What are your real maintenance calories?

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Replies

  • bunnylion
    bunnylion Posts: 265 Member
    Thanks for all the answers. I find it very reassuring that MFP seems to be correct or too low for many people. :-)
  • arrseegee
    arrseegee Posts: 575 Member
    About 100 cal higher than what MFP calculated and 250 cal higher than what was calculated for me by IIFYM.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    MFP's estimated maintenance is too low for me by about 150 calories.

    I ended up getting a Fitbit and it seems really close for me, although others have told me that it's not accurate for them. I maintain on 1900-2300 calories, depending on activity level for the day. MFP gives me 1730 for lightly active.

    For a long time though I maintained on 1900 with no activity tracker, I just adjusted my intake manually if it seemed too high or too low. I like having Fitbit because, as you can tell, it helped me to increase my maintenance calories. Basically 1900 is maintenance if I lift but don't do much else.
  • otter090812
    otter090812 Posts: 380 Member
    Thanks for sharing your experiences!
    I't really interesting to hear how everyone differs... I must admit that I'm a bit scared of ever reaching my goal because quite a few people have told me that maintaining is even more difficult than losing...

    I used to feel like this - I'm not maintaining yet, but hopefully in a few months, and it used to worry me a lot. More lion, less bunny. Don't be scared, you have the tools and advice at your disposal to make this work.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    Thanks for sharing your experiences!
    I't really interesting to hear how everyone differs... I must admit that I'm a bit scared of ever reaching my goal because quite a few people have told me that maintaining is even more difficult than losing...

    I think it's important to set new goals when you reach maintenance. It's easy to get complacent if your only goal is to stay the same. A lot of people (myself included) have success with setting fitness goals in maintenance. So I'm not just trying to maintain my weight, I'm trying to lift more weight or run longer distances or whatever it may be.
  • dortilolma
    dortilolma Posts: 103 Member
    I worked out my maintenance with http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/

    After I lost about 7kg I moved up the maintenance level for the weight I wanted to be (65kg). This has resulted in much slower progress but it's working out pretty well and I do feel I could keep up this level of intake indefinitely.

    I'm currently eating a base amount of 1700 calories. I add exercise but I track it pretty closely with a HRM and tend underestimate. This still gives me nearly a net of 2000 calories a day - which is plenty for me.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    My maintenance is about 90% the calories MFP suggests as my maintenance (I have PCOS). That's about 1800 without counting in any exercise.
  • nosebag1212
    nosebag1212 Posts: 621 Member
    MFPs maintenance cals are about 2-300 too low for me.
    this, real maintenance for me = 2500 (measured using a bodymedia device and after weeks of eating at maintenance and not gaining or losing) , mfp has me at 2200, mfp consistently underestimates my tdee
  • runnerchick69
    runnerchick69 Posts: 317 Member
    Typically I eat about 2000 a day. If I'm training for a marathon I'll eat more, just running/biking/gym I stay around the 2000. I would say overall though that MFP does tend to say I can eat more than I'm comfortable with.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Thanks for sharing your experiences!
    I't really interesting to hear how everyone differs... I must admit that I'm a bit scared of ever reaching my goal because quite a few people have told me that maintaining is even more difficult than losing...

    It really is not. I maintained for 6 months before continuing weight loss, and it was super easy. I basically was on a perpetual yoyo. If you try to stick to maintaining a certain weight it will be near impossible (weight naturally fluctuates throughout the day and from day to day).

    What I did was give myself a 5 pound leeway range below and above my chosen weight, ate at will what I intuitively felt was a good amount of food, and measured myself every day. When I reached beyond the higher limit of my chosen weight range, I counted calories again dieting down until I reached the middle of the range (my original goal weight), if I reached under the lower limit I dieted up on a surplus and once I hit the middle again I stopped counting, and so on. In my case it took about 2.5 months to reach either end of the range, and about 2 weeks to a month to diet down/up. In the 6 months I had to diet down once and up once.
  • I maintain at around 2500 calories per day.
  • popsicklestar
    popsicklestar Posts: 166 Member
    Unfortunately, my maintenance calories are lower than what I was hoping they would be, but they actually match up really closely with what the online calculators give me. My maintenance calories are 1500. I usually eat between 1600 to 1850 due to eating back exercise calories. The TDEE calculators (which already include exercise calories) give me 1800, so it's pretty much exactly the same.
  • levitateme
    levitateme Posts: 999 Member
    Currently maintaining (within 5 lbs) at about 2700 daily. I am not at a goal weight, not even close. I was in a deficit for a long time now I am just focusing on strength for a while. Might do a cut in a couple months, but it's nice to know I could do it and eat 2400 calories.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    You have a certain amount of control, in my opinion, over your maintenance calories. Based on your level of activity.

    I only have a few pounds to go (maybe, maybe not - its not so much about the # on the scale for me now as my body composition) and I use an activity tracker which estimates total daily burn. I know its an estimate, but I aim for 2000-2100 burn a day. It is not terribly hard to achieve this, yet I do have to work for it especially Mon-Fri with a desk job. I'm now eating at a slight deficit but figure 2000 or so is a good maintenance level.

    I'm 5'5.5", 39, female, and now ~135 pounds.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    I have a sedentary job, am pretty light (~118 pounds), and consequently maintain pretty low, around 1500 calories. But I've found the best way for me to deal with it, because I'm not interested in making time to further increase my exercise, is to eat at a slight deficit on weekdays so I can be a little freer on weekends. I don't use it as an excuse to pig out, but it's much easier to go out and enjoy dinner and drinks with friends if I have an extra 500 calories or so to play with. Eating 1200-ish calories through the week isn't difficult for me so I don't mind doing it in exchange for more carefree weekends.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
    Thanks for sharing your experiences!
    I't really interesting to hear how everyone differs... I must admit that I'm a bit scared of ever reaching my goal because quite a few people have told me that maintaining is even more difficult than losing...

    I think it's important to set new goals when you reach maintenance. It's easy to get complacent if your only goal is to stay the same. A lot of people (myself included) have success with setting fitness goals in maintenance. So I'm not just trying to maintain my weight, I'm trying to lift more weight or run longer distances or whatever it may be.
    I would like to reiterate this. I just maintained for my first year and continued to track and workout because "that's what I should do", but it was getting to be a bit of drag. I am trying to lift more and run faster/longer and set goal that are reachable but challenging. Having goals really re-energized me, and I eat to meet those goals.
  • kwantlen2051
    kwantlen2051 Posts: 455 Member
    I'm one of those rare people whose maintenance is probably around 1200. I am older, small, and female --55 and 5'1.5". According to MFP, if I get to my goal weight of 114, my maintenance could be between 1320 and 1480, which really isn't much over 1200. I've been netting 1200 for a long time with one "Cheat day" a week, and I've been plateau'd at 120 for about 3 months, which tells me those maintenance numbers are about right.

    So true! I'm over 50 myself, 5"2" and at goal weight of 115-117, my numbers are not too far from yours. I find I can maintain at 1200 plus exercise calories. If I consume more than 1500 on 3 or more consecutive days I gain weight. I would have to exercise a lot to be able to eat more but I've learned to focus on things that I can sustain long term. So everything in moderation works for me.
  • TriLifter
    TriLifter Posts: 1,283 Member
    MFPs maintenance cals are about 2-300 too low for me.
    this, real maintenance for me = 2500 (measured using a bodymedia device and after weeks of eating at maintenance and not gaining or losing) , mfp has me at 2200, mfp consistently underestimates my tdee

    Are you changing the activity level in MFP? Set to very active, the calories given to me by MFP are spot on what my FitBit tells me my TDEE is.
  • anna1m
    anna1m Posts: 29 Member
    A lot of people find this TDEE calculator more accurate for estimating maintenance calories.

    http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    I'm not on maintenance yet but for me it estimates my maintenance calories to be 1800 before accounting for exercise and I currently eat between 1300 and 1400.

    When I use your TDEE calculator my BMR is 1136 and my TDEE is 1561. From what I have been reading on this site, that seems pretty low. How accurate is this?
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    A lot of people find this TDEE calculator more accurate for estimating maintenance calories.

    http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    I'm not on maintenance yet but for me it estimates my maintenance calories to be 1800 before accounting for exercise and I currently eat between 1300 and 1400.

    When I use your TDEE calculator my BMR is 1136 and my TDEE is 1561. From what I have been reading on this site, that seems pretty low. How accurate is this?

    Any calculator is just an estimate. That one is low for me. But also keep in mind that it's super vague-- 3 times per week exercise could mean 20 minutes of walking to one person and 90 minutes of lifting to another. Also if you're looking at the maintenance levels other people are listing they probably are including a good bit of physical activity. That looks like a sedentary TDEE level.

    The best strategy imo is to pick one to start with and then adjust every 4-6 weeks as needed.