Getting Closer to Goal and Changing MFP settings

seltzermint555

I want to know if anyone else has changed their MFP settings as they get closer to their goal.

I started losing weight at 307 lb back in 2008. I lost 45 lb over several years by eating a bit less and walking a ton.

March 25, 2013 I joined MFP. I have lost 71 lb in the past year by counting calories, and keeping up a good level of activity/exercise.

I am 37 years old, 5'8" and weigh 191 lb. I would like to get to 170 lb. I am not sure if I actually want to go any lower than that. I am not looking for input on whether that's a good goal weight for me or any new exercise suggestions. I feel kind of blunt saying this but I just don't want anyone to waste their time.

Currently my MFP settings are to lose 1.5 lb/week. I am set to sedentary and log all of my exercise, eating back some/most of my exercise calories.

Has anyone else been in this situation, and if so, did you change your settings as you got closer to goal...say to 1 lb/week? I played around with it recently and noticed that my allotted calories went up a LOT when I tried out 1 lb instead of 1.5 lb. While that was a bit freaky to see it going back up quite a lot, I thought maybe that would be a good way to mentally prepare myself for maintenance. I fully expect to be at my goal by the end of this year but I am not in a hurry by any means. Thoughts?

Swiftdogs

I changed my cut from a pound a week to a half at 15 to go to goal. I dropped it even further for the last 5 pounds. I feel like the transition to maintenance will be easier that way. Something to check is if your actual loss, averaged over time, has been close to how you have your settings. If so, I think 1.5 a week is a little quick as close as you are to goal.

I've also changed my goal weight 4 times, but that's another story

knra_grl

I just changed mine today from 2lbs per week to 1.5 (I just felt that 1320 was unrealistic for me) and it only went up by 220 calories so I didn't find that change a lot. Maybe if your calorie goal increased a lot by your standards over the next couple weeks do a gradual increase per day or every couple days until you get to the new calorie goal.

Edit: Also the gradual increase will work when you move to maintenance - instead up jumping into the maintenance calories full on, gradually increase it over a period of a couple weeks so you can monitor how the changes work for you - I think maintenance will be trial and error.

SLLRunner

I want to know if anyone else has changed their MFP settings as they get closer to their goal.

I started losing weight at 307 lb back in 2008. I lost 45 lb over several years by eating a bit less and walking a ton.

March 25, 2013 I joined MFP. I have lost 71 lb in the past year by counting calories, and keeping up a good level of activity/exercise.

I am 37 years old, 5'8" and weigh 191 lb. I would like to get to 170 lb. I am not sure if I actually want to go any lower than that. I am not looking for input on whether that's a good goal weight for me or any new exercise suggestions. I feel kind of blunt saying this but I just don't want anyone to waste their time.

Currently my MFP settings are to lose 1.5 lb/week. I am set to sedentary and log all of my exercise, eating back some/most of my exercise calories.

Has anyone else been in this situation, and if so, did you change your settings as you got closer to goal...say to 1 lb/week? I played around with it recently and noticed that my allotted calories went up a LOT when I tried out 1 lb instead of 1.5 lb. While that was a bit freaky to see it going back up quite a lot, I thought maybe that would be a good way to mentally prepare myself for maintenance. I fully expect to be at my goal by the end of this year but I am not in a hurry by any means. Thoughts?

Congratulations! Job well done!

When I started out with 33 pounds to lose, I set my goals to 2 lbs a week. Someone here suggested that was a bit aggressive, so I went to 1.5 pounds a week. When I had about fifteen pounds to lose, I changed my weight loss goals from one pound a week to a half pound. When I reached goal, I changed it to maintenance. From there,learned maintaining is all about trial and error. I have ended up losing 9 pounds more than i wanted to trying to find my maintenance calories,and I might have found it now.

These changes did prepare me mentally for maintenance. Another thing it changed was the way I look at food and calorie control. In other words, the more I logged and saw results no matter what my goal was, the more I realized that 1500, or even 2000, are healthy goals. I learned that, even though I work at a desk all day, sedentary is too low of an activity setting for me: I've had my goals set to active for most of my weight loss journey, mostly due to my exercise routine, and I've lost 42 pounds.

JCLondonUK

I changed mine last week to 0.5.lbs a week, as I'm getting closer to goal. Also because I'm short, so losing more than that gives me only 1200 cals, and I want to eat more to fuel my new habit of lifting weights

seltzermint555

I changed my cut from a pound a week to a half at 15 to go to goal. I dropped it even further for the last 5 pounds. I feel like the transition to maintenance will be easier that way. Something to check is if your actual loss, averaged over time, has been close to how you have your settings. If so, I think 1.5 a week is a little quick as close as you are to goal.

I've also changed my goal weight 4 times, but that's another story

Thanks so much swiftdogs, I really appreciate your input (and support)!!

I think I am going to go to 1 lb/week when I hit 180 lb. For me, mentally, the 190s are just too close to 200 for me to feel totally comfortable "stepping back" a little bit. But at 180 - then I'll see where I want to go from there, and I am so glad you agree the transition to maintenance might be easier that way!

I've changed my goal quite a bit too. When I started, getting from 262 to 220 seemed almost impossible..so then I switched it to 199, and 180, and now 170. I am fairly sure of my 170 goal, or winding up somewhere in the 160s down the road.

The whole time I've been on the site I've been set to 1.5 lb/week. My loss was almost EXACTLY 1.5 per week from the beginning last March up until December. Since December it's been a little less than that...I think it averages out to 1.2 per week.

Thanks again!!

seltzermint555

I want to know if anyone else has changed their MFP settings as they get closer to their goal.

I started losing weight at 307 lb back in 2008. I lost 45 lb over several years by eating a bit less and walking a ton.

March 25, 2013 I joined MFP. I have lost 71 lb in the past year by counting calories, and keeping up a good level of activity/exercise.

I am 37 years old, 5'8" and weigh 191 lb. I would like to get to 170 lb. I am not sure if I actually want to go any lower than that. I am not looking for input on whether that's a good goal weight for me or any new exercise suggestions. I feel kind of blunt saying this but I just don't want anyone to waste their time.

Currently my MFP settings are to lose 1.5 lb/week. I am set to sedentary and log all of my exercise, eating back some/most of my exercise calories.

Has anyone else been in this situation, and if so, did you change your settings as you got closer to goal...say to 1 lb/week? I played around with it recently and noticed that my allotted calories went up a LOT when I tried out 1 lb instead of 1.5 lb. While that was a bit freaky to see it going back up quite a lot, I thought maybe that would be a good way to mentally prepare myself for maintenance. I fully expect to be at my goal by the end of this year but I am not in a hurry by any means. Thoughts?

Congratulations! Job well done!

When I started out with 33 pounds to lose, I set my goals to 2 lbs a week. Someone here suggested that was a bit aggressive, so I went to 1.5 pounds a week. When I had about fifteen pounds to lose, I changed my weight loss goals from one pound a week to a half pound. When I reached goal, I changed it to maintenance. From there,learned maintaining is all about trial and error. I have ended up losing 9 pounds more than i wanted to trying to find my maintenance calories,and I might have found it now.

These changes did prepare me mentally for maintenance. Another thing it changed was the way I look at food and calorie control. In other words, the more I logged and saw results no matter what my goal was, the more I realized that 1500, or even 2000, are healthy goals. I learned that, even though I work at a desk all day, sedentary is too low of an activity setting for me: I've had my goals set to active for most of my weight loss journey, mostly due to my exercise routine, and I've lost 42 pounds.

Thank you for your input, it is much appreciated!!! It is nice to hear that others have done something similar to what I'm considering.

As for activity level, I think I'm going to stick with sedentary for now, but I am one of those people who logs almost every bit of exercise...even things like 30 min of light cleaning. I tend to underlog slightly, but eat back the calories.

seltzermint555

I changed mine last week to 0.5.lbs a week, as I'm getting closer to goal. Also because I'm short, so losing more than that gives me only 1200 cals, and I want to eat more to fuel my new habit of lifting weights

I hear ya...even at 5'8", my calories (before exercise) are under 1,300. Thanks for your post and congrats on being sooooo close to goal!!!

seltzermint555

I just changed mine today from 2lbs per week to 1.5 (I just felt that 1320 was unrealistic for me) and it only went up by 220 calories so I didn't find that change a lot. Maybe if your calorie goal increased a lot by your standards over the next couple weeks do a gradual increase per day or every couple days until you get to the new calorie goal.

Edit: Also the gradual increase will work when you move to maintenance - instead up jumping into the maintenance calories full on, gradually increase it over a period of a couple weeks so you can monitor how the changes work for you - I think maintenance will be trial and error.

This helps a lot and gives me more to consider. Thank you!!