Question for a new maintainer re: calories.

QuirkzforDayz
QuirkzforDayz Posts: 12 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hi everyone,

I hope you're doing well.

I have just hit my goal weight (5'2" and 130 lbs.) and am trying to maintain (yay!). I've been eating 1,200 calories per day to lose weight, and MFP recommends eating 1,600 calories to maintain my current weight.

My question:

Do I just go straight to 1,600 calories, or should I gradually increase my intake by say, 100 calories per week (i.e., 1,300, then 1,400, etc.)? What have others done?

Thanks in advance.

Best,
Eridove

Replies

  • NVintage
    NVintage Posts: 1,463 Member
    Personally, when I am at my ideal weight I just try to eat healthy and don't count calories at all. I keep a check on my weight, though, and if it starts going past 140 I start watching the calories more.
  • charmmeth
    charmmeth Posts: 936 Member
    edited June 2021
    I also went straight to maintenance, but I had been increasing calories as I approached my goal weight, so there was not much change.
    As you work out what maintenance looks like for you, I wonder (as others have asked) what you see your maintenance range as being? I also wonder what you have learned about how your weight fluctuates during a week or a month? I started out thinking that I would be maintaining in a much wider range (75kg +/- 2.5 kg) than I am actually maintaining in (75kg +/- ca. 1kg, ideally +/- 0.5 kg, but I no longer menstruate). I also wonder how you are going to define "success" in maintenance? I keep records of more-or-less daily weigh-ins which mean that I have a monthly average; for me "success" is keeping that monthly average within my maintenance range, so I am not too fussed if I have a few weigh-ins each month above my maintenance range.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Personally, every single maintenance break and had (including the one that ended up being my final maintenance) was done by just eating at maintenance. Usually people ease into it to avoid a jump on the scale or a sudden change of pace, but the scale doesn't phase me and my dieting looks almost exactly like my maintaining (quantities and frequency being the only difference), so I just jumped right into it. There is no right or wrong. Do what you feel comfortable with.
  • Kabootom
    Kabootom Posts: 27 Member
    I also had the same motive of gaining weight and maintaining it when achieved. I am 5’11'' and weigh 165lbs now (checked 2 days back). I am taking ginihealth multivitamin to fulfil the deficiency of necessary vitamins. It’s been three weeks even after daily workout my BMI is at normal level. You can try this too!
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    I upped my calories when I reached goal, then coasted down a few pounds past goal before leveling out at what seems to be my happy weight, a few pounds lower than I had planned.

    After a few years I decided to set my calories permanently to lose half a pound a week, which allows me to make logging errors and still maintain.
  • rosiekin
    rosiekin Posts: 80 Member
    edited June 2021
    Once I had reached my goal weight (after 10 months of dieting which had resulted in a 5 stone weight loss), I decided to up my calories slowly.

    I increased by 100 calories a day, and did that for a month. As I was still losing, I increased another 100 calories a day the following month, and then did the same again and again and again. After 5 months, I had lost a further stone plus so that was definitely a bonus of the slow increase. However, losing more weight wasn't the driving force for a gradual increase in calories because I had actually been perfectly happy with my original goal weight.

    After 5 months, I was eating/averaging 2000 calories a day and my weight loss was minimal so I decided to stop increasing. Sometimes I wonder if I could have pushed my calorie uptake up a little bit more, and still maintained, but I'll never know!

    Like everything, there will be pros and cons of both ways so just do what you feel will work best for you.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 920 Member
    I think it's up to you. I went straight to my maintenance...but I was only ~200 below at that time so I don't think it was a big change really.
  • NVintage
    NVintage Posts: 1,463 Member
    What is with the disagrees!? I am starting to think 90% of people on here have eating disorders. As long as you are at a healthy weight, which for me is 135, there is really no reason to count calories or log food as long as you don't have some sort of health problem that requires it. I do use MFP as a mealplanner and like that it automatically shows if I go over in fat and calories. I have it set to 1500, but sometimes eat 3-400 over my plan and have yet to gain any weight. I am 5'1.5. I do weigh myself at the same time most mornings just to make sure I maintain my weight loss.
    NVintage wrote: »
    Personally, when I am at my ideal weight I just try to eat healthy and don't count calories at all. I keep a check on my weight, though, and if it starts going past 140 I start watching the calories more.

  • pkctts1
    pkctts1 Posts: 215 Member
    The disagrees (none of them mine) probably come from all of us who have been unsuccessful numerous times at keeping the weight off when we stop tracking. LOL

    I've been in my maintenance range for about 18 months now. The longest I've managed it. For me it means not changing anything about the way I was doing things to lose it in the first place. Where your calorie goals are set probably has as much to do with how well you track as anything. I'm more of a ballpark sort of tracker and find that if I keep mine set at 1350 (my burn includes some bicycle miles, some walking and a moderate amount of ST), my weight stays pretty stable.

    I think we all have to do the work of figuring out our own individual plans. I would suggest keeping the calorie goal low. It's much easier to gain weight you didn't want to take off (what?!!) than to lose weight you didn't want to put on.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,216 Member
    I think many approaches to the transition can work, but that personalizing is key.

    I actually think personalization is pretty vital to the whole weight management process, and especially to maintenance. If a strategy doesn't work pretty smoothly, almost effortlessly, with a person's preferences, strengths, limitations . . . it's more likely to break down if some other aspect of life becomes demanding.

    I decided to add calories slowly, to coast into maintenance. Among other reasons, knowing myself, if I added 250-500 calories all at once, my indulgent, hedonistic self would be more likely to spend that on some daily big treat.

    Nutrition is important to my better self, though, so adding slowly encouraged me to add some smaller pleasant tweaks to my eating, including some contributions to better nutrition. Those became habits that stuck, rather than "one big treat every day" becoming a habit.

    But that's just me.
  • NVintage
    NVintage Posts: 1,463 Member
    I understand logging in food for a time after losing weight, at least until comfortable with healthy portions, etc. but anyone who thinks there's anything wrong with someone NOT doing that when at a normal weight is sick in the head! sorry:D
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,216 Member
    NVintage wrote: »
    What is with the disagrees!? I am starting to think 90% of people on here have eating disorders. As long as you are at a healthy weight, which for me is 135, there is really no reason to count calories or log food as long as you don't have some sort of health problem that requires it. I do use MFP as a mealplanner and like that it automatically shows if I go over in fat and calories. I have it set to 1500, but sometimes eat 3-400 over my plan and have yet to gain any weight. I am 5'1.5. I do weigh myself at the same time most mornings just to make sure I maintain my weight loss.
    NVintage wrote: »
    Personally, when I am at my ideal weight I just try to eat healthy and don't count calories at all. I keep a check on my weight, though, and if it starts going past 140 I start watching the calories more.

    There's also no reason *not* to keep counting calories, either, if it works for a person, isn't obsessive/compulsive or otherwise dysfunctional, of course.

    I didn’t click disagree, though. You just reported your approach: I don’t see what’s to disagree with, either. If you’d said that was the only way, or everyone ought to do it, or something like that, I probably would’ve disagreed.

    I keep counting because my hedonistic base instinct is to eat every delicious calorie I can. Continuing to count lets me cap those calories at a rational level now, reasonably consistently, so future Ann will be happier, too, because of being at a healthy weight.

    Personalization. Important. 😉
  • NVintage
    NVintage Posts: 1,463 Member
    Thank you, Ann!:) I do think there's some people, like yourself, that can continue with it in a healthy way. & it is important to stay vigilant and not fall back into unhealthy habits. It's just easier for me to take 10 seconds to weigh myself in the morning than to think about calories. I know I'm not going to gain very much in 24 hours that I can't remedy by eating healthy the next day.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,216 Member
    NVintage wrote: »
    Thank you, Ann!:) I do think there's some people, like yourself, that can continue with it in a healthy way. & it is important to stay vigilant and not fall back into unhealthy habits. It's just easier for me to take 10 seconds to weigh myself in the morning than to think about calories. I know I'm not going to gain very much in 24 hours that I can't remedy by eating healthy the next day.

    Honestly, for me I think it's at least as much about the regret I'd feel if I lost weight when trying to maintain, realized I could've been eating more delicious food up to that point, but missed out. 😆 It's really not about vigilance at all, subjectively. Also, from experience, I'm better at controlled minor re-loss than controlled minor re-gain: Less likely to overshoot on re-loss. Flawed character, all of that, but I know myself pretty well by now, and am willing to game my inclinations as needed. 😆

    For me, there's less stress or anxiety in continuing to count . . . and it's ultra easy within my lifestyle (not cooking for a family, no one else cooking for me except on infrequent social occasions, etc.). It's more than worth the 10 minutes a day or less that it takes, for the pleasure and ease that comes with it.

    We're all different.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
    I think sometimes people on MFP forget that while it is highly possible to count calories very precisely and be just fine, there are entire swaths of people who should NOT count calories precisely or long term because it trips them right over the line into eating disorder territory. Some people who have had eating disorders, some people who have just plain OCD or certain types of other bad relationships with food that never quite cross over.

    MFP is just a tool and is neutral but people DO need to be aware that as 'just a tool' it can be harmful for some people and helpful for some people and that the personalization thing Ann mentions is vitally important into making danged good and sure you stay on the right side of that health line MENTALLY as well as physically.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,216 Member
    wunderkindking wrote: »
    I think sometimes people on MFP forget that while it is highly possible to count calories very precisely and be just fine, there are entire swaths of people who should NOT count calories precisely or long term because it trips them right over the line into eating disorder territory. Some people who have had eating disorders, some people who have just plain OCD or certain types of other bad relationships with food that never quite cross over.

    MFP is just a tool and is neutral but people DO need to be aware that as 'just a tool' it can be harmful for some people and helpful for some people and that the personalization thing Ann mentions is vitally important into making danged good and sure you stay on the right side of that health line MENTALLY as well as physically.

    Yes, indeedy. That realization that others' heads don't necessarily work the way our own heads do: Useful insight, good to operationalize into our relating to others, if possible - though not always easy. IMO only, of course. 😉

    Bringing this tangent back to the OP: I hope you're getting some ideas about the alternative approaches others have taken to transition, and why they took them. Further, I hope that some of these notions, or a personal hybrid of several, will resonate and work well for you.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    When I was in maintenance I gradually increased. But I also knew that my maintenance calories are WAY lower than any chart ever thinks they should be. With the lower weight, wasn't certain where it would land. When I lose this remaining weight, I'll have to do it the same way. its just my weird body having to be atypical.

    for most, It boils down to personal preference.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 920 Member
    NVintage wrote: »
    What is with the disagrees!? I am starting to think 90% of people on here have eating disorders. As long as you are at a healthy weight, which for me is 135, there is really no reason to count calories or log food as long as you don't have some sort of health problem that requires it. I do use MFP as a mealplanner and like that it automatically shows if I go over in fat and calories. I have it set to 1500, but sometimes eat 3-400 over my plan and have yet to gain any weight. I am 5'1.5. I do weigh myself at the same time most mornings just to make sure I maintain my weight loss.
    NVintage wrote: »
    Personally, when I am at my ideal weight I just try to eat healthy and don't count calories at all. I keep a check on my weight, though, and if it starts going past 140 I start watching the calories more.


    Don't know why the disagrees other than maybe from people who haven't been successful maintaining their weight loss when trying to do that. I actually only sort of spot/half-butt track on MFP to be honest. I want to move toward eating more intuitively simply bc I don't want to be tied to an app.

    If it works it works. I do the same as you --- I'd get more cognizant of it if the scale started creeping up consistently or my clothes started getting a bit tight.

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