How many calories do i need to be eating to maintain weight ?

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carlkate220615
carlkate220615 Posts: 1 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Im finding it impossible to maintain my weight with how active i am can anyone give me a few tips ?

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  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    eat more than you're currently eating... add 100 cals every couple of weeks till your weight stabilises... but keep in mind that you will alway sget fluctuations, so aim for a weight range, not just 1 number.

    if you have lost weight using MFP, then you can use your real life data to get your maintenance figure.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Why can't you simply eat more or eat differently?
    Give people a clue or open your diary perhaps?
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    are you still losing? and if so how much per week? that's what will help you work out your maintenance calories...
  • CaptainJoy
    CaptainJoy Posts: 257 Member
    edited December 2016
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    Cake. My favorite is Italian Cream Cake. Nut butters and granola are also calorie dense but I like cake when I don't know what to eat to keep from losing more weight.

    Since you're an active person you may need more calories than MFP suggests. I have a muscular build so I eat 500 or more calories over what MFP suggests. Just keep an eye on the scale and log what you consume. When your weight stabilizes, you will know how many calories you should be eating/drinking.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    We would need a lot more information in order to provide you accurate estimates.

    Weight management comes down to an energy balance which simplified is basically CICO.

    If your calories in are less than your calories out (CI<CO), you will lose.
    If CI = CO you will maintain.
    If CI>CO you will gain.

    In order to figure out how many calories you need to maintain your weight, you need to estimate your TDEE. Have you tried calculating this, there are a number of websites that will calculate it for you? Or you can use the estimates of total calories burned from a FitBit or other activity tracker... Or you can estimate it based on the actual results you are getting if you are accurately tracking your calories in by logging here, and then tracking your weight loss over time.

    Have you been using MFP to track your calories during a weight loss phase, and now you are switching to maintenance? Or are you just starting using the system? What calorie goal does MFP provide you for maintenance? This would exclude any purposeful exercise, but would be a good starting number for you.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
    edited December 2016
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    More calorie dense foods...most people who have this issue are still in the diet mindset and eating a lot of high volume, low calorie "diet foods"...
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    Sadly, I don't think the day will ever come for me when I have to eat cake to keep from losing too much weight.
  • ercarroll311
    ercarroll311 Posts: 295 Member
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    I actually used my Fitbit Charge HR for this. I recorded what it said I burnt in a day versus what I ate (I was careful about logging very accurately), and how my weight changed over several months and found it was much more accurate than I thought (maybe 90%), so that has helped me stick to those calories in maintenance. I usually allot more to the weekend days or special occasions and eat a little below maintenance during the week, but that's personal preference.

    You could also look at your weight versus calories eaten and see, but it does take some time since you'll always have little fluctuations.

    For reference, I'm 27, female, 117 lbs and my maintenance if I sit on my butt all day is about 1550. Luckily, I don't sit on my butt all day lol.
  • Uraveragepoet
    Uraveragepoet Posts: 40 Member
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    It depends on a bunch of factors. You should talk to a nutritionist. They'll ask you specific questions to get a read on how many calories you should intake. For example, I take in 3 thousand calories a day at a minimum. Michael Phelps took in 10 thousand a day. Everyone is different.

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