How to Find Your Maintenance Calorie Level
AnnPT77
Posts: 34,197 Member
People sometimes ask here about what to do at the end of weight loss, and some say they don't know how much to eat to maintain. A few are worried about sudden regain. I decided to write a standalone post with the advice I'd give. I welcome comments from others who've successfully navigated this shift, and maintained a healthy weight.
There are two common, pretty straightforward methods I'll mention but not explain, and two others I'll explain in more detail. Toward the end of this (long) post are comments about "regain anxiety" and how to think about monitoring at goal weight.
Here are the four methods:
1. MFP calculation: Change your MFP profile weight loss goal from "lose X pounds per week" to "maintain current weight", eat to the new net calorie goal, handling exercise calories just as you did during weight loss. If you lost weight at the expected rate using an MFP-generated calorie goal, this should work well.
2. TDEE calculator: Use an external TDEE calculator to get a maintenance calorie goal that includes your typical exercise, and manually set your MFP calorie goal to that number. Eat to that level, but don't separately log exercise calories or eat them back.
3. Estimate from history: Use your recent loss data to estimate maintenance calories, and eat to that level. This is useful if your MFP projected !oss rate differed materially from your actual loss rate. A more detailed explanation appears below.
4. Gradually increase: Experimentally determine your maintenance calories by increasing eating gradually. This may be combined with any of the above methods, too. A more detailed explanation appears below.
Method 3: Estimate from History:
IMO, your own loss history is your best guide to maintenance calories. Here's how to use your logging history to estimate maintenance:
A. Look at your last 4 weeks (or around that) of loss.
B. Average those weeks to get average weekly calories eaten, and average weekly pounds lost.
C. Multiply average weekly pounds lost by 3500 (roughly 3500 calories in a pound) to get average weekly calorie deficit
D. Add average weekly calories eaten to average weekly calorie deficit to get average weekly calories needed to maintain.
E. Divide average weekly calories needed to maintain by 7 (days per week) to get estimated daily calories needed to maintain.
If you've been logging exercise separately and eating it back and want to continue that, use net calories eaten in the above arithmetic. Otherwise, use gross calories eaten.
Either set your MFP calorie goal manually to this new value, or use it to inform method 4 below.
Method 4: Gradually Increase:
Another option is to gradually increase your daily calorie goal until your weight stabilizes.
Even if you have a maintenance calorie estimate from method 1, 2, or 3, but you want to minimize visible (though irrelevant
) scale jump from glycogen replenishment and/or increased average digestive system contents, and maybe ease your way into eating more, you can increase calories eaten gradually.
To start, add 100-200 daily calories (depending on the size of your estimated total gap to be filled).
Eat that for a week, or until you satisfy yourself that you're not gaining fat (be reasonable - a weight-trending app and knowledge of your own fluctuation patterns will be helpful). Then add another 100 calories daily. Monitor again. Repeat until scale weight stabilizes.
You may find that you need to wait/monitor longer with each successive increase, in order to be sure of the effect. If so: Patience!
Feeling Anxious About Regain?
If you stick to the "add gradually" approach, and keep your activity level more or less consistent, there's no possible way you'll gain a big bunch of weight suddenly. About the worst that can happen is that you'll overshoot by 50-100 calories daily, which is less than a one-pound gain in a month's time. And it's likely that by increasing gradually, you'll have dropped a pound or two along the way from a tiny and shrinking deficit , so you'll be even up right around goal weight.
Monitoring Goal Weight to Maintain It
To maintain goal weight realistically, set a goal weight range of a number of pounds that slightly exceeds your normal daily weight fluctuations. For example, if you rarely see more than a two pound daily fluctuation, set a range of goal weight plus/minus 3. If you go above the top of the range more than a day or three, cut back eating a little, or increase activity until you drop to a consistent lower weight in the range. If you drop below the low end, add a couple of walnuts to your oatmeal (or something) until your weight stabilizes higher.
Even if you don't have a way to estimate your maintenance calories all that accurately, you can do this "gradual add back" thing to find maintenance calories experimentally. You don't have to stress out about calculator estimates.
Hope this helps!
There are two common, pretty straightforward methods I'll mention but not explain, and two others I'll explain in more detail. Toward the end of this (long) post are comments about "regain anxiety" and how to think about monitoring at goal weight.
Here are the four methods:
1. MFP calculation: Change your MFP profile weight loss goal from "lose X pounds per week" to "maintain current weight", eat to the new net calorie goal, handling exercise calories just as you did during weight loss. If you lost weight at the expected rate using an MFP-generated calorie goal, this should work well.
2. TDEE calculator: Use an external TDEE calculator to get a maintenance calorie goal that includes your typical exercise, and manually set your MFP calorie goal to that number. Eat to that level, but don't separately log exercise calories or eat them back.
3. Estimate from history: Use your recent loss data to estimate maintenance calories, and eat to that level. This is useful if your MFP projected !oss rate differed materially from your actual loss rate. A more detailed explanation appears below.
4. Gradually increase: Experimentally determine your maintenance calories by increasing eating gradually. This may be combined with any of the above methods, too. A more detailed explanation appears below.
Method 3: Estimate from History:
IMO, your own loss history is your best guide to maintenance calories. Here's how to use your logging history to estimate maintenance:
A. Look at your last 4 weeks (or around that) of loss.
B. Average those weeks to get average weekly calories eaten, and average weekly pounds lost.
C. Multiply average weekly pounds lost by 3500 (roughly 3500 calories in a pound) to get average weekly calorie deficit
D. Add average weekly calories eaten to average weekly calorie deficit to get average weekly calories needed to maintain.
E. Divide average weekly calories needed to maintain by 7 (days per week) to get estimated daily calories needed to maintain.
If you've been logging exercise separately and eating it back and want to continue that, use net calories eaten in the above arithmetic. Otherwise, use gross calories eaten.
Either set your MFP calorie goal manually to this new value, or use it to inform method 4 below.
Method 4: Gradually Increase:
Another option is to gradually increase your daily calorie goal until your weight stabilizes.
Even if you have a maintenance calorie estimate from method 1, 2, or 3, but you want to minimize visible (though irrelevant
) scale jump from glycogen replenishment and/or increased average digestive system contents, and maybe ease your way into eating more, you can increase calories eaten gradually.To start, add 100-200 daily calories (depending on the size of your estimated total gap to be filled).
Eat that for a week, or until you satisfy yourself that you're not gaining fat (be reasonable - a weight-trending app and knowledge of your own fluctuation patterns will be helpful). Then add another 100 calories daily. Monitor again. Repeat until scale weight stabilizes.
You may find that you need to wait/monitor longer with each successive increase, in order to be sure of the effect. If so: Patience!
Feeling Anxious About Regain?
If you stick to the "add gradually" approach, and keep your activity level more or less consistent, there's no possible way you'll gain a big bunch of weight suddenly. About the worst that can happen is that you'll overshoot by 50-100 calories daily, which is less than a one-pound gain in a month's time. And it's likely that by increasing gradually, you'll have dropped a pound or two along the way from a tiny and shrinking deficit , so you'll be even up right around goal weight.
Monitoring Goal Weight to Maintain It
To maintain goal weight realistically, set a goal weight range of a number of pounds that slightly exceeds your normal daily weight fluctuations. For example, if you rarely see more than a two pound daily fluctuation, set a range of goal weight plus/minus 3. If you go above the top of the range more than a day or three, cut back eating a little, or increase activity until you drop to a consistent lower weight in the range. If you drop below the low end, add a couple of walnuts to your oatmeal (or something) until your weight stabilizes higher.
Even if you don't have a way to estimate your maintenance calories all that accurately, you can do this "gradual add back" thing to find maintenance calories experimentally. You don't have to stress out about calculator estimates.
Hope this helps!
Tagged:
144
Replies
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Yet another brilliant guide @AnnPT77.
Another method to moving into maintenance if those last 5 lbs are driving you crazy, and you are on a minimal deficit, is to move to your maintenance goal and let those last few lbs slowly come off.
(Having a low maintenance this is what happened to me- I drifted from a deficit into maintenance.
I got to a point where my maintenance and deficit were the same.)
This can reduce the stress for some, and get you adjusted to working with your maintenance calories.
Cheers, h.30 -
You’re a genius @AnnPT77 One more thought to add.... you can also reduce exercise. I dialed back my “intentional” walks/runs — that frankly were excessive — from 60 to 30 minutes per day. Thus, reducing my deficit by about 150 cals from 1700 to 1850. Then I made up the difference on the back end by eating a bit more to bump me up to 2000.30
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This was very helpful. Thank you4
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I have so many of these threads saved for when I'm ready for maintenance lol14
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Great post 1
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This content has been removed.
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Stickie! Stickie! Stickie!
Seriously great post. I think the only other thing that I add is that just like being comfortable with a maintenance range of weight (mine is about a 5 lb range and I count the midpoint as my actual weight) , I view my maintenance cals as a range as well. Because of variable activity, and my approach of eating lighter during the week and more on weekends I usually say my maintenance calorie range is 2100-2300. I think it's helpful for me - but I've been maintaining for a few years now and use a FitBit so I feel pretty confident in the upper limit of that range.23 -
Great info, thank you!1
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middlehaitch wrote: »Yet another brilliant guide @AnnPT77.
Another method to moving into maintenance if those last 5 lbs are driving you crazy, and you are on a minimal deficit, is to move to your maintenance goal and let those last few lbs slowly come off.
(Having a low maintenance this is what happened to me- I drifted from a deficit into maintenance.
I got to a point where my maintenance and deficit were the same.)
This can reduce the stress for some, and get you adjusted to working with your maintenance calories.
Cheers, h.
This is what I've done just recently. Those last 15lbs just wouldn't come off and I was struggling at 1445 cal a day--before exercise. I set myself at maintenance where I want to be and now have around 1850 cal a day--before exercise. I feel great, and can hit this goal easily. It also shows me how much I should always be eating. For me, it's a win-win. Great post Ann.20 -
Thanks for the great clarifications, helpful tips, and additional methods, eveyone! (Not to mention the kind positive reviews .)WinoGelato wrote: »Stickie! Stickie! Stickie!
Not gonna nominate myself, even though I did write this because I was wearying a bit of typing similar ideas repeatedly.
It nags at me that there have been good past posts that covered similar ground, but I didn't find a current stickie - maybe just overlooked it?10 -
I couldnt find a sticky on this and agree it needs to be added ASAP. There are just so many people who come here to start maintenance (myself included) who's questions you answer! thanks for making this post up. I started one a while back but chickened out9
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Great guide from lots who have this down! Always good to hear what works!4
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I have 10 more lbs till maintenance but I took a break & have been eating at maintenance for 3 months. I went off what mfp gave me & it's working11
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I'm in my first week of maintenance, so this is very timely and useful.7
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Adding a link to a helpful site that compares several TDEE algorithms. http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/. FWIW, my own data shows the levels roughly correlate to MFP's levels as follows, though YMMV:
Sedentary on both is worth about 5K steps.
Rabbit's Slightly Active/MFP's Lightly Active is 10K.
Rabbit's Moderately Active and MFP's Active are worth around 15K steps.
Rabbit's Very Active and MFP's Very Active are worth 20K steps.9 -
CoachJen71 wrote: »Adding a link to a helpful site that compares several TDEE algorithms. http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/. FWIW, my own data shows the levels roughly correlate to MFP's levels as follows, though YMMV:
Sedentary on both is worth about 5K steps.
Rabbit's Slightly Active/MFP's Lightly Active is 10K.
Rabbit's Moderately Active and MFP's Active are worth around 15K steps.
Rabbit's Very Active and MFP's Very Active are worth 20K steps.
These seem low to me? From what I’ve read, I thought 10k steps would be Active, no?
I average 10k per day and I lose weight if my setting is lightly active (Mfp gives me very low calories for this setting!)2 -
CoachJen71 wrote: »Adding a link to a helpful site that compares several TDEE algorithms. http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/. FWIW, my own data shows the levels roughly correlate to MFP's levels as follows, though YMMV:
Sedentary on both is worth about 5K steps.
Rabbit's Slightly Active/MFP's Lightly Active is 10K.
Rabbit's Moderately Active and MFP's Active are worth around 15K steps.
Rabbit's Very Active and MFP's Very Active are worth 20K steps.
These seem low to me? From what I’ve read, I thought 10k steps would be Active, no?
I average 10k per day and I lose weight if my setting is lightly active (Mfp gives me very low calories for this setting!)
As I said, mileage may vary. I don't personally see 10K as particularly active, though several sites list it as the minimum number of steps for that level. 1 -
CoachJen71 wrote: »CoachJen71 wrote: »Adding a link to a helpful site that compares several TDEE algorithms. http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/. FWIW, my own data shows the levels roughly correlate to MFP's levels as follows, though YMMV:
Sedentary on both is worth about 5K steps.
Rabbit's Slightly Active/MFP's Lightly Active is 10K.
Rabbit's Moderately Active and MFP's Active are worth around 15K steps.
Rabbit's Very Active and MFP's Very Active are worth 20K steps.
These seem low to me? From what I’ve read, I thought 10k steps would be Active, no?
I average 10k per day and I lose weight if my setting is lightly active (Mfp gives me very low calories for this setting!)
As I said, mileage may vary. I don't personally see 10K as particularly active, though several sites list it as the minimum number of steps for that level.
That’s why I thought to ask since 10k is supposed to be considered active. You’re right though, I’ve seen a lot of posters in the forums having what I consider as very active lifestyles with a very high number of daily step count.
I would personally classify what you’ve got one level above for the step counts since even on that setting, personally, I’m still losing very, very slowly (which is good to get rid of some unwanted pounds to get back to maintenance range!!) but as you say, it’s a very individual thing.2 -
CoachJen71 wrote: »Adding a link to a helpful site that compares several TDEE algorithms. http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/. FWIW, my own data shows the levels roughly correlate to MFP's levels as follows, though YMMV:
Sedentary on both is worth about 5K steps.
Rabbit's Slightly Active/MFP's Lightly Active is 10K.
Rabbit's Moderately Active and MFP's Active are worth around 15K steps.
Rabbit's Very Active and MFP's Very Active are worth 20K steps.
MFP Sedentary (activity Factor of 1.25) usually tops out at about 3.5K steps
MFP Lightly Active (activity factor of 1.4) usually tops out at about 7.5K steps
MFP Active (activity factor of 1.6) usually tops out at about 11.5K steps
MFP Very Active (activity factor of 1.8) usually tops out at about 15.5K steps.
More or less... and obviously YMMV.
Mentioned only for completeness in case others are looking because @CoachJen71 you do seem to "require" a slightly higher amount of steps than most to meet each level... which is not THAT surprising considering how much weight you've lost (congrats by the way!)10 -
@PAV8888 Thanks! Also, at 5'2" I just need to get more steps to equal a similar burn for someone taller.7
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CoachJen71 wrote: »@PAV8888 Thanks! Also, at 5'2" I just need to get more steps to equal a similar burn for someone taller.
Now that's something I've never considered.
That # of steps may vary based on height.
Maybe because the multipliers run off Mifflin St Jeor BMR which already takes height into account.
But that doesn't mean that there is no possibility that stride length would have an additional effect.
There is a concept of corrected MET values (most activity trackers including Fitbit that I use and MFP make use of published MET values to estimate burns).
A brief search says that the met corrections predominantly have to do with BMI but that other issues including gender and age come into play.
"Kozey et al. found that the standard MET misclassifies the intensity category 12.2% of the time compared to measured MET values with greater misclassification in individuals that are overweight, older, low fit, or women"
But again, stride length may have something to do with it even though i personally think that there is also a very high probability that some of the additional step requirement in your particular case may be a consequence of exercise adaptation and AT due to weight loss.
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@CoachJen71, @PAV8888.
I (as a 5'1 petite older woman) agree with the 3500 etc that Pav888 posted.
I am not a step counter, but run occasional experiments since my weight is so stable, 3500 is me sedentary, and it amuses me.
When I am on a book reading bonanza, usually lasts a week (pure sloth), 30min walking keeps me in sedentary.
Without the walk it would be coma.
Cheers, h.16 -
Nevermind1
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I am just starting maintenance. Currently I weigh myself weekly. Should I weigh myself more often to help learn the proper amount of calorie for me to maintain?2
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raeann_991 wrote: »I am just starting maintenance. Currently I weigh myself weekly. Should I weigh myself more often to help learn the proper amount of calorie for me to maintain?
If you've been happy before with weekly weigh ins there's no reason you need to move to daily ones. Some people like the data and to see the trends.
You'll know what calories you maintain on according to what your weekly loss has been until now. E.g If it was 0.5lb a week loss then you'd have an extra 250 cals a day.4 -
raeann_991 wrote: »I am just starting maintenance. Currently I weigh myself weekly. Should I weigh myself more often to help learn the proper amount of calorie for me to maintain?
I don't think it matters if you prefer to weigh yourself weekly, but would encourage you to take the long view in maintenance.
When we're losing, our weight fluctuates day to da (of course) but tends to drop week to week. The daily fluctuations are like small bumps up and down on an overall downhill slope that represents the weight trend. While we may occasionally get a fluctuation that puts this week's weight above last week's, it's not the most common case. This is especially true for higher average weekly loss rates.
However, once we get to maintenance, the daily fluctuations are up and down around a flat horizontal weight trend. Weighing just once a week, it's likely to be a more frequent occurrence to see this week's weight be higher than last week's even when we aren't really gaining. It's just the result of the probabilities of any given fluctuation showing up on any particular day.
That's what I mean by taking the long view in maintenance: You kind of have to trust your calorie level and not get panicked if you're up 2 pounds from last week; next week you may be down 2.5-3.
Pulling some examples (daily weights, in my case) from my own Libra data:
During steady weight loss, a random 2-week period went like this:
M-137 Tu-137 W-138 Th-137 F-137 Sa-136 Su-136
M-136 Tu-138.5 W-137.5 Th-136.5 F-136.5 Sa-135.5 Su-135.5
If you assume I was weighing only weekly, there's only one potential weigh-in day in there, Tuesday, that would've looked like a failure to lose that week (even though I was losing). Any other weigh-in day would look like a loss (accurately), though it's all in a context of jumps up and down when you see all the details.
During maintenance (with a range of 120 +/- 3), a two week period looked like this:
M-123 Tu-120.2 W-119 Th-122.4 F-120.2 Sa-119.2 Su-118.2
M-119.4 Tu-121 W-121.2 Th-124.4 F-120.8 Sa-121.2 Su-119.2
With a weekly weigh in, there were 6 of 7 potential weigh-in days that would've shown me up a little from the previous week, even though when you look at the totality, it's pretty clear that I'm just bouncing around in my maintenance range of 117-123. By the 3rd or 4th week of weekly weigh-ins in any one day of the week, it would be pretty obvious that the overall trend was level, though. The long view!
(I really didn't cherry pick these particular weeks to make my point, either. I just picked a couple weeks when my weight trend in Libra was very level.)
I hope thgat maskes sense.21 -
I just started maintenance a few weeks ago, and what you say, AnnPT77 is *super* helpful, thank you. I'm going to start weighing every day, with a long term overview, as you say.9
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cypressfey wrote: »I just started maintenance a few weeks ago, and what you say, AnnPT77 is *super* helpful, thank you. I'm going to start weighing every day, with a long term overview, as you say.
If you're not currently using a weight trending app, I'd consider it. These, too can be alarming or misleading, especially before you get 3 months or so of data in the app, and 3 months or so of experience with understanding the app in your head.(They can show an upward trend sometimes for a short period when you're not actually gaining!).
You need to understand that they don't really predict anything magically, they just apply statistical formulas to history to guess what might likely happen next. But that can provide insights about patterns that are harder to see in other ways.
Libra for Android, Happy Scale for iOS, Trendweight (you need a free Fitbit account but don't need a Fitbit device) are some examples.3 -
Great advice. I have found that the calories calculated on mfp for maintenance are too much for me and I gain weight if I try to eat that much. I have found, through trial and error, the correct calories for maintenance for me. I actually lost my last 10 pounds when my rheumatologist suggested I go gluten free. I struggled for months to lose 30 pounds, and those last 10 seemed to melt off!!!!8
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