Maintenance?

One quick way to do it is just change the goal setting on mfp to maintenance. Another simple way to calculate is to do current weight * 24. (This is a simplified version of the actual much longer equation, will have some margin of error in it but I don't find it too off.) Note these would give you an estimate of a very stationary day. Adjust the calorie accordingly to ur exercise.

Cbaka27 wrote: »

I would say dont fall into the trap. Maintain your caloric deficit. When I need more calories I make sure I walk more or work out to earn some.

What trap? I have a current 520 day streak. Have lost 39lb in total (20lbs during this streak). I'm disabled and also have an autoimmune disease and have angina. I can't exercise in the usual manner, but do what I can.
So I'm now eating a healthy balanced diet, to help improve my health as well as to lose weight. More importantly to be able to stay at a healthy weight, for the rest of my life. I chose to eat at a calorie deficit most days, but sometimes I chose to eat at maintenance. This has allowed me to adapt my meal plan, around difficult times, ie. health flareups or special occasions/holidays. Without feeling a "failure" or considering myself "on" or "off" diet. This will have lowered my overall deficit and therefore meant a slower weight loss. But overall it caps any one day at maintenance, which will still insure a weight loss and stop me from gaining.
For me this is a "healthy journey" and isn't a race, it needs to be a plan I can stick with for life. Otherwise as soon as I've lost my weight, I'll stop dieting and then it's easy to regain all the weight and sometimes even more. By collecting my data, over the past weeks/months, it has allowed me to calculate, my "calorie range", for my level of activity, to lose or maintain my current weight.
No trap, but hard work and persistence, has seen me go from borderline obese/severely obese to borderline overweight/healthy weight. My blood tests results have also shown a huge improvement. Just be careful, to track maintenance day calorie intake, otherwise you can blow your deficit. Start by using the online calculators to use as a baseline, then you can monitor more accurately, as time passes and you can collect your own data.

Temporarily change you goal in MFP to maintain...it will give you an estimated maintenance number.

Take your height in centimeters and multiply by 12. This is a descent starting point for women in determining maintenance calories. I say starting point because honestly, all these calculations are just guesses. You implement, take note of the results, and adjust as you go. This formula assumes moderate activity.

Mfp will tell you if you change settings to maintenance. Also you'll know your average rate of loss, if you're losing 0.5lb a week your daily calorie deficit is 250 calories, so you can bump your calories up right away by that 250 on the weekends.