Anxious about increasing calories after reaching goal weight

aubiefan122013 · May 2015

Hi all,
I'm rapidly closing in on my goal weight, but am starting to get very anxious about the prospect of increasing my calories once that weight is reached, for fear of just gaining the weight back. Do you all typically ease yourself up to a maintenance level or just plunge into it, and more importantly can someone just please tell me that they increased calories at their goal and did NOT pudge up again? I know I don't need to lose more weight once I hit the goal, but it's hard to get out of the mindset of not going above the reduced calorie limit. I'm relatively young (maybe? Late 20s. Very late 20s) and very active, so I'm sure I'll be fine . . . almost sure.

grammyhoyt · May 2015

I'm interested in this as well, does MFP increase your daily calorie count to no weight loss once we lose to goal, and we can just continue to monitor using MFP?

RoxieDawn · May 2015

Ease up in to it. Increase 50 to 100 calories a week or or longer.

Try to set MFP at maintenance and see how many calories it says. Then you can decrease your deficit by 100 or so calories until you reach your maintenance. Do this slowly or as slow as you want.

sijomial · May 2015

Firstly don't "rapidly approach goal" - you should be slowly approaching goal.

It's just the same numbers game whether losing, maintaining or gaining.
You don't magically gain the weight back - you have to consistently overeat for a very long time to do that. Just remember that rapid changes in weight cannot be fat - that's just your natural weight fluctuations.

You will have to experiment to find your calorie so get used to custom setting your goal until you find the level that lets you fluctuate with a range of acceptable weight.

Danielnielsen123 · May 2015

Use reverse dieting - this is very important, since i am guessing you have decreased your calories quite a bit (whatever your goals are) which means you metabolism has adapted. If you go eat the maintenance calories you had before you started your diet, you will gain a lot of fat, and this is the part where most people *kitten* up.

Start increasing your calories 70-100 calories PER WEEK, and you metabolism will adjust to the changes. If you want to keep the results you've worked so hard to get, you have to be cautious.

Daniel

aubiefan122013 · May 2015

sijomial wrote: »

Firstly don't "rapidly approach goal" - you should be slowly approaching goal.
.

You're right that was poor wording, "steadily" and "soon" was probably a better way to describe it.

livingleanlivingclean · May 2015

I would personally go straight to maintenance and try to Increase from there....
Maintenance will be lower than your original maintenance though. You can get bmr tests to work that out if you're really interested.

I don't understand.... Why would you be scared of more food? Who doesn't want to eat more food?!?

cwolfman13 · May 2015

aubiefan122013 wrote: »

Hi all,
I'm rapidly closing in on my goal weight, but am starting to get very anxious about the prospect of increasing my calories once that weight is reached, for fear of just gaining the weight back. Do you all typically ease yourself up to a maintenance level or just plunge into it, and more importantly can someone just please tell me that they increased calories at their goal and did NOT pudge up again? I know I don't need to lose more weight once I hit the goal, but it's hard to get out of the mindset of not going above the reduced calorie limit. I'm relatively young (maybe? Late 20s. Very late 20s) and very active, so I'm sure I'll be fine . . . almost sure.

Srsly?? Do you understand the math that's going on here?

I lost 40 Lbs a couple of years ago...I went to maintenance...I've maintained...that's why they call it maintenance.

And yes, you should increase slowly to let your metabolism adjust. Your metabolism is dialed down due to you dieting...as you increase calories, it fires back up.

I ate 2200ish calories to lose weight...I maintain easily on 2800 - 3000 with my stats and activity. Set MFP to maintain then you won't be "going over the line"...you will have a new line. Also, maintenance is variable as per your activity...like my maintenance is a lot higher in the spring summer and fall (3,000 - 3,200) vs winter (more like 2600 - 2800) because I'm more active in the warmer months.

madcat444 · May 2015

I understand your apprehension too as I am typical yo-yo dieter.....all or nothing but determined to change that this time. Moderation is my goal

Tubbs216 · May 2015

madcat444 wrote: »

I understand your apprehension too as I am typical yo-yo dieter.....all or nothing but determined to change that this time. Moderation is my goal

Yes, I also understand, having been almost at goal before and then gained it all back. I am trying to learn how to maintain whilst I am still losing.

arditarose · May 2015

I've gone into maintenance abruptly before for diet breaks, and saw the scale go up pretty abruptly too. But I've been adding 100 calories per week for the past three weeks, and it has been great. Not only have I not gained weight, the weight from those weeks I was actually at a tiny deficit finally came off. I feel better than I have in months (even though I quit before I got to my goal weight), and the gym has been so much more fun.

tephanies1234 · May 2015

I've gone abruptly into maintenance many times. Although, the longer that I diet, the more I increase calories to slow the weightloss down, essentially reverse dieting the whole time I guess...so jumping into maintenance for me is only eating another 200 calories per day. No huge jumps on the scale....always within 2 lbs of the lowest weight and holding steady (I weigh in every morning).

Anxious about increasing calories after reaching goal weight

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