Need guidance - going into maintenance

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jumatwins
jumatwins Posts: 74
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

I have almost reached my goal and want to start "maintenaing" my weight now... And not sure how I should do this...
In summary:
5'3", Female, 40 yrs old, started at 132 lb.
Before starting MFP and starting my new "lifestyle" :wink: I did ZERO exercise but was eating pretty well, no fast foods - but eating too large portions I believe, and too much carbs...
So to lose weight, I ate approx 1250 cal a day (so around BMR, TDEE at around 1500)

Now I weight 115lb, and I exercise 3-5 times a week (30 min intense workout - circuit training type and strenght training). P.S: I just bought "You are your own gym" book and plan to start this training soon). Very excited about that!

I follow a low carb "diet" (I prefer lifestyle) - approximately 30% Carbs, 40% protein and 30% Fat.

Now that I am exercising, my TDEE (calculated from different sites) is between 1750-1900 cal a day....!!
That is pretty scary for me...as I do not want to put the weight back on...

DO I really need to up my calories by more than 500 cal a day just to maintain? Really?
Should I up it gradually and see how my body reacts?

Oh, and to confuse things more : If I go in my MFP settings and swith to maintenance, it gives me 1460 cal per day. I still put "sedentary" because I do have a desk job... but even if I put 'active" (which doesn't fit the definition they have since I am not up on my feet all day) it gives me 1590 cal per day to maintain...



What has been you experience when switching into "maintenance' mode?

Thank you for all your input, I am a bit scared and lost here :tongue:

Replies

  • jumatwins
    jumatwins Posts: 74
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    Bump... :cry:
  • Graelwyn75
    Graelwyn75 Posts: 4,404 Member
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    I would suggest upping your intake 100 every week or two, and monitoring your weight to see what happens, and increase it until you are no longer losing, and not gaining. That seems the best option to me.
  • jumatwins
    jumatwins Posts: 74
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    Thanks:-) i'm thinking of doing this...!
  • kacarter1017
    kacarter1017 Posts: 651 Member
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    I've been there. I had to play with things a bit, but what I did was initially increase my calories to what MFP told me I should eat, but didn't eat back all my exercise calories (ate about 1/2). I very slowly gained about 5 pounds, so I found I needed to cut 200 calories off MFP's maintenance calories for me and then eat back about 1/2 my exercise calories. However, I have yo yo dieted SO many times in my life, I have done a real number on my metabolism and body requirements. This has worked really well now. The other thing I've found is that I am now VERY sensitive to refined carbs and sodium now. I've heard that others have to be careful of certain things...seems to be an individualized phenomenon. Took me a bit to figure it out, but now I know.

    Hope this helps!
  • jumatwins
    jumatwins Posts: 74
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    thank you !
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
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    The size of the deficit you maintained to lose weight will determine how long the transition to weight recovery will last. This is why I assume a total deficit from eating less and exercise no greater than 25% below actual TDEE. Usually I aim for 1 lb to start and eat 300 calories under TDEE and do 200 calories worth of increased exercise to establish the 500 deficit. [Note: MFP automatically establishes the 500 deficit exclusively from calorie restriction, which is why you eat back exercise calories since exercise is not included in the deficit.] The closer I get to my goal body fat percentage, I shrink the deficit by upping calories to 200 under TDEE. So it doesn't take long to gradually up calories back to TDEE range (100 calories every two weeks).

    Just slowly decrease your deficit by reducing exercise calories via cardio by 50-100 (do less cardio) and or by adding 50-100 calories every two or three weeks. Once you reach a point where you neither gain nor lose weight for one solid month, you're reached your adjusted TDEE. You will gain a little bit of water weight as your body adjusts to eating more food. Also, expect some fat redopisition during weight recovery.

    The biggest predictor to how much weight you will regain is your starting body fat percentage before the intervention - this is why people with a lot of weight to lose have the tendency to gain back a bit. Another contributing factor is the degree of depression in thermogenesis (increased efficiency of food utilization, ie, functioning on less calories) while maintaining a deficit (the larger the deficit, the greater the depression). The reason for this depression in thermogenesis is to accelerate the replenishment of lost fat stores.

    Basically, what the above states is large deficits will lead to a greater degree of fat redeposition...fun, huh?

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