Not Sticking to Maintenance calories (Am I at too low intake?)

Lullaby2021

I've been working to maintain. For the past 3 weeks and 6 days. However I'm not ever able to maintain. At the calories MFP Give me. Which is 1,650+ exercise, very low to me. I only Burn 1,750 or lower in my days mostly(Estimate) with exercise.I end up eating 1,850-2,000 calories.That's on average every other week.I work to keep protein high for the most part. Now working to keep fiber high.I workout for 3 day 21 min per week. Walk 2-3 hours per week. Mfp goal is set at sedentary+exercise. Height is 5'7 and weight is around 133.5-136.7(3.2lb) Range. I don't know if I'm gaining fat. Since I don't know how much I really maintain on.I'm most comfortable/Settle eating 1,850 perday. Diary is open for observation to anyone. Also are there any fit watches. That I can use to track exercise accurately. That anyone rely on and it's at least close to accurate.Where you haven't seen frequent gains in fat mass.I don't have any way to track physical activity cals burned.
I just put in what believe. Which is 3 cals burned per min on anything. Which may be too low at times..Open to many suggestions of all.

cmriverside

I'm 5'7" (ish) and 140, so pretty close to you.

I walk for one hour five days a week and do some body weight/calisthenics and light (band) resistance work. I maintain on 2200-2300 total calories eaten. I'm also retired and live in a small condo, so not a lot of housework.

When I first hit Maintenance I had to do a bit of trial and error. I suspect you will need to do that too.

Don't get into over-thinking mode. You know what to do. Log food, step on the scale, keep moving. Adjust.

There may or may not be a device out there that's perfect for you. I wouldn't count on it nor would I spend hundreds of dollars on one unless it was really important to me for some reason to keep track of my oxygen use/fitness level. You'd have to buy one and try it out.

leanareed

I also could not maintain at the caloric intake that MYP recommended for maintenance. My solution was to lower or increase my daily goal until I was able to maintain. I finally have a range daily caloric range that works for me. There is a lot of tweaking involved with maintaining until you find what works for you.

I have been in maintenance for 2 years now. And my daily calorie goal is 1350 to maintain. I am 5’9 and weigh 168. I focus on Fiber/Protein/Low Fat. Not sure if that helped.

cmriverside

leanareed wrote: »

I also could not maintain at the caloric intake that MYP recommended for maintenance. My solution was to lower or increase my daily goal until I was able to maintain. I finally have a range daily caloric range that works for me. There is a lot of tweaking involved with maintaining until you find what works for you.

I have been in maintenance for 2 years now. And my daily calorie goal is 1350 to maintain. I am 5’9 and weigh 168. I focus on Fiber/Protein/Low Fat. Not sure if that helped.

I find this very hard to believe. 1350 for a 5'9" 168 pound female is very low.

How are you tracking that calorie number? Using a food scale? Tracking everything?

You should be able to eat a whole lot more than 1350...or you're a unicorn, which I suppose could happen.

My guess is that you're eating more than you think, it doesn't take much to miss 300-400 "extra" calories in estimating.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1

Lullaby2021

@cmriverside Don't get into over-thinking mode. You know what to do. Log food, step on the scale, keep moving. Adjust.

Oh yeah, I'm an over thinker by default haha. Yes I'll just keep do what I do. Thank you for the insight. Me and you have similar stats(Excluding age). You just walk quite a bit more than me. I think it's just best.I turn my calories back to what was more managable. Which is actually 100 more than mfp. That is 1,750+ exercise, I stuck to that more.Than where I'm at now(1,650)+ Exercise. I change it recent ly,thought I'm doing something wrong. I'm new to this type of effort.Hoping to get it sooner than later.

cmriverside

Myfitnesspal is just guessing. The calculation it uses is the Mifflin St Jeor calculation and/but it just takes an average of all the population data and uses that to give you a guesstimate.

Your own numbers are your best data. Don't doubt yourself.

With that said, I gained and lost ten pounds (already lost that one time, TYVM) in my first year post weight-loss, and it did take a while to settle in to a calorie number. I still log food, still use a food scale and I lost my weight back in 2007-08. I HAVE TO keep my head in the game every day or I start in with bad habits. That's why I'm still posting in the forums. Ya'll keep me focused.

You'll have to keep stepping on that scale and adjusting, more than likely! That's what "maintenance" is - a five pound range up or down - - - forever - - -

Lullaby2021

You'll have to keep stepping on that scale and adjusting, more than likely! That's what "maintenance" is - a five pound range up or down - - - forever - - -

@cmriverside Is that five pounds of fat or five pounds of fat, water,and waste?

cmriverside

Lullaby2021 wrote: »

@cmriverside Is that five pounds of fat or five pounds of fat, water,and waste?

LOL, how would you propose to know the difference?

Five pounds to me is more than three days in succession being "off" my goal.

I stay in a range of 140-145. 145 is my Do Something weight.

Lullaby2021

LOL, how would you propose to know the difference?
@cmriverside I wouldn't know actually lol. Didn't think that one out.

Lullaby2021

Your own numbers are your best data. Don't doubt yourself.
@cmriverside
Thank you

AnnPT77

Believe your own results on the scale. If your calorie intake and activity (daily life + exercise both) are reasonably consistent on average, weight gain will be a sloooooow creep on of pounds averaged over multiple weeks.

Make your best initial estimate of calorie needs based on some calculator that's worked predictably during loss, or (better) use your own most recent 4-6 weeks of calorie logging and weight change to estimate maintenance calories. Eat around that, look at what happens on the scale on average over the next 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual cycles if you have them), adjust if necessary.

Most people will be close to the calculators, which spit out an average for demographically similar people. A few people will be noticeably different from those estimates (higher or lower), and a rare few will be surprisingly far off (still either way). That's the nature of statistical estimates. Individuals vary from average.

So it isn't so much whether the calculators are accurate, it's whether we're average or not. (If not average, it may not be obvious why, either.) Our logging accuracy also enters into the results as well, but most of us will have an average level of error over a multi-week period in practice, so we can still use our own data to estimate maintenance.

No one else's experiences, results or estimates will be even as good as the calculators or trackers (which at least are statistical averages rather than one-off things). Your own results/experiences are the best estimate.

I'm one of the oddballs: I've been maintaining for 7+ years since loss on 25-30% higher calories than MFP estimates, which is around 500 calories daily. My good brand/model fitness tracker, one that produces useful estimates for others (based on posts here), agrees with MFP. I follow my own results, and my weight changes are pretty predictable.

(Context: 132 pounds this morning, 5'5", female, age 67. Maintain at something a bit above 1850 + exercise calories, so 2100+.)

Set a range of weight to maintain in, plus and minus what you've seen as routine daily fluctuations. If you see that slow up-creep upward over multi weeks (on average), or you're above the top of your range for a few days in a row, cut back a bit. If your weight is creeping down, or you're below the bottom of your range for some days in a row, eat a little more.

I agree that maintenance can be up a few pounds, down a few pound, over time.

Multiple pounds over a short time (day or few), without a noticeably proportional change in eating or activity habits? Most likely water or waste. (Assume it takes roughly 3500 calories to make a pound of body fat.)

Slow up/down creep over many weeks also without a noticeable change in eating/activity? Probably changes in body fat.

Muscle gain takes more like months to have substantially noticeable scale impact, and it doesn't happen by accident. If you see that kind of change, and haven't been working hard on muscularity (by strength training), the change isn't muscle mass gain.

For maintenance, think long term, and manage based on trends. You'll do fine.