Maintaining after quick loss - what now?

kes2201

Hi, any advice would be great. I reduced my calorie intake to 1000 and upped my exercise to 6 x 60 minute fast walks a week from 11th March. 14 weeks later I’ve dropped from 76.5kg to 62kg, lost 5” off my waist, 4” off my hips -goal achieved and don’t want to lose any more weight. But I’m scared about increasing my calories after such a rigid 3.5months of this new lifestyle! Can anyone help me work out what to do next to simply maintain my goal weight? PS - I am vegan so dietary info needs to bear this in mind thanks for any help given.

ceiswyn

This is one of the reasons people generally recommend against such fast weight loss; you don't learn how to eat for the long-term.

You know what to do. Increase your calories to maintenance. I understand why you're scared of it, but what's the worst that can happen - you overestimate maintenance and gain a kilo over the course of several weeks? If that happens you can tweak your goal down and lose it again at the same pace.

It's not like increasing to maintenance is going to result in you suddenly waking up tomorrow at 76.5 kg again!

kes2201

I hear you. I didn’t intend to lose that much weight that fast - it just kind of happened and I was so happy to be back at my original weight after 7 years of slowly piling it on I guess I just went with it. Never thought to diet until now so it’s a whole new ballgame for me at 42yrs of age. I suppose I should be kinder to myself and allow a few more calories and maybe take up some weights or something rather than focusing on cardio. Thanks for your feedback.

_justmelee

kes2201 wrote: »

I hear you. I didn’t intend to lose that much weight that fast - it just kind of happened and I was so happy to be back at my original weight after 7 years of slowly piling it on I guess I just went with it. Never thought to diet until now so it’s a whole new ballgame for me at 42yrs of age. I suppose I should be kinder to myself and allow a few more calories and maybe take up some weights or something rather than focusing on cardio. Thanks for your feedback.

Well done on your weight loss. What I recommend you do is increase your calories by 150-200 per day and keep them consistent for a week or so, then increase by another 200 per day, again for another week, and so on until you hit your maintenance calories. That is what I did after dropping 31KG. You may lose another couple of lbs but you can rectify that once you hit maintenance.

kes2201

Wow - 31kg! That’s amazing! Thanks for the advice, it doesn’t sound too daunting and as long as I continue to monitor daily I will feel more in control of this next stage. Just need to bite the bullet and crack on with it I guess! Thanks again

OooohToast

Well done on the weight loss OP - maintenance is calling and these boards will show you that plenty of people have struggled with this phase, regardless of how they lost the weight.

@Uniqum87 advice is good - You might find that the way to ease your way in is to contune with your current way of eating, but bump up the portions sizes.

I would add that you should continue to weigh and record your food and weigh yourself once a week so you can see the impact of your changes.

And again - well done on getting the lard off !

kes2201

Thank you so much for your encouragement Upping portion sizes is a good idea actually as I’m enjoying what I eat, but I admit I have room for more sometimes! Definitely going to keep track of my progress as this has become a firm habit now. Appreciate your help. Thanks

jan110144

I lost 50 pounds in 6 mo and shared your concerns going into maintenance. I did struggle a bit in early maintenance, especially with binge/restriction cycles... which were never a problem during weight loss. What I discovered was that I simply was not eating enough in maintenance. On the advice of a MFP friend I started eating at a TDEE level and no longer adjusted for exercise. That did the trick ... no more cycling between undereating and overeating. I actually had to up my TDEE because I was continuing to lose weight and at a BMI of 30, I did not want to go lower.

kes2201

Hi, thanks for the tip re TDEE. I’ve just looked into it and worked out my BMR is 1374 and taking exercise into account is 2130 which seems far too much! By “no longer adjusting for exercise” do you mean going by the BMR rate? This seems more realistic as a jump to more than twice my current calorie intake would probably throw me right out! My current BMI is 22.2 but tbh I take that with a pinch of salt as I also measure my subcutaneous and visceral fat levels which feel more important given I have high bone density and muscle weight. Well done on your amazing weight loss btw!

slbbw

if 2130 is your calculated TDEE it is likely at least close to that. If you have been tracking during your loss you can likely calculate your maintenance calories. I do it per week, so weekly calories - estimated weekly exercise calorie burn + 3500* number of pounds lost that week.

Based on the information above 1000*7+2.2lb(average loss per week in lbs)*3500-350(guess at calories burned for each walk)*6=12600/7= 1800. 1800 based on your supplied data is how much you should eat with no walking. if you add your walking back in you are up to 2150, which is really close to your calculated TDEE.

If you do what the above poster mentioned and increase your calories 200 per week or two until you get to a minimum of 1800 will put you near maintenance.

kes2201

Thanks so much for the calculations - it’s all very new to me so the above is very helpful definitely think I’ll take the increase in calories slowly and steadily so I can monitor it. All of you have been so helpful and reassuring ~ thanks

cwolfman13

kes2201 wrote: »

I hear you. I didn’t intend to lose that much weight that fast - it just kind of happened and I was so happy to be back at my original weight after 7 years of slowly piling it on I guess I just went with it. Never thought to diet until now so it’s a whole new ballgame for me at 42yrs of age. I suppose I should be kinder to myself and allow a few more calories and maybe take up some weights or something rather than focusing on cardio. Thanks for your feedback.

You're going to need a lot more than a "few more calories" to maintain. Put your stats into MFP or a TDEE calculator if you prefer and let the calculator give you an estimated maintenance number. The average woman is going to maintain somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 calories give or take.

jan110144

kes2201 wrote: »

By “no longer adjusting for exercise” do you mean going by the BMR rate?

Sorry, I was not clear. During the active weight loss phase, my calories were set to lose 1.5 pounds per week. I tracked both food and exercise calories and would "eat back" some portion of the exercise calories. In maintenance I continued doing the same thing, but just had trouble consistently eating enough. So, I set my calories at my TDEE (2000 calories) and did not "eat back" exercise calories. After a couple of weeks I raised my TDEE from 2000 to 2100 because I was still.losing at 2000.

collectingblues

jan110144 wrote: »

kes2201 wrote: »

By “no longer adjusting for exercise” do you mean going by the BMR rate?

Sorry, I was not clear. During the active weight loss phase, my calories were set to lose 1.5 pounds per week. I tracked both food and exercise calories and would "eat back" some portion of the exercise calories. In maintenance I continued doing the same thing, but just had trouble consistently eating enough. So, I set my calories at my TDEE (2000 calories) and did not "eat back" exercise calories. After a couple of weeks I raised my TDEE from 2000 to 2100 because I was still.losing at 2000.

You were still losing because you were not fueling your exercise -- your TDEE should include *all* exercise activity, not just a portion.

jan110144

@collectingblues blues

"You were still losing because you were not fueling your exercise -- your TDEE should include *all* exercise activity, not just a portion."

More likely, the TDEE calculator was not accurate. At best they are a statistical estimate based on imperfect data. Which is why you continue to track and adjust based on results.

ChelleDee07

Congratulations on your loss!! I also loss rather quickly and I have been in maintenance now for more than 21 months. I loss more than 100 lbs in 8 months and 4 days. I changed what and how much I ate and got active. My method of maintenance is different from most. I take my weekends off. I don't gorge myself... but I eat freely starting lunch on Friday through Sunday night. Monday morning I get back to my healthier choices, weighing and logging my food, exercise. Come Monday morning my weight will have shifted up, but I drop it right back down during the week. So in a sense I am always in 'loss mode' but only during the week. This is totally a sustainable lifestyle for me... and has been since Sept of 2017. Wishing you all the best with however you choose to maintain and again, WTG on the weight loss!!