Eating at goal weight maintenance to reach goal weight

gorple76

Hi. I’m currently losing weight following a very restrictive calorie deficit. I appreciate this is controversial and really don’t won’t to go into that discussion if it can be avoided when answering my question. I’m coming to the end of this phase and am working out my next step. I still have around 25-30lbs to lose. What would you do? Work out my current TDEE (which I now have plenty of data to allow a fairly accurate calculation on that) and then set a weekly deficit off that, or would you work out what the TDEE is at my goal weight and eat to that?

PAV8888

Of all the people to spot your question you HAD to pick me!

Eating at your end goal TDEE would have been the PERFECT thing for yo to do when you were several lbs overweight.

It would have helped you figure out and practice ways of eating at goal while losing at a reasonable clip.

The Mifflin formula MFP used to estimate MFP's BMR is:MEN: 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) + 5 Women 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) – 161

Thus each extra lb you have on you today represents about 4.536 Cal of BMR.
To estimate TDEE you multiply by an activity factor which realistically ranges between 1.2 and 2.2 for the vast majority of people.
MFP sedentary is set at 1.25 and very active at 1.8.

Thus 30 x 4.536 * 2.2 or 1.2 would be the two extreme estimates of doing what you propose.

It will work great for someone who is obese. Not necessarily as well for someone within 30lbs unless they're prepared to go extremely slowly which you haven't shown the propensity to do so far.

gorple76

PAV8888 wrote: »

Of all the people to spot your question you HAD to pick me!

Eating at your end goal TDEE would have been the PERFECT thing for yo to do when you were several lbs overweight.

It would have helped you figure out and practice ways of eating at goal while losing at a reasonable clip.

The Mifflin formula MFP used to estimate MFP's BMR is:MEN: 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) + 5 Women 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) – 161

Thus each extra lb you have on you today represents about 4.536 Cal of BMR.
To estimate TDEE you multiply by an activity factor which realistically ranges between 1.2 and 2.2 for the vast majority of people.
MFP sedentary is set at 1.25 and very active at 1.8.

Thus 30 x 4.536 * 2.2 or 1.2 would be the two extreme estimates of doing what you propose.

It will work great for someone who is obese. Not necessarily as well for someone within 30lbs unless they're prepared to go extremely slowly which you haven't shown the propensity to do so far.

Thank you 😊 I don’t want to go into the whys of what I’ve done so far or my history but I think what you’re saying is that if I eat at the TDEE of my goal weight, that’s a good way to go. Is it better than working out my TDEE now and deducting a deficit would you say? I’m looking for experiences of either before I decide my next step.

amusedmonkey

gorple76 wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

Of all the people to spot your question you HAD to pick me!

Eating at your end goal TDEE would have been the PERFECT thing for yo to do when you were several lbs overweight.

It would have helped you figure out and practice ways of eating at goal while losing at a reasonable clip.

The Mifflin formula MFP used to estimate MFP's BMR is:MEN: 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) + 5 Women 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) – 161

Thus each extra lb you have on you today represents about 4.536 Cal of BMR.
To estimate TDEE you multiply by an activity factor which realistically ranges between 1.2 and 2.2 for the vast majority of people.
MFP sedentary is set at 1.25 and very active at 1.8.

Thus 30 x 4.536 * 2.2 or 1.2 would be the two extreme estimates of doing what you propose.

It will work great for someone who is obese. Not necessarily as well for someone within 30lbs unless they're prepared to go extremely slowly which you haven't shown the propensity to do so far.

Thank you 😊 I don’t want to go into the whys of what I’ve done so far or my history but I think what you’re saying is that if I eat at the TDEE of my goal weight, that’s a good way to go. Is it better than working out my TDEE now and deducting a deficit would you say? I’m looking for experiences of either before I decide my next step.

When you don't have much to lose, the difference between your goal maintenance and your current maintenance is fairly small, and it will only get smaller as you lose the weight gradually into perpetuity. You'll almost never hit your exact goal weight eating that way. It could be a good start for someone heavier, but not with only 30 lbs to lose we're talking about a deficit of around 100 or so calories give or take (I imagine). If you stick to that expect to lose a bit less than a pound a month, and even less than that as you lose (not accounting for errors, you may actually end up spinning your wheels maintaining your current weight at that budget).

If you want to use your maintenance weight to set your calorie goal, how about you do goal maintenance minus 250? This way your deficit will gradually get smaller but will still be enough to create results.

gorple76

That sounds like a workable plan @amusedmonkey thank you 🙏

heybales

Current TDEE based on your math of recent loss rate and calories eaten. Sounds like you know how to do this.

Current TDEE / current BMR = your personal Activity Factor.

Goal weight BMR x Activity Factor = goal TDEE.

Take off 5% and that's your eating goal. So this isn't a crawl for the final few lbs.

Eat that if your daily activity remains the same.

cwolfman13

I think this type of thing works a lot better when you have a lot of weight to lose. When you don't have a lot of weight to lose, the difference between your TDEE now and your TDEE at goal weight is going to be pretty small. This will mean your deficit will be very small and there will be little to no room for error. Weight loss will be a crawl.

As @heybales suggest, maybe take your TDEE and goal and then lop off another 5% or so from that.

heybales

Just ran some numbers for what-if.

45 yr fem 155 going to 125, around lightly-active.

TDEE 1838 going to 1570 (which includes the 5% taken out) - so only a 268 cal deficit.


Really though, from 30 lbs to 15 lbs a reasonable rate could be 500 cal deficit - so it is slower than reasonable for most.
Unless you have some health issues already causing stress on body - in which case reasonable is slower than a healthy body.

Just wanted you to see what it plays out to with some real numbers.

gorple76

Thank you @cwolfman13 and @heybales. This has given me a proper plan ahead - exactly what I’m looking for.

PAV8888

gorple76 wrote: »

is that if I eat at the TDEE of my goal weight, that’s a good way to go. Is it better than working out my TDEE now and deducting a deficit would you say? I’m looking for experiences of either before I decide my next step.

Glad you've worked out a good plan and are moving forward based on the other posts.

Based on your summary above I did not communicate clearly enough in my post that I believe you have missed your best opportunity for eating at final TDEE.

Your best bet given the information you've given out about yourself and your patience level, would be a deficit from current TDEE.

I would urge you to find your patient self and to seriously taper down on the deficits as you approach goal, and to give yourself enough time to stabilize into maintenance.

solieco1

This is a really good page for helping to see realistic numbers and run different scenarios, at least for me. https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/