Is It Possible to Lose While Maintaining?

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BooMonkeyButt
BooMonkeyButt Posts: 129 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
SW- 171 pounds
CW- 128 pounds
GW- 120 pounds

I switched to maintenance because I hit a plateau and thought maybe a switch would help. It's only been a week, maybe not even, on maintenance. I still have 8 pounds left to lose but is it possible to lose on maintenance or do I have to switch back? Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated! xoxo
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  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    By the laws of calories in, calories out, if you are eating the number of calories you burn, you will stay the same weight. You will lose on "maintenance" if you eat at a calorie deficit. It takes some playing around with the numbers to determine how many calories all that is.
  • BooMonkeyButt
    BooMonkeyButt Posts: 129 Member
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    I'm still eating at a deficit. I rarely am able to eat the full 1,570 calories and exercises gives me a couple hundred calories, depending on the day. What do you think I'm doing wrong?
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    If you still want to lose a little more weight, you aren't doing anything wrong. However, if you lose more weight than you want to, you will have to increase your calories. When I went from losing to maintenance it took me a while to figure out how many calories I needed to stay there. I wouldn't really worry about those exercise calories anyway unless I was losing too much.
  • Dex37
    Dex37 Posts: 55 Member
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    How long have you been eating 1570 calories? The more weight that you lose, the more you have to take away because your BMR changes. And if you lost muscle mass, it drops even more. Do some strength training if you aren't already.
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    A plateau is not resolved by eating more.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    alissagorkin91 wrote: »
    I'm still eating at a deficit. I rarely am able to eat the full 1,570 calories and exercises gives me a couple hundred calories, depending on the day. What do you think I'm doing wrong?

    I don't understand. You say you are maintaince but are eating at a deficit.
  • BooMonkeyButt
    BooMonkeyButt Posts: 129 Member
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    Dex37 wrote: »
    How long have you been eating 1570 calories? The more weight that you lose, the more you have to take away because your BMR changes. And if you lost muscle mass, it drops even more. Do some strength training if you aren't already.

    I've been at maintenance for roughly a week and I've started doing strength training. I just didn't know if I was missing something or doing something wrong.
  • BooMonkeyButt
    BooMonkeyButt Posts: 129 Member
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    3dogsrunning wrote: »
    alissagorkin91 wrote: »
    I'm still eating at a deficit. I rarely am able to eat the full 1,570 calories and exercises gives me a couple hundred calories, depending on the day. What do you think I'm doing wrong?

    I don't understand. You say you are maintaince but are eating at a deficit.

    Not intentionally. It's hard to eat that much for me. So I always have like 100-200 calories left at the end of the day.
  • BooMonkeyButt
    BooMonkeyButt Posts: 129 Member
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    SherryTeach wrote: »
    A plateau is not resolved by eating more.

    Then what resolves it?
  • LiftAndBalance
    LiftAndBalance Posts: 960 Member
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    Eating less than your body burns = a calorie deficit = you lose weight.
    Eating the same as your body burns = maintenance = your weight stays the same.

    How long has your plateau lasted? Up to about a month, keep doing what you've been doing and wait a bit longer. More than 4–6 weeks means you need to reassess a couple of things as that means you've effectively eaten at maintenance and not in a deficit.
  • BooMonkeyButt
    BooMonkeyButt Posts: 129 Member
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    I broke the plateau on the 3rd when I lost 1 pound. That was before I switched to maintenance. Before I broke the plateau, it lasted a month. What do you think I should do so I can lose the last 8 pounds?
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    You're not in maintenance if you're eating at a deficit.
  • BooMonkeyButt
    BooMonkeyButt Posts: 129 Member
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    Then what do I do?
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    So eat the calories MFP gives you to lose .5 lbs per week.
  • LiftAndBalance
    LiftAndBalance Posts: 960 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    So eat the calories MFP gives you to lose .5 lbs per week.

    This.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    Doing as I mentioned above would be the first step. I know you've lost weight so you understand you need to eat less, but I do think you'd benefit from reading the stickies at the top of the general weight loss page. It seems you don't quite understand a couple basic concepts of weight loss.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    Doing as I mentioned above would be the first step. I know you've lost weight so you understand you need to eat less, but I do think you'd benefit from reading the stickies at the top of the general weight loss page. It seems you don't quite understand a couple basic concepts of weight loss.

    This.
    If your eating at a deficit, then your not eating at maintenance. Maintenance would be to maintain your current weight. Deficit to lose weight and surplus to gain.
    Also, since you are closer to goal , you need to be very accurate with weighing and measuring foods. So maybe try to tighten up your weighing and logging and see if that helps
  • BooMonkeyButt
    BooMonkeyButt Posts: 129 Member
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    Thank you everyone. I will do just that.
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
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    thorsmom01 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    Doing as I mentioned above would be the first step. I know you've lost weight so you understand you need to eat less, but I do think you'd benefit from reading the stickies at the top of the general weight loss page. It seems you don't quite understand a couple basic concepts of weight loss.

    This.
    If your eating at a deficit, then your not eating at maintenance. Maintenance would be to maintain your current weight. Deficit to lose weight and surplus to gain.
    Also, since you are closer to goal , you need to be very accurate with weighing and measuring foods. So maybe try to tighten up your weighing and logging and see if that helps

    Perfect answers here. The process of maintaining does have some peaks and valleys with calories and weight, it's not like we get to our goal and just get to sit like a statue ;) So we have some tight little deficits and peaks, and it's just a little more narrow of a window. I call it the maintenance tightrope. :)

  • BooMonkeyButt
    BooMonkeyButt Posts: 129 Member
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    I switched off maintenance and am now back to losing 0.5lb/week. I sing understand maintenance completely and now know to get to my goal weight before going on maintenance.

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