Weight Maintenance Calories

GravyDumpster

I've never really dieted, but have thought I should lose some weight for quite a while. The My Fitness Pal has really given me a great tool and it's really worked. I've dropped 20 pounds (210 to 190) over the past four months and now I want to hit weight maintenance. But the app says instead of the 1990 calories per day for loss, I can go to 2450 calories per day. That seems like a lot!

I'm a 56 YO 6'1" man. 180 or 185 would probably be my ideal weight, but I'm pretty happy with 190. What experience does anybody have with maintenance calories? Can they really go up that much and you not gain the weight back?

natashazeiler

My advice would be to not add on all those calories all at once. if you're used to 1990, trying to add another 500 cals could be difficult (depending on the types of food you're eating obviously). i would suggest adding on 100 - 200 cals, seeing how you feel, and if you see more loss in weight then add more calories. to be honest for your height and current weight id say that 2450 sounds reasonable! As long as your calorie level is filled with good whole foods, I don't think you'll have an issue.

kgirlhart

That sounds reasonable to me. If you have been losing 1 pound per week then you are eating at a 500 calorie deficit. If you suddenly increase by 500 calories you might see an initial jump in your weight due to water retention (if you are adding carbs) and extra food in your digestive system. For this reason some people prefer to add 100 calories per day for a week or so and keep doing that until you stop losing. My experience with maintenance calories was that I actually ended up needing to eat more than I expected since after I lost the weight I became much more active than I had been. And just like when you were losing, your weight will fluctuate. Your weight will not just be one static number. You should set a maintenance range (maybe 190 +/- 2 pounds, or maybe 185-190). Your weight will go up and down in that range.

GravyDumpster

Thanks a lot natashazeiler and kgirlhart. You're pretty much echoing what I was thinking, but it helps to hear it from someone else! The 500 calorie jump is pretty much adding a Blizzard to my loss calories. And as much as I'd like to do that, it just seemed counterintuitive. Thanks again!

J72FIT

GravyDumpster wrote: »

I've never really dieted, but have thought I should lose some weight for quite a while. The My Fitness Pal has really given me a great tool and it's really worked. I've dropped 20 pounds (210 to 190) over the past four months and now I want to hit weight maintenance. But the app says instead of the 1990 calories per day for loss, I can go to 2450 calories per day. That seems like a lot!

I'm a 56 YO 6'1" man. 180 or 185 would probably be my ideal weight, but I'm pretty happy with 190. What experience does anybody have with maintenance calories? Can they really go up that much and you not gain the weight back?

It sounds reasonable for a 6'1" active male. Probably could even be a little higher. I would not add all at once though. Go slow so your body can adjust...

sijomial

I lost at 1lb / week and bumped straight up by 3,500 cals a week when I hit goal.
No bounce up in weight - I simply switched from losing to maintaining. No complication was required in my case but if you are nervous about it there's nothing wrong with adjusting up over a number of weeks to fine tune things.

Then after a couple of months I started to lose weight again and ended up adding another roughly 200 cals / day, either a bit of adaptive thermogenesis or I simply felt more energized and moved more and exercised more vigorously?

2,450 doesn't sound a lot at all and I hope you realise that's plus exercise if you get your numbers from MyFitnessPal.
At 5'9, 168lbs and age 59 that would be a significant deficit for me but I'm very active and exercise a lot which gives me a generous calorie allowance which tends to vary roughly 3,000 in winter to 3,500 in the cycling season. Differences in CO make comparisons between people very difficult let alone people's different logging accuracy (apparent CI may not be what they seem....) will vary too, let your long term weight trend be your guide.