Another maintenance newb afraid to let go.

WandaVaughn

I have reached my goal weight of 145. Now to maintain this! I've gone in and changed settings to lose .5 pounds a week because I'm afraid to go higher on the daily calories too quickly. Does this sound like a reasonable plan?

I'm still training for a half marathon set on November 4th. (50th b'day) I probably should have started weight training long ago, but I'm looking into that, now, too.

I never want to see 214 lbs again!!!

LivingtheLeanDream

Congrats

And yes your plan is reasonable, it'll ease you into maintenance mindset gradually. If you find you're losing too much you'll know to up your calories again.

Spliner1969

I transitioned to maintenance 100 calories a day per week for about 8ish weeks. I manged to lose an extra 10 lbs in the process but that's actually worked in my favor. I'm coming up on 2 years in maintenance and have never gone over my original goal weight because I managed to go below it when going into maintenance. It's also given me an extra 10lbs to work with for bulking/cutting cycles to build more muscle. Take a look a the BMI scales, there will be a normal range you can be within. As long as you stay in that range (assuming you're not an extreme body builder) you can take your time to work up to maintenance.

Tweaking_Time

I agree with @RunRutheeRun and @Spliner1969. Your plan is reasonable! Enjoy some treats and when you do increase your calories, be sure to eat luxuriously and enjoy some of the things that you have had to reduce from your diet to get to goal.

Oh yeah - CONGRATS on making it to goal and to maintenance!!!

SummerSkier

I am right there with you Wanda! I just started my transition to maintenance plan a week ago. I planned exactly what Spliner1969 is talking about. Added 100 cals the first week. Unfortunately I am pretty lightweight and the first week I really seemed to just sort of plateau. yikes! So I decided to leave it at 100+ the second week also this 2nd week and collect more data. I think it's also important to continue to log and weigh during this phase because I will admit it. I am REALLY good at losing the weight but I pretty much suck at keeping it off. So, for me, ***THIS*** and finding the right calorie balance to fuel my workouts and energy over time will be the true challenge. My TDEE calculator says that I "should" be able to add almost 800 cals over time. Of course, the proof is in the pudding and not a chart. Good Luck!

aemsley05

Congratulations on reaching your goal! As I approached my goal I adjusted the rate of loss settings gradually, e.g. at 68kg I changed to 0.5kg per week, at 67 I changed to 0.25kg per week, at 66 I kept it at 0.25 but started eating back all exercise calories, then finally I hit my goal (65kg) and changed to maintenance. I found that it was really hard mentally to adjust to eating more (even when it's only another 100 calories) so doing it gradually definitely helped. To help convince myself to eat the extra calories, I did a lot of meal planning and pre-logging so that I'd planned to use all my calories and was less likely to close out the day with a couple hundred calories remaining. I did find that every time I increased my calories my weight would fluctuate upwards for a couple of days which was a bit scary at first but it's always come back down so, if the same happens to you, try not to panic and just wait a few days or a week. I use a weight trending app to help keep it all in perspective. Good luck with maintenance and that half marathon

TavistockToad

maintenance is a range, not just a number, to account for fluctuations.

you will probably find your running feels so much easier once you get to maintenance calories, i know i do!

goldthistime

Mostly just here to say congrats on your 69lb weight loss!

I hope you follow up on a strength training program, it's done great things for my mind and body. Best of luck in that half marathon.

kristen8000

I'm here with you too - been on this maintainance thing for 3 weeks now after blowing past my goal (my weight tends to woosh). Mentally, it's hard to add calories and I know I wasn't going from 1200 to 1800 over night. So, my plan is much like yours, slow and steady.

Even after 3 weeks the max I can handle is 1400 normally (I have to add wine/beer to that to get much more movement). I really need to start trying to altering what I eat for breakfast (right now, I'm good with eating about 200 calories, it's what I got used to). I've changed my snacks to higher calorie items (nuts, protein bars from pretzels and fruit). I do know, that physically I can't add volume. I get very full on what I eat now and after doing this for a couple months, I'm not a fan of being overly full.

I have lost about 1lbs since attempting maintainace and assume I'll lose a bit more until I get adjusted. I'm currently around a 20.5 BMI, so I do have wiggle room.