Maintenance people where are you!

jaeone

I have surpassed my goal by one lb!! Yay me! I have stayed at this weight for 3 days!! My questions are..

1) How long did you wait to change your calories from lose to maintain?
2) Did you slowly adjust your calories or did you go all at once?
3)Did you keep your same workout schedule?
4)Did you gain a few lbs while your body adjusted to your new calorie intake?
And if so what did you do?
These questions may have been answered before, if so give me the link. Otherwise let me know what you did! Thanks in advance!!

aimeelouwhite

Yay you! I wish I could help... but a long way from maintenance here!

sc1572

CONGRATS!!!!!!:drinker:

mommy2b2

I have been on maintenance for a couple weeks. I changed my calories that day and have stayed the same weight since then. Maintenance takes some adjustment. When you are set on losing for so long, just staying the same is a weird feeling. I used to go to the gym 4 nights a week now I go 3. I too would love maintenance feedback so I can't wait to hear what people write back to you!

fteale

1) How long did you wait to change your calories from lose to maintain? - When I started feeling hungry, a couple of weeks?

2) Did you slowly adjust your calories or did you go all at once? - I dropped from 0.6 lbs loss (1200 cals) to 0.5 lbs loss (1360 cals) to 0.2 lbs loss (1500 cals) as I neared goal.

3)Did you keep your same workout schedule? - yes at first, but have had to wind it right down now as I have started uni and don't have any time to run now.

4)Did you gain a few lbs while your body adjusted to your new calorie intake? - no.

mdias23

i've been trying to maintain for about 2 months now. it was easier for me to lose weight than maintain. i haven't quite figured out what works for my body yet but hopefully someone will give some good feedback! congrats on surpassing your goal! that's amazing!

mdias23

i've been trying to maintain for about 2 months now. it was easier for me to lose weight than maintain. i haven't quite figured out what works for my body yet but hopefully someone will give some good feedback! congrats on surpassing your goal! that's amazing!

JennLifts

I added them all at once, as soon as possible. No weight gain, and kept my same schedule.

pelleld

I'm still trying to figure this all out too so I am very interested in the replies. My goal was 125, which I hit in May. I dropped another 7 pounds by the end of July and then stayed there (up and down a bit) till this week. I'm down to 117.4 now. Still working out the kinks of maintenance..........and don't want to lose any more.

joliejolie123456

congratulations! when i reached my target i gradually upped the calories every week until i got to maintainece level. to be honest my exercise has calmed down lately because i cant afford the gym anymore but i walk everywhere so i havnt really gained anything.

bopper

Me too! My goal was 150 which I am at but fear gaining on more calories. Hard enough losing on the lower calories with exercise.

Neize

Congratulations!!! I have 3lbs to go!!!

sassylilmama

I am nearing maintenance myself and seem to lose weight still even adding in more calories (I stopped losing and it got me past that). MFP says I will lose .6lb/wk where I am but I have lost 1+lb/wk. Seems like going into maintenance will be more tricky than losing.

songofserenity81

congratulations on reaching target . I'm still about 8lb away from my second target of 140lb so would love to hear what maintainers have to say.

Nikstergirl

I have 4 pounds to go and can't wait to finally get to maintenence! I think when I get there I'll up my calories gradually, but I do plan to keep my workouts the same. I'm a runner now and wouldn't trade that for the world. Already planning my races for next year, so the training will intensify if anything, no slacking here! I still want to firm up a little, but the size I am now makes me so excited for the future!!!

jaeone

Yay you! I wish I could help... but a long way from maintenance here!

Thanks!! Hang in there, stay focused and you will reach your goal!

LorinaLynn

I've reached my goal a few times.

When I reached my first goal of 135, instead of going to maintenance, I set my calories to 1500 (about a half pound a week) but only logged my food Monday through Friday and ate what I wanted on weekends and holidays. Doing that, I lost 4.5 pounds in the following month. I changed my goal to 130, since I was almost there, and changed my calories to 1600 Monday through Friday, and lost about a pound in the following month. Then I decided to go for 126 for my Halloween party last weekend, and went back to 1500 M-F, but had a few more extra "freebie" days tossed in while my husband was on vacation. But I passed my goal last week at 125.5, and took a week off from counting calories at all.

This week, I'll eat at my maintenance goal of 1680 plus exercise calories, but I'm still only doing that Monday-Friday. I like my freebie weekends. Plus, if I do gain a few, I know how to properly take them off again.

jaeone

1) How long did you wait to change your calories from lose to maintain? - When I started feeling hungry, a couple of weeks?

2) Did you slowly adjust your calories or did you go all at once? - I dropped from 0.6 lbs loss (1200 cals) to 0.5 lbs loss (1360 cals) to 0.2 lbs loss (1500 cals) as I neared goal.

3)Did you keep your same workout schedule? - yes at first, but have had to wind it right down now as I have started uni and don't have any time to run now.

4)Did you gain a few lbs while your body adjusted to your new calorie intake? - no.

Never thought of that, just waiting till your hungry! But I would be afraid of losing more weight. I definetly don't want to lose muscle. But if I also decrease cardio that may work with leaving calories the same. Maybe cardio from 6 days to 3 or 4 days, two days of just
strength.

jaeone

I've reached my goal a few times.

When I reached my first goal of 135, instead of going to maintenance, I set my calories to 1500 (about a half pound a week) but only logged my food Monday through Friday and ate what I wanted on weekends and holidays. Doing that, I lost 4.5 pounds in the following month. I changed my goal to 130, since I was almost there, and changed my calories to 1600 Monday through Friday, and lost about a pound in the following month. Then I decided to go for 126 for my Halloween party last weekend, and went back to 1500 M-F, but had a few more extra "freebie" days tossed in while my husband was on vacation. But I passed my goal last week at 125.5, and took a week off from counting calories at all.

This week, I'll eat at my maintenance goal of 1680 plus exercise calories, but I'm still only doing that Monday-Friday. I like my freebie weekends. Plus, if I do gain a few, I know how to properly take them off again.

Wow! You have found the key to losing!! I will try the Mon. - Fri counting calories maybe! And semi Free weekends! Sounds like I would never be bored with calorie counting!
Thanks!

Oishii

I have surpassed my goal by one lb!! Yay me! I have stayed at this weight for 3 days!! My questions are..

1) How long did you wait to change your calories from lose to maintain?
2) Did you slowly adjust your calories or did you go all at once?
3)Did you keep your same workout schedule?
4)Did you gain a few lbs while your body adjusted to your new calorie intake?
And if so what did you do?
These questions may have been answered before, if so give me the link. Otherwise let me know what you did! Thanks in advance!!

1+2) I started upping my calories pretty soon after starting mfp, because I was losing too fast and it scared me. Then set my calories to mfp's maintenance, when I got there, and kept losing, so kept upping my mfp activity levels, until I was still losing whilst pretending to be 'highly active' (which I'm not!), until finally I had to add 50-100 calories manually every few days to stop from shrinking.

Now I seem to be levelling out at 2450, which is, frankly, bizarre!

3) I wasn't exercising while I lost, but did the 30DS when my skinny arms grossed me out. Now running a little.

4) I've only gained when I've stopped counting for a few days.

it_be_asin

I upped my cals slowly, by 100/day as soon as I could call that I had hit goal weight, and when I started to lose weight again I upped them by 100-200/day until I stopped losing weight. Admittedly, this is best done just before hitting goal weight - I am a little under goal weight now, but I would say that for around 2 months my weight has been pretty stable.

it_be_asin

Also, I work out for other reasons rather than weight loss or maintenance, so I have not dropped back on the exercise.

jaeone

Thanks eveyone for you input!! Looks like maintaining will have to personalized even more so than losing! One thing you all had in common is you kept upping your calories and continued to have some type of physical activity.

Keep the success stories coming!!

jaeone

Congratulations!!! I have 3lbs to go!!!

Keep up the great work!! You can be there before Thanksgiving!!

epoint

These questions may have been answered before, if so give me the link. Otherwise let me know what you did! Thanks in advance!!

We're here, over on the maintenance thread!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/191617-maintenance-thread?page=18

Come join us. Lots of good discussion about to handle maintenance. Congrats on getting there!