Maintainers - how to eat more without eating more

agthorn

So you've reached your goal weight and upped your calories - hooray! Now, how do you eat at your new calorie level when you've been dieting for months and you're just not *that* hungry?

Eating more calories doesn't necessarily mean eating more food. It's awesome to have extra calories for treats, but on the balance we still want to be eating a healthy diet - we don't need to be forcing down cake at 11:30pm just to mean our new goal number. The answer is SUBSTITUTIONS. You don't have to eat tons more food (volume). You just need to find higher calorie versions of what you've been eating (and quite often these taste better - bonus!)

Examples: 1% or 2% milk instead of skim. Full fat salad dressings instead of "light" dressing. Add a little bit of butter or olive oil to your vegetables. Sprinkle a little full fat cheese on your pasta. Whole eggs instead of egg whites. Greek yogurt instead of fat-free. Whole wheat crackers (or okay, maybe even cheetos occasionally!) instead of rice cakes. Throw a few nuts into anything. Other ideas? Be creative!

Making a few substitutions instead of just simply trying to eat "more" will make it easier for you to meet your new goal.

portexploit

Olive oil,4tbs of olive oil add's about 400 calories.

agthorn

Oh, flaxseed too - another healthy fat that you can add to oatmeal, cereal, muffins, pasta sauce, smoothies, etc. 1Tbsp of flaxseed adds 40 calories, 3g of healthy unsaturated fat, 2g of fiber and 1g of protein.

PhilipByrne

Didn't believe the posting about calories in live oil, so I googled it. Unfortunately it's right, infact it's about 120 cals per tbsp. Yikes.
I'm never using the stuff again.

agthorn

I'm never using the stuff again.

Why? It's delicious and full of healthy fats. 1 tsp is only 40 calories and has three grams of unsaturated fat. That's more than enough to yum up a serving of vegetables or drizzle over a piece of bread.

melsinct

I usually cook whatever in a pan for me and my husband using 1teaspoon of olive oil. That means we each eat 1/2 teaspoon with our meal, or 20 calories. Not exactly scary unless you fry stuff in gobs of it (not that I haven't been known to do that on occasion!).

Rae6503

Yeah, I'm amazed at people who have a hard time eating more. It's easy if you step away from the "diet" food.

Abigailblue39

Milk, Nuts, peanut butter and cheese (full fat) make great "make up calories" .

mattellis2

I love this place. I checked in today to ask this very question. I've dropped about 20 lbs, and don't need to lose any more, but have been having a hard time not doing so with my bike rides. (I know, terrible problem to have, right?)

Been eating 2000 calories +/- each day, and still having problems maintaining. I like the more peanut butter and more cheese idea...i have missed those a lot!

agthorn

Glad to provide something useful :-) I am within two pounds of my goal weight and just set my calories to "maintain my current weight" so I am still working on getting those extra 250 calories in too. Part of the problem is I haven't gone grocery shopping for a lot of food yet, because I still have stuff in the house that I'm trying to eat (like the light yogurts...)

There's a group of sorts for maintainers here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/191617-maintenance-thread and I've also suggested to the website people that they create a forum section for us, so we could have a place for various topics like these.