now that I'm maintaining how long/often should I exercise?

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bald_navy_wife
bald_navy_wife Posts: 81 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I'm so use to exercising to eat more while trying to keep a deficit I'm not sure how often/long I should work out now. Any tips, advise , etc is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance:heart:

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  • HIITMe
    HIITMe Posts: 921 Member
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    you don't have to change how much or how often you exercise.... you may need to change intensity... or you may not have to change anything at all.... it still depends on how much other activity you get...how many calories you consume... and your resting BMR.....
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
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    Exercise is to improve your fitness, which I assume you want to keep improving? You should be setting new fitness goals. Your diet can be adjusted for maintenance.
  • elliej
    elliej Posts: 466 Member
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    Do what ever you want. You just get to eat more. Yay
  • sfbaumgarten
    sfbaumgarten Posts: 912 Member
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    Really just depends on your goals. I exercise more now in maintenance than ever before.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    If it were me: keep it the same. Or increase it.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Citius, Altius, Fortius..... (*)

    Depends on your goals but it would be a shame to get in shape and then not do something positive with your improved health and fitness. Use it or lose it.



    * the Olympic motto meaning Faster, Higher, Stronger for those that didn't have Latin beaten into them at school....
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    Diet is the most important component of losing weight. Exercise in maintaining.

    I increased exercise once I hit goal weight. It gives you something to shoot for and makes you feel good. The national weight loss registry findings suggest an hour a day is what people who maintain long term do.
  • easeintofitness
    easeintofitness Posts: 25
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    US Health and Fitness guidelines say that you should get 45 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise 3-4 times/week. This improves lifespan and cardiovascular outcomes later in life.
  • mushroomlouie
    mushroomlouie Posts: 7
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    Just something to think about... When in maintenance, a lot of people choose to increase their calorie allowance and not track their exercise calories (for example, TDEE model). This can help to break you out of the mindset that exercise is about burning calories and losing weight. You will soon forget to think about how many calories an activity burns and enjoy doing it simply for the health and fitness benefits.
  • SKME2013
    SKME2013 Posts: 704 Member
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    Why would you want to change your exercise regime? Do you not like exercising? While the two (dieting and exercising) work nicely together, exercise is for your long term health. The moment you reduce it you will have to reduce your calorie intake as well! So less eating.

    Quite to the contrary, I am very close to maintenance and I am concentrating much more now on building muscle, or more precisely retaining muscle mass, getting fit and eating healthier than I ever used to.

    Fitness and exercise can become your new goals. I am running now, something I have not done in many of years and I started weeks ago with C25K. Running a 5k is now on the horizon and one of my new goals. Doing 20 push ups is another one...working my way there...

    Anyhow, best of luck with your journey.
    Stef.
  • caesar164
    caesar164 Posts: 312 Member
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    Set new goals and keep moving forward! You look great by the way! Your husband will be very happy lol!
    Think of your body as a work in progress, always aim to improve! Weather it's making strength gains, or getting faster mile times, we could always improve! God bless, and good luck!
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
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    Exercise is to improve your fitness, which I assume you want to keep improving? You should be setting new fitness goals. Your diet can be adjusted for maintenance.

    ^^^This!!! I work out to be fit and healthy. Even if I was at my ideal weight and could rock a bikini (like that will ever happen;)......I wouldn't stop or ease up on my fitness routine!!!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I will suggest that if indeed the exercise was done merely to increase what you burned, so that the diet eating level wasn't as low as it otherwise might have been, you could indeed back off some exercise since you now get to eat more.

    But keep a few sessions of something intense, even if shorter than normal.
    Still get to eat more on those days, or in general with them.

    But if it matters, you could eat more in general if you kept the same level of exercise time.

    Just remember you can't out-exercise a bad diet. You start going over maintenance by an easy 500 calories real often, you'll soon likely find that hard to balance with enough exercise.
  • Ideabaker
    Ideabaker Posts: 508 Member
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    Just remember you can't out-exercise a bad diet. You start going over maintenance by an easy 500 calories real often, you'll soon likely find that hard to balance with enough exercise.

    ^^
    This! I would keep up with my exercise "days" for now until you get your maintenance calories sorted out. It is very easy to regain weight by going over maintenance calories by as little as 300-500 a day. Find out what your calorie intake should be in order to maintain whilst on a sustainable exercise programme (likely your current one).
  • bald_navy_wife
    bald_navy_wife Posts: 81 Member
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    Set new goals and keep moving forward! You look great by the way! Your husband will be very happy lol!
    Think of your body as a work in progress, always aim to improve! Weather it's making strength gains, or getting faster mile times, we could always improve! God bless, and good luck!

    thanks :smile:
  • bald_navy_wife
    bald_navy_wife Posts: 81 Member
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    I will suggest that if indeed the exercise was done merely to increase what you burned, so that the diet eating level wasn't as low as it otherwise might have been, you could indeed back off some exercise since you now get to eat more.

    But keep a few sessions of something intense, even if shorter than normal.
    Still get to eat more on those days, or in general with them.

    But if it matters, you could eat more in general if you kept the same level of exercise time.

    Just remember you can't out-exercise a bad diet. You start going over maintenance by an easy 500 calories real often, you'll soon likely find that hard to balance with enough exercise.

    ok thanks. i hope it didn't sound like i don't enjoy exercise because i really do it's just different considering while trying to lose MFP had me set at 1200 so exercising to eat more made sense but now that I'm at maintenance (1600 calories) its seems I'd be over eating if i also exercised. welp i guess I'll have to figure out what will or won't work for me
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    I will suggest that if indeed the exercise was done merely to increase what you burned, so that the diet eating level wasn't as low as it otherwise might have been, you could indeed back off some exercise since you now get to eat more.

    But keep a few sessions of something intense, even if shorter than normal.
    Still get to eat more on those days, or in general with them.

    But if it matters, you could eat more in general if you kept the same level of exercise time.

    Just remember you can't out-exercise a bad diet. You start going over maintenance by an easy 500 calories real often, you'll soon likely find that hard to balance with enough exercise.

    ok thanks. i hope it didn't sound like i don't enjoy exercise because i really do it's just different considering while trying to lose MFP had me set at 1200 so exercising to eat more made sense but now that I'm at maintenance (1600 calories) its seems I'd be over eating if i also exercised. welp i guess I'll have to figure out what will or won't work for me

    If MFPs estimates worked for you before, they should work now. Eating back those calories should not make your regain. And remember, just because MFP 'gives' you the calories, doesn't mean you have to eat them if you're not hungry. You can listen to your body and eat more when you want to and less when you don't.

    If you keep watching and logging, you'll figure out your balance. I've also been amazed at how I've stayed stable in weight for the last year, but lost many inches - and that's from exercise.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I will suggest that if indeed the exercise was done merely to increase what you burned, so that the diet eating level wasn't as low as it otherwise might have been, you could indeed back off some exercise since you now get to eat more.

    But keep a few sessions of something intense, even if shorter than normal.
    Still get to eat more on those days, or in general with them.

    But if it matters, you could eat more in general if you kept the same level of exercise time.

    Just remember you can't out-exercise a bad diet. You start going over maintenance by an easy 500 calories real often, you'll soon likely find that hard to balance with enough exercise.

    ok thanks. i hope it didn't sound like i don't enjoy exercise because i really do it's just different considering while trying to lose MFP had me set at 1200 so exercising to eat more made sense but now that I'm at maintenance (1600 calories) its seems I'd be over eating if i also exercised. welp i guess I'll have to figure out what will or won't work for me

    I figured you might not have liked the amount being done to give acceptable eating level - many shorter ladies have small maintenance, lots of exercise to have enough room for a deficit is only way for them to lose weight.

    MFP hasn't changed it's method just because you selected weekly weight loss goal of maintain.

    1600 is your estimated non-exercise day maintenance.

    You workout, you burn more, maintenance goes up, you eat more.

    Exactly the same, but no 400 cal deficit in there now.

    And remember to keep a goal weight range - as you can get bigger known and expected water weight fluctuations, and it'll drive you batty if you think 1-2 lbs is bad up or down.

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