help maintaining

zfitgal

Hi, is it possible that what used to be my .5 a week weight loss is now my maintenance? I have been eating between 1640-1700 since September, these numbers were given to me by MFP to lose .5 a pound a week. I am finally where I physically want to be. MFP says in order to maintain my weight i should increase my calories to 1830 a day. I haven't lost any weight in the past couple of months, maybe an oz or 2. Does this mean MFP calculation is wrong and what used to be my .5 a pound a week is now my maintnance? Or have I been in a defecit for so long I have plateaued? I'm so confused! I'm about 16% body fat, I'm pretty lean and a sufficient amount of muscle mass...Can someone please make sense of this for me.

GrumpyHeadmistress

If you are eating a certain number of calories and not losing weight and this has continued over a number of weeks and months, then that sounds like maintenance.

However only you know how accurate your CICO calculation is. Do you weigh all solids and measure all liquids you consume? Do you check the entries you use from the database to ensure their accuracy? Are you conservative in your estimated about exercise calories and acknowledge that MFP massively over-credits exercise calories? Do you log every single morsel you eat?

If you honestly answer “yes” to all the above, maybe you’ve found your maintenance.

If you know in your heart that the answer to one or more is “no” then you still need to find your maintenance.

sijomial

The number given by MFP is an estimate.
Your food and exercise logging are estimates.
Yes you are indeed maintaining on your current intake.

But after a period of time ("so long") losing you may well have some adaptation that is causing you to maintain on a lower amount than you could. In a prolonged deficit your body tries to conserve energy by slowing you down a little, you fidget less, move less, sub-consciously make different choices as you may feel more lethargic (sofa not gardening, car not walking, lift/elevator not stairs....)

The way to find out is to try a higher calorie level for an extended period of time - bump your calories up by 100/day for a month for example. And repeat if necessary.

Personal experience is that I maintained for a couple of months but then started losing weight again on the same calorie level and eventually ended up maintaining on 200/cals a day more than my weight loss trend suggested.

mywayroche

Try going into "goals" and adjusting the amount you lose (yes I'm aware of what you're asking). MFP gets out of synch with calories if you don't tell it to recalculate every now and again; a popup will ask you if you want to recalculate your daily calorie needs, select yes