Is It Possible to Lose While Maintaining?

BooMonkeyButt
BooMonkeyButt Posts: 129 Member
edited November 21 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

Replies

  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
    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
    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
    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
    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
    A plateau is not resolved by eating more.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    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
    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
    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
    SherryTeach wrote: »
    A plateau is not resolved by eating more.

    Then what resolves it?
  • LiftAndBalance
    LiftAndBalance Posts: 960 Member
    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
    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: 15,573 Member
    You're not in maintenance if you're eating at a deficit.
  • BooMonkeyButt
    BooMonkeyButt Posts: 129 Member
    Then what do I do?
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    So eat the calories MFP gives you to lose .5 lbs per week.
  • LiftAndBalance
    LiftAndBalance Posts: 960 Member
    arditarose wrote: »
    So eat the calories MFP gives you to lose .5 lbs per week.

    This.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    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: 7,088 Member
    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
    Thank you everyone. I will do just that.
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    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
    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.
  • timtakel
    timtakel Posts: 50 Member
    You also should track your body fat percentage. Your weight alone is not a good assessment, especially when you are now starting with weight training. It's possible to lose fat and gain the same weight back as muscle. Then you don't lose weight. But if, at the same time, the amount of fat in your body is dropping, you are still losing fat (while also getting thinner).

    Being overweight is not so much a problem of pure weight, but of having a body composition with too much fat. Your main goal should be to change that composition. You can buy a scale that will do that measurement. It will give you an estimation. These scales are not very accurate. But they will show you if the amount of fat is rising, or falling.

    Last but not least there is water. It's possible that your body stores additional water. There are many reasons why that could be the case. That's why its important to also measure the amount of fat in the composition of your body.
  • michellesz
    michellesz Posts: 429 Member
    The definition of Maintenance is the process of maintaining or preserving someone or something, or the state of being maintained. If you have met your goal and are attempting to stay within that decided range of (blank) pounds great, but you can't be in maintenance and want to continue to lose 8+ pounds unless you are following the recommendations above for continued weight loss. You may decide before you get to 8 pounds that you've lost enough by how you look and feel. My goals had changed several times. Then continue looking at the numbers again. Good luck.
  • Gska17
    Gska17 Posts: 752 Member
    LiftAndBalance wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    So eat the calories MFP gives you to lose .5 lbs per week.

    This.

    That's exactly what I'm doing. On weekends I eat much higher, on week days I'm much more strict. It's worked for me for just over one month, I've only bounced up and down 2 pounds at any given time. "Mainten-losing" I guess.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    If you are eating at a deficit, then you are not eating at maintenance. The 2 are mutually exclusive.
  • janellevaught
    janellevaught Posts: 428 Member
    alissagorkin91 wrote: »
    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

    Congrats on the loss so far!

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