At goal weight - scared!

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So I made my goal weight - yay, me! But now when I reset my profile, the amount of calories that MFP says I should eat to maintain seems huge. I'm scared that this will lead to an immediate gain. Is anybody maintaining successfully with this level of calories?

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  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Congrats!!!! I'd increase slowly, personally. Eat 100 or 200 more for a couple weeks, see what it does... if you're still losing, eat 100 more etc.
  • Yanicka1
    Yanicka1 Posts: 4,564 Member
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    Your weight WILL go up. It is a normal response to eating more but it does not mean you are getting fatter. Up your calories slowly, don't freak if the scale move and give yourself plenty of time to adjust.

    also being ­"scared" of feeding your body at an appropriate level is not a really healthy state of mind. I would keep an eye on that.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    Congrats!!!! I'd increase slowly, personally. Eat 100 or 200 more for a couple weeks, see what it does... if you're still losing, eat 100 more etc.

    ^ This is what I plan to do, when I reach maintenance. When I get to a point where I'm no longer losing weight, then I will sit at that level for about 4 weeks (just to be sure). Then I'll start adding calories in 4 week segments until I find the level that will actually cause me to gain. Once I figure that out, I'll probably eat somewhere between the 2 numbers (lowest amount to not lose and highest amount before gaining). After doing that for awhile, I hope that I won't have to log anymore.
  • purple4sure05
    purple4sure05 Posts: 287 Member
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    I'm in a similar position. I'm currently adding about 200 calories per day this week. I weigh in on Friday, so I'll report back with how this effects me. I'm beginning to lose too much weight, so I don't have a month or two at my disposal to allow myself to potentially lose more each week.

    The other weekend I ate two significant cheat meals in a row in an attempt to begin maintaining or even gain a pound, and yet I still lost two pounds that week, so I am a little nervous, since I have yet to figure out how my body works in regard to calories burned. I'm eager to see if anyone has some good info on this topic, as I haven't found anything and feel really ignorant to the maintenance process.
  • chezjuan
    chezjuan Posts: 747 Member
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    Congrats!!!! I'd increase slowly, personally. Eat 100 or 200 more for a couple weeks, see what it does... if you're still losing, eat 100 more etc.

    This is what I did when I hit my goal, and it worked well. Every couple of weeks where I was still losing I would add 100 calories, and now my weight has been pretty much stable right around where I want it to be.

    EDIT: Forgot to mention - when I found my balance point, it turned out it was right about what MFP says my daily calorie intake should be.