Pre-Maintenance
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Continuing to weigh in is definitely key - for me at least. I lost 10 or so lbs a year or two ago, then stopped weighing but continued exercising, and when I noticed my clothes getting tighter i finally hopped on the scale again and- whoops! There were those 10lbs. I DON'T want that to happen again.0
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I have 8-10 lbs. that I want to lose before going into maintaince. I want to ensure that I do not gain anything back once I stop losing. How can I speed up my metabolism and start losing again? How can I do ensure that I will not gain anything back once I add 200 calories in the maintainence phase? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
As someone who has been in maintenance for just a few months, I'd say to make sure that you have realistic expectations. It is highly likely that you will gain back a couple of pounds when you go into maintenance- because your body will replenish its glycogen stores. DON'T PANIC! This is normal.
A lot of people lose a few extra pounds before going into maintenance just for that reason- so say you want your maintenance weight to be 130. You could consider losing a few extra pounds down to 127 before going into maintenance, knowing that you're going to rebound back up to 130. No problem!
My other tip would be to expect your weight to fluctuate. Most people have a 3-5 lb band that their weight fluctuates in. As long as they're within that band, then they know they are maintaining. If they go over or under that band then they can eat less or more to fix the fluctuation. For me, that band is 126-129. If I weigh in at 130, I would double check to make sure I'm not overeating. If I go under 126 then I make sure that I'm eating enough to account for my exercise.
Good luck with maintenance! Enjoy the extra food! :drinker: :flowerforyou:
This is all true. Also, I gradually increased my calories by 100 a day for a few weeks before I hit maintenance, too. It helped keep everything steady.0 -
Been maintaining for about 2 1/2 years.
When you get within a pound or two or three of your goal weight, increase your calorie intake such that you cut your deficit roughly in half.
Yes, that means the last couple of pounds will come off more slowly, but you've come this far ... what's another couple of weeks?
As others have said, you might go UNDER your goal a bit, just to give yourself some adjustment room.
Now that you've reached (or gone a bit below) your goal, cut your deficit in half again, and monitor your weight for a couple of weeks.
If you continue to lose, increase your daily calorie intake by 50 or so ... it's NOT an exact science.
If you gain, decrease the allowable intake by 20 or 30.
Keep logging & continue to monitor the weight, but don't run yourself ragged with a 10 calorie increase or a 5 calorie decrease.
You'll NEVER find the exact number due to normal daily fluctuations.
I gave myself +3 pounds & -2 pounds from 'goal' before I changed my calorie allowance.
Look for trends and the reasons behind them.
If you binged at a pot luck supper, expect an increase.
If you were super-busy or didn't feel up to par & didn't exercise for a few day, expect an increase.
Don't panic & cut your calories based on special, short-term cases.
Similarly, don't boost your limit if the opposite happens -- you jogged 5 miles instead of 3, etc.
You've dedicated a lot of time to accomplish your goal.
Be prepared to continue investing your time to STAY THERE.
Some have stopped logging.
I'm such a poor judge of calorie content, I can't afford that luxury.
If logging is a major pain, you might try the omission, but let your clothing and the scale guide you.
When the numbers creep up or the clothes start feeling tight, consider a resumption of the logging.0 -
I'm planning to transition from circa-1000 calorie average deficit to 250 calorie surplus over 5 weeks or so, eating 250 calories extra per week.
I weigh daily and use the 'libra' app which does all the fancy graph stuff to work out an average figure - idea is I base my food consumption on the average weight going up by half a pound a week. As I still don't have a massive amount of muscle in the grand scheme of things, hopefully most of this should be muscle.
I've got about 5lb to go, but plan to start bringing calories up in 3lb time - if everything were constant, this would see me a little under my calorie goal. But I've had a bit of a weight loss stall the last couple of weeks, so shall have to see how it works out,
The 'set point theory' mentioned in another article is interesting - I've read stuff along similar lines, but not heard a specific term for it. Though, seems it's unlikely to be nearly as clear cut as the '10%' many claim.0 -
Hi
This thread is just great - so many valid points. This will be my third time of getting to goal weight and i am determined to maintain this time. So stuff that i have learned from reading the forum and my own experience.
1. Keep exercise -don't stop. Build it into your normal routine for life.
2. Increase cals slowly 100k cals a week until you stop loosing weight
3. Weigh regularly - normally i weigh weekly but on maintenance i weighed twice a week.
4. Plan you day/meals - no shopping without a list or going beserk at restaurants. You can have treats but need to earn them.
5. Keep tracking on myfitness plan food and exercise. If poss find a maintenance buddy.
6. Accept that some foods will not be part of your future - for me it was bread and cheese - they are like a red rag to a bull. Ijust can not help myself. So i just cut them out completely and only by exception would I select/eat them.
Good luck everyone!
I love that people are posting specific routines here! This is great. I can learn a lot from this. I like your plan, except I like to shop without a list. I love going to the ethnic fruit and vegetable markets here in Chicago. I get whatever is freshest, or in season, or on sale! Like strawberries have been less that $1.00 a box, so I have been loading up on them.
But I know what you mean about cutting foods out of my life. Wine is the big one for me. If I have a glass, soon it will invite all its friends over for me too drink, and before I know it, I drink a whole bottle. Better for me just to cut it out. If I drink at all, I am back to drinking way too much. Tonight at Passover dinner it is a tradition to drink four cups of wine. I brought my own bottle of sparkling mineral water, and had that instead of wine.0 -
Been maintaining for about 2 1/2 years.
When you get within a pound or two or three of your goal weight, increase your calorie intake such that you cut your deficit roughly in half.
Yes, that means the last couple of pounds will come off more slowly, but you've come this far ... what's another couple of weeks?
As others have said, you might go UNDER your goal a bit, just to give yourself some adjustment room.
Now that you've reached (or gone a bit below) your goal, cut your deficit in half again, and monitor your weight for a couple of weeks.
If you continue to lose, increase your daily calorie intake by 50 or so ... it's NOT an exact science.
If you gain, decrease the allowable intake by 20 or 30.
Keep logging & continue to monitor the weight, but don't run yourself ragged with a 10 calorie increase or a 5 calorie decrease.
You'll NEVER find the exact number due to normal daily fluctuations.
I gave myself +3 pounds & -2 pounds from 'goal' before I changed my calorie allowance.
Look for trends and the reasons behind them.
If you binged at a pot luck supper, expect an increase.
If you were super-busy or didn't feel up to par & didn't exercise for a few day, expect an increase.
Don't panic & cut your calories based on special, short-term cases.
Similarly, don't boost your limit if the opposite happens -- you jogged 5 miles instead of 3, etc.
You've dedicated a lot of time to accomplish your goal.
Be prepared to continue investing your time to STAY THERE.
Some have stopped logging.
I'm such a poor judge of calorie content, I can't afford that luxury.
If logging is a major pain, you might try the omission, but let your clothing and the scale guide you.
When the numbers creep up or the clothes start feeling tight, consider a resumption of the logging.
This is really helpful!!0 -
What I don't understand, is if I am eating around 1200 calories a day now, that is only a 300 to 400 calorie deficit per day. That only comes out to about a pound a week. But I am losing about two pounds a week. Oh well. This thread isn't about losing weight, This thread is about maintaining our healthy bodies.
Junebugzy, I have experienced the same thing since I started on here. I've always had my deficit set to lose 0.5 lb a week, but have found that it's usually closer to 0.75 lb or so each week. Perhaps we're both more active than we let the computers think, or we're logging a little more food/less exercise than we actually get, or maybe (this is my suspicion for myself) our metabolisms are a bit faster than the averages used for the calorie intake calculations.
Question for everyone: have you heard that as one gets close to maintaining, one should slowly up one's calories so the last few pounds are lost even more slowly than 0.5 lb a week? I've heard that on here-- the people who mentioned it said that doing this will prevent the immediate gain of water/glycogen weight when you up your calories for maintaining mode. I like the sound of that, but I'm not so keen on slowing my weight loss even more-- I'd love to be done with that part of this journey, and want to just get there.
I'm interested to hear what you all know or have heard about that.
I like the idea of slowly upping our calories. My typical weight loss is half a pound a week. Logging my food and exercise here is definitely what is pushing it to two pounds a week. Aha, a faster metabolism could be the reason I am losing faster. Makes sense to me. And I am adding in the exercise calories in to the 1200 a day, so a lot of times I get to have more than the 1200 calories.0 -
Been maintaining for about 2 1/2 years.
When you get within a pound or two or three of your goal weight, increase your calorie intake such that you cut your deficit roughly in half.
Yes, that means the last couple of pounds will come off more slowly, but you've come this far ... what's another couple of weeks?
As others have said, you might go UNDER your goal a bit, just to give yourself some adjustment room.
Now that you've reached (or gone a bit below) your goal, cut your deficit in half again, and monitor your weight for a couple of weeks.
If you continue to lose, increase your daily calorie intake by 50 or so ... it's NOT an exact science.
If you gain, decrease the allowable intake by 20 or 30.
Keep logging & continue to monitor the weight, but don't run yourself ragged with a 10 calorie increase or a 5 calorie decrease.
You'll NEVER find the exact number due to normal daily fluctuations.
I gave myself +3 pounds & -2 pounds from 'goal' before I changed my calorie allowance.
Look for trends and the reasons behind them.
If you binged at a pot luck supper, expect an increase.
If you were super-busy or didn't feel up to par & didn't exercise for a few day, expect an increase.
Don't panic & cut your calories based on special, short-term cases.
Similarly, don't boost your limit if the opposite happens -- you jogged 5 miles instead of 3, etc.
You've dedicated a lot of time to accomplish your goal.
Be prepared to continue investing your time to STAY THERE.
Some have stopped logging.
I'm such a poor judge of calorie content, I can't afford that luxury.
If logging is a major pain, you might try the omission, but let your clothing and the scale guide you.
When the numbers creep up or the clothes start feeling tight, consider a resumption of the logging.
This is so helpful! I'm saving this one on Evernote.0 -
BMR for Men: = 66 + (6.23 X weight in pounds) + (12.7 X height in inches) – (6.8 X age)
BMR for Women: = 655 + (4.35 X weight in pounds) + (4.7 X height in inches) – (4.7 X age)
Is the 66 for men versus 655 for women correct? It's a huge difference!0 -
BMR for Men: = 66 + (6.23 X weight in pounds) + (12.7 X height in inches) – (6.8 X age)
BMR for Women: = 655 + (4.35 X weight in pounds) + (4.7 X height in inches) – (4.7 X age)
Is the 66 for men versus 655 for women correct? It's a huge difference!
Seems to be correct. I verified with three different sites, including Wikipedia, and they all show the Harris Benedict Equation with 66 for men and 655 for women.
There are also many automated BMR calculators online that you can Google if you don't want to do the equation yourself. However, I've found that many of them aren't as precise. But then, I've also read that these equations are often right only about 60% of the time. It worked very well for me, when I maintained for 12 years, but really it's just a starting point and you may need to adjust it to suit your individual metabolism.0 -
What I don't understand, is if I am eating around 1200 calories a day now, that is only a 300 to 400 calorie deficit per day. That only comes out to about a pound a week. But I am losing about two pounds a week. Oh well. This thread isn't about losing weight, This thread is about maintaining our healthy bodies.
Junebugzy, I have experienced the same thing since I started on here. I've always had my deficit set to lose 0.5 lb a week, but have found that it's usually closer to 0.75 lb or so each week. Perhaps we're both more active than we let the computers think, or we're logging a little more food/less exercise than we actually get, or maybe (this is my suspicion for myself) our metabolisms are a bit faster than the averages used for the calorie intake calculations.
Question for everyone: have you heard that as one gets close to maintaining, one should slowly up one's calories so the last few pounds are lost even more slowly than 0.5 lb a week? I've heard that on here-- the people who mentioned it said that doing this will prevent the immediate gain of water/glycogen weight when you up your calories for maintaining mode. I like the sound of that, but I'm not so keen on slowing my weight loss even more-- I'd love to be done with that part of this journey, and want to just get there.
I'm interested to hear what you all know or have heard about that.
I like the idea of slowly upping our calories. My typical weight loss is half a pound a week. Logging my food and exercise here is definitely what is pushing it to two pounds a week. Aha, a faster metabolism could be the reason I am losing faster. Makes sense to me. And I am adding in the exercise calories in to the 1200 a day, so a lot of times I get to have more than the 1200 calories.
Eeek, I just realized I should have said logging LESS food/MORE exercise to see a greater weight loss than expected. :ohwell: Duuuuhhh.
I saw that someone posted a pretty detailed description of how to do the slow calorie increase, above-- I guess you have already noticed and quoted it! That approach sounds reasonable to me but I'm not sure if I can psychologically do it. I think I am going to continue doing what I'm doing, get to goal, and start the slow increase then; if I lose another pound or so in the process, that will give me some more wiggle room. I still have more belly/hip fat at 2 lbs from my goal weight than I would like so being a little lighter than planned at first would not be alarming/bad to me. However, this is just what I think will work for me-- others may want to approach it differently.0 -
Again, the best tool to work out your deficit and your TDEE relative to your food intake etc is the scales - it will tell you more than a formula on the internet about the state of your body at the time.0
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Again, the best tool to work out your deficit and your TDEE relative to your food intake etc is the scales - it will tell you more than a formula on the internet about the state of your body at the time.
Possibly, but maybe not for everyone. There's no real one size fits all for this, so we shouldn't be dismissive of any tactic unless it's unhealthy. As stated, the formula is a reference point for someone who doesn't know where to begin a maintenance plan. In my case, it worked much better than trial and error and consulting the scale, and it allowed me to maintain a 60+-pound weight loss for a dozen years. Winging it and adjusting later always resulted in weight gain for me that was beyond normal fluctuations. That can be extremely dispiriting when you have a history of struggling with weight control.0 -
If we're talking looking at the overall trend shown by the scales, then I'd say it is true for EVERYONE.Possibly, but maybe not for everyone.
If the trend is going up, you are in a surplus, if it's down, you are in a deficit.
Then there's working out WHY.
You also hopefully have an idea of calories in and caloires out. You have an idea of the deficit.
If the figures you have all match up, all is groovy.
If the figures don't match up, then there's something going on "in the middle". It may be metabolism slow down. It may be the food is being over or underestimated (until we have electron-scanning-tricorders, it's always a guess), or over estimated. Same for exercise.
So, if you aren't getting the righthand side of the equation as low as you want and think the left side is reasonable, it may be a case of seeing what in the middle may need 'fixing'.0 -
Possibly, but maybe not for everyone. There's no real one size fits all for this, so we shouldn't be dismissive of any tactic unless it's unhealthy. As stated, the formula is a reference point for someone who doesn't know where to begin a maintenance plan. In my case, it worked much better than trial and error and consulting the scale, and it allowed me to maintain a 60+-pound weight loss for a dozen years. Winging it and adjusting later always resulted in weight gain for me that was beyond normal fluctuations. That can be extremely dispiriting when you have a history of struggling with weight control.
idoJ, I didn't know you lost 60 pounds and maintained it for 12 years! Wow! More than wow, fantastic.
So when you figured out my numbers, it said I will be able to have 1800 to 1900 calories on maintenance. That seems like so much compared to now; someone suggested going up 50 calories at a time. That sounds like a great idea to ease into maintenance, you think?
I have a favor to ask everyone. Could you please not use acronyms, at least once in a post, then use it for the rest of the post? I haven't been around here that long, and I don't know what most of them are.0 -
I am so glad this thread is still going! Very useful info here!0
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Possibly, but maybe not for everyone. There's no real one size fits all for this, so we shouldn't be dismissive of any tactic unless it's unhealthy. As stated, the formula is a reference point for someone who doesn't know where to begin a maintenance plan. In my case, it worked much better than trial and error and consulting the scale, and it allowed me to maintain a 60+-pound weight loss for a dozen years. Winging it and adjusting later always resulted in weight gain for me that was beyond normal fluctuations. That can be extremely dispiriting when you have a history of struggling with weight control.
idoJ, I didn't know you lost 60 pounds and maintained it for 12 years! Wow! More than wow, fantastic.
So when you figured out my numbers, it said I will be able to have 1800 to 1900 calories on maintenance. That seems like so much compared to now; someone suggested going up 50 calories at a time. That sounds like a great idea to ease into maintenance, you think?
I have a favor to ask everyone. Could you please not use acronyms, at least once in a post, then use it for the rest of the post? I haven't been around here that long, and I don't know what most of them are.
I did! But I got pregnant at 44, and once I had the baby I got busy and lazy and reverted to old habits. Not to mention slowing metabolism that you can't turn your back on after 40. Gained all but about 13 pounds back. UGH!0 -
I'm in maintenance right now. Have been since January. In a little while (haven't decided when) I'm going to go out of maintenance and try to lose another 10lbs.
I have a Fitbit so I follow my calories burned using that and I make sure I eat at a small deficit every day. Just a small one. That way it accounts for logging mistakes and if I have a bad day (or two) it will all balance out. The key for me being in maintenance is to still log everything. I'm not sure I'll ever stop logging because that keeps me honest and focused.0 -
Great thread
I am about to start to maintain my weight too... Am a bit worried how this will go... I lost around 11kg and have 2 more to loose and than I switch... ATM I am trying to build my body am so far I was effective I would say. I workout, mostly weight lift, around 70min per day, 6/7 days per week... I kind of like it the hard way...
Anyone who is willing to support me is welcome and I am offering my support as well.
Gl to you all 0 -
I think I should get a heart monitor to see what I really burn during workouts. Plus, I love gadgets! My kids got me a Nexus 5 for my birthday. I have it all figured out except phone calls! Don't know how to do call waiting yet. I love the MyFitnessPro app; very easy to use.
idoJ, if you only had 13 pounds to lose, that's not bad at all! For some reason, after I had each kid, I got really thin. I used to complain that my butt was too big. Then my belly started getting big, and my rear end got flatter. I spoke too soon!
Part of the reason I gained weight was from quitting smoking. Then I started drinking a lot of wine, which made me hungry, so I ate more. My highest was 176. I was in a 2X, because I am only 5'1. I am 141 now, and want to get down to 130, maybe eventually 120.
Maintenance for me will still start at 130. I want to lose the last 10 pounds very slowly.0
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