Maintenance # off

It's an estimate...

So I have been in maintenance mode for almost 3 months and I find I am still losing weight. I have uped my calories by 75 per day over what MFP told me I needed for maintenance. I know it's still a learning process but I'm just curious - if you are settled in to maintenance, how off was the number MFP gave you? I never thought I would say this but I really don't want to lose any more weight and I'm interested to see how different your actual maintenance # is from what MFP said.

I started maintenance at 150 in about December/January. Now I am 139, which I've been maintaining for about the last month or so (time will tell). For me, I think the number has been off about 100 calories a day.

so long as I was using this tool as intended and eating back my exercise calories, it was pretty accurate. most people have issues here because they just put sedentary and call it a day when they are in no way sedentary...garbage in, garbage out.

I found it much easier to just use TDEE and include that estimate of my required exercise calories in the equation and just eat 2600 - 2800 calories per day, but either way it comes out about 6 of 1...with MFP I was grossing 2600 - 2800 calories and with TDEE I do the same.

You're ultimately going to find that you have a maintenance range...nobody has a calorie requirement of exactly XXXX calories....you have a range. Give yourself the appropriate credit for your real world activity and I've found most of these calculators to be fairly accurate...making an adjustment of 100 calories or so is well within any kind of reasonable margin of error that would be expected with using a calculator like MFP. 100 calories either way is nothing.

Well, it seems that you are not completely over that eating disorder since you still don't feel good about yourself and feel guilty after eating. My best advice is that you find yourself profesional help first before start any diet plan.

Well that came out of nowhere...

also, *professional
(sorry, couldn't help myself!)

Either my estimate of my calories or MFP's estimate is off by 250 calories a day.

I eat about 600 calories over the number that MFP gives me for maintenance. Including all my exercise and daily activity.

I ended up getting a fitbit because I kept losing weight in maintenance.

I think mine has been off about 100 calories a day too. I am looking to get a fitbit to get a better idea of my steps. I think I am more active than I give myself credit for!

I can't speak highly enough of fitbit. It has been an awesome tool for me so far, although I still have 47 lbs to go. It allows me to measure all the little bits of exercise I get, not just the runs and other exercise. One caution I have though is that it only measures steps, not any weight carried, or other activities. As an example, I did 10 hours of hay for my father's farm (miserable hard work). At the end of the day, I had 22k steps and 3400 calories available to eat, which is huge, but if I entered the haying as exercise which is in the database, it came out far higher for calories burned because I was carrying and throwing 40-50 lb bales for 10 hours.

My point is that if you're walking or running, a fitbit will work great to keep track of calories. If you're lifting, bending etc, then fitbit is of slightly less value and you should consider other solutions. I know I had plateaued briefly in my weight loss and did some research, and the most common reason by far for inaccuracies in expected weight loss (or maintenance) and actual is lack of accuracy in logging foods or exercise. In my case I had an inaccurate scale that has been replaced, along with more strictly logging measurements instead of estimating. In your case the same may apply, but you may be under eating, and not accurately logging exercise. Maybe try investigating those causes and then compare your results in a few weeks.