When is it time to maintain?

nhammell2893

Little bit about me - I’m a 24 y/o male currently 148lbs 5’8”. I started MFP about a year ago because of gaining weight after I had lost a bunch of weight from the year prior doing advocare and working in a bar scene led to bad decisions that equaled in weight gain over time.

I am doing great with eating healthy, excersing not so much but I attempt to. I’m not avidly watching my calories as much anymore but I still log my daily weight to give me some sort of reference on how I’m doing.

My question then is when was it time for you to stop losing weight and start maintaining? Did you reach your goal and decide you were happy with it?

L1zardQueen

Do you like what you see in the mirror?

nhammell2893

Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »

Do you like what you see in the mirror?

I feel like that is a loaded question. On one side I’m over joyed at the progress I’ve made, the other side I still see room for improvement. I guess to elaborate more on my question would be to ask if one day you woke up and saw you met your goal did you immediately say I’m going to start maintenance or is it less obvious than that? I keep telling myself a goal weight and once I reach it I keep lowering it without any real end in sight.

middlehaitch

I wanted to return to the weight I had been most of my adult life, so it was that number I aimed for, and I was happy with.

I was also happy with my body composition, but knew it could be improved upon, so I kept progressively challenging my exercise boundaries while maintaining my weight range.

Cheers, h.

nowine4me

No. I hit my goal and lowered my goal 3 times before I liked what I saw in the mirror. A healthy weight is a good starting goal, but adjust accordingly based on your reflection.

Lillymoo01

Congratulations on your weight loss. It is a brilliant achievement.

I initially had a goal to get at the top end of my BMI range. When I reached it I decided that I needed to go lower so set a goal of an extra 5 kgs to lose. Reached that and decided that a further 2 kgs would have me in the middle of my BMI range. Once I reached that weight I was happy with where I was at and went into maintenance. However, the transition to this and the time it took to work out my maintenance calories had me lose even more weight so I am now closer to the bottom of my BMI range and struggling to regain that extra weight lost. I think the struggle is because it doesn't really bother me too much whether I put the weight on or not, even though I know I would look healthier with a few extra kilograms.

My suggestion is that if you are unsure start maintaining by introducing 100 extra calories to your diet every week until you stop losing. If you sit there for a while and like what you see then stay doing what you are doing. If not then lose a little more. Even if all you are doing is having a diet break there are no downsides because it is a break and a great practice for maintenance.

sgt1372

It's just a matter of personal choice based on your individual goals as to when to begin maintenance. No one one answer fits all.

In my case, I started 196 and set an initial goal of 160. Met that goal w/in 6 months and started maintenance there.

Have been maintaining for the past 16 months and have lost an additional 4# down to 156 and dropped my BF from well over 20% at the start down to 8.3% w/in the last month.

Did not lose the extra 4# intentionally. It was just part of the process but I did want to lose the BF and increase my LBM via recomp which I was able to do contributed to the significant drop in my BF%.

I'm very happy w/my weight and how I look now but, as I mentioned in another thread, in order to maintain what I have accomplished, I plan to continue to log everything I eat and weigh myself daily for the rest of my life.

So, the problem w/maintenance isn't deciding when to start but the realization that, after you start, it really never ends.

Good luck!

h1udd

I reached 70kg ... decided I could possibly be more lean .. but also decided that my athletic performance and strength had become too low, so opted for maintenance to build my strength and power back up ... oh that and I just got plain bored eating in deficit and wanted a few more calories. sometimes I dont eat those few more calories, but knowing they are there really takes the stress off !

TavistockToad

nhammell2893 wrote: »

Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »

Do you like what you see in the mirror?

I feel like that is a loaded question. On one side I’m over joyed at the progress I’ve made, the other side I still see room for improvement. I guess to elaborate more on my question would be to ask if one day you woke up and saw you met your goal did you immediately say I’m going to start maintenance or is it less obvious than that? I keep telling myself a goal weight and once I reach it I keep lowering it without any real end in sight.

there is always room for improvement!!

learning about body composition may help you decide whether your goal is or should be a scale weight or a bodyfat %. (for the majority of people it is the latter!)

amusedmonkey

It's time to maintain when you have a good balance of these:
- Your maintenance calories are not too low to maintain comfortably (this can be modified if you're comfortable adding more exercise)
- You like the way you look (this can be modified by recomping)
- You're not underweight (bright line, no modifications).

Maintain your current weight for a couple of months and see how you rate the comfort level. You can adjust your goal weight up or down based on that. Pretty easy and you still see room for improvement - adjust down. Too hard - adjust up. Just right, don't adjust and evaluate if you wish to recomp or not.

CarvedTones

I am a 5'8" male, but I am 59. I set my goal to be at or under 164, so that my BMI would be below 25. I was 223 last summer and I made it to 164 not long ago and I am still losing very slowly (or trying to make it slow; I need to eat more when I walk several miles like I did over the weekend). I was going to stop as soon as it got below 160, but having second thoughts. You are down below a BMI of 23. I don't think I will go quite that low. I think if I do go down into the 150s, I want to build up chest and shoulders and push the weight back up toward 160. But that's me. I want to be trim but not too skinny.

rainbow198

For me it got to a point where I was happy with the way I looked, my eating and my workouts, but I didn't want to lose more weight.

After that big loss my body composition needed work. I knew it would not be an overnight process, but I didn't want to get smaller so I decided to move to maintenance.

RoxieDawn

I stopped 6 pounds shy of my goal because 6 more pounds wasn't going to make me feel better plus I was tired of dieting at that point. At that time I was at a healthy weight which was the main goal but I was under muscled and carrying more body fat than desired.

But the advice I would give anyone is its about how you feel in your own skin and if you want to make improvements, body composition is one thing we have control over where most other things we do not. I took advantage of other things outside of more weight loss. I am happy with the increases in my calories I have made as a short/sedentary/older woman I would have had to maintain on lowish calories, so this was a huge bonus.

cwolfman13

nhammell2893 wrote: »

Little bit about me - I’m a 24 y/o male currently 148lbs 5’8”. I started MFP about a year ago because of gaining weight after I had lost a bunch of weight from the year prior doing advocare and working in a bar scene led to bad decisions that equaled in weight gain over time.

I am doing great with eating healthy, excersing not so much but I attempt to. I’m not avidly watching my calories as much anymore but I still log my daily weight to give me some sort of reference on how I’m doing.

My question then is when was it time for you to stop losing weight and start maintaining? Did you reach your goal and decide you were happy with it?

This is going to be very different for everyone. My goal was to be at a healthy BF% that was easy to maintain...so not super low or anything like that. I typically maintain at around 15% BF...I don't look like an underwear model or anything, but I do look fit and healthy and all of my blood work is in the optimal range, which was what was most important to me.

brightresolve

This is a super helpful thread, I came with the same question as the OP and gained a lot from the thoughtful responses. Thank you all.

Sparkeysworld

When your happy at where you are, or feel you need a break from either dieting or bulking.

sexymamadraeger

I'm about to call it quits. My original goal was 133 but now it's 139. I'm at 142 right now and right in the middle of healthy BMI. But I really want to see the 130's. Then I'm happy. Because it's taking forever to get the last few pounds off and I'm getting tired.

TavistockToad

sexymamadraeger wrote: »

I'm about to call it quits. My original goal was 133 but now it's 139. I'm at 142 right now and right in the middle of healthy BMI. But I really want to see the 130's. Then I'm happy. Because it's taking forever to get the last few pounds off and I'm getting tired.

you could always have a diet break for a while?

bfanny

At first it was a number (135-5’4”) once I got there I can see that I still have fat to spare, so 130 is my new goal or 128-125 if needed, I’m very close to stop now, also I’m lifting and If the fat on my lower belly goes before, I’ll stop right there, It’s more than a # at this point...Within reason