How did you decide on your maintenance weight?

rgh101
rgh101 Posts: 9 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I've lost 24 pounds and reached my first goal of "normal" BMI a few pounds ago. Although I'm thrilled with this loss, I'd still like to lose more weight mainly because my stomach is still so flabby. That's where all my weight goes, plus I had a baby...6 years ago :tongue: I'm not sure what my ideal weight would be, but I think I'd be happy if I lost some of this belly flab and either (ideally) have a flat, toned belly or at least to stop feeling like there is something "extra" hanging off of me. Probably another 5-10 pounds or so.

I'm curious how other people decided what their ideal maintenance weight is. Is it a number? How you look? How you feel? What you are easily able to maintain? I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

Replies

  • Jill_newimprovedversion
    Jill_newimprovedversion Posts: 988 Member
    I've lost 24 pounds and reached my first goal of "normal" BMI a few pounds ago. Although I'm thrilled with this loss, I'd still like to lose more weight mainly because my stomach is still so flabby. That's where all my weight goes, plus I had a baby...6 years ago :tongue: I'm not sure what my ideal weight would be, but I think I'd be happy if I lost some of this belly flab and either (ideally) have a flat, toned belly or at least to stop feeling like there is something "extra" hanging off of me. Probably another 5-10 pounds or so.

    I'm curious how other people decided what their ideal maintenance weight is. Is it a number? How you look? How you feel? What you are easily able to maintain? I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

    I played around with the calculations when I got to my original goal- finding out what my final intake would be without relying on exercise- by diet alone.
    ___I love the tools MFP provides to calculate what maintenance would be @ any given weight/activity____

    While I have a very active job, I have witnessed many of my family members become injured and go from being VERY active to VERY sedentary- and have gained A LOT of excess weight...so I didn't want to *depend* on the same level of activity in order to maintain a certain weight-
    The exercise will be to stay toned and keep stamina.

    Which was a good thing- because shortly after I hit my final goal- I was in a head-on collision-
    and 1.5 yrs. later, I'm still in therapy for the injuries I sustained.
    I have gained 12 lbs. back- but that's due to my poor choices in what I've eaten- and gotten lazy.

    ----I've also focused on HEALTH, not numbers. The more you make it about that, rather than numbers- the more you will make this a lifestyle change, rather than be a yo-yo the rest of your life.
    If you choose healthier, more nutritionally dense foods to fuel your body, you will experience more energy and stamina.
    Feed it crap and you'll start feeling like crap.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I went by BF% not weight. Now I'm focusing more on body composition...killing it in the weight room. I continue to drop body fat but I'm actually up a Lb or 2 from my initial maintenance weight.
  • astange83
    astange83 Posts: 105
    My goal weight is about 10 pounds less than my top of the healthy bmi range. (Shooting for 140, 149.6 put me at normal) I chose this since generally you will gain a little going into maintenance and I don't want to go back over the bmi. Also discussed with my doctor and she agreed that was the right range.

    My problem is once I get there what the heck do I do? Some days I feel like I force myself to eat as much as I do each day, and I'd like to not have to kill myself daily in my home gym, where is the balance? (Instead of 6x training I'd like to move to 2-3 on treadmill and 3 just lifting weights)
  • FrankiesSaysRelax
    FrankiesSaysRelax Posts: 403 Member
    I chose a size rather than a number. I had a ton of old clothes that no longer fit me from high school/early college. I originally had picked 130 as my goal, but I didn't fit into the pants and I didn't like how I looked. After that, I decided I'd go off visual appearances rather than a number. When did I start feeling confident in my body? When did I like what I saw in the mirror? For me, this ended up being around 125.
  • Elif84
    Elif84 Posts: 287 Member
    I stopped planning a goal weight after I saw how flabby I still was at the low end of my healthy weight. So I started lifting heavy weights, gained a little weight and my body is tighter and my clothes are feeling better. I'm just going by how I feel.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    My problem is once I get there what the heck do I do? Some days I feel like I force myself to eat as much as I do each day, and I'd like to not have to kill myself daily in my home gym, where is the balance? (Instead of 6x training I'd like to move to 2-3 on treadmill and 3 just lifting weights)

    You shouldn't be killing yourself now in the gym. You should have fitness goals independent of weight loss goals. The more exercise you do, the more calories you need to maintain your weight...that's why athletes like Michael Phelps can throw down 8000 calories per day without blinking an eye. Also, you've probably cut a lot of dietary fat out of your diet if you're like most...you probably eat low fat no fat...I personally don't do that even when cutting but when you go to maintenance you will likely need to eat full fat....fat doesn't make you fat. Also, when you increase your calorie intake your leptin levels will rise...this will trigger your hunger signals again...you probably have a really low calorie goal right now and your leptin levels are in the tank.

    At maintenance you just eat a maintenance level of calories for your activity...it's easy...it's just math, just like losing is just math.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I stopped planning a goal weight after I saw how flabby I still was at the low end of my healthy weight. So I started lifting heavy weights, gained a little weight and my body is tighter and my clothes are feeling better. I'm just going by how I feel.

    good for you for realizing that you can't just keep cutting and cutting...you just lose a lot of muscle that way and end up at some low weight but at a higher BF%....everyone should be lifting or doing some kind of resistance training to preserve that muscle...unfortunately for many women, all they care about is some arbitrary number on the scale and they don't realize what that number even means...it seems that many can't wrap their brains around the fact that that number on the scale is not just fat...it's comprised of a lot of other stuff, much of which is muscle.

    Of my 183 Lbs of body weight, about 150 of them are muscle....if I wanted to go into the lower range of an acceptable weight for my height I'd have to burn up about 20 Lbs of muscle...that would be frackin' stupid.
  • LauraBee96
    LauraBee96 Posts: 30 Member
    Hi! Funny topic...

    A friend told me earlier this year that I resemble a porn star he had a seen in a movie called "Burning Angel". I looked up the actress's stats and she is the same height as me - 5'4. I decided that I really liked the way she looked, so I adjusted my goal weight to the same as her's - which meant bringing it up by 3 kg! At the moment I am only 5 kg away from meeting my goal, as opposed to the 8kg I'd be if I hadn't heard about this random pornstar doppelganger :)
  • ingeh
    ingeh Posts: 513 Member
    Im just going by dress size. Im a uk 10 and thats getting big so my goal is a uk size 8 on my bottom half so whatever I weigh then il be happy with. Im in the healthy bmi range so its all going well
  • rgh101
    rgh101 Posts: 9 Member
    Hi! Funny topic...

    A friend told me earlier this year that I resemble a porn star he had a seen in a movie called "Burning Angel". I looked up the actress's stats and she is the same height as me - 5'4. I decided that I really liked the way she looked, so I adjusted my goal weight to the same as her's - which meant bringing it up by 3 kg! At the moment I am only 5 kg away from meeting my goal, as opposed to the 8kg I'd be if I hadn't heard about this random pornstar doppelganger :)

    :laugh: That is hilariously awesome, thanks for sharing.
  • rgh101
    rgh101 Posts: 9 Member
    I stopped planning a goal weight after I saw how flabby I still was at the low end of my healthy weight. So I started lifting heavy weights, gained a little weight and my body is tighter and my clothes are feeling better. I'm just going by how I feel.

    That is a good point. I've looked at women my height and weight on "My body gallery" or whatever it is called and there is a vast difference about how people look depending on how toned/muscular they are.
  • nelinelineli
    nelinelineli Posts: 330 Member
    I'm curious how other people decided what their ideal maintenance weight is. Is it a number? How you look? How you feel? What you are easily able to maintain? I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

    I lost 20 pounds and started maintenance just few days ago. After reaching my first goal weight (6lbs up from where I am now) I was also not satisfied so I just kept dropping it 2-3 pounds at a time. I went through a lot of unnecessary stress about it to be honest, fearing that I would never feel happy with my weight and that I'd keep wanting to lose more and more.
    But one day, it happened. I just felt I'm comfortable going to maintenance. It was a combination of hitting very low measurements, fitting into the smallest jeans in a shop, being pleasantly surprised when looking in the mirror.
    If I have any suggestion is to not overthink it. It feels reassuring to have a fixed value there you strive for, but the reality is that you'll never know until you try it. So if you're not yet happy, keep moving your goal a bit lower and reassess when you get there. I think when you've "hit the mark" you'll know. Oh - and keep progress pics! It's extremely useful to see how 5 pounds off look on you - helps you be realistic about your goals!
  • vinny76063
    vinny76063 Posts: 133 Member
    Whatever feels right for you, i started at over 300 got down to 180 then back up to 190 and bulked up a little to 210, Im going back to 190 & i have cut down to 200 so far. At 180 i felt to weak and small, 210 was too bulky, 190 i felt great and i liked how i was toning up
  • llkilgore
    llkilgore Posts: 1,169 Member
    I'd be happy if I lost some of this belly flab and either (ideally) have a flat, toned belly or at least to stop feeling like there is something "extra" hanging off of me. Probably another 5-10 pounds or so.

    That's pretty much the way it went for me. At my original goal my belly still looked and felt soft and squishy, so I kept going until my belly was - if not flat - then at least firm under the sagging skin. That took the loss of another 10 or 12 pounds, which came almost entirely from my belly and midsection. That was really the only area it could have come from by that point, as I'd already lost the excess fat from elsewhere on my body. I've been in maintenance for 2 years now, and while I still don't have (or want) a "six pack," regular exercise and the nearly complete recovery of my skin has made my belly look flatter than it did when I first reached this weight.

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