Weight Maintenance

jonathanclough

Male, 32, 145lbs, 5 days lifting on progressive program. I recently hit my target goal of 145 on a 1600 calorie diet. I now want to maintain and by calculating myself (not with MFP) I came out to 2300 calories a day. I manually entered my own calories and macros into MFP. Yesterday I entered all my food into MFP, was only 230 calories short by the time I left work, then my fitbit synced and shot it back up to 1200 calories due.

1. I'm a cook so I'm sure I burn a lot of calories
2. Not every day is as busy as others so my calorie burn might not be as high
3. If I get out of work at 9 pm and see I should still be eating 120 calories according to MFP, should i really eat that much that late?
4. Should I unsync my fitbit or is it giving accurate enough info

GemstoneofHeart

It's okay to have some days that will be over and some days that will be slightly under your maintenance. Over the course of a week, as long as it works out to maintenance you won't gain weight. You might have a few days under and then can enjoy a higher calorie day on Friday or whatever you prefer.

cmriverside

Hm. Well only way to know is to try it for a few months. If you're a professional cook, male 32, 2300 sounds low. How tall are you?

I mean, I'm a 5'7" woman in my sixties, retired and with only a 45 minute walk three times a week and I maintain 140-142 pounds at around 2000, so I guess it's possible...

jonathanclough

cmriverside wrote: »

Hm. Well only way to know is to try it for a few months. If you're a professional cook, male 32, 2300 sounds low. How tall are you?

I mean, I'm a 5'7" woman in my sixties, retired and with only a 45 minute walk three times a week and I maintain 140-142 pounds at around 2000, so I guess it's possible...

I'm 5'6

jonathanclough

The only thing I really question is the accuracy of the fitbit calculation of my calories burned. Tuesday apart from wearing it in the shower, it said I burned a little over 4,000 calories that day between work and gym

cmriverside

jonathanclough wrote: »

The only thing I really question is the accuracy of the fitbit calculation of my calories burned. Tuesday apart from wearing it in the shower, it said I burned a little over 4,000 calories that day between work and gym

So pick one way or the other and use it for a couple months, see what happens.

Honestly, I worked in a busy, 200-seat restaurant for 15 years. Those guys in the kitchen (I would guess) could easily need 4000 calories a day. That's a super active job. 4000 may be not that unreasonable. Do the experiment! Keep good records and adjust in a month depending on your weight and how you feel. I can't imagine having your job and having any energy at all on 1600. How were you calculating your intake? Did you log all your food? 1600 would make me miserable.

cwolfman13

I've been in maintenance for about 4.5 years...not everyday is the same and that's ok...these calculators would have you thinking that you have some exact number as your maintenance calories, and that's just not true...TDEE is a range.

I don't log but I can guestimate that my intake is anywhere between 2600-3000 calories per day depending on the day. Sometimes I'm over maintenance and sometimes I'm under so everything balances out. I just watch the scale and follow the trends...if I'm trending up (not just a normal fluctuation) I adjust what I'm doing...same if I start trending down too much.

Keep in mind that your body weight isn't static...maintenance weight is a range. I'm typically up or down 2-3 Lbs day to day and just look at the average. I can jump up as much as 5 Lbs if I have a big night out at a restaurant or when I travel and in particular, when I fly...