Maintenance calories after losing weight/fat

KBmoments
KBmoments Posts: 193 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm eating 1200 calories NET a day to hopefully lose around 1 pound a week. MFP has my maintenance set at 1600... SO, after I reach my goal weight/fat loss, I would then be able to eat around 1600 NET, to maintain that loss.... correct? I am seeing threads on here saying "If you are eating 1200, your body will gain weight above anything above 1200, since that's what it's used to!" But, that doesn't make sense to me... because then what would be the point of a deficit and maintenance calories? Anyone have success eating their maintenance calories after losing weight..and actually maintaining it?

Replies

  • joan23_us
    joan23_us Posts: 263 Member
    I'm eating 1200 calories NET a day to hopefully lose around 1 pound a week. MFP has my maintenance set at 1600... SO, after I reach my goal weight/fat loss, I would then be able to eat around 1600 NET, to maintain that loss.... correct? I am seeing threads on here saying "If you are eating 1200, your body will gain weight above anything above 1200, since that's what it's used to!" But, that doesn't make sense to me... because then what would be the point of a deficit and maintenance calories? Anyone have success eating their maintenance calories after losing weight..and actually maintaining it?

    those are numbers generic to MFP.... when you do reach your goal, hopefully you had recorded all the activities that got you there plus your nutrition intake..... it'll be a good idea to adjust slowly ( reverse dieting ) from that intake until you reach a point where in you are in a "happy mood" ( usually in a deficit your cranky, i know i am) ;P slowly decrease and/or maintain activity that you were doing ( hoping that at this point you are not doing a tone of cardio like 2 hours ). Dont worry about too much on the numbers MFP gave you... worry about the numbers that got you to your goal because that is the "intake" that is "personalized" to you, ALSO UNDERSTAND that your intake is a MOVING TARGET.... it could be now that at 1600 your maintaining and next year you wont maybe higher, work towards improving your "metabolic capacity" ;P
  • terbusha
    terbusha Posts: 1,483 Member
    What you want to do after you reach your goal is to do a reverse diet. This is slowly adding back in calories so that any weight gain is minimized. Check out this YouTube video about this subject fro Layne Norton. He has a PhD in protein metabolism, is a natural bodybuilder/powerlifter, and is a fitness competitor coach.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3gTGLulLnI

    Allan

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