New to Maintenance and could use a few hints

leebesstoad

Hi all, My first post on this thread well, because, I guess I've reached the point where I don't want to go much lower. Well at least for now anyway. And I could use a few comments from others who have been here on MFP and in maintenance for a while. I think it's great that MFP finally has a maintenance thread.

My biggest problem is, probably like most people, figuring out how to add the calories to get back up to maintenance. Now I don't know if my problem is unusual or not, but I seem to have a rather high metabolism. I calculate my TDEE myself based on my food diaries and weight loss. And for the last month, my TDEE is over 2600 calories/day. After being at 1800 calories for several months. And being stuffed at 1800 calories. How to increase my intake by almost 50% to maintain without doing it through crappy food? I will be reducing my protein macro a bit because of the increase in calories, so I'll be at a 45/30/25 (c/f/p) ratio. That will still leave me a bit over 1g/pound of bodyweight of protein. So any hints, comments, suggestions would be welcome.

I guess the bigger question is how do you talk with your other friends on MFP about issues you might face on maintenance when everyone else is fighting to lose weight, at least without sounding like an insensitive jerk? Do your MFP friends come to you for advice about what to do because you've been successful? I've been very lucky because I've made some wonderful friendships around the world (for some reason I have a lot of friends in England) and we support each other and encourage each other and I will continue to do that. And we post our thoughts and things on our newsfeeds. So do I just stop if it's about "I can't eat this much", or "I need more calories". Do you even talk about your maintenance issues when everyone else would kill to have that problem.

Again, I'm glad MFP has created this new thread for dealing with these issues. And hopefully a lot more of our friends will be able to transition here when they reach their goals too.

ritchiedrama

Not sure what you are losing per week, but what I did was..

Losing 1 lb a week consistently for about 4 weeks @ 1600 calories.

Added +500 (maintenance)

2100 calories, stayed there for 2 weeks, weight stabilized, 3 weeks would have been better, but it was roughly right.

Was that simple for me, reverse dieting + adding calories per week is just time wasting.

elisa123gal

I thought men would be eating way more than 2000 at maintenance.

CyberEd312

I thought men would be eating way more than 2000 at maintenance.

Some of us do.... I have been in maintenance for the past 9 months at 4000 calories a day..... OP I was losing at 3400 calories a day and when I decided to stop and go to maintenance I upped my calories by 200 calories a day and monitored my weight for 2 weeks was still losing and continued this tread til I hit 4000 and my weight stabilized and that is where I have been holding.... Best of Luck

leebesstoad

Part of it I guess is the ravages of time too. 57 year olds metabolisms are slower than 25 or 35 year olds. Mother nature does win out in the end.

JesterMFP

Just to pick out one thing from your OP - being stuffed at 1,800 calories. That's not unusual, you actually see a lot of threads around here from people who are stuffed at 1200, 1000 or even lower. Hunger is a complicated thing. The way around it is to aim for more calorie-dense foods. The easiest way is to aim for foods that are higher in fats. Then, you get the extra calories in without the volume of food. Also, avoid eating foods that are "diet" or "lite". In your diary, I saw a few "Cooking light" items - not sure if this is a brand, or they are low calorie recipes, but if you stop eating foods that are specifically aimed for dieters, then you can easily add calories without noticing.

Adding a splash of olive oil to salads, or in your cooking can help. Drinking your calories can also be easier sometimes, so milk, smoothies, protein shakes etc. A large handful of nuts as a snack or a chunk of cheese alongside whatever else you're eating, and the calories will soon add up.

Once you manage to eat more calories, you will probably find that your appetite quickly adjusts so that you don't feel over-full any more.

pandorakick

What helped me was to walk up to maintenance rather slowly by upping daily kcals by 100 every week or even every 2 weeks. When I got in the right ball park I upped twice more because after a month at that particular intake it turned out that I was still, slowly, losing weight.

One of the main advantages of upping slowly this way instead of all at once, is that you get used to the amount to eat more gently. By the time I arrived at a daily intake of 2000 all the way up from 1350, I already had it ingrained in my routine and system to have a 400 kcal breakfast and lunch instead of 250, 2 snacks and a beer at night instead of 1 snack etc. It takes time to get used to calorie denser food to eat in your regular meals vs the "diet" ones. This approach gives you that

Regarding MFP friends, most of the people on my FL are in a similar stage of their journey (aiming at recomposition, not fat loss). But even if that wasn't the case I wouldn't censor myself in what I post on my newsfeed. If people are not interested, they can just skip reading it Also, don't forget that your friends are not at this point *yet*. They may very well like to read about your experiences to get pointers about switching to maintenance when they reach their weight goals.

Garthamatic

I used a crutch when I transitioned to maintenance.

Realizing I had to up my calories, I started doing protein shakes after workouts. The extra 400ish calories allowed me to essentially keep the rest of my food intake the same.

It also allowed me to flex a bit, on days where I was eating out, etc. I just skipped the shake and it balanced out.

Later, I gradually got used to eating more, but then again, I'm running more frequently and for longer distances so I'm still doing shakes from time to time to top off my calories for the day. It's about finding something that works for you and being flexible.

pandorakick

Regarding MFP friends, most of the people on my FL are in a similar stage of their journey (aiming at recomposition, not fat loss). But even if that wasn't the case I wouldn't censor myself in what I post on my newsfeed. If people are not interested, they can just skip reading it Also, don't forget that your friends are not at this point *yet*. They may very well like to read about your experiences to get pointers about switching to maintenance when they reach their weight goals.

Doh! Should have written "weight loss" instead of "fat loss".

tomcornhole

I transitioned to maintenance in May. I track everything. Based on your post, I went back and plotted my average weekly NET calories vs. weight since I have been on MFP (started in Feb). It showed that I made a slow transition by gradually increasing my NET calories. I keep saying NET because you have a few levers to control net calories. You can eat more or exercise less. Eating less and exercising less won't work well. I average 312 cal / day exercising and have maintained that through the transition to maintenance. So, looking at my data while I was still losing weight, that would indicate I was grossing about 2,000 cal / day which netted about 1,700 cal / day. In May, you can see the avg start going up and continue up fairly steadily. I hit a peak of 3,000 cal net / day in July. Not sure why the avg is back down now other than I did get a FitBit in June and that changed how I tracked exercise. Regardless, the most interesting part for you is the transition to maintenance period from May to July.

An interesting data point is that since I got my FitBit at the beginning of July, I have consumed 123,258 calories (according to MFP tracking) and burned 123,152 calories (according to FitBit). I started at 185 lbs and I still weigh 185 lbs. Funny how that works.



As for how to eat more, 2T of peanut butter, 2T of olive oil, 28 almonds and 2T of guacamole a day will add 800 cal with very little volume. Add a protein shake and you have 1.000 cal / day added with good macros.

Tom