Does anyone struggle to eat enough in Maintanance

I am struggling somewhat. I eat whatever I want and still only manage to hit 1400 calories if I'm lucky during the week (and I'm slowly losing). I add in occasional indulgences and manage around 1700 most weekends but need to work on deliberately raising my calories during the week.

Well, I tend to focus more on averages rather than daily goals so I have had plenty of days over my goal and an occasional day or two under during both phases.

After three weeks of maintenance I have noticed that my range of daily calories hasn't changed much since switching from weight loss to maintenance (1100-2500 approx.). But the amount of days that fall in the higher end are more frequent now which increases my daily average (about 1450 before and 1750 now). And during weightloss a typical day for me tended to be between 1350-1600, where as now a typical day is 1600-1800. MFP says I should be eating 1800 to maintain.

I have increased my daily calories by small changes--mostly by adding calorie dense nutrient rich foods, but also allowing for some more indulgences than before. I know now I can afford to add sour cream onto my tacos (and I loooove me some sour cream). I am having 2-3 beers on Friday (maybe more last night )) rather than not drinking or only having 1. I had a few hershey's kisses at work. I can now top my salads with a whole avocado rather than 1/2. If you just slightly increase some calorie dense foods you won't even feel like you are eating more.

My activity level has changed, and that is probably the biggest difference since starting maintenance. I've been lazy about working out since I began maintenance--and I know that will get worse as the days get shorter. Because of this I used a separate calculator to determine my TDEE and according to that I should be maintaining at 1770.

So far this month I have averaged 1745 Kcals a day and I have lost 2 pounds so I probably need to readjust.

I wondered about this too earlier in my weight loss, and personally speaking I think part of it had to do with a little insecurity over eating, even though I knew I was staying within the bounds of my calorie goals. I think once I gained a little confidence in my methods, and saw consistent results, it was not such an issue anymore.

Right now with about 12lbs to go, I've made the decision to slowly reverse out of my diet, and having done the necessary homework to see how that would pan out, I'm happy to slowly add calories back over the next 12 weeks, and have suceeded in removing most of those 12 remaining pounds by then. I have made the choice to raise those calories by adding a miniscule amount every day, in my case 7 calories, with the result that by the time I hit mid-December I should be eating about 3,000 calories a day.

I think this shall be good practice at adding back in food slowly but surely, rather than suddenly, and although its only a small number of calories every day it adds up and should result in a gradually raised intake. Of course the side benefits to this approach are discovering my own maintenance calories (at which point I will stop raising calories and maintain), and perhaps some metabolic benefits, but the big one is about its role in helping me transition to my new 'normal'.

In any event, for me, finding it difficult to eat so much early in my weight loss were a lot to do with my all or nothing mentality, and now its all bout giving myself permission to eat what I should be. Confidence and control play a big role, especially in my case as I have never been able to find that happy medium and maintain a bodyweight, but rather instead be either gradually gaining or losing. I definitely feel I have that confidence and control now, and suspect both shall only grow after my reverse diet efforts after these next few months

Now in maintenance, I incorporate ice cream, nuts, high-cal spreads like tahin or peanut butter on my bread, chocolate, etc.

Maintenance is awesome for that reason. I am having trouble gaining but have really enjoyed being able to eat more sweets without consequences.

Having been in maintenance for a while I can say that some days I find myself WAY under my goal late in the day. I usually apply one of two options (and sometimes both). The options are chocolate and beer. Yes the nutrition is not great but I see it as my reward for doing such a fine job that day. Oh, yea and ice cream.

I had that problem for the first month of so of maintenance-- I was so used to eating at a deficit and being careful by that time, that my appetite had decreased and I think my stomach had literally shrunk. I lost 3 pounds in the first month and a half of trying to maintain, though that may have been partially due to the fact that I was doing many long hours of intense gardening then. I don't log the full amount of time I spend gardening because it's such a variable activity that I figure MFP's calorie burn number for gardening is a bit high, but I think I could have logged every minute in the spring when this happened and it would have been accurate, since I was working way harder than usual.

Anyway, it was hard to eat enough in maintenance, *at first*. I logged all food and exercise for a couple months to learn how much I needed to eat and exercise, then stopped logging, to see if I can maintain without the logging. I can, and gained a couple pounds back (from my lowest weight, which was 3 lbs under goal) doing so. I think eventually stopping logging helped me to eat more because I worry less about food when I don't log. I think the feeling of not being able to eat all your maintenance calories will disappear and maybe be replaced by the realization that you need to be careful to not overeat, by the time you've been maintaining for 3 months or so.

Give yourself time when you enter maintenance. You may lose a couple extra pounds while learning how much you really need in maintenance mode-- MFP's maintenance calorie number is not necessarily correct (in my case, it's about 100 calories too low). Consider those couple pounds a buffer for vacations, learning how to eat properly without logging (if you choose to), and so on.

If you eat a whole 'allot' I imagine you won't have any trouble maintaining. They're quite large.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

Ha! That's exactly what I was thinking! XD