How did you settle on what your maintenance weight was going to be?

gemiller87
gemiller87 Posts: 135 Member
edited January 2020 in Health and Weight Loss
So for 2019 my resolution was to lose weight and get healthier. I dropped 130+ lbs in 2019. My goal was originally 350+(unknown top number) to 265. I ended the year at 225 after continuing to just keep moving the goal post. Currently sitting right around 220 on a continued drop path. Mathematically and visually I fall around a 20-22% body fat range now. I just can't really settle on what an end result should be.

Right now i'm leaning towards continuing for 16-18% body fat which based on measurements and last years history of weight loss should be around 200-208ish if I maintain my current workout pattern and increased running as well. Weight loss did slow but it's still solidly 1-2lbs a week. Maybe slow down isn't the best description, but the swings weekly are a little more wild now. This would put me based on my current estimates safely stabilizing at maintenance/recomp in March sometime. I did recently re-assess calorie counts and thinned it out just a bit more, eating around 1800 a day right now and eating in for some exercise if hungry but not set in stone with that.

Just curious mostly if there's a more standard method of choosing what "baseline" is in the fitness and health world?
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Replies

  • gemiller87
    gemiller87 Posts: 135 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    Why not recomp now and then decide if you need to lose more weight later? I feel like that is the only way I will decide on a number unless I hit a point that becomes more of a struggle than it is worth to fall below. I have lost even more weight than you and carrying it and losing it means I have a lot of other work to do in order to reach any type of satisfaction. By alternating between recomp and deficit I can try to get the two objectives closer to the same page. Then I can keep tweaking as needed.

    Maybe you are in a place where baselines are important. I am still trying to get into the ballpark of that discussion.

    I plan to start recomp next month and right now the plan is 4 months before I return to a deficit.

    I guess because in my head I've been working this long at it why stop short of the "goal line", but the problem is where is the goal line I guess? I would love to just finish to a fairly lean condition and then do a bulk/cut cycle but after this much drop I don't think I can stomach intentionally adding body fat back on when I could just go with a recomp/super lean bulk and let it take as long as it has to when I get to a reasonable "starting point" for that next phase. Thats kinda why I picked the top of the "athletic" and bottom of "average/healthy" body fat range to stop at, because I know even in the leanest of bulking and recomp cycles there will be some body fat gain. I'm not looking to be ripped, but after all this I'd like to at least keep a clean condition.

  • gemiller87
    gemiller87 Posts: 135 Member
    Maxxitt wrote: »

    That particular goal, I think, is attainable when a person commits to a level of activity and calories-in that is sustainable over the long haul. Recomping is a way to that destination, in my mind, because it takes so darn long that it's possible to build habits and get used to looking at the long game rather than meeting short-term (and more motivating) goals. Putting the workouts into place now and keeping a deficit going for another 6 weeks to drop another 10 pounds (as long as you are on a roll that feels doable...if it didn't then I would support a more modest deficit), then eating at maintenance with a focus on nutrition that supports your workouts makes sense to me.

    Right now i'm running 3-4 days a week around 10-13 miles total. Today I will be trying for my first 10k run at <11min mile, my 3.5mile pace is 9:45mile. I'm doing a pretty consistent planking routine as well as various dumbbell work. I finally completed my first dead hang pull up after months of work on that.

    I actually have found I am enjoying my workout time the last few months, popping in headphones and clearing my head. It's a good mental "clearing" tool as well as physical progress. I go roller skating with my kids once every other week at least, and plan on having my mountain bike serviced and starting to get back into that as well. Getting down to a point where the physical activity can be fun and not a painful/agonizing process has made it all the more worthwhile to get where I have made it.

    As far as the calorie balance I should be fine, I recently moved from 2000 to 1800 (i'm 6'6") as 2000 was starting to see a lowered and less consistent drop rate. My work life bounces around a lot in activity level so 2000 was fine with the mass amounts of weight to burn but with some weeks being very active at work and others more desk based it wasn't as predictable anymore. My maintenance calorie count even at 200lbs would be 2500 even with no exercise, I'll have little to no problem maintaining that I don't think at this point. My big problem before was drinking away calories and dense foods, a year plus into this I find I enjoy my diet a lot more now than the old trash I was eating anyway. It's definitely a long road to get sorted out though!
  • emeraldeyes2020
    emeraldeyes2020 Posts: 231 Member
    I’m just going off the bmi chart, going for the healthy weight area and then I’ll decide as I go where on that I’m happy with.

    My previous weight was unhealthily low and I’d like more muscle this time too
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I never had a number...a number is just a number. I knew I wanted to look a certain way in the mirror and that was it. 15%ish BF is where I maintain.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    So far I haven't really settled long term. I would say either when I am at goal physique (at least for the time being) or I want to take break, or I want to recomp. It never really has anything to do with weight, although I do tend to stay in a certain range. Soon I am going to transition to maintenance (even though I am not where I want to be) in order to build a bit of muscle and lose a bit of fat, we will see how it goes.
  • gemiller87
    gemiller87 Posts: 135 Member
    edited January 2020
    NovusDies wrote: »

    This part is troubling. You should not create your deficit based on sedentary calories. You will lose too fast and potentially cost yourself muscle mass in the process. You should not be losing more than 1 pound per week now. Your deficit at 1800 has to be at least 1200 calories per day which is closer to 2.5 pounds per week. You are eating quite a bit less than I am and I am shorter, older, and probably less active than you are.

    Thats pretty contradicting to the general consensus that you can't outrun the fork no? The goal is to base your deficit on your baseline lifestyle and eat back in for exercise around 1/2 of exercise calories seemed to be the general consensus from everything i've read. According to sail rabbit my maintenance is 2400-2500 at goal weight and 2500-2650 at current position depending on calc method, so the deficit is around 700 calories daily, not 1200.

    I almost have to base my calorie count on my sedentary desk weeks. They outnumber the active travel weeks. Early on with the larger amount of weight it was easier to just absorb sedentary times into the overall grand scheme of things, but now it's not so easy.

    And yes, I'm aware everyone says 1lb is the "goal loss number". I'm simply being real/honest with what i'm doing, not saying it's what everyone should be doing. That said, i'm still seeing strength number gains, but yes, I'm also aware they could be MUCH MUCH better at a higher intake. Also, that said, yes I have some lost muscle mass as well in this with no denial, visually it's apparent on my shoulder area but not really anywhere else. However, before I couldn't do a single pushup, and now I can do 20 straight without an issue for example. It's a strange balance. I'm definitely probably more active than most on the recreational side of it, but it's not predictable like someone with a physical working job.

  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    edited January 2020
    I like to set goals and I like to check those goals off. When setting a goal weight I am pretty liberal I guess. I *think* I would like to ultimately be X lbs (I have been that weight in past and was happy with it) but my goal is actually 10 lbs above that because that is a perfectly acceptable weight for me as well. When I get there I will decide what I want to do from that point, if I want to keep losing, or if I want to stay there.

    I could get down to a weight that I end up being happy with, that is a little higher than my ultimate goal. I would hate to not get to check mark that goal as being complete, because I didn't hit some arbitrary number.
  • AlexandraFindsHerself1971
    AlexandraFindsHerself1971 Posts: 3,106 Member
    I set my goal weight by a certain amount of trial and error. I'm a tall, well-built woman even with the fat, and having asked a few tall, well-built women their weights, I decided 180 was a good goal. It is also about an even hundred pounds away. Now, I'm aware that the BMI chart still says this is overweight. Top of the normal weight chart for me is 150. Okay. I don't want to diet all of my curves off, or lose muscle. But it's hard to see from here where that will be.

    My actual goal here is to get surgery on my belly. Three large babies did a number on my abs, and I already have sagging skin here. From all I can tell, the guidelines want me to more or less normalize my weight and hold there for a while to prove that's where I'm at. So what I'm going to do is lose to 180, pause, look at myself hard and see if, apart from the belly area (that's gonna be a mess til surgery) I look the way I want to. If the answer is "not quite", I'll lose a few more pounds and look again. And so on. When I get the look in back and thighs and arms I want, I'll start maintenance and a six-month countdown to surgery.
  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,281 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    I do not worry about goal lines. I set a directional heading and then make my goal the process. I am concerned with mindset adjustments and building better habits and then allow more specific goals to show up as they will.

    I am not saying that is the right or wrong approach for you. I realized some time ago that I wasn't just trying to lose weight I was trying to lose the mindset and the habits of the person who gained it. The same is true for fitness. My goal is not to lose my flabby body but the mindset and habits of the person who let it get that way.

    ^ This should be bolded and stuck permanently on p.1. You just put into words what the last 5 years of my life have been. Embedded in this is the feeling of "failure" and subsequent giving up when something, anything, goes awry. New me doesn't see it that way. I have so many better habits these days, but I also know that in order to keep them as habits, I have to continue to practice them.
  • slbbw
    slbbw Posts: 329 Member
    You are clearly looking for a goal post and folks here are telling you to look at the process. It is possible that your daily activity level is decreasing because you are eating too little. At 215 you would be at a healthy BMI. I would say aim there and the work in a reverse diet to where you are no longer losing. Given your current trajectory you might over shoot and land at 210 or so which should be a reasonable spot for a recomp. Especially since you have said you are noticing muscle loss. Overall good job on the progress so far. Now its time to focus on health and fitness and less on weight loss.
  • gemiller87
    gemiller87 Posts: 135 Member
    edited January 2020
    slbbw wrote: »
    You are clearly looking for a goal post and folks here are telling you to look at the process. It is possible that your daily activity level is decreasing because you are eating too little. At 215 you would be at a healthy BMI. I would say aim there and the work in a reverse diet to where you are no longer losing. Given your current trajectory you might over shoot and land at 210 or so which should be a reasonable spot for a recomp. Especially since you have said you are noticing muscle loss. Overall good job on the progress so far. Now its time to focus on health and fitness and less on weight loss.

    It's funny everyone is still making guesses without really knowing. Technically no, 220/221 at 6'6" is still just outside normal if you are basing purely on BMI. It's 25.42 which is still in the overweight category. Also, noticing muscle loss visually, not data wise, so it's actually possible it's just i'm not used to seeing myself this lean as I don't recall the last time I was under 250 in general (as 250 was high school weight kind of thing). This is also why I shifted to primarily using body fat calculations based on measurements and visual comparison, because I don't think BMI is particular accurate for me. I do feel that i'm in the middle/above middle of the "average/healthy" category but not into the athletic side of things.

    Data wise performance is increasing, mile times are dropping (from a first run restart around 12min mile down to 9:20 for 2.5miles and 10:04mile average low for a 5 mile run), bench press and dumbbell reps are increasing (although admittedly max's are stagnant and I haven't been pushing on it), planking duration increasing weekly, push ups sustainable, etc. All stuff that last year was a complete failure for a baseline.

    Also, every calculator for long term weight loss i've seen shows a multiple pound rebound during the adjustment process to maintenance, so if I would simply stop here I would rebound a few lb increase and then definitely still be in the overweight category based on BMI before I even started a recomp/lean bulk.

    The question really wasn't "what do you think of where i'm at", it was how did you decide on YOUR maintenance weight. I'm not really looking for advice on what i'm doing, just seeing and comparing how everyone else settled onto where they wanted to maintain and why and how I can implement other peoples methods for this decision into my own.



  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    gemiller87 wrote: »

    The question really wasn't "what do you think of where i'm at", it was how did you decide on YOUR maintenance weight. I'm not really looking for advice on what i'm doing, just seeing and comparing how everyone else settled onto where they wanted to maintain and why and how I can implement other peoples methods for this decision into my own.


    The simple answer is you either know what it is because you have recently been at that weight and you liked the way you looked/felt, you set a number based on a chart which seems to be what you want to do, or you decide when you get there.

    I have no experience being at a goal weight so that is out. I have a financial incentive because of insurance costs to be in my healthy BMI range so there is a good reason to at least attempt hitting the very top but mainly I will pick when I get there.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,745 Member
    First, I aimed at a weight I had reached with dieting about 5 years before - 135 lbs, so a 40 lb. loss. It was a good weight and I had clothes that would fit at that weight, so no need to shop for new. Then I started running and dropped down to 131, which seemed perfect. I started maintenance, but it turned out my base calorie need is higher than is typical of my age and activity level. I also started marathon training, which meant that, at least seasonally, I burn a lot of calories. The pounds continued to drop. I adjusted my calories and ended up leveling off at 121-125. I've maintained that for 5 years, thanks to annual marathons that keep me running 35 mpw average year around and a way of eating that works for both me and my husband. Before I started running marathons, I had briefly dropped down to 121, but couldn't sustain it. Finding the balance between how much exercise I enjoy doing, how much food I want to eat, and a weight that makes me satisfied took a while.
  • LynnJ9
    LynnJ9 Posts: 414 Member
    edited January 2020
    I took the high and low weight from the BMI chart and found the middle. I plan to adjust up or down when I get there.
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    Hufflepuff, it's amazing how we can all hold our weight so differently. BTW, what a journey you've been on and such a success you've accomplished!!
    I'm 2" taller than you, 136 lbs., yet feel so much bigger than your picture of you at 140.

    As to the OP question, I'm grappling with that at the moment. I know if I go lower at this point, it's probably not a great idea but without that 'losing weight' goal ahead of me anymore, I feel like I'm kind of floundering and not confident that I won't slip into laziness, KWIM? Ideal answer would be to now work on fitness and other aspects of my life, which is what I've been trying to do. Sometimes working on our brains to adjust is just as challenging as working on our bodies to adjust. :)
  • rainbow198
    rainbow198 Posts: 2,245 Member
    edited January 2020
    My approach to my goal weight was different. I let my weight choose me. I kept going until I was happy with what I saw in clothes and when I had a healthy body fat level.

    Also I wanted to be comfortable with my eating and exercise levels. I did not want to be under eating or over-exercising to maintain my weight. That didn't seem sustainable and I wanted to keep that extra weight off.

    It took me a couple of years after reaching my goal to be happy with the way I looked out of clothes. My body slowly tighten up and I got there.

    So I did not focus on my weight, but my body composition and losing fat. I did have a dress size goal I would have loved to be in. However, until I got there I had no idea how I would look. It turned out another dress size down was perfect for me to maintain.

    Good luck!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,268 Member
    edited January 2020
    I set a provisional goal weight based on what I'd felt good at 30 years previously, plus a few pounds because "everyone says you should weigh more when you're older." (I was 59-60 while losing, 64 now.)

    As that weight approached, I could feel and see that I should go lower. At that point, I set some benchmarks about what I wanted to feel/see at goal, and watched for them. One day, I literally woke up, decided I was "there" and started working on dialing in maintenance calories.

    I lost a few more pounds while figuring out my final calorie level experimentally.

    I'm not appearance motivated, I'm health motivated. The American Cancer Society suggests that people like me (survivor of stage III breast cancer) maintain the lowest weight that's healthy and practical, without being underweight. My bad knees hurt less when I'm lighter. "Weigh more when older" was bad advice, for me.

    I think I that people with reasonable sense and without a seriously distorted body image can figure out a final goal by observation. It may ultimately require muscle-mass gain, not exclusively fat loss, to get there.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    gemiller87 wrote: »
    slbbw wrote: »
    You are clearly looking for a goal post and folks here are telling you to look at the process. It is possible that your daily activity level is decreasing because you are eating too little. At 215 you would be at a healthy BMI. I would say aim there and the work in a reverse diet to where you are no longer losing. Given your current trajectory you might over shoot and land at 210 or so which should be a reasonable spot for a recomp. Especially since you have said you are noticing muscle loss. Overall good job on the progress so far. Now its time to focus on health and fitness and less on weight loss.

    It's funny everyone is still making guesses without really knowing. Technically no, 220/221 at 6'6" is still just outside normal if you are basing purely on BMI. It's 25.42 which is still in the overweight category. Also, noticing muscle loss visually, not data wise, so it's actually possible it's just i'm not used to seeing myself this lean as I don't recall the last time I was under 250 in general (as 250 was high school weight kind of thing). This is also why I shifted to primarily using body fat calculations based on measurements and visual comparison, because I don't think BMI is particular accurate for me. I do feel that i'm in the middle/above middle of the "average/healthy" category but not into the athletic side of things.

    Data wise performance is increasing, mile times are dropping (from a first run restart around 12min mile down to 9:20 for 2.5miles and 10:04mile average low for a 5 mile run), bench press and dumbbell reps are increasing (although admittedly max's are stagnant and I haven't been pushing on it), planking duration increasing weekly, push ups sustainable, etc. All stuff that last year was a complete failure for a baseline.

    Also, every calculator for long term weight loss i've seen shows a multiple pound rebound during the adjustment process to maintenance, so if I would simply stop here I would rebound a few lb increase and then definitely still be in the overweight category based on BMI before I even started a recomp/lean bulk.

    The question really wasn't "what do you think of where i'm at", it was how did you decide on YOUR maintenance weight. I'm not really looking for advice on what i'm doing, just seeing and comparing how everyone else settled onto where they wanted to maintain and why and how I can implement other peoples methods for this decision into my own.

    My goal weight is the weight I was when I was a full time yoga teacher who worked out and had an active lifestyle outside the gym and yoga studio. I liked the way I looked and felt then.

    Like @HufflepuffGrl9 that will put me in a technically “overweight” BMI, and I'm fine with that.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    edited January 2020
    This content has been removed.
  • reversemigration
    reversemigration Posts: 168 Member
    My GW was a bit of trial and error but was primarily based on a healthy BMI, retaining/building sufficient muscle, and getting all my health/lab measures within a healthy range. More or less, I wanted to put myself into the best condition for aging well. I was fortunate that losing weight proved easier than I thought, so when I hit the top of healthy BMI it wasn't a struggle to simply keep going until I hit smack dab in the middle.

    That being said, there's a pretty large range that I could choose from and still hit my goals, so a lot just comes down to liking what I see in the mirror and psychological comfort. I've been able to maintain my current weight for more than a year; because of that, I'm happy not messing with success.

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