why do you get to eat more at maintenance level

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nmarcus
nmarcus Posts: 17 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi guys,

Silly question: in order to lose weight should you not eat your TARGET weight? if so why where we not eating that in the first place?

Replies

  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
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    parse error
  • chubswonky
    chubswonky Posts: 195
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    3500 calories = 1 pound
    If it takes your body 1500 calories to maintain your current weight, you would need to eat less than that in order to lose weight.

    Once you hit the weight you want to stay at, you would eat however many calories it takes to maintain that weight because you don't have any calories to lose.
  • xAdrianax
    xAdrianax Posts: 269 Member
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    do you mean why do we get to eat more calories when maintaining?

    Well for women normally its around 2000 cals a day, some people i know who have reached goal weight have now been put on 1800-2000 cals.

    When joining you start off with 1200 cals or 1300 whatever to loose the weight, then once its all lost you get put on a higher amount of calorues (that you should be on normally, like the recommended daily amount) so that you then stick at that weight.

    People who are on here to loose weight are generally eating double our recommended allowance, i know when i started i totted up how many cals i would consume on a normal day and it would be around 3000! on weekends more!
  • MissTomGettingThin
    MissTomGettingThin Posts: 776 Member
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    parse error

    That!
  • MrBrown72
    MrBrown72 Posts: 407 Member
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    parse error
    yup. Shouldn't you?
  • nmarcus
    nmarcus Posts: 17 Member
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    If someone is 200lbs and should be 150 why whould they not eat the maintenance level of a 150lbs person. That is automaticly a deficit from what he is eating now.
  • SiltyPigeon
    SiltyPigeon Posts: 920 Member
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    Eating your target maintenance level would eventually cause you to be that weight. If your target weight is 135 pounds and the maintenance calories for that is 1800 calories, eating 1800 calories every day will, over a period of time, cause you to drop down to 135. Eating less than that (1200 calories, for example) just gets you there faster. Most people are impatient.
  • ruststar
    ruststar Posts: 489 Member
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    If someone is 200lbs and should be 150 why whould they not eat the maintenance level of a 150lbs person. That is automaticly a deficit from what he is eating now.

    That's essentially what I'm doing - eating the maintenance level of the weigth I want to be, which is a deficit from where I'm at (the difference is about 350 calories). It's also training to eat the way I will need to at my goal weight for the rest of my life without raising my calories to maintain. A lot of people gain their weight back when they put an end date to the way they're eating -"I only have to eat like this until I hit my goal" thinking. My weight loss is slower than if I ate 1200 calories a day (a number far below my BMR), but I am looking for sustainable results. Take a look at fat2fitradio.com if you're interested in finding more information about this idea.
  • nmarcus
    nmarcus Posts: 17 Member
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    ruststar. That is exacactly the way i am thinking. the real "NO DIET life change"
  • InaWarZone
    InaWarZone Posts: 35
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    well, you could if you want to spend 3 trillion years losing that 50 pounds :bigsmile:
  • xAdrianax
    xAdrianax Posts: 269 Member
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    i understand what you mean, but in my view ( as i dont know if i am right) but:

    Someone who is 200lbs but should be 150lb should NOTeat the maintenance level for someone of 150lbs as they are not there yet.

    You need to eat less to get down there and then eat the maintenance calories?!
  • lucky1ns
    lucky1ns Posts: 358 Member
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    I get it now.
  • ruststar
    ruststar Posts: 489 Member
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    well, you could if you want to spend 3 trillion years losing that 50 pounds :bigsmile:

    More like 2 years - a half pound per week loss. With no loose skin, no desperately hungry "I'm starving!" moments, plenty of time to acclimate to a new way of living, and an increased chance of keeping it off for life. It took me much longer than that to put the weight on, and it will take time to take off.

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