who here is just maintaining their weight??

kkylstad

once you get to your goal weight, does that mean you are able to eat more calories daily? right now i am allowed 1230 and wanted to know if that will go up once my weight goes down?

kkylstad

once you get to your goal weight, does that mean you are able to eat more calories daily? right now i am allowed 1230 and wanted to know if that will go up once my weight goes down?

kkylstad

anybody?:ohwell:

rem1979

I am not maintaining yet but yes, you will be able to eat more once you hit your goal weight. You should be able to eat what you are burning for the day.

lotusfromthemud

Yes, you can eat more. (for me, it's been around 300 calories a day.) Frankly, it's a weird adjustment. Especially since I was reducing for so long, it's hard to eat as much as maintenance requires. But, . . .

Hooray for maintenance.:flowerforyou:

Also, I think it's a really good idea to slow down when you get close to your goal weight. I went from a pound a week to 1/2 a pound then to maintenance.

kkylstad

Yes, you can eat more. (for me, it's been around 300 calories a day.) Frankly, it's a weird adjustment. Especially since I was reducing for so long, it's hard to eat as much as maintenance requires. But, . . .

Hooray for maintenance.:flowerforyou:

Also, I think it's a really good idea to slow down when you get close to your goal weight. I went from a pound a week to 1/2 a pound then to maintenance.

so you are eating 300 more a day...wow, that's a whole other meal. has it been easy for you to maintain and are you still working out as hard?

banks1850

Yep I am at maintenance. It's not so much adding more as stopping depriving yourself from what you "should" be eating. And yeah, it's an odd adjustment, I felt guilty for about a month, but it works, I haven't budged my weight for about 1 month, and my waist is down another inch. Which means I now have a lower body fat %.

For reference.

my daily was about 2500 for maintenance.
I was eating about 1900 unless I was exercising, then I was eating the exercise calories too.

I still exercise so I am at about 3000 cals a day. Let me tell you, 3000 calories a day is not easy to come up with, using all healthy food. I do it, but man I have to stare at the fridge for about 10 minutes every night to figure it out.
Needless to say, between the wife and me, we blow through the 20 lb bags of frozen chicken breasts

lotusfromthemud

It's easy and not easy to maintain. I made the mistake of adding strength training at the very end. . .so I've actually gained a pound, but lowered my body fat %. This is a hard psychological battle. I also confess that I'd love to see that "magic number" 135 on my scale, but I'll settle for being a super buff size 4/6 instead of my current semi-squishy size 4/6!

I'm still working out as hard (I love it, and I'm still trying to lose body fat.)

I find that what I'm doing is adding calories here and there. . .full-fat salad dressing or cheese in my salad for example or ocassionally (like every week or so. . .butter on my whole grain, wheat free waffles) OH, how I love butter.

Also, I've made my snacks bigger. Adding peanut or almond butter to my apple, for example.

Since to lose a pound a week, you have to have a 500 calorie deficit, you get to eat a lot more when you're maintaining.

Healthier_Me

I'm maintaining @ 125 pounds.
It was so hard to consume the extra cals and still hard at times but it gets easier.

When I was trying to lose weight, I had to consume no less than 1200 calories but now I must consume 1690 cals (this is w/o exercise). I reached 2000 calories the other day b/c I exercised my butt off and I freaked out! I kept saying to myself, "How the heck am I going to consume that many calories???!!". I wasn't able to. I'm learning as I go and read some posts.

~Joanna:flowerforyou:

dmflynt

I've been on maintenance for about 2 months now. It was strange to be able to add calories at first, but doing the daily logging of my food really helped me change my habits. My weight loss calories were 1200, and I lost 17 lbs in about 3 months (late Sept to late Dec.....yes, even with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!). My maintenance is about 1450. I don't log any more, but I do weigh myself almost daily. I've selected a "trigger weight" that will get me back to strict logging of my food, but so far I haven't had to go back to that. I continued to lose inches after I hit my target weight......it's like my skin had to catch up!

In the 3 months I was being really strict with my food intake, I made switches in my diet that have stuck with me......avoid trans fats, minimal fried foods, lower fat meats, lower fat cheese, oatmeal for breakfast nearly every day, more fruits & vegetables.

I had a blood test today to check my cholesterol level and am REALLY hoping the healthy changes have made an improvement in my numbers!

deanea

Yes, my calories were 1200 and I'm still upping my calories on maintenance due to losing after maintenance, I'm now at 1800. not including my exersice calories.:happy: