Calories needed to maintain

bcovely

It took me 2 years and I lost 45 pounds - and have about 5 more to go. (I would have hit my goal sooner but I gained 10 pounds over the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday). Anyway, I'm about to start eating to maintain my weight and I'm really scared that I will start gaining....again. How is the best way to figure out how many calories I need to maintain? Does anyone know of any good calculators online that I can use? Thank you so much for your help - and have a great day!!

5stringjeff

Congrats on being so close to your goal weight!

Here's the calculator that I use: http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/

You might consider gradually increasing your calories when you hit maintenance. I've upped my daily calories by 100 each week and it's helped a lot in the transition.

bcovely

Thanks so much!!

RaspberryTickleChicken

First of all CONGRATS!!

I just responded to another post closely related to finding the magic maintenance #.

And I think like many things there's no one-size fits all answer here.

I am only 4'10" so despite what many MFP posters have suggested for maintenance phase, I decided to carry on to my established routine and ONLY adjusted my calorie daily intake by 30 calories.

I have now surpassed my goal (9 mths & counting) and have leveled off at a very comfortable weight which I can maintain with very little effort.

So if you believe in the theory that your body knows when to stop losing weight then I'd suggest continue to do what you are doing with minimal adjustment.

However if you are struggling then I would agree with 5stringjeff & suggest run some numbers to get a good baseline using TDEE & BMR calculators then fiddle around with what you find easy to maintain for the long run.

http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

Best of luck!

indianwin2001

http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

This one works for me and a lot of other people on here. Just make sure you do not eat back your exercise calories with this, as that's already included.

Chief_Rocka

You might consider gradually increasing your calories when you hit maintenance. I've upped my daily calories by 100 each week and it's helped a lot in the transition.

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