How do I go back to maintenance?

cuej2021

I’m doing 1,200 calories a day right now and should reach my goal in a couple months, when I go back to maintaining my weight can I expect to gain a little in the beginning? I think I will need about 1,850 to maintain.

MikePTY

How many pounds do you have to lose? 1200 is pretty low if you are close to your goal weight. My advice would be to start slowing down your weight loss. That is beneficial for many reasons, as losing too fast can have a host of negative side effects. But the additional benefit is it will make your transition into maintenance easier if it is not so big a jump. Towards the end of your loss, you should be targeting no more than .5 pound a week.

cuej2021

I have 15 left, my plan was to add in 150 more calories each week till I was up to maitinence

MikePTY

cuej2021 wrote: »

I have 15 left, my plan was to add in 150 more calories each week till I was up to maitinence

I'd probably add that first 150 now. Then you can add every few weeks as you get closer to your goal. It's also important to remember that maintenance is a range. For most people that it usually about 5 pounds. So fluctuations will be normal and expected.

lorrpb

With 15 lbs left your weekly goal should be about 0.5 lb per week, which would put you at about 1600 per day.

Dan2668

MikePTY wrote: »

cuej2021 wrote: »

I have 15 left, my plan was to add in 150 more calories each week till I was up to maitinence

I'd probably add that first 150 now. Then you can add every few weeks as you get closer to your goal. It's also important to remember that maintenance is a range. For most people that it usually about 5 pounds. So fluctuations will be normal and expected.

Yes, this. It'll also mean that she'll gradually be eating more and more, which I'd imagine will be more comfortable to adjust to than just going from 1200 to 1850 at once.

erickirb

Here is a good reference, if you have over 100 lbs to lose you can lose more than 2 lbs/week safely, that being said it is best to set a realistic safe weekly loss goal and:
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

The reasons: the less you have to lose the less fat stores you have to pull from. The less fat you have to pull from the less your body wants to take any. So if your deficit is too large given your stats you will burn a large % of lean muscle. Doing the above also helps set you up for maintenance without a large increase in caloric intake all at once.

Commander_Keen

cuej2021 wrote: »

I’m doing 1,200 calories a day right now and should reach my goal in a couple months, when I go back to maintaining my weight can I expect to gain a little in the beginning? I think I will need about 1,850 to maintain.

Get used to eat more.
SO I would suggest every week, to add 100 more calories every week, or every moth, until you reach 1800

Jthanmyfitnesspal

Maintenance is just as challenging as losing. My most successful approach was to keep weighing and logging for about a year after losing the weight. Eventually, I adjusted to living on reduced calories and could let up a bit. I still weigh regularly, but I only log every once in a while when I get curious about how I did in a particular day.

poisonesse

Personally, what I did was raise myself to 1300 calories a day when I hit 20 pounds out from my goal weight. I hit goal a few months ago, but do want to drop a few more pounds... so I'm staying at around 1300 a day. When I'm finally satisfied with my weight, I'll go into maintenance... and add about 200 more calories a day, watch the scale and adjust as needed.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

poisonesse wrote: »

Personally, what I did was raise myself to 1300 calories a day when I hit 20 pounds out from my goal weight. I hit goal a few months ago, but do want to drop a few more pounds... so I'm staying at around 1300 a day. When I'm finally satisfied with my weight, I'll go into maintenance... and add about 200 more calories a day, watch the scale and adjust as needed.

I think adding calories in gradually is a very good idea. When I finally (after years) got to a pretty good goal weight, I "ran scared" for a long time, watching everything I ate. After many months (almost a year) I started to develop a sense of what I needed to do to maintain, and it appears to still be working.

But, your body is designed to try to get you to build up your reserves again!