Changing goals?

natwen

I have been on the lose 1.5/week track for a few months now. I am about 15 pounds away from my goal and am wondering if I should change to lose 1/week instead. Will it matter in the future (when I am at maintenance) if I start eating more calories now?

SpazzyMal

I think "easing out of it", so to speak, is a good idea. It's what I plan on doing when I get closer. So I say, yes, go for it and change your goal. It definitely couldn't hurt anything — the only thing it should "negatively" change is that you will lose slower. But at a lower weight you should be losing slower anyway. It'll likely help avoid putting on weight when you go off your diet because you will have been eating closer to maintenance anyway and your body wont freak out and go "whoa wait what's all this?"

natwen

Thanks! Anybody else have thoughts?

SoDamnHungry

Well, I guess it depends on why you want to change to lose one pound a week vs 1.5. If 1.5 was working comfortably for me, I'd probably stay at it to lose a little faster. But if you're just tired of limiting yourself and want a few more calories every day, that might be worth it to you. Especially if it helps you stay on track and keeps you from binging.

natwen

The 1.5 has been working okay for me. I usually don't lose 1.5 though, more like .8 most of the time. So maybe if I change to 1/week I won't lose much of anything! I was considering 1/week because I don't want a bounce back during maintenance. But maybe I should get closer first... hmmm

katamus

Looks like you have yourself set to 1200 calories.. I would start slowly increasing. I bumped up to 1300 and lost a bunch the following week (I only have 21 lbs to lose so 2 lbs in a week is a lot to me). I'll be bumping up to 1400 here soon.

jonchew

Funny, I've been thinking-about the same thing, but for different reasons.

I have around 12 more pounds that I'd like to be rid-if, but I've been stuck a my current weight for several months now. I've read on these boards that adding calories may sometimes actually help in getting over "a plateau". So I plugged-in 1Lb./wk (instead of 1.5Lb./wk) into my weight loss goals, which really raised my daily caloric intake more that what I felt comfortable doing... so I compromised - and split the difference. So tomorrow I'll be aiming for a whopping 1700 calories net.

Hey, change is good, right?

natwen

Hmm, maybe I will change goals if I hit a plateau