maintainance peeps!

M_lifts

Did you start eating all your calories straight away? im struggling, guaranteed its day one but ive had my meals for the day and i still have over 600 cals to eat. did you increase your calorie intake in increments? I might do that as i can honestly say im full atm, might have some fruit/ desert later to try and make some up. I guess im so used to 1200-1400 that 1600+exercise calories seems sooooo much.

Some tips would be fab please, would also like some maintainance friends too!

shelly650

Bump!

kim_mc

I would love to know an exact answer for this too but a lot of people told me to increase slowly allowing body to adjust, watch what your body does and adjust accordingly...

cutelashawn

Most people on here would say to eat all of ur calories plus ur exercise calories. I would say don't. MFP already puts u at a calorie deficit when you first sign up and enter your height, weight, age, and current activity level. But you do want to make sure you eat at least 1200 calories so your body wont go into starvation mode. when you start to exercise more often you gonna find that you will be more hungry, so you might just eat back your exercise calories and there is nothing wrong wih tht. As long as you not in the negative you should be fine. Just go by what your body is telling you. DOn't try to stuff yourself just to reach ur calorie goal.

DaddyMantz

It's hard to eat a lot of calories if you are eating clean. I try to increase my calories with starchy carbs. I still eat 6 meals per day with protein, fat, and starchy carbs and fibrous carbs in each. The difference in high calorie days and low calorie days is all carbs. Healthy starchy carbs like whole grain bread, oatmeal, cream of wheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown rice, etc...

M_lifts

It's hard to eat a lot of calories if you are eating clean. I try to increase my calories with starchy carbs. I still eat 6 meals per day with protein, fat, and starchy carbs and fibrous carbs in each. The difference in high calorie days and low calorie days is all carbs. Healthy starchy carbs like whole grain bread, oatmeal, cream of wheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown rice, etc...

thanks, will have to give that a go.

M_lifts

I would love to know an exact answer for this too but a lot of people told me to increase slowly allowing body to adjust, watch what your body does and adjust accordingly...

this is what im going to do i guess, go up by 100-200 increments weekly until i get the hang of maintainance

M_lifts

Most people on here would say to eat all of ur calories plus ur exercise calories. I would say don't. MFP already puts u at a calorie deficit when you first sign up and enter your height, weight, age, and current activity level. But you do want to make sure you eat at least 1200 calories so your body wont go into starvation mode. when you start to exercise more often you gonna find that you will be more hungry, so you might just eat back your exercise calories and there is nothing wrong wih tht. As long as you not in the negative you should be fine. Just go by what your body is telling you. DOn't try to stuff yourself just to reach ur calorie goal.

thanks for your reply. I have a healthy balance of eating most of my exercise calories. Im not wanting to lose any more weight so dont really want to eat as low as 1200cals

somigliana

Congrats on reaching maintenance!!

I found that it took some adjustment to settle into maintenance, bothing eating wise and mentally. I had to learn to celebrate (and even WANT) a static scale reading rather than a weightloss on the scale each week. I eased into maintenance, adding 100 calories every week until I found my balancing point. I'm now used to eating 2000+ calories six months later. I also replaced one of my cardio days with yoga because for a while I carried on losing weight despite eating like a horse.

Tips I can offer are:
~Add a few extra "clean eating calories" to each meal, like olive oil for cooking or nuts/seeds/avocado into salads or chia seeds/coconut to breakfast oats.
~ Several smaller meals eaten through the day.
~ Enjoy it!!

M_lifts

Congrats on reaching maintenance!!

I found that it took some adjustment to settle into maintenance, bothing eating wise and mentally. I had to learn to celebrate (and even WANT) a static scale reading rather than a weightloss on the scale each week. I eased into maintenance, adding 100 calories every week until I found my balancing point. I'm now used to eating 2000+ calories six months later. I also replaced one of my cardio days with yoga because for a while I carried on losing weight despite eating like a horse.

Tips I can offer are:
~Add a few extra "clean eating calories" to each meal, like olive oil for cooking or nuts/seeds/avocado into salads or chia seeds/coconut to breakfast oats.
~ Several smaller meals eaten through the day.
~ Enjoy it!!

thank you! this makes a lot of sense to me and is exactly what i wanted to hear. Im going to ease myself in gently as i dont think i can change everything overnight. but your tips are great and i hope to be able to maintain 6 months on too

shreddingit

1600 calories were my before cals, now It says 1800...I dont trust numbers...I still watch my food but will exercise less..

M_lifts

Bump

gp79

If you want reliable numbers then you need to seek the formulas out yourself. There are 3 popular ways to measure your BMR, again only to obtain an estimation. If you want to get crazy with it, seek out a RMR test at a large university or independent weight loss/fitness center.

The method MFP uses, while said to be more accurate than the Harris Benedict method, still is known to overestimate calories especially for obese folks. In order to be considered obese, your BMI only needs to be 30 or greater.

If you have a way to measure your body fat, try using the Katch McArdle formula for measuring BMR. It's said to be a bit more accurate than other methods.

Some of the foods you were used to eating while losing weight may not be the best choices for trying to maintain your weight.

Nigel99

It's hard to eat a lot of calories if you are eating clean. I try to increase my calories with starchy carbs. I still eat 6 meals per day with protein, fat, and starchy carbs and fibrous carbs in each. The difference in high calorie days and low calorie days is all carbs. Healthy starchy carbs like whole grain bread, oatmeal, cream of wheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown rice, etc...

Hit the nail on the head for me. I started maintaining last week, but I was under by a decent bit every day. I'm still exercising quite a bit, so that results in fairly high calorie totals to eat back every day. No problem if I'm throwing lots of junk in there, but eating healthier definitely makes it tougher to pile on the calories if I do P90 and then run a couple of miles in the same day.

Nigel99

It's hard to eat a lot of calories if you are eating clean. I try to increase my calories with starchy carbs. I still eat 6 meals per day with protein, fat, and starchy carbs and fibrous carbs in each. The difference in high calorie days and low calorie days is all carbs. Healthy starchy carbs like whole grain bread, oatmeal, cream of wheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown rice, etc...

Hit the nail on the head for me. I started maintaining last week, but I was under by a decent bit every day. I'm still exercising quite a bit, so that results in fairly high calorie totals to eat back every day. No problem if I'm throwing lots of junk in there, but eating healthier definitely makes it tougher to pile on the calories if I do P90 and then run a couple of miles in the same day.

M_lifts

i guess it'll have to be trial and error until i can sort a routine out