Not sure how to 'maintain'

I have no suggestions because I'm in the same boat as you. I know I don't intend to gain back my weight and am trying to increase the calories using healthy foods. It's not as easy as it sounds. Experienced maintainers, please respond.

Just start upping the calories slowly by 100 a week you'll adjust to the volume soon enough. Also why not allow yourself a treat to fill your leftover calories

No way around it. You have to eat more. Up your calories a hundred a week or so. Enjoy the extra calories you've worked hard for them!

It is so weird to be figuring out to maintain.....I have never, ever been here before. I just don't want to fall back into my old habits.

Your food diary isn't public so hard to guess what you are eating....

Good examples of calorie dense and nutrient dense foods already given so would only add that you don't need to eat "diet foods". So if you are eating low fat, "lite" or low calorie versions of foods you can add quite a few calories without any extra volume simply by eating the standard versions.

Remember that once you have hit your macro and micro nutrient needs and have a some calories left some food treats aren't going to hurt you - enjoy them!

Thank you all for your advice. I do appreciate it. I guess the reasons why I don't want to indulge is I'm afraid of gaining back what I've lost... But love the nuts, cheese, and milk ideas.

this is what i suspected. as a "maintaner" i find it easy to maintain any weight whether over or under my usual but then again i fear no foods. if u have reached ur goal weight by avoiding certain foos entirely it might be hrd to now reach ur cal goals without that freedom. itmay be tim to examin your relationship with food.

Thank you all for your advice. I do appreciate it. I guess the reasons why I don't want to indulge is I'm afraid of gaining back what I've lost... But love the nuts, cheese, and milk ideas.

this is what i suspected. as a "maintaner" i find it easy to maintain any weight whether over or under my usual but then again i fear no foods. if u have reached ur goal weight by avoiding certain foos entirely it might be hrd to now reach ur cal goals without that freedom. itmay be tim to examin your relationship with food.

Are you typing on a phone keypad roflmao

I've added more butter, coconut oil, avocado, cheese, and ice cream to my diet since trying to maintain. I also switched to higher-fat versions of soy milk and cottage cheese. If I still have calories left at the end of the day, but am not so hungry, I drink some soy milk. A spoonful of nut butter would also work. Extra treats are fun, too, like snickers:)

Maintenance can be easy or difficult for some people. When I was a personal trainer, I found that when people fully contemplated aspects of maintenance before beginning a fat loss intervention, they had less anxiety and transitioned into maintenance more easily. It also helps if you decrease the deficit as you lose weight so that you are eating just below maintenance by the time you are within a few pounds of your goal.

In a nutshell, this is what you'll have to consider:
1. Think of what foods you want to eat during maintenance and increase calories by 100 or so every two weeks. Continue to weigh and log all the food you eat.
2. Think of what type and volume of exercise you want to do during maintenance. Adjust caloric intake if you are decreasing or increasing exercise activity.

Be patient with the above as it may take a few months to get things right. But whatever changes you intend to make, do so early on so that you have less variables to worry about which could affect assessments.

I am close to maintenance and have also been considering how to handle it. I do plan to continue to log in MFP daily; it is so easy to do so and I know that I'm the type of person who, once she starts cutting corners she'll soon be back to all the old (bad) habits. As so many of the posts have suggested, I'll try adding calories back in but at a low, progressively higher, rate until I get a better sense of what it takes to maintain my weight. Ten pounds or so ago, I began weighing every day (instead of every week) so as to form the habit of doing so. This way, I'll get a handle on it quicker if the numbers are trending up. If you have trouble eating larger amounts or volumes of food, you can also try adding a scoop of protein powder to your oatmeal or yogurt (or whatever) so as to ingest better nutrients that you might get in cheesecake or ice cream...

Thank you, MFP administrators for having this new strand! You guys think of everything!! xoxo

I completely agree about it being tough and scary to maintain my new weight. I have lost 24 lbs. on MFP. I am lighter than I have been since high school. (I am far removed....:) I am so so grateful to this website for helping me attain a dream I never ever thought possible. So the last thing I want is to gain my weight back.

I weigh myself every day. I have done that for years so it's what I do.

I still log every day on MFP, but not everything I eat and always my exercise. I figure I need to start eating and living and not worrying about every calorie. I need to learn what amount of food I can eat without gaining. So far that is going well. As others have said, if I go up a bit, like when we travel and eat more, exercise less, I just get back to normal eating when we return. I try not to sweat it too much because life is about fun and new experiences, not just self-discipline.

I love putting in my exercise and seeing the calories I have "earned." That is what kept me motivated on my weight loss journey. I could eat more because I exercised! I still exercise most days. I feel so much better when I do. Again, something I have done for years.

My hubby and I are both retired and we have a beer or two (or wine) almost daily. At first I was terrified that I would start gaining. But it has not happened! I know the healthy amount for a woman is one glass a day but sometimes I have two. Again, there's that self-discipline vs. a buzz is nice......

My biggest problem is winter. Since I started exercising outside, it is tough to hit the treadmill again. So boring! I check-out exercise DVDs from our library and that is a nice change. (I don't belong to a gym, again the whole indoors thing.) But I still gain weight during the winter months. I always have. I believe it is because we are mammals and our bodies think we should be hibernating all winter, like bears, and we put on an extra layer of fat and weight to keep warm. Okay, I know you think I'm nuts:) I am hoping to combat that this winter by being in FLA! We will take our bikes and ride or run or walk or swim every day! I am anxious to see if that breaks my winter-gain cycle.

I wrote too much, sorry. But it's been kind of cathartic! I so appreciate this website! All of you who post help in ways you will never know! (This is my first post.) When I was discouraged, someone always cheered me. Thank you!
Elaine

you can throw away all the tricks you used to eat at a deficit.

when i get to goal weight, for me, that is going to be going back to regular eggs rather than beaters, 2 slices of bread instead of 1, 2 cups of ice cream instead of 1, normal size cereal servings rather than 8 oz milk and 1 serving of cereal, more avocado on my omelets and sandwiches, the list just goes on and on and on

In my opinion - I could be wrong and you could be right - that's how I would regain the weight I've lost. Most people regain because they go back to old habits. I know I would - I ate healthy but too much. I also didn't have a good enough idea of which foods were very calorie dense and which weren't.

I NEED to keep the habits I've learned. What I'm doing to maintain is adding back a little cheese, splurging on some whipped cream, or slowly starting to bake bread again. How to add in my new 200 calories a day? A slice of home-made ciabatta and some brie while relaxing in the evening.

i upped my cals for maintenance, however, i still eat at a defecit during the week, and then eat whatever i want on the weekends (still log) and i seem to break even on my averege weekly maintenance amount of cals!

I too am finding maintaince hard and scary after losing 115 lbs I am scared of gaining the weight back, I have my life back and fo not want to go back