Moving up to maintenance..slow and gentle or bump it up?

msbunnie68
msbunnie68 Posts: 1,894 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all..
I am now around a kilo from my original goal weight (nearly 3 lbs) so I have been looking at maintenance and how to smoothly transition.

So this is my plan: I have upped my daily calories this week by 10 cals per day /70 cals for the week. I will give myself 2 weeks to adjust then bump up the cals another 10 per day /70 per week and I will keep going until I reach a level of cals where my weight doesn't fluctuate too much.

Although I am 3lbs from goal, my doctor was quite ok about me going 2kg lower if I wanted (to 53kg instead of 55kg) so that gives me roughly about 5lbs of buffer zone (a total of 8) that I can lose off during the transition to maintenance.

I looked at changing the MPF settings from 1lb a week weight loss to 1/2lb a week weightloss and it changed my cals from 1330 (I had raised them manually from 1260 because that was not enough food for me) to 1560 in one leap. I felt that looked a little drastic going up 230cal per day/1610 per week after eating at 1330 for a while now (and let's be honest here, at 44 I think I need to really take things a little easier on the body beautiful!).

How did you guys do your transition - did you step up slowly like my plan or did you just bump it up and enjoy the food?

Replies

  • WendyFlynn
    WendyFlynn Posts: 139 Member
    I think most people will advise you to bump it up gradually, then you can monitor your weight and adjust calories accordingly.

    However, I am not most people, I went straight for maintenance calories! 1200 to 1680, that was 8 weeks ago now and I've not gained a pound :)

    I still weigh every Thursday morning to keep myself accountable and I still log everything on MFP, good and bad!

    Well done on your weight loss.

    BTW - I am having a break to learn about moderation and not just restriction of calories and I will be back on the horse in the New Year to shift the last 20lbs
  • tommygirl15
    tommygirl15 Posts: 1,012 Member
    Congrats on almost reaching your goal!
    I've also heard it's good to go up gradually, but to each their own. I'm not sure how one figures out what their maintenance number is without playing around with different calorie counts above the BMR. I'm actually only 2 lbs away from maintenance myself and am still a bit clueless as to what I'll do.
  • Limbo2012
    Limbo2012 Posts: 170 Member
    Congratulations on making it to your last 3 lbs!

    I’m entering the same ‘zone’ as you are. I have 5 lbs left on the scale to reach my ultimate goal but after a good look in the mirror this morning, decided it was time to move on to Phase II: ‘Maintenance’. Been at 1200 for the last 5 months but have changed my MFP settings today to ‘0.5/week’ instead of 1 (moving up to 1310).

    I have unfortunately seen too many gradually throwing MFP away and going back to old habits that made us overweight in the first place so am planning on sticking to the same approach: logging every day, monitoring my weight weekly and continuing with the good eating and exercise habits I've developed. I will be focusing more on toning my body.

    Your plan of gradually increasing your calories sounds like a wise one. Good luck! :)
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    You can just up by 100 cals per week... There is no need to do 10 cals per day really!
  • katevarner
    katevarner Posts: 884 Member
    At that rate, you are likely to continue to lose for a while. Might want to consider bumping up a little quicker. Why not split the difference and go to 1445 per day for a couple of weeks? Then if you are still losing at least half a pound a week, go to the 1560 to see if you still lose at that rate? I found that I did not stop losing very quickly. In fact, while MFP says I should maintain at about 1700, I have to eat in excess of 2000 not to lose weight. So I would recommend going a little faster. If the weight loss stops earlier than you want, you can always go back down.
  • msbunnie68
    msbunnie68 Posts: 1,894 Member
    At that rate, you are likely to continue to lose for a while. Might want to consider bumping up a little quicker. Why not split the difference and go to 1445 per day for a couple of weeks? Then if you are still losing at least half a pound a week, go to the 1560 to see if you still lose at that rate? I found that I did not stop losing very quickly. In fact, while MFP says I should maintain at about 1700, I have to eat in excess of 2000 not to lose weight. So I would recommend going a little faster. If the weight loss stops earlier than you want, you can always go back down.

    Thanks..I think I may split difference like you suggested. I do have a buffer zone so still losing for a month won't be an issue. It is just a case of trial and error at the moment to find that sweet spot again without freaking myself out with an iniital adjustment gain.

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