Advice before switching to maintenance

chantels1

I am within 6 lbs of my goal, so I am starting to think about maintenance. I hear some people start gaining once they up their calories. So my question is should I actually lose a few extra pounds beyond my gw so I have a little play room when I switch to maintenance?

dbabyx91

bump! i'd like to know as well!

sourgrape_

exactly!
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1071202-why-you-gain-weight-if-you-eat-more-than-your-cut

pkw58

I lost 10 more pounds when I started maintenance. It has stayed off... your experience will be your experience.

judilockwood

Been maintaining a few weeks now and have stayed around my goal - a pound or so either side. I gradually took my calories up to maintenance levels, began to eat some exercise calories and have now set my calorie count at 1800. If my weight begins to creep up I can go back to not eating my exercise calories and doing 6:1 or 5:2 as required - this way I can keep in control. I intend logging indefinitely as this way I know precisely where I am.. no nasty shocks !Good luck with it x

Deipneus

I've been on maintenance since May 2012. I overshot my 175 pound goal by 15 pounds.I'm 5'11". It was hard to lose but also hard to reverse course, or at least difficult to get used to. I'm kind of bouncing around but I'm about 170 pounds. The hardest part of maintenance is that the goals are measured in inches and it takes longer to get a result.

I still track food, weight and exercise because this is my second time around and I found that it's easy to slip when you stop paying attention.

kj5850

I hit my goal the middle of May (60 pounds). I continued to watch my cals and exercise mostly because I did not know what else to do.I developed a herniated disc the beginning of June. I had to severely cut my activities. Minimal to no exercise, just tracking cals to maintain. Over the next two and a half months I continued to lose. (I think stress helped as my Dad was sick). I found I needed to up my cals. I did not want to lose any more weight, ended up losing 80 pounds. I had to play with my daily cals. Recommendations were too restrictive ( I even used light activity instead of sedentary). Now I am maintaining with 1900 ish cals per day with little activity. The calculators recommended 1670 cals. I'm afraid I will gain, I am obsessive about daily weigh ins, but am flexible with cals to allow for enjoying special occasions. 5'5", 130 pounds

Watch your cals, keep active and listen to your body!

cmeiron

exactly!
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1071202-why-you-gain-weight-if-you-eat-more-than-your-cut

^ This. I've worked up to maintenance over the past couple of months and put on - almost exactly - 5 lbs. I think the thing to recognize, though, is that this isn't fat gain and we don't need to freak out by the change in the scale. How you look, how you feel, and how your clothes fit are infinitely more important. It's a good time to learn to let go of dependence on numbers on the scale as the primary definition of "success".

The_Enginerd

I lost 10 more pounds when I started maintenance. It has stayed off... your experience will be your experience.

It seems to be more common to put a little bit of weight on, but like the above poster, I lost a bit more. I coasted down an additional 5 lbs over 3 weeks after switching to maintenance. I switched from 1 lb/week to 1/2 lb/week loss when I was within 5 lbs of my goal, then straight to maintenance calories when I hit goal (250 cal/day jump each time).

chantels1

Thank you all. Perfect advice. Loved this part, "Because your body just wants 5 lbs of glycogen stores. The solution? Cut down to 5 lbs under your target weight and then eat at maintenance. Your body will rebound up to a healthy non-glycogen-depleted state and you'll be able to maintain relatively effortlessly and eat more food. "

so that was my original thought to begin with, and what I will attempt doing!

Katsquest

I found that if I don't exercise, I start to gain. Other than that I go up and down a few pounds but I never let myself get to 5 pounds otherwise I start to cut calories again. It is a balance that I have to work on every day!

JesterMFP

I think the thing to recognize, though, is that this isn't fat gain and we don't need to freak out by the change in the scale. How you look, how you feel, and how your clothes fit are infinitely more important. It's a good time to learn to let go of dependence on numbers on the scale as the primary definition of "success".

^This. Get to where you are happy with how you look and feel, and go into maintenance then. It doesn't matter if you gain 5 lbs of water weight when you switch to maintenance. There's little point in losing more fat than you actually want to, in order to be a specific number on the scale.

pollypocket3

exactly!
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1071202-why-you-gain-weight-if-you-eat-more-than-your-cut

Bumping this for when I get to where I'd like to be... I had read this somewhere else earlier and had adjusted my "goal" weight accordingly.

nxd10

Someone did a really good post the other day on the physiology of this. Answer: yes, lose around 5 pounds more than you want to weigh and then you'll gain water and glycogen stores and come up to where you want to be.

That said, I had a goal for a weight range I wanted to stay in (originally 5 pounds, now 3). I got to the bottom of it, upped my calories and haven't gained anything. But I got to the bottom of it because I didn't want to go over the top. I HAVE bounced around inside it.

cwolfman13

You will replenish and maintain glycogen stores at maintenance...these are perpetually depleted in a deficit....it's not fat...stop worrying about stupid stuff like water and arbitrary scale weight. I've been at maintenance for 6 months...nobody weighs exactly XXX Lbs...just as loss wasn't linear, maintenance isn't static. I vary from 178 - 183 throughout the week depending on water retention and glycogen storage. I don't look any different...maybe just a little bloated when i'm on the high end...it's gone in a day or so.

morticia16

I worked up towards my maintenance cal. goal gradually when I was approaching my goal weight. I still kept loosing. I lost 2.5 kg more than I intended in a rather short span of time with my calories upped. I am now eating at maintenance cal. level and I haven't gained. If anything, my weight is still swaying downwards. Looking back at the entire process, I probably underestimated my cal. burn during this whole time since I did loose weight rather effortlessly and, at least to me, surprisingly quickly. Having said that, I guess you will have to experiment a bit to see what works best for you. I would definitely recommend that you start upping your calories towards maintenance before you get to your goal weight. It will smoothen the process and give you more knowledge as to how your body might react.

sijomial

Depends on how you get your weight down to maintenance and how you then subsequent;y get your calories up to maintenance levels - there isn't a one size fits all answer.

If you lose fairly quickly to goal weight then ramp up calories quickly you will most likely have a bounce up in weight (not fat).
If you do a "soft landing" of a small deficit down to goal weight the bounce is less likely.

At my first target it took a while of adding calories slowly to find maintenance and as this meant a small but decreasing deficit I naturally dropped under goal weight. Second time around to a new goal weight I was deliberately losing very slowly and I switched directly to maintenance with no bounce or drop.

Mentally prepare for an acceptable weight range though rather than a single number or daily fluctuations will cause you stress. I just consider +/- 2lbs range either side of my nominal weight to be my goal.

Seesawboomerang

I lost a further couple of kg without trying after reaching goal, but I was still carefully counting calories. Over a period of 2 years not counting, I slowly gained to 5kg above my original goal weight of 60kg. Right now, it's really easy to maintain a range of 61-63 kg, if I count calories, but I cannot seem to get into the groove of weight loss.

I have half an ambition to drop a few more kg to original goal weight and work a bit more consistently to maintain that. But I'm not trying very hard. I exercise more regularly than I did years back, but I often go way past daily goals.

Tedebearduff

I am within 6 lbs of my goal, so I am starting to think about maintenance. I hear some people start gaining once they up their calories. So my question is should I actually lose a few extra pounds beyond my gw so I have a little play room when I switch to maintenance?

This is where you're going to realize it's not about the number on the scale but more about how you look.

feistymoon

It's important to remember that maintenance isn't about weighing in exactly the same every day - successfully maintaining means that over a period of time you will consistently remain within a certain weight variance. You will fluctuate up and down by a few pounds. This is perfectly natural. If you are at a weight where you will be comfortable with a + or - 2 or 3 pound fluctuation, then you're fine. If not, start maintaining at a weight where you WOULD be comfortable for this to happen!

SkimFlatWhite68

I'm nearing the end of a 12 week challenge and pretty much at my goal weight. I'll be switching to maintenance in 2 weeks and reverse dieting to get to my maintenance level of calories, which I think will be around 1800-2000.

I'm not really going to weigh myself anymore. Maybe every month for curiousity sake, but really, the thing that matters as someone mentioned above is the mirror and clothes.

Anyway - that referred thread is a really good one. I think if it's WEIGHT that you are concerned about - do what the thread says and lose an extra 2kg and then move to maintenance and gain a little bit back. Those number of calories you are eating do seem low, but without knowing your age, height and history, it's really hard to judge either way.

Ah and the Insulin Resistant post was just ridiculous, please ignore that.

Best wishes!

nxd10

The CDC does recommend weighing because you want to stay within a weight RANGE (5 pounds or so) so that you can adjust weight and/or exercise if you start gaining.