Feedbackfrom experienced maintainers please

jan110144

As of this morning, I am .2 pounds from the upper end of my maintenance range (134-138). Part of me doesn't want to change anything since what I have been doing has worked wonderfully (45 pounds in 5 months). But, I really should not lose much more (136 is the midpoint BMI for my height.) So ... here is my plan:

1. Change setting to 1 pound per week from 1.5 until my weight is at 136 for at least 1 full week.

2. Then, change setting to .5 per week until my weight is at 134 for at least 1 full week.

3. Go to maintenance setting. Monitor and adjust as e essay to stay in maintenance weight range.

I plan to maintain current fitness regimen as is since it supports other, non-weight goals.

Feedback? Any suggestions/changes?

seska422

It's a good idea to ramp up your calorie intake rather than just jumping from 1.5 pounds per week to maintenance. The general recommendation that I see posted is to increase your daily goal by 100 calories each week or two until you find your sweet spot.

That 4 pound range would be narrow for me since my water weight flops around more than that.

I look at my weight trend so that I don't end up micromanaging or getting concerned about my weight on any particular day. Personally, I keep my calorie goal at a 0.5 pound deficit and then have a high-calorie meal about once per week to even things out.

cmriverside

I'd go to the 0.5 per week setting. But then, I lost my last 20 pounds at that level, and I was legit hungry. I guess if you can make it work at the one pound setting, more power to you.

Maintenance is still a little bit of a juggling act in that first year - or it was for me. Patience and don't freak out.

pinuplove

cmriverside wrote: »

I'd go to the 0.5 per week setting. But then, I lost my last 20 pounds at that level, and I was legit hungry. I guess if you can make it work at the one pound setting, more power to you.

Maintenance is still a little bit of a juggling act in that first year - or it was for me. Patience and don't freak out.

Glad I'm not the only one hungry even at the .5 per week level. Sometimes being small stinks :grumble: I'm amazed when I see people my size and smaller losing 1 pound or more a week! I know I could stand to be more active, but even then > activity = > hunger for me, so it's a wash.

sijomial

I just jumped straight from a 1lb/week weight loss to maintenance calories, it wasn't a big deal for me and worked fine but many people prefer to work their way up steadily.

My suggestions would be:

1. Manually adjust your calories rather than use the rate of loss rate adjustment to allow finer tuning.
2. I'd also make the first adjustment bigger than 250/day which is what you are proposing.
3. Start thinking "around a weight" rather than "at a weight" to allow for normal fluctuations.
4. Think long term and not day to day or week to week, vigilant but not overly restrictive.
5. Set new goals - very glad to hear you are keeping up your exercise routine.

TavistockToad

If you weigh daily, it's unlikely that you'll be 1 weight every day for a week

kenyonhaff

Have you checked body measurements, if you've been monitoring them? There's always the chance that you're gaining muscle rather than fat. BMI is an excellent tool, but isn't perfect either.

SummerSkier

Don't forget to read the stickies at the top of the forum. Some good info there for you also. Congrats on getting ready to enter maintenance. IMO the most IMPORTANT part of the whole MFP plan.

kami3006

pinuplove wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

I'd go to the 0.5 per week setting. But then, I lost my last 20 pounds at that level, and I was legit hungry. I guess if you can make it work at the one pound setting, more power to you.

Maintenance is still a little bit of a juggling act in that first year - or it was for me. Patience and don't freak out.

Glad I'm not the only one hungry even at the .5 per week level. Sometimes being small stinks :grumble: I'm amazed when I see people my size and smaller losing 1 pound or more a week! I know I could stand to be more active, but even then > activity = > hunger for me, so it's a wash.

Agreed. I lost all 25 lbs by chipping away at a half pound a week or less. No way could I do any more than that.

jan110144

Thank you everyone for your input. I am glad that I am on a reasonable path and your comments have helped me reconsider a couple of things.

spiriteagle99

I went from a pound a week to half a pound a week when I got within 5 pounds of my goal. Many people go to .5 when they are 10 pounds from goal. I continued to lose weight faster than expected. When I reached my goal, I started MFP's maintenance calories, but continued to lose weight. I ended up adding 200 calories to my maintenance calories to get stable. I'm over 60, so MFP assumes a slower metabolism than I actually have. You'll need to adjust your calories up or down based on your actual metabolism and activity level.

AnnPT77

I hope you've read the maintaining stickies. If not, just as a piece of shameless self promotion (my specialty), I rambled on a bit about methods to get to maintenance here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level

. . . which happily provoked a bunch of actual knowlegeable people to say genuine useful things in reply. On the basis of their helpful comments, it's worth a read.

jan110144

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I hope you've read the maintaining stickies. If not, just as a piece of shameless self promotion (my specialty), I rambled on a bit about methods to get to maintenance here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level

. . . which happily provoked a bunch of actual knowlegeable people to say genuine useful things in reply. On the basis of their helpful comments, it's worth a read.

Yes ... it was much recommended (appropriately so, I might add! )

88olds

I’d work with longer time horizons. 1 week isn’t very long for anything in weight loss.
Keep planning, counting and logging.