Beginning to think about a maintenance diet.

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ispringle
ispringle Posts: 5
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I'm 175 and nearing the end of my weight loss, I think. What I need to start doing is thinking about the future of my eating. Here's where I am at currently:

I eat 1400 kcal per day, almost exclusively from fruits and vegetables. I ride 200 to 300 miles per week on my bike, averaging between 16 and 18 mph over a relatively steep terrain (I live on the side of a large valley, so everything for 20 miles around is either an ascent or a descent). I eat during my cycling, although I never count calories while doing this, as I find it is inconsequential. Although I can tell you I average roughly 200kcal for ever 1 hour of riding, or 16 to 18 miles.

I'm looking for an idea of how many kcal I can eat to maintain my weight, which I hope to see settle in at around 160 to 165. I am 5' 10", 22 years old, and average about 12 hours of cycling a week. In addition to this I have a fairly labor intensive job involving lots of pulling and lifting. In a few weeks I will be transitioning back to school, which will see my cycling hours increase and my activity level increase as well, as I play on a rec. team there and I also mountain bike at school.

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  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    And you're only eating 1400 calories a day? I don't even...
  • Laurenloveswaffles
    Laurenloveswaffles Posts: 535 Member
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    http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

    enter your stats and it will tell you your TDEE, or maintenance calories.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

    enter your stats and it will tell you your TDEE, or maintenance calories.
    And...given how little you've been eating, work up to it slowly. In fact, START NOW.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    I'd just start gradually adding calories, 100 at a time. You can use a calculator like Scooby to get an idea, but with all that activity it'll be easier, imo, to just test it out. Be aware though that weight fluctuates and that increasing carbs/calories will result in temporary water retention. Don't freak out and assume you're gaining.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    I don't see any tracking in your diary...how do you know you are eating 1400 calories a day...that's a very small amount for a man...even I as a 42 YO woman lose 1lb a week on 1600....

    My son is 20....he is taller than you but much less active (per exercise his job is a welder so standing and moving a lot) and he maintains on about 4500 calories a day...

    My husband is 32...same height...a lot less active (doesn't exercise hardly at all and is lightly active at his job) and he maintains on 3k a day...

    Just to give you some idea....

    When I check your TDEE is actually gives 3300 calories a day...based on your goal weight...so you are currently eating way below BMR which was calculated at 1797.....and are in a 2k a day deficit..dangerous territory.
  • shaynepoole
    shaynepoole Posts: 493 Member
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    when I transitioned to maintenance, I stepped it up slowly - I started at 1500 - kept losing, so stepped it up again to 1600 until I finally found my happy place at 1800 calories a day

    just do it gradually, let your body adjust to the increase of food and see what happens after 2 weeks or so to determine what happens
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    You don't log so how do you know how many calories you're eating?
  • CAMEAN02
    CAMEAN02 Posts: 5 Member
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    Ok, people: there's other means of tracking what you eat besides MFP. Not everyone uses every feature of the program.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    I was shocked when I saw you are eating 1400 cals until I saw you don't actually log you food so that's just a guess.

    If you are burning 200 cals for an hour of cycling including hills you must be the world's slowest cyclist!!

    You have no data to go on so how you expect strangers to have more of an idea of your maintenance calories is a bit of a conundrum.

    You could stick your stats into any number of calculators but if you don't log I'm not sure there's any point. If the scales go up you are in surplus, if they go down your are in deficit. If they stay the same that's maintenance.
  • ispringle
    ispringle Posts: 5
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    Camean02 said, there's other ways to count calories than this program. I only found out about this place a few weeks ago through another app I use called MapMyRide. I didn't see the point in switching to this tracker, because I like my current one a lot, but this has a good community and forum so I like to read stuff on here.

    I eat the same food every day, more or less, it's pretty basic, I'm going off my head so I'm going to round the calories off.

    Breakfast is oatmeal and cheese and a grapefruit. This is about 400kcal.
    Lunch is fruits, vegetables, and a grain (sometimes rice, usually quinoa). This is about 300kcal.
    Dinner is a meat (almost always fish, sometimes chicken, very rarely beef or pork) and salad. This is about 400kcal.
    The remaining 300 calories come from fruit, a mix of apples, oranges, and grapes. I eat them if I feel hungry between meals, but I never eat enough to put me over my calorie goals for the day.

    As I said, in addition to this I also eat roughly 200kcal for every 16 to 18 miles I ride, which means most days 200kcal, though once a week I can see up to 1000kcal if I ride 100 miles that day.

    I am very precise with my actual calories-in, I say actual because like I said the above is a rough estimate. I weigh everything I eat. I am aware that it sounds fairly dangerous, but I am consistently losing 2 pounds a week, almost exactly 2 pounds actually. I did not pull 1400kcal out of the air, I lowered my caloric intake by 100kcal per week until I saw the scale going down by two pounds each week.

    In addition to this I measure my body fat each week. Three times a month I use either calipers or the electric impediment thingy, and once a month (so the fourth week) I use a bod pod that I have managed to get free access to. My muscle mass has not been lowered by any alarming amount, and in fact I am rather pleased with the muscle I have lost, as I have no interest in excess upper body muscles, I view them as extra weight and a needless decrease in my power to weight ratio when I am in a crit. (bike race).

    What I am seeing, from those who contributed, is that I should increase my caloric intake until the scale ceases to move down or up, the same way I arrived at my current intake level. Sounds good to me, and it alleviates my concern about freaking out my system with a massive increase in calories all at once. I'll begin the process in the next month or so. I want to lose at least another 10 pounds, though an additional 5 or 10 wouldn't be a problem either, I eventually would lose that anyway. My goal weight for in-season (I am currently in a prolonged off-season) is down in the mid to upper 140s.
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
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    I'm 175 and nearing the end of my weight loss, I think. What I need to start doing is thinking about the future of my eating. Here's where I am at currently:

    I eat 1400 kcal per day, almost exclusively from fruits and vegetables. I ride 200 to 300 miles per week on my bike, averaging between 16 and 18 mph over a relatively steep terrain (I live on the side of a large valley, so everything for 20 miles around is either an ascent or a descent). I eat during my cycling, although I never count calories while doing this, as I find it is inconsequential. Although I can tell you I average roughly 200kcal for ever 1 hour of riding, or 16 to 18 miles.

    I'm looking for an idea of how many kcal I can eat to maintain my weight, which I hope to see settle in at around 160 to 165. I am 5' 10", 22 years old, and average about 12 hours of cycling a week. In addition to this I have a fairly labor intensive job involving lots of pulling and lifting. In a few weeks I will be transitioning back to school, which will see my cycling hours increase and my activity level increase as well, as I play on a rec. team there and I also mountain bike at school.
    My guess is your actually eating a lot more than 1400 which for a man is a good thing because 1400 is too low. Due to your total lack of tracking you first need to find out how much you are really eating now. Once you've done that you can then add calories slowly but without the basic accurate information of what your doing now you'd just be guessing

    So however your tracking check it's accuracy because I really doubt you are really only eating 1400
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    You are eating a lot while riding and I don't think you're counting your food accurately.

    I am 55, 5'10" and 148 pounds. I am supposed to be netting 1480 calories/day. I exercise every day, but just walking an hour. I actually eat between 2000 and 2400/day. I've maintained more than year (although I'm currently dropping weight because it's summertime and my steps are up). I'm sure you have a lot more muscle than I do.

    200 calories/hour for 18 miles - you mean 600 calories? That's not 'neglible'. And a lot of studies have found that the reason that exercise without calorie limitations doesn't result in weight loss - we eat more than we burn exercising.

    I would STRONGLY urge you to log everything you do - food and exercise - for the next few months. Then when you go to maintenance start there and add 500/calories a day.
  • ispringle
    ispringle Posts: 5
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    By "track" do you mean, make sure you know how many go in, or by "track" do you mean count these kcal towards your daily limit?

    If the former, I do keep track. Like I said, I average 200kcal an hour, and in one hour I travel 18 miles. So no, I didn't mean 600kcal, I meant 200kcal. 600kcal would be three hours and ~54 miles. I don't eat more than I burn, I am losing weight. But on a bicycle, at my watts per hour I am burning roughly 800kcal per hour. The body can only process 250ish kcal per hour during exercise, which is why I can't fuel back all 800kcal, I can only put up to 250kcal back into my system. I stick with 200kcal because it's easier and the food I eat (a mix of bars and gels) are portioned in 100 and 200kcal servings, which makes it very easy to keep track, you count the number of empty gel packs at the end of the ride and multiply by 100 and the number of empty bar wrappers and multiply by 200.

    When I said that the food eaten while biking is negligible, I meant that my effort is canceling out the calories taken in. If I burn 800kcal/hour and I eat 200kcal/hour than that 200kcal are not ever going to add to my weight, and because I don't count my calorie burn towards my daily caloric intake, I don't see the need to count my caloric intake during that exercise. I still keep track of it, but it makes my life easier by not having to balance it out in my tracking log.
  • FindingAmy77
    FindingAmy77 Posts: 1,266 Member
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    Ok, people: there's other means of tracking what you eat besides MFP. Not everyone uses every feature of the program.

    yes. how are you keeping track correctly????? if you want to maintain then look at what your body needs to maintain. its probably around 2000 give or take.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    To your original question . . . How much to should you eat to maintain?

    MFP will do that for you. If you put in your ideal weight (165), set to 0 weight change (maintain), and set yourself to sedentry, it will tell you what your calorie intake should be BEFORE you start exercising.

    Then log in your standard 1 hour bike ride at your typical speed. It will tell you how much you've earned from exercise.

    Those two numbers together would be a very good start for maintenance calories.

    Then you can continue to use your other program to actually log everything.

    OR, if you go back to the point of my earlier post, log what you are doing now in whichever program (both food and exericse). Calorie intake-exercise is your NET calories. Find out what your calorie intake should be (TDEE or use MFP). The difference between what you need to eat to maintain and what you are currently netting is your calorie deficit. When you are at your ideal weight, you should, in theory, be able to add in all those calories and maintain your weight. It's an empirical question for all of us though. Start adding some back in and keep adjusting until weight remains stable.

    Good luck and congratulations on getting so close.
  • icrushit
    icrushit Posts: 773 Member
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    Upping the calories slowly now would seem to be the way to go, then you can level out nicely when you reach your target weight.

    I do admit I found 1400 calories a day tremendously low for your age and activity level, and adding back 1000 calories per day onto that (1000 should be how much you are presently cutting to lose 2lbs a week), you still only come up with 2400 calories a day, which I still find quite low.

    You seem to take a pretty methodical approach to all this, which I like, so perhaps you might look into whether there are any metabolic issues behind your low calorie needs, just in case there's something untoward in the background that you could detect and nip in the bud :)
  • essjay76
    essjay76 Posts: 465 Member
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    Hm. 1400 for a guy of your size sounds pretty low. You could maintain on twice that amount.

    I'm a small woman and I maintain at 2000 a day.
  • CAMEAN02
    CAMEAN02 Posts: 5 Member
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    By looking at the nutrition facts on the actual food packaging and measuring my food with cups, not just eyeballing. I have to look and calculate from the actual nutrition facts anyways because a lot of the food entries on MFP are inaccurate, guesses, or just plain wrong. Before MFP, I just did it the old fashioned way: simple addition, division, multiplication, and subtraction+calculator+notebook+pen or pencil. MFP is simply a convenience for me because I don't have to calculate everything by hand and can visually see my progress with the measurement/weight charts and nutrition charts.
  • CAMEAN02
    CAMEAN02 Posts: 5 Member
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    Ok, people: there's other means of tracking what you eat besides MFP. Not everyone uses every feature of the program.

    yes. how are you keeping track correctly????? if you want to maintain then look at what your body needs to maintain. its probably around 2000 give or take.

    By looking at the nutrition facts on the actual food packaging and measuring my food with cups and scales, not just eyeballing. I have to look and calculate from the actual nutrition facts anyways because a lot of the food entries on MFP are inaccurate, guesses, or just plain wrong. Before MFP, I just did it the old fashioned way: simple addition, division, multiplication, and subtraction+calculator+notebook+pen or pencil. You also have to weigh certain foods such as chicken breasts anyways due to variability. Yes, one serving of chicken (4 oz.) according to the package is 110 calories. But, most fillets are 5-9 ounces. I have yet to find a chicken fillet with a weight that actually corresponds to the nutrition label. MFP is simply a convenience for me because I don't have to calculate everything by hand and can visually see my progress with the measurement/weight charts and nutrition charts. For fitness estimates, I use a different app that calculates how many calories I've approximately burned using my weight as opposed to MFP, which blindly (over) estimates.

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