How to start with maintenance - sudden jump?

ell_v131 · December 2013

Hi all,

I'm sure this has been asked over and over but my search didn't yield a satisfactory answer. I am about 8 lbs from my goal and I'm considering going into maintenance for a couple of weeks. This is partially because I feel like I have hit a wall in my lifting (can't really progress further) and I think with maintenance I will be able to gain some more strength... And of course there is this whole holiday thing, you know

So I've read a lot that you should up your calories slowly, but I also read a very convincing article (which I can't find, duh!) about why it is more beneficial to do a sudden jump.

i am currently on 1500 net, and my TDEE is just over 1900, so I am thinking to just gun for 1900, deal with the couple pounds I will gain as my glycogen stores replenish and in 2 weeks go back to deficit.

What do you think? Any personal experience? I am hoping to be able to continue with my weight loss after, I have about 8 lbs to go.

PaytraB · December 2013

I don't think it matters. Both methods have worked for people. Just remember that you may gain a few pounds of glycogen. This is normal but I don't know how much you'd gain in just a few weeks. Probably not much.
I went on maintenance last Christmas, while still losing (had about 10 lbs to go), and it worked well. After Christmas, I went back on a deficit plan and started to lose nicely again.

DrMAvDPhD · December 2013

I don't think there is much benefit to only staying at maintenance for 2 weeks, unless it is just to eat more around the holidays. I would think a good "metabolism reset" would take longer. However, you're not likely to do any damage either.

ell_v131 · December 2013

Is metabolic reset a real thing? I'm not being snarky, I'm genuinely asking.

nccarolb · December 2013

I'm very interested in this topic as well. I am almost at my first goal weight and I plan to do maintenance until the end of January to give my body a rest and to give myself a break during the busiest time at work for me.

AprilLizbethWire · December 2013

I'm still about 13 pounds from my goal. I don't plan on doing a maintenance thing during the holidays, though. I've been steadily losing for a few months so I want to power through! I've thought about maintenance and how I plan on maintaining my new weight once I'm there, but I never thought about the transition from losing to maintaining. I just kind of thought everyone did a sudden jump thing. I'm interested in seeing some of the answers on here.

kblyn · December 2013

I haven't found that in my personal experience or my experience coaching others on fitness goals that going into maintenance has helped anything other than mental status (sometimes). I do Crossfit and the biggest thing I see in lifting goals for the people who are increasing and the people not increasing is the amount of nutrition they are consuming aka what program you are using! if you want to talk more feel free to add me :-) I havent heard anything about resetting your metabolism, have only heard of "confusing" it. hope this helps

klmorg1227 · December 2013

Hi everyone! I am 5 weeks into maintenance for the first time and here is my experience. First of all, I was terrified. I was terrified to gain weight after all my hard work of losing 76 pounds and maintaining a 1000 -1200 calorie regimen for so long. So, I did the jump...I jumped from 1200 to 1500 a day. The first week I was miserable. I felt like a bloated pig. I ate the same healthy foods, just added to how much I ate and ate even more often through out the day. I will never change from eating healthy to eating junk again...especially since I actually prefer the healthy things. Anyway..the first week I gained two pounds, (also was my period week and I usually gained a pound or so anyway so I really had no need to panic, but I did a little), but everyone I spoke to said keep going your body will adjust. And it did. week two the bloating not so bad and I lost the two pounds back...week three I felt great and stayed the same weight and actually ate closer to what my diary was telling me I should eat (around 1800 - 1900 per day when I workout), week four same results. However, week five started out with a two pound weight loss! That was this past Sunday morning. I always weigh myself once a week.. Also I will mention that I have continued to lose inches also in my measurements, When I started maintenance I was 35 (bust), 29 (waist) and 35 (hips). Sunday morning I was 34 1/2, 28 1/4 and 34 3/4. Not significant losses but losses still the same. So thats my experience so far...would love to hear some others on here too. My best advice is to go up a couple hundred calories the first couple weeks and then just listen to your body. I think it may take a few months for us to find out where our bodies are going to settle and be satisfied with our caloric intake. Good luck!!

AprilLizbethWire · December 2013

Hi everyone! I am 5 weeks into maintenance for the first time and here is my experience. First of all, I was terrified. I was terrified to gain weight after all my hard work of losing 76 pounds and maintaining a 1000 -1200 calorie regimen for so long. So, I did the jump...I jumped from 1200 to 1500 a day. The first week I was miserable. I felt like a bloated pig. I ate the same healthy foods, just added to how much I ate and ate even more often through out the day. I will never change from eating healthy to eating junk again...especially since I actually prefer the healthy things. Anyway..the first week I gained two pounds, (also was my period week and I usually gained a pound or so anyway so I really had no need to panic, but I did a little), but everyone I spoke to said keep going your body will adjust. And it did. week two the bloating not so bad and I lost the two pounds back...week three I felt great and stayed the same weight and actually ate closer to what my diary was telling me I should eat (around 1800 - 1900 per day when I workout), week four same results. However, week five started out with a two pound weight loss! That was this past Sunday morning. I always weigh myself once a week.. Also I will mention that I have continued to lose inches also in my measurements, When I started maintenance I was 35 (bust), 29 (waist) and 35 (hips). Sunday morning I was 34 1/2, 28 1/4 and 34 3/4. Not significant losses but losses still the same. So thats my experience so far...would love to hear some others on here too. My best advice is to go up a couple hundred calories the first couple weeks and then just listen to your body. I think it may take a few months for us to find out where our bodies are going to settle and be satisfied with our caloric intake. Good luck!!

Thanks for sharing your experience! I'll keep this in mind when I'm about to transition to maintenance.

FrnkLft · December 2013

Actually, Layne Norton just posted a great video log on this subject. I'll link it below, but basically it comes down to this:

As you diet, your RMR eventually drops over time to accomidate the fewer calories that you're eating. Slowly ramping up gives your body time to adjust in the same way (RMR back up). Otherwise, doing a sudden jump means you're burning less than you normally would, and you'll gain weight back faster (at least in the short term)... because when you think you're eating "maintenance", you're actually eating a surplus... you follow?

The video is kinda long, but it was great and Layne is an excellent resource.

Is your weight loss making you fatter?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5C3uqA1yRI

ell_v131 · December 2013

Hi everyone! I am 5 weeks into maintenance for the first time and here is my experience. First of all, I was terrified. I was terrified to gain weight after all my hard work of losing 76 pounds and maintaining a 1000 -1200 calorie regimen for so long. So, I did the jump...I jumped from 1200 to 1500 a day. The first week I was miserable. I felt like a bloated pig. I ate the same healthy foods, just added to how much I ate and ate even more often through out the day. I will never change from eating healthy to eating junk again...especially since I actually prefer the healthy things. Anyway..the first week I gained two pounds, (also was my period week and I usually gained a pound or so anyway so I really had no need to panic, but I did a little), but everyone I spoke to said keep going your body will adjust. And it did. week two the bloating not so bad and I lost the two pounds back...week three I felt great and stayed the same weight and actually ate closer to what my diary was telling me I should eat (around 1800 - 1900 per day when I workout), week four same results. However, week five started out with a two pound weight loss! That was this past Sunday morning. I always weigh myself once a week.. Also I will mention that I have continued to lose inches also in my measurements, When I started maintenance I was 35 (bust), 29 (waist) and 35 (hips). Sunday morning I was 34 1/2, 28 1/4 and 34 3/4. Not significant losses but losses still the same. So thats my experience so far...would love to hear some others on here too. My best advice is to go up a couple hundred calories the first couple weeks and then just listen to your body. I think it may take a few months for us to find out where our bodies are going to settle and be satisfied with our caloric intake. Good luck!!

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on the great loss! You pushed through with what I couldn't work around. I started on 1200 calories and it wasn't enough , I wasn't even losing. I bumped it up to 1500 and now I'm losing. I'm medium built, 5'6, 141lbs, so I guess you're a bit smaller than me with maintenance on 1500.and I didn't have as much to lose to begin with. I will wait for more answers to decide whether and how will I do the maintenance.

I also hear the poster who said they are not doing maintenance over holidays. It makes sense to just keep at it, But I want options: )

alienrite · December 2013

When I started with maintenance to support my lifting, I discovered several interesting things.

1. I still keep myself at ½ lb/week to make sure that any errors in my logging or food labels don’t push me too far into surplus
2. Eating at maintenance keeps my glycogen level higher than when I was in chronic deficit which is worth about a 3-lb increase for me.
3. When I was in chronic deficit, the few times I splurged and when over my daily allotment, the error was pretty quickly erased by the following day’s deficits. Not that I am at or near maintenance, any excess calories over my TDEE convert to fat and my original maintenance plan didn’t compensate for that and I saw my weight and fat slowly creep up. I now watch my net calories over a 7-day total and if I am close to going over, I eat less for a couple days to compensate. So far this has helped and stabilized my weight.
4. I feel so much better when I eat to support my lifting. On the days I eat to compensate for a high day, I find myself feeling immediately weaker. While I am not doing the traditional bulk, I do see how eating sufficient calories helps immensely.

klmorg1227 · December 2013

[/quote]
QUOTE
Thanks for sharing and congratulations on the great loss! You pushed through with what I couldn't work around. I started on 1200 calories and it wasn't enough , I wasn't even losing. I bumped it up to 1500 and now I'm losing. I'm medium built, 5'6, 141lbs, so I guess you're a bit smaller than me with maintenance on 1500.and I didn't have as much to lose to begin with. I will wait for more answers to decide whether and how will I do the maintenance.

I also hear the poster who said they are not doing maintenance over holidays. It makes sense to just keep at it, But I want options: )
END QUOTE
[/quote]

I am actually the same exact size as you are! I am 5'6" and 139 pounds. I went up to 141 the first week of maintenance and on Sunday I was 138. I upped my calories from 1500 to between 1700 and 1800. Gonna stick with that for a couple or three weeks and see how it goes. You didn't mention your exercise. here is my general week: I run 5 days a week, a 4 mile run (about 40 minutes) , then I do an elliptical on my non running days, I do 5 miles (45 minutes). I do weights also 3 days a week and do some toning (sit ups and ball exercises) 6 days a week. Take every Sunday off from any routines, although I still stay active.

Not sure how your build is. I think I am average. can wear some things in petite but not pants, they are too short. I am about a size 6 on average, sometimes an 8 and sometimes a 4. Just depends on the brand.

*** Don't know why my quoted post didn't show up in a gray box...lol***

ell_v131 · December 2013

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on the great loss! You pushed through with what I couldn't work around. I started on 1200 calories and it wasn't enough , I wasn't even losing. I bumped it up to 1500 and now I'm losing. I'm medium built, 5'6, 141lbs, so I guess you're a bit smaller than me with maintenance on 1500.and I didn't have as much to lose to begin with. I will wait for more answers to decide whether and how will I do the maintenance.

I also hear the poster who said they are not doing maintenance over holidays. It makes sense to just keep at it, But I want options: )
[/quote]

I am actually the same exact size as you are! I am 5'6" and 139 pounds. I went up to 141 the first week of maintenance and on Sunday I was 138. I upped my calories from 1500 to between 1700 and 1800. Gonna stick with that for a couple or three weeks and see how it goes. You didn't mention your exercise. here is my general week: I run 5 days a week, a 4 mile run (about 40 minutes) , then I do an elliptical on my non running days, I do 5 miles (45 minutes). I do weights also 3 days a week and do some toning (sit ups and ball exercises) 6 days a week. Take every Sunday off from any routines, although I still stay active.

Not sure how your build is. I think I am average. can wear some things in petite but not pants, they are too short. I am about a size 6 on average, sometimes an 8 and sometimes a 4. Just depends on the brand.
[/quote]

I used to do a lot of cardio a couple years ago, which helped me build some endurance. Now I lift 5 days a week (split routines) with only 10 minute cardio for warm up. I don't workout on weekends. OK, I'm guilty of occasional.popping into the gym on a Sunday: ) as of new year I want to move on to stronglifts 5x5 But That's only 3 times a week and I think I will miss my daily workout. Will see how that goes.

So thats 1700-1800 net for you? That's what I'm grossing right now. I calculated my TDEE based on my real figures, not via online calculators, and it should be above 1900-2000. Will see if a brave up: )
I'm generally size 8-10, I have plus size butt. Well unfortunately not as big as before But some squats should fix that.

geekyjock76 · December 2013

From a psychological perspective, it's always preferred to increase calories eaten as you lose weight as opposed to eating the same static amount throughout. Thus, by the time you have 10 lbs to lose, you ought to be eating approximately 250 calories below projected maintenance. This decrease in deficit yields a significantly shorter transitioning period since you're dealing with a very small caloric increase.

ell_v131 · December 2013

I do hope that this poster advocating the sudden jump will drop by to explain their side of the story again, as I can't find the post anywhere and it was quite interesting.

So far it seems the slow increase has worked for majority of you, which says a lot!

JoRocka · December 2013

I think it has a lot more to do mentally than the physical reaction.

Sure your body is going to adjust- but it takes the brain MUCH longer to adjust.

I jumped straight up to maintenance- IMMEDIATELY from a very severe deficit. It was hard - but I was hungry all the time and there was no need at my size/activity level to be eating what I was eating... I had a specific goal- accomplished it and immediately went to maintenance. Trying to creep up from the deficit I had wasn't worth it.

It was hard- jumping up by 100-150 calories is way easier for the brain to accept.

mentally stable = more success.

sklebar · December 2013

Hi everyone! I am 5 weeks into maintenance for the first time and here is my experience. First of all, I was terrified. I was terrified to gain weight after all my hard work of losing 76 pounds and maintaining a 1000 -1200 calorie regimen for so long. So, I did the jump...I jumped from 1200 to 1500 a day. The first week I was miserable. I felt like a bloated pig. I ate the same healthy foods, just added to how much I ate and ate even more often through out the day. I will never change from eating healthy to eating junk again...especially since I actually prefer the healthy things. Anyway..the first week I gained two pounds, (also was my period week and I usually gained a pound or so anyway so I really had no need to panic, but I did a little), but everyone I spoke to said keep going your body will adjust. And it did. week two the bloating not so bad and I lost the two pounds back...week three I felt great and stayed the same weight and actually ate closer to what my diary was telling me I should eat (around 1800 - 1900 per day when I workout), week four same results. However, week five started out with a two pound weight loss! That was this past Sunday morning. I always weigh myself once a week.. Also I will mention that I have continued to lose inches also in my measurements, When I started maintenance I was 35 (bust), 29 (waist) and 35 (hips). Sunday morning I was 34 1/2, 28 1/4 and 34 3/4. Not significant losses but losses still the same. So thats my experience so far...would love to hear some others on here too. My best advice is to go up a couple hundred calories the first couple weeks and then just listen to your body. I think it may take a few months for us to find out where our bodies are going to settle and be satisfied with our caloric intake. Good luck!!

I'm a 5 ft. 10 in. 36yo woman and my goal weight is 143 lbs, as I struggled to get to it. Maintaining was difficult, I lost loads and then tried to get it back on. I even tried a junk food binge for a day to try and get calories back on, which was stupid anyway. In the end, I have slowly inched my calories back up. It was a bit trial and error with the maintenance calories. MFP told me 1900 calories per day, lost two pounds in over a week.. Then I went to 2000, still losing. Then 2,200 and gained 3 lbs over two weeks and I was like, okay, I'm at the weight I want to be, so lowered it back to 2,100 and lost 5 lbs in two and a half weeks. Argh! So I am now at 2,300 calories a day at the moment to slowly put the weight back on again and hopefully that's my maintenance calories. It has taken me a lot of trial and error, but messing with TDEE calculators have helped me try and pinpoint it.

So this post is a relief. I will give it four weeks to see if my body adjusts and see what happens.

klmorg1227 · December 2013

Hi everyone! I am 5 weeks into maintenance for the first time and here is my experience. First of all, I was terrified. I was terrified to gain weight after all my hard work of losing 76 pounds and maintaining a 1000 -1200 calorie regimen for so long. So, I did the jump...I jumped from 1200 to 1500 a day. The first week I was miserable. I felt like a bloated pig. I ate the same healthy foods, just added to how much I ate and ate even more often through out the day. I will never change from eating healthy to eating junk again...especially since I actually prefer the healthy things. Anyway..the first week I gained two pounds, (also was my period week and I usually gained a pound or so anyway so I really had no need to panic, but I did a little), but everyone I spoke to said keep going your body will adjust. And it did. week two the bloating not so bad and I lost the two pounds back...week three I felt great and stayed the same weight and actually ate closer to what my diary was telling me I should eat (around 1800 - 1900 per day when I workout), week four same results. However, week five started out with a two pound weight loss! That was this past Sunday morning. I always weigh myself once a week.. Also I will mention that I have continued to lose inches also in my measurements, When I started maintenance I was 35 (bust), 29 (waist) and 35 (hips). Sunday morning I was 34 1/2, 28 1/4 and 34 3/4. Not significant losses but losses still the same. So thats my experience so far...would love to hear some others on here too. My best advice is to go up a couple hundred calories the first couple weeks and then just listen to your body. I think it may take a few months for us to find out where our bodies are going to settle and be satisfied with our caloric intake. Good luck!!

I'm a 5 ft. 10 in. 36yo woman and my goal weight is 143 lbs, as I struggled to get to it. Maintaining was difficult, I lost loads and then tried to get it back on. I even tried a junk food binge for a day to try and get calories back on, which was stupid anyway. In the end, I have slowly inched my calories back up. It was a bit trial and error with the maintenance calories. MFP told me 1900 calories per day, lost two pounds in over a week.. Then I went to 2000, still losing. Then 2,200 and gained 3 lbs over two weeks and I was like, okay, I'm at the weight I want to be, so lowered it back to 2,100 and lost 5 lbs in two and a half weeks. Argh! So I am now at 2,300 calories a day at the moment to slowly put the weight back on again and hopefully that's my maintenance calories. It has taken me a lot of trial and error, but messing with TDEE calculators have helped me try and pinpoint it.

So this post is a relief. I will give it four weeks to see if my body adjusts and see what happens.

Your post is also a relief for me sklebar, :-) its easier to know we are not struggling with this alone. My goal weight is to stay between 139 and 142. I am 5'6" and 47 yrs old. I always thought 140 would be too heavy but with the muscles mass it appears to be just right. As of Sunday morning I was still on track with no gain.

How to start with maintenance - sudden jump?

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