when did you transition to maintenance?

just4me123456

Hi everyone,

I have lost about 23 pounds since last July. I am currently 45, 5'6 and weigh 140. I didn't really have a specific weight in mind, but was aiming more towards being a solid size 6 or so, which would probably mean a weight of around 135.

At any rate, I'm close to where I think I want to be based on measurements. It had me wondering: when did you transition to maintenance? Did you wait until you were at a particular weight or did it happen somewhat organically? Right now I'm set to lose a pound a week, but am thinking of going down to .5 and then easing into maintenance in the next month or two. Does this seem like a good plan? I'm also getting read to ratchet up the exercise to work on toning and building more muscle.

Thanks in advance!

The_Enginerd

When I switched to maintenance, I changed from 1 lb/week to 1/2 lb per week when I was within 5 lbs of goal, and then straight to maintenance. Another common strategy is to up your daily calorie goal by 100 calories every week until you hit maintenance as you get close to goal to ease into maintenance. Either way works, just depends on your preference. The larger 250 calorie jumps in the first method are harder for some people.

You may see a couple pound jump up in weight when switching to maintenance due to the extra food weight and glycogen stores being filled, so some people go a bit below goal before switching to maintenance expecting this. I actually lost a further 5 lbs in the month after switching to maintenance. It may take a bit of trial and error, but expect your weight to swing a bit. Maintenance isn't a set number, it's a range.

lavaughan69

Good question! I'm 43, 5'5" and 131lbs. I would love to see 129 on the scale, but basically I'm really happy with my size. I'm wearing a size 5/6 pant and I think I look pretty good. I changed my goal from one pound a week to .5lbs but what I'm really struggling with right now is motivation and consistency. I've had several bad weekends in a row and I'm finding it really difficult to behave during the week now too.

salvyhead

Goal was 180, went to maintenance after I hit 176.

seltzermint555

I am interested in the other responses to this Q! I just (yesterday) changed from 1.5 lb/wk to 1 lb/wk as an early preparation for eventual maintenance. I can't give you my personal experience with this because it's only been 24 hours ;-) But after my most recent loss it wanted to recalculate my daily pre-exercise calories to 1210 and I felt that was weirdly low...I was doing fine on 1270 (with exercise calories most days) but after changing my settings I am back up to around 1400 and I feel that will help to prepare me for maintenance.

I want to lose at least 14 lb, but probably not more than 20-25 lb more. I know my goal seems odd to many people because it is still overweight at 165-170 lb range but I am 37, 5'8" and have not worn a size 12 since middle school which is what I'm wearing right now...I plan to be a size 10/12 eventually.

salvyhead

"Overweght" is a relative term. The BMI is a notoriously bad tool for assessing it. It was designed to assess the weight of populations, not individuals. For the life of me I can't figure out why the medical establishment holds on to it like gospel.

The only time in my life I was 'normal' weight according to BMi was when I was on the high school wrestling team, and the coach insisted I wrestle at the 158 weight class one week. I pretty much starved myself the entire week to make weight. I was already in perfect shape - wrestling workouts in the 1970s were pretty intense. Not at all natural.

A better measure is waist/height ratio which should be .50 or less.

See http://tinyurl.com/cpadrmz

einzweidrei

At any rate, I'm close to where I think I want to be based on measurements. It had me wondering: when did you transition to maintenance? Did you wait until you were at a particular weight or did it happen somewhat organically? Right now I'm set to lose a pound a week, but am thinking of going down to .5 and then easing into maintenance in the next month or two. Does this seem like a good plan? I'm also getting read to ratchet up the exercise to work on toning and building more muscle.

Thanks in advance!

I think your plan is a good one.

That being said, I have no idea. I wanted to lose the weight I had put on and maybe five extra pounds. So I went from 170--->150. Decided I wanted to keep going and head toward my HS weight so I went from 150--->140. Decided to keep going and went from 140--->130 and then I had everyone complaining that I looked to thin. I'm pretty much maintaining at 125-130 (usually 126-129 though) and still have everyone complaining I look too thin. BUT---I just decided that was enough. I was content with where I was and honestly, if I lost anymore weight I'd be underweight. (My BMI hovers around 18.5ish so yeah.)

PJPrimrose

I started into maintenance when I hit my goal weight starting off with adding 100 calories a week. This happened in winter when I'm not really as active as normal. My weight started to drop once spring hit and I was doing quite a bit outside. I started to add 200 more a week. Now I've found my maintenance needing to go up again as I get in better shape with weights (I was almost all cardio before). It's much higher than I thought it would be!

dopeysmelly

"Overweght" is a relative term. The BMI is a notoriously bad tool for assessing it. It was designed to assess the weight of populations, not individuals. For the life of me I can't figure out why the medical establishment holds on to it like gospel.

The only time in my life I was 'normal' weight according to BMi was when I was on the high school wrestling team, and the coach insisted I wrestle at the 158 weight class one week. I pretty much starved myself the entire week to make weight. I was already in perfect shape - wrestling workouts in the 1970s were pretty intense. Not at all natural.

A better measure is waist/height ratio which should be .50 or less.

See http://tinyurl.com/cpadrmz

I like the waist/height ratio metric! I'm going to add to what I track.

SezxyStef

I started upping my calories (reverse dieting) 4 weeks ago...as I was about 2lbs from goal...

I am now going 50 calories a week as I am 1/2lb

I hit my inital goal months ago but wasn't pleased with what I saw so went to another gw (155)...

I have a goal of BF% actually, clothing size etc..not specifically weight. I am getting my BF% tested professionally this summer so that will dictate what I do this fall..I might go for another 10lbs..I might go for a recomp instead...

ianthy

Hi

I started maintenance today - I still have 4+kgs to go but as I am on a VLCD I have some way to go to get the cals back up. I am taking it very slowly 100 cals a week, which will allow me to loose weight, get to my goal and ease into a healthy way of eating.

Ianthy

mjglantz

I transitioned to maintenance about the end of April 2013. I hit my goal weight and started adding in more calories. I also continued with my workouts. Over the last year I still lost about 20 pounds and am at a good weight. the weight loss has slowed down and hopefully stopped. I do workout a fair amount (gym workout 3 days/week with cardio + weights), get at least 10,000 steps 6 out of 7 days and do yoga or Pilates most weeks. My calorie goal is 1975 and I eat back most but not all the calories; hard to do if I'm at 2,000 and burn off 500 and I'm just not hungry.
Have to say this is the longest I've ever maintained a weight loss and the way I eat now feels right. I focus on eating real foods, lots of plants, and less of it. But if I'm hungry, I eat.

PLAID1977

I am interested in the other responses to this Q! I just (yesterday) changed from 1.5 lb/wk to 1 lb/wk as an early preparation for eventual maintenance. I can't give you my personal experience with this because it's only been 24 hours ;-) But after my most recent loss it wanted to recalculate my daily pre-exercise calories to 1210 and I felt that was weirdly low...I was doing fine on 1270 (with exercise calories most days) but after changing my settings I am back up to around 1400 and I feel that will help to prepare me for maintenance.

I want to lose at least 14 lb, but probably not more than 20-25 lb more. I know my goal seems odd to many people because it is still overweight at 165-170 lb range but I am 37, 5'8" and have not worn a size 12 since middle school which is what I'm wearing right now...I plan to be a size 10/12 eventually.

It doesn't sound odd to me at all! You may be my MFP twin! I'm 5'7, 36 years old, wearing a 14...some 12's. I too haven't been this size or weight since middle school. I currently weigh around 193, down from 340. I'm hoping to lose about 15 more pounds. Then that's it. I'd still be considered overweight by BMI charts etc. But I think this will be a realistic weight for me. I'm already below my doctor-approved goal weight that was set a few years ago. Maintenance is right around the corner.

proudjmmom

I began slowly easing into maintenance when I was about 5-8lbs from goal, upping calories weekly. Goal weight was 125lbs. As I slowly reached goal and tried to settle into my maintenance calories, I lost a further 9 lbs, and my body seemed to have settled where it wanted. I have been maintaining between 116-118lbs since March. I am very comfortable with where I settled.

Francl27

I've been increasing my calories by 100 once a month or so since I reached 5 pounds above my goal. I've been going over too much though, so it's been very slow. My deficit is probably around 300 right now, and I'm 3 pounds from my goal. Not planning to increase my calories for a while, as I'm going in vacations in a month probably, and I'm not sure how that's going to work out. I might keep a deficit anyway to make up for bad days, and I wouldn't mind going down a bit more... so we'll see.

Zelinna

For the last 6 months (or more) of my weight loss I was eating at my goal weight TDEE. So when I hit maintenance I didn't have to adjust my eating habits that much. I think I only bumped myself up by 100 cal total, and that was mainly to compensate for a change in my activity level.

The process was slower, but made moving to maintenance much easier. I hit my goal of 150 in November 2013, and have been bouncing between 145 and 150 since then.

I am interested in the other responses to this Q! I just (yesterday) changed from 1.5 lb/wk to 1 lb/wk as an early preparation for eventual maintenance. I can't give you my personal experience with this because it's only been 24 hours ;-) But after my most recent loss it wanted to recalculate my daily pre-exercise calories to 1210 and I felt that was weirdly low...I was doing fine on 1270 (with exercise calories most days) but after changing my settings I am back up to around 1400 and I feel that will help to prepare me for maintenance.

I want to lose at least 14 lb, but probably not more than 20-25 lb more. I know my goal seems odd to many people because it is still overweight at 165-170 lb range but I am 37, 5'8" and have not worn a size 12 since middle school which is what I'm wearing right now...I plan to be a size 10/12 eventually.

It doesn't sound odd to me at all! You may be my MFP twin! I'm 5'7, 36 years old, wearing a 14...some 12's. I too haven't been this size or weight since middle school. I currently weigh around 193, down from 340. I'm hoping to lose about 15 more pounds. Then that's it. I'd still be considered overweight by BMI charts etc. But I think this will be a realistic weight for me. I'm already below my doctor-approved goal weight that was set a few years ago. Maintenance is right around the corner.

This doesn't sound odd to me either! I had the exact same goal originally. I am 5'7 and was hoping to get back to my comfortable weight of 175 -180 (I started at 210). I revised my goal as I got closer to it, but I find it interesting that at 5'7/8 the 3 of us all had the same idea about an ideal weight.