Advice for switching to maintenance?

Nbaker0909
Nbaker0909 Posts: 102 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Im officially down 41.2 pounds. I hit my goal weight today! Anyone have advice for switching to maintenance? I’ve lost weight before and maintained for over a year until I got pregnant, and I remember the transition to maintenance being harder for me than losing the weight. How much/often did you increase your calories to get up to maintenance? Thanks everyone. Have a great day!

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    I jumped straight up 3500cals / week as I had been losing at 1lb / week.
    Maintained steadily (no rebound weight bounce for me) until a couple of months went by and had to bump up my calories a little more as I started losing on the same calories.

    Many people prefer to make smaller adjustments over an extended period but your recent rate of weight loss will give you some guidance how big to make the first adjustment (if you have been losing at a brisk rate fiddling about with 100cal increments is going to take an age to have an effect....).

    You should also consider where in your weight range you want to try to maintain (not a single number).
    For example if you want to maintain mid-range and have just hit the top of your range then slowing your loss rather than stopping it makes sense.
  • Nbaker0909
    Nbaker0909 Posts: 102 Member
    I am at the bottom of my range I’d like to be at. I’m going to give myself a 5 pound range and see how that goes. I may try jumping up to my maintenance calories for a week or 2 and see how I do. I don’t know how quickly the weight would stabilize if I do gain a little
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,616 Member
    Nbaker0909 wrote: »
    I am at the bottom of my range I’d like to be at. I’m going to give myself a 5 pound range and see how that goes. I may try jumping up to my maintenance calories for a week or 2 and see how I do. I don’t know how quickly the weight would stabilize if I do gain a little

    How big a jump is it (number of daily calories)? That will strongly affect what happens on the scale.

    Usually, when people add back calories, they inherently increase carbs, sodium and physical volume of food, to get those added calories. Each additional carb gram is going to hold onto around 3g water while being metabolized, sodium increase will hold a little more water for electrolyte balance, and the added physical weight of the food in transit shows up on the scale, too. How much physical weight of food? Depends on your particular food choices.

    Some of that scale-weight gain may stick around long term, since one is increasing one's average intake long term. But none of it is fat, so . . . why cares, really?

    If some of it is temporary, it's hard to say how long it'll stick around. It partly depends on what's going on in the background (like, is it in the context of monthly hormonal weight-change cycles, and if so, what point are you at, when you start).

    Unfortunately, I think it's going to be individualized, whether you see much scale affect at all from adding calories, how big that affect is, how much of it is permanent or temporary, and how long any temporary part sticks around. It's maybe one of those n=1 experiments, I fear.

    Best wishes!
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 989 Member
    edited July 2020
    Being short, my maintenance number was only 140cals more than what I was losing on. With such a small chance, it was no big deal to switch straight to maintenance. If I'd been trying to jump 500 cals a day, I may have done it in two stages.

    ETA, as I've alluded to this in another thread- if you don't increase in one jump, bear in mind that you'll keep losing weight. I thought I was in maintenance, until I suddenly dropped 2kg.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    What was your most recent deficit based on? 1 pound per week or .5 pounds per week? If 1 pound, increase calories daily by 300 for a few weeks. If still losing then add an additional 200 daily. If it was based on .5, then increase by 150 for a few weeks. If still losing: increase by an additional 100.
    Nbaker0909 wrote: »
    Im officially down 41.2 pounds. I hit my goal weight today! Anyone have advice for switching to maintenance? I’ve lost weight before and maintained for over a year until I got pregnant, and I remember the transition to maintenance being harder for me than losing the weight. How much/often did you increase your calories to get up to maintenance? Thanks everyone. Have a great day!

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