How did you move into maintnance?

alyssabrown94

Some people add their calories all at once, some increase slowly.
What did you do?
Did you experience weight gain? If so, did it level off?

phyllisgehrke

I have been in Maintenance for 2 weeks.
I am adding my calories Gradually.
So Far, No Weight Gain

Good Luck

elaanne

I'll be moving into maintenance at the beginning of September, and my plan is to increase my calories slowly, and move to more of a "If It Fits Your Macros" food plan.

het100

I jumped up my calories at once but increased my aerobic exercise. I re-set MFP goals to lose 1/2 lb per week and I try to stay within that calorie number. If I go over I know that I have some wiggle room with my exercise, but I know to taper back the calories for the next day or two. No weight gain since hitting my goal in June. I weigh myself everyday to stay on top of it. Good luck!

GODfidence

Look into reverse dieting here.
Www.benjerry.com

alyssabrown94

Look into reverse dieting here.
Www.benjerry.com

Great advice, thanks!;)

keeponkickin

The difference between weight loss and maintenance when you're at goal is actually not that big of a gap. Add calories back gradually and always be watchful.

Yeller_Sensation

I did it 200 calories at a time after I hit my goal weight last summer. It took me 4-5 months of trial and error before I finally found a comfortable number of calories to eat every day.

The number is not static, however. You may find you will need to tweak and re-tweak it a little occasionally.

MzManiak

Depends on how big of a deficit you are at. I slowly decreased my deficit as I lost weight, so that by the time I reached goal, I was only at a 100 calorie deficit... so of course, I could just raise it to maintenance. If you kept a 500 calorie deficit (or more), I wouldn't jump, I'd do it slowly 100-200 calories at a time.

ShannonMpls

Depends on how big of a deficit you are at. I slowly decreased my deficit as I lost weight, so that by the time I reached goal, I was only at a 100 calorie deficit... so of course, I could just raise it to maintenance. If you kept a 500 calorie deficit (or more), I wouldn't jump, I'd do it slowly 100-200 calories at a time.

Pretty much this.

PriceK01

Depends on how big of a deficit you are at. I slowly decreased my deficit as I lost weight, so that by the time I reached goal, I was only at a 100 calorie deficit... so of course, I could just raise it to maintenance. If you kept a 500 calorie deficit (or more), I wouldn't jump, I'd do it slowly 100-200 calories at a time.

Pretty much this.

Ditto

Melissakay1222

I'm weird, I admit it, but I didn't change my calorie intake. I stay at or below 1,600 calories per day and then eat whatever I want on the weekends. So if I gain a little over the weekend, it evens out what I've continued to lose during the week. I think you just have to play around with it and figure out what works best for you. I will tell you that it's SO much fun! Congrats on reaching your goal!

kimmymayhall

Depends on how big of a deficit you are at. I slowly decreased my deficit as I lost weight, so that by the time I reached goal, I was only at a 100 calorie deficit... so of course, I could just raise it to maintenance. If you kept a 500 calorie deficit (or more), I wouldn't jump, I'd do it slowly 100-200 calories at a time.

Pretty much this.

Ditto

Agreed. By the time I reached my goal weight my daily calories were 150 less than maintenance, so it was an easy step up. Otherwise I'd do it gradually. The benefit to gradual increase is you could lose a couple more pounds before hitting maintenance which will be offset by replenishing glycogen stores.

whitebalance

I jumped abruptly into maintenance calories because I was having surgery a few weeks later. It wasn't a really big jump because my BMR had gone down, and I hadn't been a 1200-calorie type before. For a few weeks after surgery, I ate whatever I wanted and didn't log, and it worked out ok. I'm still tweaking the number now - seems like my real maintenance number is a little lower than what MFP thinks it should be. It's only a hundred or so above my weight loss calorie goal.

mem50

Slowly. Added a few calories here and a few there. Worked it out so the weight stays gone. If I notice a gain I knock it back for a bit till it's normal again.

Two years and counting!

tomcornhole

This graph shows how I went into maintenance:



Red line is weight. Blue line is average NET calories over the previous week (smooths the graph out a bit). I average 300 cal / day exercise, so just add 300 to the calories to determine gross calories.

As you can see, it was a gradual addition.

Tom