What happens after MFP

kimmyj74

Ok, so I wasn't losing at 1200 calories so I moved it up to 1350. Then this weekend I was "bad". Eating around 1800 for 3 days straight. I've gained TWO POUNDS! In 3 days! I even exercised 2 of these 3 days.
So my question is: what happens when we meet our goal and try to maintain? Are we forever going to be "dieting" and eating 1200 calories a day until death? I want to enjoy life and spledge from time to time without having to worry about gaining it all back. I'm frustated. :mad:

MissObstinatiox

Bump

kymarai

A lot of that could be water weight. It takes a while for the body to adjust. I couldn't live on 1200 a day, and really use the 1350 as a guide. I don't want to spend my life counting. It helps us to learn how to eat, so that we make good choices on portion sizes and items. You can do this. Drink more water! It really does help!

PBJunky

Well this is a lifestyle change, hope you didn't think that you will do this once and be able to maintain it by not counting calories.

aisth00j

I have been thinking the same. I am on 1400 calories per day which is only 0.5 pounds per week loss. I am hoping slow off/slow on so if the pounds do creep back on then I can do something about it.

Completely understand where you are coming from - I had a binge for my birthday 2 weeks ago and gained 3.5 pounds in 4 days! 2 pounds fell off once I got back on the calorie counting the week after though.

sunkisses

Oooh you can go and update your activity/lifestyle and current weight. You'll find out what your maintenance calories would be.

Edited: Sorry I misunderstood your question/complaint. There's a really good chance that there were more than 1800 calories at play there.

JennLifts

I might say... 1800 would be at or around your maint calories, so my guess it some water retention.

TavistockToad

Ok, so I wasn't losing at 1200 calories so I moved it up to 1350. Then this weekend I was "bad". Eating around 1800 for 3 days straight. I've gained TWO POUNDS! In 3 days! I even exercised 2 of these 3 days.
So my question is: what happens when we meet our goal and try to maintain? Are we forever going to be "dieting" and eating 1200 calories a day until death? I want to enjoy life and spledge from time to time without having to worry about gaining it all back. I'm frustated. :mad:

I NET about 1800 cals at maintenance (which means eating about 2000-2100) so no, you wont be stuck on 1200 for ever! (I am 5ft5 and 123lbs)

the weight you have put on isnt 'proper' weight, its probably just water retention. wait a few more days and it will disappear!

kykykenna

I would say number wise (calories in/out) it was impossible for you to gain 2 fat pounds....likely just water weight. Should be gone in a day or two. I find when I eat "naughty" it is generally sodium overload. Therefore, retention. One bowl of pasta salad or pizza puts me 3lbs up, overnight. Every single time. Thankfully, I am now aware of why and no longer freak out.....lol

TraceyMarieHarnett

I'm guessing it doesn't end. Keeping off the weight you lose has to be a lifetime commitment. Just like quitting drinking or smoking, you can't just pick it up again after you've conquered it. So I guess you can splurge or treat yourself every once in while but we can't go back to eating how we did before. Or we'll end up gaining all the weight back again. It sucks....but there it is.

dad106

First off you did not gain two pounds in three days.. thats impossible. It's just water weight.. so back away from the scale and push the water.

Second, no we are not doomed to living to 1200 calories for the rest of our lives.. but you can't jump from 1200 to 1800 and expect nothing to happen. Get used to eating 1350 and then bump it up from there.. like a hundred calories or so until you reach a calorie level that makes you maintain your weight. I know MFP gives you a maintenance level, but sometimes you may need more/less.. so play around and see what works for you. Once you know maintenance level, then you can subtract for a pound/half a pound a week loss and hopefully it will work.

RAFValentina

You didn't gain 2 lbs from food if you only ate 1800kCal a day and exercised too.. water weight. Think logically... a lb of fat is 3500kcal... 2 is 7000kCal... you didn't overeat 7000kCal. Quit worrying... its fluctuations!

(Hope this is coming across in the tone it's meant to - as in ...chill out your fine, bodies do things like this!)

Plus you're female which means large fluctuations too. Hard workouts make you retain water too. If you ate rubbish with loads of salt or sodium in too... that will have increased the amount of water you're storing.

Chill out, relax, you're still eating less than you're putting out.

katbat65

Give it a few days and see what happens before panicking too much. I had a similar experience last week. The scales told me I had put on nearly a kilo after a weekend where I went to a party and then a supplied lunch I had at a conference for work. I had done a bigger than normal exercise session in between, but the scales still betrayed me. I had a bit of a meltdown in front of my personal trainer, but she was very encouraging and told me to wait until the end of the week and see what the scales said. if they were still up, then she would tweak my program, but she suspected the carbs were playing havoc, or it could have been one of those normal fluctuations.

So anyway, three days later, the scales were back down and I'm back on track. Don't beat yourself up about the occasional treat; I really believe that I need those or I would never be able to sustain it. I am totally focused on what I'm doing being a lifestyle change and not a diet. But having a lifestyle still means living a little!

Good luck with your journey.

natika33

I've been wondering the same thing. I didn't have time to log what I ate over the crazy Halloween weekend, but I don't feel like I topped 2000 calories per day yet somehow I gained a pound by Monday and another pound over the following week (despite exercising and mostly eating on track again). I hope it's water weight as a few people have said!

SHBoss1673

I'm not sure there is such a thing if you're really serious about a life change. I mean, maybe you'll stop logging in here, but you should never stop using the same techniques. I'm a case-in-point. I've been on MFP for 5 years, I've graduated from a regular member to more of a mentor. I don't really use the site tools any more, once in a while to stay on track, but normally I log in to mentor others and answer questions. It helps me stay focused.

Not to say you always have to stay super strict, once you reach your goals you should A) set new goals, maybe different kinds of goals, like instead of weight loss, maybe a run time, or an endurance level or a body fat %, and examine your diet, try to incorporate things into it that will help you stay "sane", a few treats here and there are fine, as long as you plan for them and keep them reasonable. This is a way of life, a permanent change.

lleffas

I followed the guidelines on here and lost about 5 lbs right away and then stalled. I was spinning every day for about 1 hour and my weight wouldn't move. I started reading about Tom Venuto and found his website. His philosophy is feed the muscle burn the fat. He thinks a diet that restricts calories to 1200 is way to low. He says the average woman's BMR is around 2150...just to maintain weight and that alot of people drop their calories so low that the body goes into starvation mode. Made sense to me. I was consuming 1200 calories in food and burning between 600 and 800 every day during spinning based my HRM. I bumped my calories back up to 1700, dropped my spinning back to 30 minutes and added some weight lifting. It took about one week for everything to start working again and over the weekend I lost 1.5 lbs, plus my energy has returned. I think there is a lot of science behind it and you just have to figure out what works for you. For me, moderation in cardio and moderation in calorie restriction seems to be working. Good luck!:bigsmile:

fionarama

the answer to your question is a simple Yes. You can never just eat whatever and expect your weight to be stable. You will always have to manage your weight. You can splurge once in a while but nor more than 1 or two times a week otherwise you will always gain weight again.
its not "water weight" whatever that is, but you can choose, whether you want to have those splurges then spend weeks "dieting" to take it back off again or whether you want to maintain a steady weight by not splurging and eating healthily but never have to "diet" again.

fteale

I completely understand where you are coming from. I get depressed at the idea that this is it. I am stuck at 1500 cals forever, just to maintain the weight I want to be. Just to maintain a healthy weight, really. I am not super thin at all, just in the middle of healthy.

dad106

the answer to your question is a simple Yes. You can never just eat whatever and expect your weight to be stable. You will always have to manage your weight. You can splurge once in a while but nor more than 1 or two times a week otherwise you will always gain weight again.
its not "water weight" whatever that is, but you can choose, whether you want to have those splurges then spend weeks "dieting" to take it back off again or whether you want to maintain a steady weight by not splurging and eating healthily but never have to "diet" again.

Uh, yea.. it is water weight.. you don't gain fat(IE actual weight) from splurges. Water weight comes on when you've had extra sodium since sodium makes you retain water.. and a lot of splurge foods are filled with sodium.

To gain a pound of fat you need to eat 3500 extra calories.. which means she would have had to have eaten 7,000 extra calories to gain those extra two pounds... which I'm sure she didn't do from the information given.

I splurge all the time on the weekends and have maintained my weight just fine because I know the weight gain in temporary and not real... She doesn't have to diet for weeks to take it back off again.. It normally drops in like a day or two.

AlsDonkBoxSquat

the answer to your question is a simple Yes. You can never just eat whatever and expect your weight to be stable. You will always have to manage your weight. You can splurge once in a while but nor more than 1 or two times a week otherwise you will always gain weight again.
its not "water weight" whatever that is, but you can choose, whether you want to have those splurges then spend weeks "dieting" to take it back off again or whether you want to maintain a steady weight by not splurging and eating healthily but never have to "diet" again.

Uh, yea.. it is water weight.. you don't gain fat(IE actual weight) from splurges. Water weight comes on when you've had extra sodium since sodium makes you retain water.. and a lot of splurge foods are filled with sodium.

To gain a pound of fat you need to eat 3500 extra calories.. which means she would have had to have eaten 7,000 extra calories to gain those extra two pounds... which I'm sure she didn't do from the information given.

I splurge all the time on the weekends and have maintained my weight just fine because I know the weight gain in temporary and not real... She doesn't have to diet for weeks to take it back off again.. It normally drops in like a day or two.

Agreed, discounting science and resisting the existence of water weight from an excessive amount of sodium is . . . well I don't even have a word for that. If you don't believe in it you really should google it as I find that the more tools I have in my tool box regarding the way the human body works and reacts the eaiser it is to adjust my intake accordingly to maximize my desired results. Sodium is just like everything else, the human body requires it to function properly, and reacts to it in excess. Our bodies have fantastic ways of showing us where we need less of something or more of it.

I never weigh on Mondays because I allow myself weekends without logging most of the time. No, you will never be able to return to the lifestyle that you had before that got you here in the first place, eating in excess constantly and not moving will bare the same results as last time. However, you will be able to loosen up this lifestyle a little more at maintenance and allow for a larger net calorie. My maintenance calories are unfortunately low, however I make sure that I maintain an active lifestyle which allows me to eat anywhere from 1700 - 2200 caloires on any given exercise day. For me what I eat plays as important a role in my weightloss and maintenance as how much I eat, but only because I have a ton of allergies that impact my weight gain/loss.

Beezil

I'm not trying to be mean, so please don't take what I say in that way! I think 1200 calories is plenty (for me, personally) especially when I can get even more by doing a good workout. At first though, 1200 sucked! It definitely took some getting used to. I think that once your body adjusts to it and you learn what a real portion size is (and your tummy learns too lol) it is much easier to be satisfied with that amount of food each day. Besides that, I do usually allow myself a "cheat meal" once a week, as long as I've had a good week calorie-wise and exercising.