Maintaining Weight - Standard Plan

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sklebar
sklebar Posts: 117 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Just thought I'd share this, as this is what is working for me now:

Step 1 Once you reach target, add 250 calories a day to your existing daily calorie intake. This means if you’ve been having 1,250 calories each day, you should now have 1,500 calories a day.

Step 2 After a week, weigh yourself on your usual scales. You’ll probably have lost a little more weight. If so, add another 250 calories to last week’s daily allowance. So, if you were having 1,500 calories a day, now have 1,750 calories daily.

Step 3 After a week, weigh yourself again. If you’ve lost more weight, add an extra 250 calories to your daily intake, for example from 1,750 calories to 2,000 calories each day.

Step 4 After a week, if your weight has stabilised that’s the amount of calories you need each day to keep your new slim shape. If you’ve gained a tiny amount, drop your daily calorie intake by 100 calories, for example, from 2,000 calories to 1,900 calories daily. After a week, weigh yourself again. If your weight has stayed the same, that’s the amount of calories you need each day for weight maintenance. If your weight has gone up or down, juggle your daily calorie intake by 50 calories a day until your weight eventually stabilises.

Step 5 Weigh yourself once a week on your usual scales until you are confident that you’re maintaining your healthy weight.

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    One week isnt long enough to know if your calorie intake is correct...

    You shouldnt have one maintenance weight, you should have a range to account for fluctuations that may occur from exercise, water retention, hormones etc etc
  • ell_v131
    ell_v131 Posts: 349 Member
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    I would just add that I see more and more recommendations to overshoot your target weight by a few pounds, then start adding. This is because your body will refill your glycogen stores and at more calories they will be bigger, so the extra weight is just water stored with the glycogen and is to be expected.

    At least that's my understanding from what I read around here.
  • mitchyinge
    mitchyinge Posts: 196
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    One week isnt long enough to know if your calorie intake is correct...

    You shouldnt have one maintenance weight, you should have a range to account for fluctuations that may occur from exercise, water retention, hormones etc etc

    I get the idea of a maintenance range of a few kilos either way rather than deciding upon a set point, because obviously it will fluctuate a lot, but how long is long enough to determine whether you are gaining/losing or maintaining - two weeks? three? a month?
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    One week isnt long enough to know if your calorie intake is correct...

    You shouldnt have one maintenance weight, you should have a range to account for fluctuations that may occur from exercise, water retention, hormones etc etc

    I get the idea of a maintenance range of a few kilos either way rather than deciding upon a set point, because obviously it will fluctuate a lot, but how long is long enough to determine whether you are gaining/losing or maintaining - two weeks? three? a month?

    4-6 weeks... for women that covers hormones as well. weighing every day for a few weeks is a good way of learning what your body does over a period of time, so then you should generally know if its water weight or fat weight.
  • mitchyinge
    mitchyinge Posts: 196
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    thanks, yes I weigh every day so I am used to not relying too much on the number on the scale but I have never known how long I am supposed to stay at a certain calorie intake, 4-6 weeks makes sense

    it's hard to be patient!
  • sklebar
    sklebar Posts: 117 Member
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    One week isnt long enough to know if your calorie intake is correct...

    You shouldnt have one maintenance weight, you should have a range to account for fluctuations that may occur from exercise, water retention, hormones etc etc

    I agree. I took your advice on just keeping it for a bit and upped my calories loads, rather than try to eat a bunch of crap. So far, I feel like I'm eating a lot, but then again, I also feel a lot better and have more colour in my face than before. So I think that's a good sign! I also took my body fat percentage measurements and at the low end of athletic, so it's also another sign that I definitely needed to put weight on and increase my calories.
  • Bliinnk182
    Bliinnk182 Posts: 2 Member
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    About 3-4 weeks of eating a certain amount of calories consistently will definitely provide you with fairly accurate results
  • nicolen160
    nicolen160 Posts: 197 Member
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    I will be trying this when I get to my goal weight (21 more lbs) seems to make a lot of sense! Thanks
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    I didn't count to lose. So I didn't count to maintain. I just added in tortilla chips lol. (That's all I did. I'd given them up while I was losing, and added them back when I was finished losing).
  • twixlepennie
    twixlepennie Posts: 1,074 Member
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    One week isnt long enough to know if your calorie intake is correct...

    You shouldnt have one maintenance weight, you should have a range to account for fluctuations that may occur from exercise, water retention, hormones etc etc

    I get the idea of a maintenance range of a few kilos either way rather than deciding upon a set point, because obviously it will fluctuate a lot, but how long is long enough to determine whether you are gaining/losing or maintaining - two weeks? three? a month?

    Took me like 6 months to figure it out. I added exercise AFTER I transitioned into maintenance and that wreaked havoc on my weight/calories :tongue: Now things have finally settled down, where I stay within a 3lb window. It was a pain in the butt to figure it all out though!

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