When should I start preparing for Maintenance?

Skipper111 · January 2017

Hi guys,

I am about 6lbs away from reaching my goal weight and wanted to start planning what happens when I reach this number on the scale...

I have read a lot of the posts in the Maintenance section and realise that it is not a one-for-all calorie intake figure and that it can take time to figure out your own Maintenance calorie figure.

So my question is, should I be starting this now?

My goals are still set at intake of 1200 calories a day, losing 2lbs a week. Which has been working well for me.

Should I leave this goal as it is until I hit my target weight or do I start changing things now?

I apologise if this has been asked a thousand times before!

tahxirez · January 2017

I wish I would have stepped up calories slower and sooner. I did the calorie jump and panicked and wondered if I was going to get fat. I would slow down loss to probably no more than 1lb/week to start out. I don't know your stats but you're quite slim in your picture so I'll go off that. Figure out what portion of your current exercise you want to maintain during maintenance, basically is your routine sustainable? Then think about what your goal is going to be after you hit maintenance. Basically make a plan: I'm going to get to x weight and then I'm going to train for a 10k in June. I say this because when I hit maintenance I had a bit of an existential crisis; a where do I go from here moment.

WinoGelato · January 2017

It's generally recommended to slow your rate of loss as you get closer to goal so that you don't have as steep of a deficit and then start eating significantly more calories in maintenance. With 6 lbs to go, you should really be set to lose 0.5 lbs/week and a deficit of 250 cals from maintenance. The reason this is important is it helps preserve lean body mass, helps mitigate the rebound of water weight from glycogen stores being replenished, and mentally makes the transition easier.... you could step it up and change your goal first to 1 lb/week for a couple then change it to 0.5 lb/week for the final few pounds.

Are you actually losing 2 lbs/week now? The reason I ask is 1200 is the lowest MFP will go so it may not be a 1000 cal deficit for you from your maintenance.

Have you worked out what you think your TDEE is for your goal weight?

kzooyogi · January 2017

What worked really well for me was slowly adding calories back in. I would add 100 calories every 10 days until I noticed the scale staying within my chosen range. I didn't do it until I hit my target goal (140 lbs), but that's only because the range I wanted to be in was either at or below (~137-140lbs). That worked really well for me. If you want your maintenance range to span your goal weight, then I'd start right now. Good luck!

Skipper111 · January 2017

Thank you so much for the quick response and really useful tips.

Can I ask regarding the below:

WinoGelato wrote: »

With 6 lbs to go, you should really be set to lose 0.5 lbs/week and a deficit of 250 cals from maintenance. The reason this is important is it helps preserve lean body mass, helps mitigate the rebound of water weight from glycogen stores being replenished, and mentally makes the transition easier.... you could step it up and change your goal first to 1 lb/week for a couple then change it to 0.5 lb/week for the final few pounds.

Are you actually losing 2 lbs/week now? The reason I ask is 1200 is the lowest MFP will go so it may not be a 1000 cal deficit for you from your maintenance.

Have you worked out what you think your TDEE is for your goal weight?

When you say a deficit of 250, does this mean the amount of calories I have remaining at the end of the day including from exercise? At the moment I consume my 1,200 in food and sometimes this is a little more on days I exercise (about 4 days a week).

I really don't want to lose lean body mass as I want to start working on my definition so thank you for that tip!

I am losing an average of 2lbs a week at the moment, and sorry I don't know what TDEE is... I have a heart rate monitor on my watch if this helps? Sorry :-(

kommodevaran · January 2017

I would recommend to start preparing for maintenance as soon as possible. The technical bit - you have to increase calories to find your maintenance level, the practical bit - do it in increments or in one big chunk, when, how fast, doesn't really matter. The mental bit can be difficult - you may see an initial "gain" on the scales as your glycogen stores replenish, you may find it difficult to allow foods you have restricted, to find the right type and degree of moderation. It can be hard to not have the weekly loss to look forward to - you are basically making the same effort as before, just to achieve "nothing" - you can experience a feeling of anticlimax. I would advice setting a goal range, not a number, and regular weigh-ins - monthly ok, daily is better - and continue logging food intake, at least until you feel certain that you're not going to overeat consistently.

WinoGelato · January 2017

Skipper111 wrote: »

Thank you so much for the quick response and really useful tips.

Can I ask regarding the below:

WinoGelato wrote: »

With 6 lbs to go, you should really be set to lose 0.5 lbs/week and a deficit of 250 cals from maintenance. The reason this is important is it helps preserve lean body mass, helps mitigate the rebound of water weight from glycogen stores being replenished, and mentally makes the transition easier.... you could step it up and change your goal first to 1 lb/week for a couple then change it to 0.5 lb/week for the final few pounds.

Are you actually losing 2 lbs/week now? The reason I ask is 1200 is the lowest MFP will go so it may not be a 1000 cal deficit for you from your maintenance.

Have you worked out what you think your TDEE is for your goal weight?

When you say a deficit of 250, does this mean the amount of calories I have remaining at the end of the day including from exercise? At the moment I consume my 1,200 in food and sometimes this is a little more on days I exercise (about 4 days a week).

I really don't want to lose lean body mass as I want to start working on my definition so thank you for that tip!

I am losing an average of 2lbs a week at the moment, and sorry I don't know what TDEE is... I have a heart rate monitor on my watch if this helps? Sorry :-(

TDEE is Total Daily Energy Expenditure, aka Maintenance Calories. It the sum of all the calories you burn in a day, just being alive, your daily activity like working and cooking and running around, and your purposeful exercise. There are websites online that will calculate it for you, or if you have an activity tracker like a FitBit those provide an estimate, or you can estimate it from your actual results. If you are steadily losing 2 lbs/ week eating 1200 cals or more that means your TDEE is in the neighborhood of 2200-2500 because 2 lbs/ week indicates a deficit of 1000 cals from your maintenance level. Mathematically that means you could probably lose eating up to 1900-2000 cals/day. I know that sounds like a lot but it's possible, I'm 5'2 and lost my weight eating between 1600-1900 cals.

Alternatively, to figure out your maintenance calories, you could put in your goal weight into MFP and set your goal to "maintain my weight" and see what calorie goal it gives you. Then when you start maintaining that would be your baseline goal and you would eat back some exercise cals as you are today - should give similar results to calculating a TDEE and eating up to that amount.

Hope this helps. As someone else mentioned, maintenance is a range on both the scale and with calories so it may take some tweaking. For you, I would start by adding 300 cals/day for a couple of weeks, then another 300 cals after that, and see how it affects your rate of loss. 300 extra isn't that much, it's a serving of ice cream or a bagel or a handful of nuts... but it will help you transition to a more moderate rate of loss.

Good luck!

Skipper111 · January 2017

OK I don't know how accurate it is... but Google has suggested a TDEE calculator

This is for my goal weight... This is with me exercising 3-5 times a week...

Skipper111 · January 2017

WinoGelato wrote: »

TDEE is Total Daily Energy Expenditure, aka Maintenance Calories. It the sum of all the calories you burn in a day, just being alive, your daily activity like working and cooking and running around, and your purposeful exercise. There are websites online that will calculate it for you, or if you have an activity tracker like a FitBit those provide an estimate, or you can estimate it from your actual results. If you are steadily losing 2 lbs/ week eating 1200 cals or more that means your TDEE is in the neighborhood of 2200-2500 because 2 lbs/ week indicates a deficit of 1000 cals from your maintenance level. Mathematically that means you could probably lose eating up to 1900-2000 cals/day. I know that sounds like a lot but it's possible, I'm 5'2 and lost my weight eating between 1600-1900 cals.

Alternatively, to figure out your maintenance calories, you could put in your goal weight into MFP and set your goal to "maintain my weight" and see what calorie goal it gives you. Then when you start maintaining that would be your baseline goal and you would eat back some exercise cals as you are today - should give similar results to calculating a TDEE and eating up to that amount.

Hope this helps. As someone else mentioned, maintenance is a range on both the scale and with calories so it may take some tweaking. For you, I would start by adding 300 cals/day for a couple of weeks, then another 300 cals after that, and see how it affects your rate of loss. 300 extra isn't that much, it's a serving of ice cream or a bagel or a handful of nuts... but it will help you transition to a more moderate rate of loss.

Good luck!

This is so helpful! Thank you :-)

As you recommended I will change my setting to lose 1lb a week and see how that goes.

Thanks guys :-)

schwelley · January 2017

Great Job! Glad to hear everyone thinking about keeping lean body mass

lorrpb · January 2017

C ongrats on getting so close! Its very wise to plan ahead. Start adjusting now. Your loss rate will slow down, as it should. With less than 50 lbs to lose, 1 lb per week is recommended. With less th as needed 10 lbs it Should be at .5 per week. This makes the transition to maintenance easier &more successful.

TimothyFish · January 2017

What I told myself I would do when I went on maintenance was that I would continue eating at a deficit for a while after I reached my goal and then slowly add in calories with my final goal being to eat a little less than I burned each day. What I actually did was that I quit logging my food calories and just ate about what I thought I needed. I weighed weekly to make sure I wasn't gaining weight. It worked well for me for well over a year.

CharlieBeansmomTracey · January 2017

Skipper111 wrote: »

Thank you so much for the quick response and really useful tips.

Can I ask regarding the below:

WinoGelato wrote: »

With 6 lbs to go, you should really be set to lose 0.5 lbs/week and a deficit of 250 cals from maintenance. The reason this is important is it helps preserve lean body mass, helps mitigate the rebound of water weight from glycogen stores being replenished, and mentally makes the transition easier.... you could step it up and change your goal first to 1 lb/week for a couple then change it to 0.5 lb/week for the final few pounds.

Are you actually losing 2 lbs/week now? The reason I ask is 1200 is the lowest MFP will go so it may not be a 1000 cal deficit for you from your maintenance.

Have you worked out what you think your TDEE is for your goal weight?

When you say a deficit of 250, does this mean the amount of calories I have remaining at the end of the day including from exercise? At the moment I consume my 1,200 in food and sometimes this is a little more on days I exercise (about 4 days a week).

I really don't want to lose lean body mass as I want to start working on my definition so thank you for that tip!

I am losing an average of 2lbs a week at the moment, and sorry I don't know what TDEE is... I have a heart rate monitor on my watch if this helps? Sorry :-(

no it means set your weight loss goals to lose .5lbs(1/2) a week it will give you a 250 calorie deficit(already built in) instead of the 1000 calorie deficit you are doing now(to lose 2 lbs).

When should I start preparing for Maintenance?

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