How to Find Your Maintenance Calorie Level
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CoachJen71 wrote: »@PAV8888 Thanks! Also, at 5'2" I just need to get more steps to equal a similar burn for someone taller.
Now that's something I've never considered.
That # of steps may vary based on height.
Maybe because the multipliers run off Mifflin St Jeor BMR which already takes height into account.
But that doesn't mean that there is no possibility that stride length would have an additional effect.
There is a concept of corrected MET values (most activity trackers including Fitbit that I use and MFP make use of published MET values to estimate burns).
A brief search says that the met corrections predominantly have to do with BMI but that other issues including gender and age come into play.
"Kozey et al. found that the standard MET misclassifies the intensity category 12.2% of the time compared to measured MET values with greater misclassification in individuals that are overweight, older, low fit, or women"
But again, stride length may have something to do with it even though i personally think that there is also a very high probability that some of the additional step requirement in your particular case may be a consequence of exercise adaptation and AT due to weight loss.
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@CoachJen71, @PAV8888.
I (as a 5'1 petite older woman) agree with the 3500 etc that Pav888 posted.
I am not a step counter, but run occasional experiments since my weight is so stable, 3500 is me sedentary, and it amuses me.
When I am on a book reading bonanza, usually lasts a week (pure sloth), 30min walking keeps me in sedentary.
Without the walk it would be coma.
Cheers, h.16 -
Nevermind1
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I am just starting maintenance. Currently I weigh myself weekly. Should I weigh myself more often to help learn the proper amount of calorie for me to maintain?2
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raeann_991 wrote: »I am just starting maintenance. Currently I weigh myself weekly. Should I weigh myself more often to help learn the proper amount of calorie for me to maintain?
If you've been happy before with weekly weigh ins there's no reason you need to move to daily ones. Some people like the data and to see the trends.
You'll know what calories you maintain on according to what your weekly loss has been until now. E.g If it was 0.5lb a week loss then you'd have an extra 250 cals a day.4 -
raeann_991 wrote: »I am just starting maintenance. Currently I weigh myself weekly. Should I weigh myself more often to help learn the proper amount of calorie for me to maintain?
I don't think it matters if you prefer to weigh yourself weekly, but would encourage you to take the long view in maintenance.
When we're losing, our weight fluctuates day to da (of course) but tends to drop week to week. The daily fluctuations are like small bumps up and down on an overall downhill slope that represents the weight trend. While we may occasionally get a fluctuation that puts this week's weight above last week's, it's not the most common case. This is especially true for higher average weekly loss rates.
However, once we get to maintenance, the daily fluctuations are up and down around a flat horizontal weight trend. Weighing just once a week, it's likely to be a more frequent occurrence to see this week's weight be higher than last week's even when we aren't really gaining. It's just the result of the probabilities of any given fluctuation showing up on any particular day.
That's what I mean by taking the long view in maintenance: You kind of have to trust your calorie level and not get panicked if you're up 2 pounds from last week; next week you may be down 2.5-3.
Pulling some examples (daily weights, in my case) from my own Libra data:
During steady weight loss, a random 2-week period went like this:
M-137 Tu-137 W-138 Th-137 F-137 Sa-136 Su-136
M-136 Tu-138.5 W-137.5 Th-136.5 F-136.5 Sa-135.5 Su-135.5
If you assume I was weighing only weekly, there's only one potential weigh-in day in there, Tuesday, that would've looked like a failure to lose that week (even though I was losing). Any other weigh-in day would look like a loss (accurately), though it's all in a context of jumps up and down when you see all the details.
During maintenance (with a range of 120 +/- 3), a two week period looked like this:
M-123 Tu-120.2 W-119 Th-122.4 F-120.2 Sa-119.2 Su-118.2
M-119.4 Tu-121 W-121.2 Th-124.4 F-120.8 Sa-121.2 Su-119.2
With a weekly weigh in, there were 6 of 7 potential weigh-in days that would've shown me up a little from the previous week, even though when you look at the totality, it's pretty clear that I'm just bouncing around in my maintenance range of 117-123. By the 3rd or 4th week of weekly weigh-ins in any one day of the week, it would be pretty obvious that the overall trend was level, though. The long view!
(I really didn't cherry pick these particular weeks to make my point, either. I just picked a couple weeks when my weight trend in Libra was very level.)
I hope thgat maskes sense.21 -
I just started maintenance a few weeks ago, and what you say, AnnPT77 is *super* helpful, thank you. I'm going to start weighing every day, with a long term overview, as you say.9
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cypressfey wrote: »I just started maintenance a few weeks ago, and what you say, AnnPT77 is *super* helpful, thank you. I'm going to start weighing every day, with a long term overview, as you say.
If you're not currently using a weight trending app, I'd consider it. These, too can be alarming or misleading, especially before you get 3 months or so of data in the app, and 3 months or so of experience with understanding the app in your head.(They can show an upward trend sometimes for a short period when you're not actually gaining!).
You need to understand that they don't really predict anything magically, they just apply statistical formulas to history to guess what might likely happen next. But that can provide insights about patterns that are harder to see in other ways.
Libra for Android, Happy Scale for iOS, Trendweight (you need a free Fitbit account but don't need a Fitbit device) are some examples.3 -
Great advice. I have found that the calories calculated on mfp for maintenance are too much for me and I gain weight if I try to eat that much. I have found, through trial and error, the correct calories for maintenance for me. I actually lost my last 10 pounds when my rheumatologist suggested I go gluten free. I struggled for months to lose 30 pounds, and those last 10 seemed to melt off!!!!8
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I found that I just stopped losing. I'm still 1-2 pounds away from goal weight and have been for months, so I'm at maintenance for the weight I'm at.
I'm actually still set to lose .5 a week in MFP but have been at the same weight for about 6 months so this is clearly my maintenance level.
I think once you get close enough to goal (and if you are relatively short and at a healthy weight) maintenance is often not giving you as many calories as you hope you are going to get11 -
StarBrightStarBright wrote: »I found that I just stopped losing. I'm still 1-2 pounds away from goal weight and have been for months, so I'm at maintenance for the weight I'm at.
I'm actually still set to lose .5 a week in MFP but have been at the same weight for about 6 months so this is clearly my maintenance level.
I think once you get close enough to goal (and if you are relatively short and at a healthy weight) maintenance is often not giving you as many calories as you hope you are going to get
The calculators, like the one built into MFP, are just statistical estimates based on formulas derived from large-group research studies. They can be a little to quite a lot off for anyone, of any body size . . . in either direction, plus or minus. Most people are close to the averages, though - within the range of typical exercise/eating estimating error - close enough that MFP seems to be right.)
But the fact that calculated calorie goals are statistical estimates is what makes finding the calories experimentally so important for some of us, like you or me.
I'm only 5'5", goal 120, age 62 now. If, for my 2+ years of maintenance, I'd been eating what MFP told me were my maintenance calories (based on accurate profile settings), I'd be in a hospital bed by now, at best. MFP's estimate for me (lucky me ) is around 25% low . . . several hundred calories daily.8 -
StarBrightStarBright wrote: »I found that I just stopped losing. I'm still 1-2 pounds away from goal weight and have been for months, so I'm at maintenance for the weight I'm at.
I'm actually still set to lose .5 a week in MFP but have been at the same weight for about 6 months so this is clearly my maintenance level.
I think once you get close enough to goal (and if you are relatively short and at a healthy weight) maintenance is often not giving you as many calories as you hope you are going to get
For what it's worth, I had something similar happen a couple of years ago. I had an original goal weight of 125 lbs and I hit that and kept right on going, to about 123; then, with no other changes, I just sort of stopped losing. I stuck there for quite a while, several months, and also decided - well this must be my actual maintenance number, and since I'm a couple pounds below my goal weight - I will officially declare myself "in maintenance". I changed my status, but not my calorie goal, and settled into maintenance. Funny thing was, a few weeks later, I started losing again, really slowly, 0.25-0.5 lb/week. I ended up losing another 5 lbs and my new "maintenance" number is 118 lbs (with a 2 lb range on either side of it). I figured out that back when I felt like I was still actively losing, I mentally had a buffer in my mind so going over cals a day or two a week wasn't a big deal. When I accepted "maintenance" even though nothing else changed, I no longer felt like I had a buffer so I was more diligent about tracking my weekly intake to make sure I didn't go over my numbers. By doing that, even subconsciously, I tightened things up and started losing again.
I am one of those fortunate people for whom my maintenance number is higher than calculators would suggest - I'm 5'2 and 118 and my TDEE according to FitBit and results is about 2100-2200 (lower this winter but should go up when weather is warmer and I'm more active again).
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WinoGelato wrote: »StarBrightStarBright wrote: »I found that I just stopped losing. I'm still 1-2 pounds away from goal weight and have been for months, so I'm at maintenance for the weight I'm at.
I'm actually still set to lose .5 a week in MFP but have been at the same weight for about 6 months so this is clearly my maintenance level.
I think once you get close enough to goal (and if you are relatively short and at a healthy weight) maintenance is often not giving you as many calories as you hope you are going to get
For what it's worth, I had something similar happen a couple of years ago. I had an original goal weight of 125 lbs and I hit that and kept right on going, to about 123; then, with no other changes, I just sort of stopped losing. I stuck there for quite a while, several months, and also decided - well this must be my actual maintenance number, and since I'm a couple pounds below my goal weight - I will officially declare myself "in maintenance". I changed my status, but not my calorie goal, and settled into maintenance. Funny thing was, a few weeks later, I started losing again, really slowly, 0.25-0.5 lb/week. I ended up losing another 5 lbs and my new "maintenance" number is 118 lbs (with a 2 lb range on either side of it). I figured out that back when I felt like I was still actively losing, I mentally had a buffer in my mind so going over cals a day or two a week wasn't a big deal. When I accepted "maintenance" even though nothing else changed, I no longer felt like I had a buffer so I was more diligent about tracking my weekly intake to make sure I didn't go over my numbers. By doing that, even subconsciously, I tightened things up and started losing again.
I am one of those fortunate people for whom my maintenance number is higher than calculators would suggest - I'm 5'2 and 118 and my TDEE according to FitBit and results is about 2100-2200 (lower this winter but should go up when weather is warmer and I'm more active again).
Good to know - that is super interesting! I don't generally track on weekends to give myself a break but I wonder if I also was a stickler on Saturdays and Sundays if I would see movement again.
I do think I'm one of those people on the low side of the calculators (5'5.5", 142 and I eat between 1400 and 1500 a day - and I'm pretty consistent with tracking and honesty).
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@StarBrightStarBright, give tracking on the weekend a try. Even if it is eating what you want, not sticking to your 1400-1500, you will then know what you need to do to lose those last pounds.
It could just be cutting back on wings or 1 glass of wine less at the weekend that will make the difference between maintenance and losing.
Cheers, h.8 -
My calculated maintenance calories is higher than I would have expected. I have several months of data from 2016, and also from the last 6 weeks. From my calculations, I get somewhere between 2165-2250 to maintain, before exercise. I'm female, 44, height 5'6", and currently 147-ish pounds. I'm in the middle of a diet break right now while my mom is visiting, and I upped my avg calories from 1550 to 1850 (had thought maintenance was closer to this), but I've gone over each day due to PMS, so I'm averaging more like 2050 the past several days. I'll be curious to see what my weight is like after TOM is gone, and the diet break is over. But I guess a week and a half is hard to tell for maintenance?
ETA: Thank you AnnPT77 for the breakdown! I pretty much knew how to get the numbers, but was confused on whether or not to use net calories for the final calculation.6 -
Thank you! Saving1
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Bumping this, having just seen it linked. Awesome info for new maintainers.3
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I sent a note to have this stickied but for some reason I guess the powers that be decided that it was not "worthy". So bizarre. Bumping4
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This is such good information. Thank you, Ann!
And I agree; it should definitely be stickied.4
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