Maintenance advice

arrawyn79
arrawyn79 Posts: 275 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello all,

I've hit my goal now (150lbs for a girl who is 5'3 and that's fine for me) and now I want to maintain. For the past 5 months i've been eating a healthy, low carb (but also good, natural carbs in veggies etc - just no white rice, white bread, white pasta, potatoes, no cheese except light feta etc), high protein, lotsa veggies diet. Exercising 6 days a week (cardio and weights for at least an hour a day - e.g. walking dog, walking to/from work briskly, 30 Day Shred, Treadmill/Elliptical, strength training routines) and my MFP was set at 1200 cals and i haven't really been eating my exercise calories back.

and so yesterday i manually changed my calories on here to 1300 and i will do that for a week and then up by another 100 until i reach the calorie level MFP says is my 'maintenance level' (1,690) - because I've read on here that's what other people do.

I just weighed myself this morning (and it's my TOM) and the scale read 149!!! (eek,( but also yay!) but i don't want to lose anymore...).

but i've never been in a maintenance mode so does anyone have any advice? should I do less exercise? or do the same exercise as before while losing and just eat more/eat back my exercise cals? i'm so used to seeing the scale go down that I don't want to see it creep up with increasing my calories!

i'm finding it hard to eat 1300 calories after watching my cals so closely and being at a deficit to lose weight for the past 5 months - so i'm assuming learning/trying to eat 1690 will seem impossible! because i'm still trying to eat healthy and get those amount of calls and not go over on fat or carbs...but it seems like i would just have to sit and constantly eat all day! lol

Any advice/help would be appreciated... i'm just not really sure what i should be doing...

Replies

  • Dudagarcia
    Dudagarcia Posts: 849 Member
    Bump
  • Chantal34
    Chantal34 Posts: 128
    I'm in maintenance mode now also. Mine is set to 1860 calories per day. I used to work out 4-5 days a week, now I just do three days a week. I'm a little more than 2 weeks in to maintenance mode and I haven't gained or lost.
  • arrawyn79
    arrawyn79 Posts: 275 Member
    I'm in maintenance mode now also. Mine is set to 1860 calories per day. I used to work out 4-5 days a week, now I just do three days a week. I'm a little more than 2 weeks in to maintenance mode and I haven't gained or lost.

    as soon as you went into maintenance mode did you immediately just start eating 1860 calories? or did you gradually build up to that by increasing your cals by 100 a week?
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Eating more is weird at first, but as long as u r adding the majority of exta cals with health stuff, you'll b fine. Nuts r a good high cal snack, you can easily add 100 cals with a few Brazil's or almonds. And choose full fat instead of low fat, for cottage cheese and stuff like that if u eat it?

    You are dong right by increasing each week, you may lose a couple of pounds to start with, I did, but it will balance out, plus you should have a maintenance range not a number to account for fluctuations anyway. So u could go for 148- 152.... As long as u r in that range u r good to go!

    I ave been maintaining for a while, though I am trying to lose a little more bdy fat at the moment, feel free to add me if u want?
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    A lot of people keep losing for a while after they up calories. Give it a week and stick to your plan. You're not underweight and the worse thing that happens is a little thinner. But you should stabilize, it is VERY easy to regain weight you've lost.

    And it's only a few pounds. As you know, those come and go.
  • Chantal34
    Chantal34 Posts: 128
    I'm in maintenance mode now also. Mine is set to 1860 calories per day. I used to work out 4-5 days a week, now I just do three days a week. I'm a little more than 2 weeks in to maintenance mode and I haven't gained or lost.

    No I immediately started it, lol. I felt like I was dying on the deficit. 1200 calories a day is just too little in my opinion.
  • MrGonzo05
    MrGonzo05 Posts: 1,120 Member
    I maintain my exercise. I worked hard to build up a certain level of fitness and I don't want to let it waste away. A major difference is now I try to eat back the majority of calories burned in exercise. While losing I didn't eat back calories unless I was hungry, or I wanted a treat. One exception is for extremely long bike rides, I always ate more on purpose to support that.
  • 2hobbit1
    2hobbit1 Posts: 820 Member
    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

    Take a look at this calculator - it will let your see what your BMR is and see what your TDEE - your energy expenditure is at your current weight based on various levels of activity.

    This will give you a good idea of where your maintenance levels of calories should be based on what you current activity level is and if you increase or decrease your activity it gives you an idea of how to adjust you calorie target.
  • arrawyn79
    arrawyn79 Posts: 275 Member
    thanks for all the advice everyone! :)

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