Afraid to go into Maintenance

Sounds reasonable to me.
I understand where you are coming from though. I transitioned into maintenance about 6 months ago and that was harder than loosing weight. It was not so much the goal thing for me but allowing myself more food was hard. Getting used to fluctuations etc. It did not help that on the tail of this transition I changed jobs and have had some stress issues resulting from that.
My plan was to eat as I was used to but to allow more margin in the weekend. With the new job that did not go according to my plan but all in all I am coping. For me the secret is still logging and being honest (though slightly less strict about it).
I am not giving up on MFP until I am satisfied my maintenance is under control and I don't have the feeling yet

It doesn't actually make sense to me to eat a set reduced proportion of your exercise calories when you are aiming to maintain your weight. That would mean your estimates have to be not just inaccurate but inaccurate by a consistent amount and also high.

So why not either work on the accuracy (which doesn't actually have to be precise, just reasonable) of your exercise expenditure or use the TDEE method which also includes an exercise estimate - just an average daily amount.
As effectively you are doing the TDEE method already then maybe best to keep the same method going.
Depending on how long the weekly long run is might swing the balance towards the MFP method of accounting for exercise though. As TavistockToad mentions running is easy to get a perfectly reasonable estimate.

Beware the pitfalls of being over precise about accuracy of your CI and your CO and the consistency of your weight or you could be setting yourself up for a whole load of unnecessary stress.

Think you would do better to reduce your weight loss down to 0.5lbs/week before you get to goal to make it less of an adjustment and less of a big bang event. You can also set your goal manually rather than the somewhat crude approach of adjusting by changing your rate of loss.

kristinecapua wrote: »

Hi all-

Some stats...
Age: 29
Height: 5'8"
SW: 203lbs
CW: 169lbs
GW: 165lbs, maybe 155lbs

I've been (mostly) steadily losing since July of 2017. I'm down 34lbs with 4 more lbs to go to my first "goal", which would put me at the high end of the "normal" BMI range. I do Crossfit 3-4x a week and run every single day, typically anywhere between 1 and 5 miles (although I do one long-run a week).

As I've come closer to reaching my "goal", I'm finding myself getting anxious. Although I'm excited by the prospect of reaching it (for as long as I've been weighing myself, I have been over 172lbs, so this is a whole new world for me), I'm afraid that transitioning into maintenance will not go well. I plan to continue tracking and everything, so I'm not sure where this is coming from, but I'm a bit fearful about not continuing to work toward a goal that I can see so clearly mapped out on a screen every day, if that makes sense.

So here is my plan:

Once I reach 165lbs, I want to change my MFP goals to lose only .5lbs per week. Currently, I avoid eating my exercise calories unless I do a longer run or if I'm hungry. I plan to transition into eating 1/2 of my exercise calories, as I don't want to consume all of them because I am unsure of how accurately they are calculated. I'd like to see how I do on that "plan", and make changes as necessary.

Does this sound reasonable? Does anyone have recommendations for how to make the transition into maintenance more seamless/comfortable?

First, Ill start by saying I am a big proprietor of TDEE instead of calculations for eating back or not eating back calories burned during workout. It is just my preference and makes sense to me a little better for day to day tracking. Then, I was reading this thinking, "wait, did I write this in a dream or something?" because you and I are roughly the exact same person in the exact same stage with the same goals! Stats and all are almost identical to mine the only difference is my workout style. I have been thinking the same thing that I am eating at a reasonable deficit now, not ever going to bed hungry and a great healthy balance to give me all I need avout 1400 cals per day. And I began to wonder, holy crap maintenance is roughly 2100 calories a day, that's way too much for me! - see math below:

My plan truly is to keep losing just like you, .5lbs per week would be great and my maintenance math (see below) would work out to that. For me, if I lose the .5 - great, if I don't, as long as I don't gain, then I am okay with that too.

Math: my BMR at 165lbs is 1546calories and with a light activity multiplier to get my TDEE (1546x1.37) my maintenance would be 2118 calories per day. I do a light activity multiplier even though most weeks I would qualify for moderate (1.55), so that I am extra sure I am not overestimating my calories allowance. That for me is a fail safe and keeps my brain from worrying as much.

First, I am not going to eat 2100 calories a day, whew, no! But instead my thought was to actually eat between my BMR, 1546, and my TDEE at the sedentary multiplier (1546x1.2=1855). Daily caloric intake between 1546 and 1855 for maintenance. I do not lead a sedentary lifestyle, but I do have a desk job so again this is my fail safe so that I never overestimate my calorie allowance even if my multiplier should technically should be moderate. So 2100 is what my maintenance could be (or higher at moderate multiplier) and if its down to 1855 that's a 245 calorie deficit each day and if it's down to 1546 that's a 554 calorie deficit each day. To lose .5 pounds a week my total weekly deficit should be 1750 calories. 245*7=1715 and 554*7=3878. So, like OP, think I have a good plan going into it. Albeit different, still mathematically correct and mentally doable.

IMO, I believe that it is too difficult, possibly inaccurate and harder to try to figure out what you burned during each workout. If you can get it accurate for sure and then eat back half the calories burned, then I say go for it, but I think that doing TDEE is a better guide because it doesn't vary day to day or with each workout. The TDEE calorie number takes into account the whole week of activity therefore accounting for active time, recovery time and even rest time. Using lower multipliers doesn't hurt anything it just ensures there is a little room for error.

And before anyone jumps on me saying I shouldn't eat below my BMR like I am right now. I know. And this is not permanent, most of my weight loss has some from eating at BMR or a little above and the only reason I have to do 1400 now is because I plateaued twice and I the 1400 helps me break through until I can go back up to BMR in a week or so.

Finally, these are just my opinions and with the help of my brother who has a Master's in Exercise Science and is a trainer, this is what has worked for me since November 2017. I've done COUNTLESS worksheets with math and different ideas and this has always been my go to style to track calorie allowances.

Keep kicking butt out there guys!

I'm a year at maintenance now and I found it very rocky to start so I get where you are coming from. Just keep trying out different things and you'll find your comfortable place - make sure to give each 'plan' a month or so to see if it works out for you through the ups and downs the average month brings.

I've settled at having my cals set to maintenance and activity to sedentary, even though I am probably "lightly active" because my individual setup tracks exercise cals but not incidental walking around. So even if I eat up all my exercise cals I still have the buffer from the fudged TDEE numbers and don't have to fiddle with my cal allowance or watch that number go red (I know it's stupid but I hate it). If I need to do a little cut, I leave 1-200 cals on the balance for a while and see what shakes out.

I am still just a few months into maintenance, actually hopefully in a "slow" bulk, but it is scary. I still wake up expecting to be 400lbs! What I am learning is, in less you grossly overfees or underexercise, weight gain is slow. It kind of creeps. Hopefully giving us time to adjust. I hope that's the way it is. Still learning from the fine folks here. Some, have years of experience and knowledge. I tend to listen to them. One of the few things yhay help keep me sane is the sense of community you get here. Knowing there are people attempting to do the same thing i am. I live in a small town, and there are few people attempting this. Most lose weight just to regain it quickly. Now i might be the red headed step child of ths family, but we are family. Peace