Maintenance help needed

melsinct

I am struggling to find my perfect maintenance number and unfortunately searching MFP hasn't helped me out a whole lot since most people here aren't maintaining yet.

I have a whopping 2 pounds left until my goal weight and have been stuck at the same weight since early September. I focused more on strength training in the beginning of August, figuring the weight would come off eventually with me being at a 0.5 lb/week deficit. Didn't happen. About 3 weeks ago, I upped my calories to what MFP considers "maintenance" just to see what happened. Nothing, nada, zip. My weight is still in the exact same spot. If it matters, I am 5'7", started MFP at 175, goal is 145, and I am currently stuck at 147. I know some will say screw it, it is only 2 pounds, but I want a couple pounds of swing room for normal fluctuations in weight as I go along in maintenance and the weight of 145 will put me in that exact spot.

I started investigating maintenance calories yesterday, since I have been following MFP blindly until this point. MFP puts me at a little over 1800 calories for maintenance. I searched on five other websites using their calculators to figure out maintenance. All put me in the over 2000 calorie range; averaged out from the different websites I looked at, my maintenance is at 2160 calories. I then calculated my TDEE per some posts I have seen on MFP, which ends up being 2216. Now I am wondering if my maintenance truly is 2100, am I not eating enough right now to keep me at a 0.5 lb/week deficit.

After all of this rambling, my bottom line question is: was MFP's maintenance number right for you or did you end up having to add more (or less) calories to keep that balance.

pnesabrina

So, we have the same height, my initial weight was 181 and I've been mantaining around 145 for over 6 months. What works for me is: I set my cals to lose .5 a week, and go over (way over) during the weekend. I like to drink and eat out, so I build a deficit over the week to compensate for the "free" weekend. Worked just fine for me... All the luck for you!!!

erickirb

TDEE includes caloreis burned from exercise whereas MFP's maintenance cals is your maintenance assuming no exercise, so if you add in your exercise calories to MFP your maintenance on those days should be higher than the TDEE, but on days you don't workout it will be lower than TDEE, but averaged for the week you should be within a couple hundred calories.

I would go by MFP that way if you miss a workout you don't over eat on that day as you would sticking with TDEE.

Robin1117

Hi there! Congrats on making it to your goal (almost!). I have found it's just not an exact science. When I started maintaining (a year and a half ago....), I changed my settings to "lose 1/2 lb/week. I never did lose weight after that, but it just helped me go up gradually in calories. I would wait a few weeks or a month, then up it again slightly, manually, and then eventually I reached a point where I feel comfortable maintaining. I think I only reached that point a few months ago but I'm pretty slow to react......

Please check out the maintenance thread, there are lots of posts about this...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/191617-maintenance-thread

also, I wrote up a blog on this when I reached my 1 year maintenance anniversary on what has worked for me. Maybe it'll help?

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Robin1117/view/one-year-ago-this-week-maintenance-106486

melsinct

Thanks for the info, every response was incredibly helpful! I guess I am trying to figure out where my ceiling, or maximum calories allowed, is with maintenance so I can gradually back away from daily logging. Like everything with this whole weight loss business, I guess it will involve more trial and error.

TavistockToad

Does the 2 pounds REALLY make a difference? I am at maintenance and have a 4 pound 'range' and i honestly cannot tell the difference on my body within those 4 pounds...

If you are really that set on losing the final 2, i would drop your cals back down to lose 1lb per week for a fortnight, then bring them back up once you have lost them.

ArroganceInStep

The closer you get to maintenance the harder it is to lose weight. The last 10 pounds are positively brutal for most people (not saying you shouldn't still shoot for your goal, just that you should expect it to be difficult).

I'm not going to give advice on what specific changes you should make, but I will say start with making small changes and give yourself a couple weeks (or more...well, preferably more) to see if it works. Only if those don't work should you go look to more drastic options.


Good luck!

melsinct

Does the 2 pounds REALLY make a difference?

It does, only because at 150 pounds, I technically go up another pants size. That only gives me 3 pounds of swing weight right now before my new pants don't fit! I would feel better with a 5 pound leeway.

weeze_h

We also are very similar - I currently weigh 140 and my goal weight is 138. 2lbs away and have been for 2months! I was on 1500 cals to lose 1/2lb and i always ate most of my exercise cals. I lost 15lbs that way and now I only want 2lbs more I've came to a halt. I'be now been trying upping to my maintanence of 1700 and eating as close to that every day but not eating back my exercise cals and that's not working either.

On the plus side I came off logging for 3-4 days and ate rubbish - Burger kings, hotdogs, cider but after a few days of eating well again I tried the scale this morning and I'm still 140!

My reasoning for the last 2lbs is although I'm typing in lbs my head still works in stone. I'm 10st 0 just now, losing 2lbs takes me under 10st!! But I'm not beating myself up about it too much its only a number and I know I'm in the healthyBMI range and probably the lowest weight I've ever been.

Good luck - if u find upping the calories to over 2000 works then please share. I may give it a go myself over Christmas! ;-)

Robin1117

About the 2 lbs---I think when your body reaches a certain point, sometimes it just wants to stay there. That's how it was when I started maintaining--the scale just would not budge beyond a certain point. Melsinct--if you may be that close between sizes, maybe it's exercise as opposed to weight that will get you there. When I first started maintaining, I was a size 27 waist. unfortunately that's the only measurement I took so I don't know the hip and other metrics. But now these pants are all baggy on me. I'm the exact same weight now--- but needed to go down to a size 26 waist a few months ago because of all the exercise and toning I have worked on this year.....I was so reluctant to try it, but am now convinced, it's not all about the number on the scale!

ktfitzgerald

Wish I could help. But I can't figure out the magic maintenance number either. My last 2 pounds (plus s few more) magically disappeared after I stopped working out for 2 weeks due to hand surgery.

Rae6503

MFP maintenance is NOT right for me. I think it wants me around 1900 or so. I have a pretty little chart I keep in excel that seems to indicate that it is closer to 2250 and that's net after eating and subtracting exercise calories.

Sidesteal

I understand your frustration with trying to get a bit more lean, but I don't think you're going to perfectly nail your maintenance intake. If you can get within a hundred or so you're in good shape. Once you eat at maintenance it's just going to take close monitoring of weight change trends over the course of time. You may need to fine tune after a few weeks at what you think is maintenance.

beaner1st

I have gone through the same thing. I am 5'2" and my goal was 115. I have bounced between 116 and 117 for the past 6 weeks. Today I have upped my calories again and hit maintenance. I will continue to log and exercise and see if this is the new me.

MrsLaurenAsh

GetHealthy.com says around 10-11 Calories per pound is adequate for maintanace. It's worked for me when I've tried it. Im at 138, so I eat around 1380 to maintain. Of course, I'm sure that can vary for different individuals.

TavistockToad

GetHealthy.com says around 10-11 Calories per pound is adequate for maintanace. It's worked for me when I've tried it. Im at 138, so I eat around 1380 to maintain. Of course, I'm sure that can vary for different individuals.

10 cals per pound would make my maintenance cals 1230.... i NET 1800 to maintain....

carrie_eggo

bump...need to read this later