Reached My Goal, Now To Maintain

KristiDawn

Ok so I was super pumped when I weighed myself this morning and the scale said 120, MY GOAL!!! But then I began to worry because I LOVE to workout hard, like I could put the shampoo in my hair before getting in the shower. Now I'm worried that I will become too skinny and look gross. I'm doing ChaLEAN Extreme and so far I have always done extra cardio on my workout days so I am going to stop that but should I stop cardio workouts all together and just do weights? Any thoughts....

aprilshowers13

Why not eat to maintain?

sallyLunn

I'm seven pounds from my goal and I have wondered similar thoughts. Too thin isn't pretty. I'm thinking, personally, that maybe the way to go would be to slowly up my calorie intake to a normal level (using good foods, of course) and then keep an eye on the scale. Like you, I don't really want to cut back on my exercise because I like to do it.

I know from experience that you don't want to do what I did last time I got to my goal which is say, "whoopie, I'm here! It's party time." That didn't really work for me too well.

Azdak

I would focus on overall training and health. There is a place for cardio in a well-balanced workout program and healthy lifestyle.

Just as you need to control calories to lose weight, you can control them to maintain weight as well.

Azdak

I'm seven pounds from my goal and I have wondered similar thoughts. Too thin isn't pretty. I'm thinking, personally, that maybe the way to go would be to slowly up my calorie intake to a normal level (using good foods, of course) and then keep an eye on the scale. Like you, I don't really want to cut back on my exercise because I like to do it.

I know from experience that you don't want to do what I did last time I got to my goal which is say, "whoopie, I'm here! It's party time." That didn't really work for me too well.

From what I could tell during my last visit, anyone with a BMI under 30 is considered "skinny" in Cincinnati. I would be careful about using your fellow citizens as a reference point.

KristiDawn

Sounds easy, up my calorie intake while keeping it healthy and I still get to workout hard :happy: Thanks for the good advice.

Paige1108

I'm reading a lot about maintenence and this idea was the one I think I will follow when I reach my goai: somewhere on this site someone said, you should increase your calories slowly to your maintenance level. The person said if you have set your loss at 2lbs per week you should go to 1.5 eat there for 2 to 4 weeks then go to 1lbs per week eat there for 2 to 4 weeks and so on until you hit your maintenance levels. And eat all your exercise calories each day. The person said you can go straight to your maintenance calorie amount but you may gain a little weight as your body adjusts to the jump in calories.

At that point I would assume, like weight loss, weight maintenance is mostly math. If you can eat say 1800 calories to maintain, then you work out to the tune of 600 calories, whether they are weights or cardio, and you eat 2400 calories your not going to loss any more weight. IF you continue to loss then maybe you set your maintenance calories incorrectly or you are under estimating your workout calories.

Good luck and I would love to hear how it goes. I'm all about the maintenance now that I'm within 5lbs of my goal.

sallyLunn

I'm seven pounds from my goal and I have wondered similar thoughts. Too thin isn't pretty. I'm thinking, personally, that maybe the way to go would be to slowly up my calorie intake to a normal level (using good foods, of course) and then keep an eye on the scale. Like you, I don't really want to cut back on my exercise because I like to do it.

I know from experience that you don't want to do what I did last time I got to my goal which is say, "whoopie, I'm here! It's party time." That didn't really work for me too well.

From what I could tell during my last visit, anyone with a BMI under 30 is considered "skinny" in Cincinnati. I would be careful about using your fellow citizens as a reference point.

You are too funny and you are right.