Maintenance calories

Tofuli · January 2016

Hi everyone, I'm hoping somebody can offer me some advice!

I've been losing weight since August and I am now 0.5 pounds away from my ideal weight (woop). I have been consistently eating around 1200 calories since then and walking a lot and the weight has fallen off. I have lost 34 pounds and gone from a bmi of 25 to a bmi of 19.

Anyway my question is about maintenance calories. I don't really want to lose anymore weight as much more would leave me in the underweight range of bmi, but I have become really accustomed to eating small amounts of food and eating more is quite scary because it'll feel like I am going to put on weight! Also I know that the recommendations on my fitness pal are not going to be 100% accurate for everyone so I could move it to maintenance and then put on some weight, which I don't want.

I read somewhere online that increasing your calorie intake by a 100 at a time and seeing if there are any changes until you appear to be maintaining is a good way to go, can anybody else back this up?

Also I am hoping to start a more regular exercise routine in order to help maintain the loss, but again I am concerned with the calorie info from my fitness pal, how accurate is it when it comes to exercise calories because I would need to eat these back if I don't want to lose anymore weight. Whilst I'm on this point any tips for somebody who has never ever had a regular exercise routine (other than walking)?

Thanks in advance!!

nxd10 · January 2016

I was worried about regaining too. I didn't up the full amount for mainteance, I upped 250 and just ate what I was hungry for. I also made sure to add more protein, rather than more carbs, because carbs make me hold water. I kept watching the scale to make sure my weight was stable. I did not up my calories to the full 'allowed' amount until I started losing again at that level (it took almost six months).

I had always eaten back earned calories while at a deficit. When I hit maintenance I bought a fitbit as a present to myself. It adds in calories from actual work. It worked perfectly for me (follow the instructions and set yourself to sedentary and have it add in the measured fitbit calories). A few years later, I went to an apple watch, which takes cardio into account. It made no difference - still completely stable.

Watch your measurements and your scale and adjust your calories accordingly.

mpat81 · January 2016

When I moved to maintenance, I kept MFP calorie goals the same. I ate 3 meals just like before but added in more snacks. I still log everything. I lost 50 lbs and have been maintaining for about 3 months.

pmanney · January 2016

In order to attempt a "soft landing", I increased my calorie limit in couple-week increments--1200 --> 1500 --> 1800 -->1950 currently, while watching my weight. I eat 5x a day, 300-500 calories per meal; maintaining 9 months now by this method.

cwolfman13 · January 2016

You're likely to gain some scale weight when you move to maintenance due to the fact that you are going to replenish depleted glycogen stores and you will have more inherent waste in your system. You should probably wrap you head around the fact that not everything on the scale is fat.

Also, as you up your calories, your hormones will change and you will have a bigger appetite. The difference between maintaining and losing weight isn't that much...it was a couples of snacks for me or a larger portion of this or that for one of my meals.

runnerchick69 · January 2016

I've been at this maintenance thing for several years now

So at one point I was down to 125 pounds but that was too thin. Once I increased my calories I did add some weight but I would say the majority of that was muscle because I started to weight train 2-3 times a week. Now I average around 130-131 and I'm happy with that. I eat around 2200 calories a day but I also train 7 days a week, some easy, some not and I'm training for another marathon so these might be a bit high for you! With that said, you really should go above 1200 calories so maybe try adding 300 more and go with 1500. If you're exercising you'll want to increase more on training days. What it really boils down to is trial and error. You will have to play around with the numbers to find what fits you best. You can totally do this

Yi5hedr3 · January 2016

50 cals week max increase, or most of it will go to fat gain.

Talan79 · January 2016

@pmanney Did you have a spike in weight when you increased your calories? I'm attempting to reverse diet to get my calories back up and scared of the scale moving up.

sijomial · January 2016

Loads of ways to estimate your maintenance calories, from your own data, from your recent rate of loss, trial and error..... But you say you are going to be changing your routine so your existing data won't be valid so trial and error over an extended period is the way to go.

As for the exercise calories on here being accurate the answer isn't yes or no.
Some will be accurate, some low, some high. Depends on many factors including what exercise you are doing, your fitness levels, your intensity etc. etc....
The best way to estimate varies from exercise to exercise, there isn't any one way that works for everything.
For walking just knowing the distance covered and your weight gives your burn using a simple formula.

Yes you must take your exercise into account when working out your maintenance calories.

cnbbnc · January 2016

I started maintenance two weeks ago today, so I can only tell what my experience has been so far. I had been eating about 1350/day while losing. I increased to 1450 for a week, then 1500, and now I'm up to about 1580/day. The scale has bounced back and forth slightly, but overall I'm the same weight so far. Eating the extra food is awesome btw!

The app says I should be eating 1680, so my plan is to slowly keep inching up there until I see a gain that is sticking. If I need to adjust a little at that point, I will. I'm learning that it's going to take some time and patience to get settled into a groove. But keep in mind that weight fluctuations are inevitable, just the same as they were when dieting.

Owlfan88 · January 2016

I would start upping your calories slowly now and not wait for that last half pound. I was where you are a few months ago. I had heard about the bump in weight and was concerned about it, but it didn't happen for me, because I increased my calories slowly. As it turns out, too slowly. I ended up losing another 10 pounds. Now I'm trying to regain some of them - very slowly. I find it hard to go into the red, so if you do as well, I might suggest putting your goal to maintain and leaving a bit of buffer and decreasing that buffer over time. If you aren't used to eating back your exercise calories, you will probably need to start doing so (for at least some of them) or continue to lose. I got a Fitbit for Christmas and I think it's helping me realize just how active or inactive I am each day. I am trying to eat back all the allotted calories, but not always succeeding.

Also remember that you aren't going to have a static weight- your weight will naturally bounce around a little bit. You should probably have more of a goal range, plus or minus some pounds from your goal weight.

dlmciver · January 2016

In addition to all of the great advice above, make sure you've taken measurements as a baseline. I lost almost a size as my weight stabilized and went up a pound. To me, my lean muscle mass is the more important measure.

mylittlerainbow · January 2016

I have been maintaining for two weeks now, too. The calorie limit in the reduction phase was 1200 (that's as low as MFP will go, so only lost 1/2 pound per week on the average) and my TDEE (averaged from five different sites, all pretty close to the same) is 1440 before activity. So I added 100 calories per day for this past few weeks and will add another 100 calories per day starting on Friday (week #3) if I find that I am continuing to lose weight. Will then weigh and log regularly and adjust calories as I see how my weight has leveled off (or fallen or increased).

jentroeger · January 2016

I'm right there with you! I need to figure this out, but I'm also exercising 5 days a week and have never added those calories back into my diet, so I don't know how this will work for me in the maintenance phase. I almost feel like I want to take my weight a couple pounds lower, just so I've got some "room to play with" as I add the calories back in. I sent you a friend request!

mamadon · January 2016

I started maintaining almost two years ago. That's exactly what I did. I increased 100 calories a week, until I found my maintenance.

KwonJiYong69 · January 2016

I had a really unhealthy relationship with food and for the most time I was eeating under 700 calories a day, so when I decided enough is enough ( and with help from my boyfriend) I started eating 'maintaining calories'. I gained 2 kg in a week and I wanted to stop BUT I continued eating the recommended calories and the weight dropped back off. So basically yes you will gain weight for 1-2 weeks but it naturally falls off. Also I have my exercise on 'light' and don't eat back exercise calories. It feels safe. I really hope this is helpful, don't be scared to eat what your body needs because it will get used to it

Tofuli · January 2016

Thanks for the advice everyone! Sorry for not replying sooner I only just found the notifications bit haha. I guess it is more of a mental thing, getting used to the idea of not being at a deficit. I am going to just try increasing slowly, averaging about 1300 for the past week or so and haven't seen any gains/losses yet.

Maintenance calories

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