Maintenance?

annachristine1013

Help! I ready people saying that they eat at 1100 or 1400 or 1800 calories a day to lose weight but on weekends sometimes they just eat at maintenance. How do i find out what my maintenance is? I know it might sound like a dumb question but I really don't know.

Cbaka27

I would say dont fall into the trap. Maintain your caloric deficit. When I need more calories I make sure I walk more or work out to earn some.

Andy10725

One quick way to do it is just change the goal setting on mfp to maintenance. Another simple way to calculate is to do current weight * 24. (This is a simplified version of the actual much longer equation, will have some margin of error in it but I don't find it too off.) Note these would give you an estimate of a very stationary day. Adjust the calorie accordingly to ur exercise.

LisaEatSleepRun

I love this calculator

http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

There are others out there, just google TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calculators and they can help you figure out your 'maintenance' calories. However, just remember that they are estimates! Variables including body fat percentage & muscle mass will alter your TDEE.

Wendyanneroberts

Cbaka27 wrote: »

I would say dont fall into the trap. Maintain your caloric deficit. When I need more calories I make sure I walk more or work out to earn some.

What trap? I have a current 520 day streak. Have lost 39lb in total (20lbs during this streak). I'm disabled and also have an autoimmune disease and have angina. I can't exercise in the usual manner, but do what I can.
So I'm now eating a healthy balanced diet, to help improve my health as well as to lose weight. More importantly to be able to stay at a healthy weight, for the rest of my life. I chose to eat at a calorie deficit most days, but sometimes I chose to eat at maintenance. This has allowed me to adapt my meal plan, around difficult times, ie. health flareups or special occasions/holidays. Without feeling a "failure" or considering myself "on" or "off" diet. This will have lowered my overall deficit and therefore meant a slower weight loss. But overall it caps any one day at maintenance, which will still insure a weight loss and stop me from gaining.
For me this is a "healthy journey" and isn't a race, it needs to be a plan I can stick with for life. Otherwise as soon as I've lost my weight, I'll stop dieting and then it's easy to regain all the weight and sometimes even more. By collecting my data, over the past weeks/months, it has allowed me to calculate, my "calorie range", for my level of activity, to lose or maintain my current weight.
No trap, but hard work and persistence, has seen me go from borderline obese/severely obese to borderline overweight/healthy weight. My blood tests results have also shown a huge improvement. Just be careful, to track maintenance day calorie intake, otherwise you can blow your deficit. Start by using the online calculators to use as a baseline, then you can monitor more accurately, as time passes and you can collect your own data.

lorrpb

Andy10725 wrote: »

One quick way to do it is just change the goal setting on mfp to maintenance. Another simple way to calculate is to do current weight * 24. (This is a simplified version of the actual much longer equation, will have some margin of error in it but I don't find it too off.) Note these would give you an estimate of a very stationary day. Adjust the calorie accordingly to ur exercise.

Who the heck is that an estimate for? It would put me at 3700+ whereas MFP gives me 1600 to maintain! On high exercise days I might get 2000.

TavistockToad

annachristine1013 wrote: »

Help! I ready people saying that they eat at 1100 or 1400 or 1800 calories a day to lose weight but on weekends sometimes they just eat at maintenance. How do i find out what my maintenance is? I know it might sound like a dumb question but I really don't know.

MFP will tell you.

kingleahnidas

Hmm these comments seem a bit complicated. It's easy to figure out your maintenance calories. I won't say anything about whether or not you should do this, since I don't have an opinion either way.

If you are set to lose 2 lb/week, just add 1000 to your daily MFP calorie goal. For example, my calories are currently set to 1610 for a 2lb/week loss. If I wanted to eat "at maintenance," I could eat 2610 calories that day.

If you are set to lose 1.5 lb/week, add 750. For 1 lb/week, add 500. For .5 lb/week, add 250.

cwolfman13

Temporarily change you goal in MFP to maintain...it will give you an estimated maintenance number.

Need2Exerc1se

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Temporarily change you goal in MFP to maintain...it will give you an estimated maintenance number.

I agree with this. It may not be correct but if you enter your activity level correctly it will probably be close. You can tweak up or down as necessary.

I am a big believer in eating less during the week so I can eat more on the weekend. Not only for weight loss but for maintenance. I eat at a deficit throughout the week even now that I'm at goal just so I can eat a lot more on the weekends.

J72FIT

Take your height in centimeters and multiply by 12. This is a descent starting point for women in determining maintenance calories. I say starting point because honestly, all these calculations are just guesses. You implement, take note of the results, and adjust as you go. This formula assumes moderate activity.

Jruzer

Cbaka27 wrote: »

I would say dont fall into the trap. Maintain your caloric deficit. When I need more calories I make sure I walk more or work out to earn some.

How is this a trap? I eat at a larger deficit during the week so I can relax a bit on weekends, eat at maintenance, and enjoy the great breakfasts Mrs Jruzer makes.

Many people struggle with weekends. This strategy both provides a way to deal with this issue, and provides a way for the user to get a better feeling for their maintenance level.

LivingtheLeanDream

Mfp will tell you if you change settings to maintenance. Also you'll know your average rate of loss, if you're losing 0.5lb a week your daily calorie deficit is 250 calories, so you can bump your calories up right away by that 250 on the weekends.