Dessert is not evil. When eaten in moderation, you should be able to easily fit in it.

whippettt

Have him add some type of nuts.. Cashews Pistachios almonds all great for you and adds calories.

jwdieter

Sounds like he wants to keep losing.

anewlife1980

Sounds like he wants to keep losing.

Honestly if you have nothing helpful to say then why even response? Everyone else at least offered great suggestions. He doesn't want to keep losing but he isn't going to over eat either & lose all his hard work. He has done an amazing job losing the weight the proper way with healthy eating & exercing 4-5 days/wk for an hour a day. But because he loves & eats alot of veggies, most of which are extremely low cal, it makes it harder for him to get in more in a day.

Thank you everyone else. It seems the key is to switch some of his low cal items back to regular & change up his snack items from all veggies to a mix of other things. The nuts is def one I will pass along, he loves snacking on those types of things but haven't had it in a long time.