How to start maintenance ?? Help!

rachelilb
rachelilb Posts: 179 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello!!

Ok, so I am 5 pounds away from my goal weight and have no clue how to go into "maintenance mode". To give a little background on myself...... I started this journey in May and have lost 85 pounds and some change. I have started eating more (about 1500 calories) the past month or so. Before i was doing the whole 1200 thing (ugg). I exercise about 6 days a week and most days I do not eat back my exercise calories. How many calories should i eat to maintain my weight loss???

Starting weight- 220 pounds
Current weight- 135
Height 5"1

Exercise schedule:
Monday - Ripped in 30 dvd (burn about 175 calories for 25 min) Gym-Running/walking 45 min and 30 min strength training(burn about 600)

Tue-Ripped in 30 (burn about 175) walking 30 min (burn about 100)
Wed-Same workout as Monday
Thur-Same workout as Monday
Friday-Ripped in 30
Sat-Gym-Running/walking and 30 min strength training (burn about 600)
Sun-Gym-Running/walking and 30 min strength training (burn about 600)

It is very rare that I take a total rest day unless i am exhausted or in pain.
According to some tools i found online:
BMR-1287
Body Fat - 25.8
35.3 pounds of fat on my body
TDEE-Light exercise 1925
Moderate 2170
no exercise 1680
I got some different numbers from another website
Lightly active-1518
Moderately active-1711
Very active-1904
Extremely active-2098

Help!! I have no clue what to do or where to begin starting maintenance. Any info or help given i greatly appreciated! My diary is open!

Replies

  • rachelilb
    rachelilb Posts: 179 Member
    Forgot to mention that I don't plan to workout this much for the rest of my life. I will most likely do 4 days of gym workouts and maybe some walking or a dvd a couple days a week. I am really loving running and would like to become a "runner".
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
    Just add 100-200 cals per day. (for a week at a time averaged out) until you stop losing weight. Keep up the exercise though :smile:
  • running_shoe
    running_shoe Posts: 180 Member
    I just started maintenance this week. You can just set your MFP goal to maintain, and it will adjust your calories upward. I plan to continue counting and logging in order to maintain my weight. I don't think it needs to be a big adjustment at all.
  • bufger
    bufger Posts: 763 Member
    You need to experinment and see what works for you.

    Firstly decrease your exercise to a level you will maintain permanently and keep your calories as they are now. Monitor if you're gaining, losing or maintaining. You may find that you're maintaining but losing 1lb every 4 weeks or so, if thats the case then either eat a little bit more per day (do it in 100 calorie increments) or decrease your excercise by one session.

    You'll have to find your own magic spot and use MFP and monitor your weight every week. This will then become habit so you wont need any tools anymore.

    If you have a big night out with a meal and a few beers then do an extra big exercise session that week to offset it.
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
    Well, you've probably got a sluggish metabolism due to 6 mouths of underfeeding. I'd take a couple weeks to get up to 2000 calories and weigh myself after 1 week as a baseline then from weeks 2-4 weigh myself weekly to see any gain. The first week you will gain--that's to be expected due to increased food and water weight. I'd only count the weight gained after week 1 and then calculate my TDEE based on what happens from that point on. That's just ME..good luck.
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
    Just add 100-200 cals per day. (for a week at a time averaged out) until you stop losing weight. Keep up the exercise though :smile:

    This
  • gregpack
    gregpack Posts: 426 Member
    As mentioned be prepared to gain a few pounds during transition. If you have a scale goal, you might want to overshoot your target so you won't freak out when this happens. I have a 5 lb acceptable range that I try to keep my weight in, but I'm a bit bigger. If you're active and stay away from crap, you'll be surprised how much you can eat and not gain. Keep pushing that caloric content upwards, a few weeks at a time, until you are either satiated or see an definite upward trend in weight, then scale back.
  • ishapeme
    ishapeme Posts: 213 Member
    Hey Rachel, I found this great site with loads of information. Maybe it can help.


    http://body-improvements.com/resources/eat/
  • Tilran
    Tilran Posts: 627 Member
    Well, you've probably got a sluggish metabolism due to 6 mouths of underfeeding. I'd take a couple weeks to get up to 2000 calories and weigh myself after 1 week as a baseline then from weeks 2-4 weigh myself weekly to see any gain. The first week you will gain--that's to be expected due to increased food and water weight. I'd only count the weight gained after week 1 and then calculate my TDEE based on what happens from that point on. That's just ME..good luck.

    I'd follow this advice. Reading the numbers you posted, you were eating 1200 calories and your BMR was nearly 1300...AND you exercised on top of this. You lost in 5-6 months 84 pounds.....that is a huge amount per month...if you did any damage to metabolism, at least it was only 5-6 months....wont take too long for it to repair....but you want to scale up slowly on calories as the fast weight loss can cause fast weight gain. (yo-yo diet)
  • rachelilb
    rachelilb Posts: 179 Member
    Thank you all for your opinions. It sounds like i need to slowly increase my calories and cut back on some of the exercise. I did this to get to the 1500 and so far it has worked. Most days are over 1500 and I have been splurging the past few weeks due to several celebrations, I didn't gain any weight and actually kept losing. I realized that 1200 was not healthy and was not something that I could stick with forever. I now know what is healthy and what is not so I would like to get to maintenance the healthiest way possible.

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