Question for those now trying to maintain their weight

Jenn070608

I am 1.2 lbs away from my goal weight. I just went into tools and calculated my BMR. I am currently eating 1200 cals/day. I rarely eat back any excersice cals I burn. I have been losing 1-2 lbs/week. Which I think is a healthy loss. To be honest, I was hoping once I reached my goal, I would gain a couple hundred extra cals/day. But my BMR says I need 1258/cals per day to maintain. Not much of a calorie increase. Once I make goal weight, I'm afraid if I then start eating my cals burned, I will start to gain.

What is your advice for maintaining your weight?

Rowann

I believe your BMR is the calories you'd need for just lying in bed all day, ie absolutely no activity whatsoever. I think you may need to double check what your actual maintenance calories would be (for your activity level rather than bedridden unconscious level).

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong though...

JennLifts

Correct, you don't eat your BMR for maintenance. You will go to your settings, and tell it you don't want to lose any pounds per week and it will redo your cals for maintenance. If you're a big gym goer, I would start by eating maintenance, seeing as it can be a pretty big jump, then add in your exercise cals. But don't drop the level after a mini gain. Your body will have to adjust to the changes, and your weight may fluctuate slightly. (not 10 pounds haha). Also, make sure you fill your new found freedom with healthy choices. I found it tempting to eat crap because i could fit it in.

KimKramer

Congratulations on hitting your goal I went under Goals and selected "0" pounds lost every week and it jumped my calories up about 300 a day! Hope this helped!

HeidiMightyRawr

Yes I think your BMR is just for rest, it does sound a bit low.
You will need to go into goals > change goals (guided) then enter all your data and your normal daily activities (this is what you would do normally and not count as a workout)
Set your goal to maintain and it would probably give you more calories than that.

I would say though that you are very unlikely to gain by eating your exercise calories back, I would strongly recommend doing so or you may carry on losing weight.
If you are gaining you may be either overestimating your calorie burn or setting your daily activity level too high

bddavis1

I think rowann is correct. If you maintain an active life you can intake more… My wife has been at her goal for over a year and a half, but she doesn’t get on MFP much. If you have any questions about how she does it, she would love to talk to you about it. She likes to help others. Her website is www.advocarelife.net and her email is michelle@advocarelife.net. I haven’t got to my goal yet but I say start building muscle in the gym and cardio, you will have extra calories to burn then. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burn. Good luck and congrads on making your goal.

disneyval

First of all - you should eat those calories that you burn and ENJOY them! What makes MFP different from the diets I designed myself (with which I lost rapidly but gained it all back!) is that they calculate in the calories burned with exercise and add them to your allowed calories. I never thought to do that. So I'd eat 1200 cal or less, then burn 200-300 calories which put me at a net cal intake of 900-1000! My body actually got used to that and my metabolism slowed!

Second - I agree with the previous reply - 1200 something is what you get if you are bedridden! I'm sure you are somewhat active! (:

Last, it's going to take some getting used to in order to maintain now that you are used to eating less. Maintainence doesn't mean eating like you used to. I'm almost at my goal weight too and now is when the challenge really begins! I've lost the 10 pounds of ugly fat and I don't want to gain it back. In the past, I would think, WHOOPIE! I can eat what I want now! Well, you probably know what that means. (:

I'm going to stick with MFP for several more months to maintain and I'm really excited b/c I think I can really keep it off this time.

suzycreamcheese

well done for getting to your goal, or nearly

I think a lot of peoples problems is not realising that maintaining is not actually much less effort than losing. Im on maintenance, and i still have to watch what i eat, and make sure i exercise lots. I am slightly more relaxed about it, but not lots more.

dls06

I am finding it hard to maintain. I am still loosing. I want to maintain but since I have been doing this for so long, I am finding it hard to eat enough. I guess it will take a while to adjust again to a different calorie intake.

Jenn070608

Thank you for the replies and great advice.