How many calories do you need to maintain?
tigerblue
Posts: 1,526 Member
I am feeling sorry for myself tonight. I've been working hard, and seeing results (finally, after a three year plateau/gain cycle!). I should be feeling great! But I've realized that when I get to my goal, I'm still not going to be able to eat much! Welcome to my pity party!
So, what will all of you smaller people need to do to maintain? How many calories do you expect to be able to eat? And how do you plan to stick to your goal to maintain?
Here are my stats:
46 years old, soon to be 47. 5'2" 129 lbs. my goal is to maintain between 115 and 120.
Right now, I am losing a little more than 1/2 lb per week. I figure that means a deficit of about 300 calories. I am averaging 1350 calories per day. (That includes eating back exercise calories. I exercise about 30-45 minutes per day and burn from 150-400 calories per session. I shoot for 3 days of strength/circuit and 3-4 days of cardio.)
So for maintenance I plan to keep basically the same exercise program. I will add 250-300 calories back in. So I will be eating around 1600 calories. That still doesn't sound like much! And yes I am whining about it right now!
I'd love to hear what has worked for you, or what your plan is for maintenance.
So, what will all of you smaller people need to do to maintain? How many calories do you expect to be able to eat? And how do you plan to stick to your goal to maintain?
Here are my stats:
46 years old, soon to be 47. 5'2" 129 lbs. my goal is to maintain between 115 and 120.
Right now, I am losing a little more than 1/2 lb per week. I figure that means a deficit of about 300 calories. I am averaging 1350 calories per day. (That includes eating back exercise calories. I exercise about 30-45 minutes per day and burn from 150-400 calories per session. I shoot for 3 days of strength/circuit and 3-4 days of cardio.)
So for maintenance I plan to keep basically the same exercise program. I will add 250-300 calories back in. So I will be eating around 1600 calories. That still doesn't sound like much! And yes I am whining about it right now!
I'd love to hear what has worked for you, or what your plan is for maintenance.
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I am a fan of this calorie calculator I found online: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
It tells you how many calories you need to maintain or lose weight depending on your age, height weight, and activity level. It also gives you the option to zig-zag your daily calorie intake if you want (this is supposed to help break plateaus, for example.)
I'm about 5 ft 2 in tall, and weigh around 127 lbs. According to the calculator I posted above, I should eat about 2000 calories a day to maintain, and 1600 to lose weight. I am pretty active; I do about five fairly intense hour-long workouts a week.
As an example, my average calorie intake (calories consumed, not net intake) over the past week was about 2000 calories, and I have maintained on that. My average net intake (calories consumed minus exercise calories) for the week was 1630.
Hope that gives you something to compare to. Best of luck!!0 -
when I was smaller- it was really as simple as dedicating myself to an activity. My pesonal choices are soccer and swimming- doing those and going about my daily life had ALWAYS maintained me (swimming tones like crazy too). Having moved away from where I could maintain this level of activity left me, well, to get larger (plus life happens you now), but when I get to where I aim to be, that's my plan for maintaining my weight. Enrolling at a gym or aquatic center with one big bad pool.0
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Sooo I'm finding out I gain at 1500. . .
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5'0 around 110lbs, I maintain at 1350 calories, anything more than that without any exercise I gain weight!0
