Feeling Trapped at Maintenance

emjaycazz

Have you averaged your total calorie daily intake over the past two months or so? Being on the smaller side myself (5'1" and 100 lbs), I switched to TDEE using this calculation because I found myself in this abysmal cycle of trying to do more cardio just so that I could eat more. I got burnt out--even of doing things that I enjoyed--and I stalled on my lifts. I had a mental block in increasing my calories, but it helped to do it slowly.

Averaging your daily calorie intake over a month or more it should account for week-to-week variations in activity.

Makoce

No. How would I go about Doing that?

Eleonora91

I have the exact same problem. I'm going to increase my calories to my mainteinance level soon (I have to lose another 3 kgs) and I should be eating around 1800 kcals considering what most online calculators and MFP say. But I don't know how correct these sites can be... I think you should try to increase your calories until you see a gain. The higher amount of calories that doesn't make you gain will work fine as manteinance. Also, don't underestimate your activity level, I try to never rely on it, but you should always consider your workouts, walking etc.

muamontreal

I was supposed to go into maintenance a few weeks ago...

I ate 1500 cal to lose an average of a pound a week for 6 months...Then I stopped completely losing : same weight for 3 weeks in a row... So I guess 1500 Cal is my maintenance :sad:

I definitively think it's not enough and the calorie budget is tight :brokenheart: I'll try to up the calories every month by 100 calories to see if the weight wants to stay the same ???

edit for typos

emjaycazz

No. How would I go about Doing that?

You mean, find the average of your total daily calories? I went back over 2 month's worth of total daily calories and put them in an Excel spreadsheet and used the "average" function (but I'm sure a calculator works too).

Or do you mean increasing calories gradually? Pick a number you are comfortable with (100 seems like a good one) and add that to your calories allowance (Goals -> Change Goals -> Customize -> Custom -> Enter calorie goal there.

Makoce

No. How would I go about Doing that?

You mean, find the average of your total daily calories? I went back over 2 month's worth of total daily calories and put them in an Excel spreadsheet and used the "average" function (but I'm sure a calculator works too).

Or do you mean increasing calories gradually? Pick a number you are comfortable with (100 seems like a good one) and add that to your calories allowance (Goals -> Change Goals -> Customize -> Custom -> Enter calorie goal there.

Yes :> I meant averaging months.

Ely82010

I am 4 feet and 11.5 inches and my present weight is 102 lbs, and I have been on maintenance for almost 3 years. MFP maintenance calories, confirmed by other sites, are 1430 and I average/net between 1400 and 1450. I am much older than all of you, so I don’t require a lot of calories so survive and I am still trying to have small deficit because I want to lose more body fat.

My BMR is 1045 and TDEE 1621; however my workouts do not burn lots of calories since I mostly do strength training and not too much cardio. I do eat most of my exercise calories back and my gross intake is between 1550 and 1600 calories sometimes a little bit more, except during the weekends which are my rest days. I have no problems eating within my set goals or even going above some days. If I am hungry, I eat more if I am not then I stay within my calories, but I do try to reach my macros of 40/30/30, specially my daily protein goal.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next 4 to 6 weeks because I am having arthroscopic knee surgery tomorrow and I will not be allowed to exercise as I am used to, for several weeks. I will be very sedentary for a while so I may need to adjust my calories downward.

I did have to tweet the calories a little bit because I started to lose weight again, and that is not what I wanted. OP don’t be afraid to eat some more and see what happens to your weight; if it goes up you either exercise more or eat less but do understand that nothing is in a steady state and weight fluctuations are normal, especially when you are young.

maybyn

OP, understand that the majority of thin people who stay thin eat very little because their bodies do not require that much energy (certainly less than the 2000 cals that is supposed to be the "average" cal intake for women - these are the ones who are the below average individuals). If they ARE able to eat more, then they either naturally move more or they exercise a lot.

IF you find it difficult to maintain at the maintenance cals you are given (if assuming that you have calculated it correctly), then you may need to accept that you cannot maintain at the weight you desire. Either that or do more exercise.

twixlepennie

I meant if I'm adding 100 calories a week, do I slowly wean down exercise logging or just get rid of it.

I'm still so nervous because I'm not losing at 1400-1446 calories I'm afraid of gaining at 1700

We know it takes approximately 3,500 calories over our true maintenance calorie allotment, to gain 1 actual pound. If you're adding a 100 calories a day, for a week and then adding another 100 calories in week two etc etc, when you're most likely UNDER your maintenance calories yet, it's pretty much impossible for you to gain actual poundage here The scale may fluctuate a bit at first, but that's normal. I actually lost a couple extra pounds as I transitioned into the higher calories, which is why I'm now below 120lbs and maintaining that-wasn't my goal weight, but yet here I am

Transitioning into maintenance is all about experimenting and pushing the limits, to see how far you can actually go.

How do I know what's a gain and what's a fluctuation?
I already am between 106-110lbs on any given day when I weigh myself every morning.

For me, it just took time to learn my body's natural fluctuations. I know a higher sodium meal the day before will cause a 'gain', tom will cause a 'gain', if I don't drink enough water, I 'gain' etc. but none of this is actual weight gain. I've been charting my daily weigh ins for a while now and it's actually pretty cool to see how my body works

I also stack my calories to have more for weekends (eat a little under maintenance calories during the week). I always weigh at the high end of my maintenance range on Monday and I weigh my lowest on Fridays. Because of this pattern I always count Friday's weigh in as my official one and that's the one I go by, in terms of a real gain (if I was above the high point of my maintenance range on a Friday I would do a correction, because that would be totally out of character of my weight pattern. So far, I've only had to do this once since I've been in maintenance).

Brandolin11

I meant if I'm adding 100 calories a week, do I slowly wean down exercise logging or just get rid of it.

I'm still so nervous because I'm not losing at 1400-1446 calories I'm afraid of gaining at 1700

Ah. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Once you're using TDEE and have entered that # manually into MFP, yes, you stop "counting" exercise cals in MFP. Doesn't have anything to do with adding the 100 cals a week. Just put in 1500 this week, eat that, and continue exercising like you normally do. Next week, put in 1600 and eat that. The third week, 1700. That's only three weeks, you'll be okay.

Totally understand the fear. It is counter-intuitive! But the science of it doesn't lie. I can't explain it, but it honestly works. Your body needs a particular amount of fuel to burn. You're not giving it enough. It'll run better when you do. Hope this helps.

Makoce

Ill give it a try, im certainly nervous!

fougamou

A little late to the conversation, but two thoughts.


One I second (or third) the recommendation for a Fitbit. It really is great for maintenance and gives excellent feed back on your activity level (I have been surprised many times on days where I thought I was active, and really wasn't and days I thought I was not active and really was) So far, for me, I have found its calorie burn estimates to be very accurate.


The other thought is my BTDT. A decade ago I lost 40 pounds and maintained the loss for several years. Then my weight started creeping up, and up, and up. One of the causes of my weight gain, I believe, was my eating habits were too dependent on my exercise routine, and didn't change as my exercise routine changed. I am very afraid of the TDEE method for that reason. So far, as least the if you want to eat more you have to move more approach is working for me.

FWIW, I find it very hard keep up an exercise routine at this time in my life (crazy chaotic schedule), I fit exercise in where I can.