Has anyone eaten at maintenance calorie level of goal weight, to lose weight?

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Replies

  • JohnH71
    JohnH71 Posts: 123 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    Love your long term view OP - very refreshing.

    I'm currently reading a book that uses the same basic idea, eating and training for your end goal. The Lean Muscle Diet by Lou Schuler and Alan Aragon - only part way into it but it's a very interesting approach and total opposite to all the short term diet plans so beloved of papers and magazines.

    I'm reading the same book, and when I read the OP, I thought the same, i.e. sounds like a sensible plan to me, so good luck with it! :smile:
  • flatlndr
    flatlndr Posts: 713 Member
    edited March 2015
    starryskies89 wrote: »
    So I figure by the time I am at my goal weight I will be used to eating at that limit and will be comfortably able to sustain that for the long term.
    The only issue I see is that as I get close to goal the weight will come off extremely slowly, I could see cutting calories a bit more or upping exercise to get the last few pounds off at that point. I'm just curious if anyone else has done this, and if so how their experience was?

    I didn't purposely plan to do this, but it's not far off from my own experience. I noticed that the suggested calories for my maintenance weight happened to match the calories needed when I started losing, and I took that as a win. It meant I could start my lifetime eating plan right away.
    It worked for me!

    ETA: I should note that now that I am lighter, I'm also much more active. So my maintenance calories at my current weight plus current activity level is equal to my maintenance calories at my old weight, sedentary. In other words, I get to each as much as before, now that I am lighter and much more active. Much, much happier.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    This is an awesome idea!! I've been at the end of my rope with this constant calorie restriction. You've helped not to quit :smiley: I've only got 7lbs left to lose, and I don't care how long it takes. So now, my calories are 1690, not a depressing 1290.. I am so excited right now :laugh:
  • flatlndr
    flatlndr Posts: 713 Member
    christinev297 wrote: »
    This is an awesome idea!! I've been at the end of my rope with this constant calorie restriction. You've helped not to quit :smiley: I've only got 7lbs left to lose, and I don't care how long it takes. So now, my calories are 1690, not a depressing 1290.. I am so excited right now :laugh:

    Another option I did along the way was to eat at a deficit M-F, and maintenance on weekends. It helped to break things up a bit.
  • dym123
    dym123 Posts: 1,670 Member
    There used to be this podcast called Fat2Fit Radio and their motto was, "Eat like the thin person you want to be", they basically advocated for figuring out your goal weight (they had a calculator on their website) and it would give the daily calories you should eat based on your activity level. I hated when they stopped recording, I thought they gave really good common sense advice on weight loss, did not believe in quick and easy diets.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    It would work for sure up to a point, but my maintenance right now is 2200... My goal weight maintenance is maybe 50 calories under... obviously at some point the margin of error is so small that you would stop losing and probably end up stuck 5 to 10 pounds over your goal.
  • Wiseandcurious
    Wiseandcurious Posts: 730 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    It would work for sure up to a point, but my maintenance right now is 2200... My goal weight maintenance is maybe 50 calories under... obviously at some point the margin of error is so small that you would stop losing and probably end up stuck 5 to 10 pounds over your goal.

    That's true. But on the other hand, goal weight is just a number, I really have a goal "state" in mind with a certain level of fitness, health, fat% etc, so I think at the point where you are only a few lb away there are options:
    -Add a small additional deficit, as I think you're saying, to get down to weight faster
    -Try to do a recomposition and focus on other measurements not weight
    - Just keep eating at that level and focus on your fitness goals and wait it out until your weight goes down, which if you're truly in a deficit, it should eventually, otherwise you're just at maintenance for that 5lb-too-heavy level

    I agree though this logically should work better for people with a fairly large amount to lose.



  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    flatlndr wrote: »
    christinev297 wrote: »
    This is an awesome idea!! I've been at the end of my rope with this constant calorie restriction. You've helped not to quit :smiley: I've only got 7lbs left to lose, and I don't care how long it takes. So now, my calories are 1690, not a depressing 1290.. I am so excited right now :laugh:

    Another option I did along the way was to eat at a deficit M-F, and maintenance on weekends. It helped to break things up a bit.

    That's another great option. Thankyou :+1:

  • Springfield1970
    Springfield1970 Posts: 1,945 Member
    ilovemypeekapug wrote: »
    This is pretty much what I've been doing, and the weight is slowly coming off (approx. one pound every 10 days or so depending on how active I am). I'm learning new habits in the process. It feels like a lifestyle I can maintain long term because I'm not starving all of the time! Best of luck.

    Brilliant! But you will slow down, that's ok! As long as you keep up your meticulous logging and are enjoying it.

  • hsama99
    hsama99 Posts: 2 Member
    I would love an update to hear if it worked out! I did this years ago and it was working, but I think my mistake was setting my goal weight too low to start with. I cam here to see if others have tried and succeeded. Would love updates from anyone!
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    Great approach. You can always pick a month or two here and there to drop your calories if you want to kick it up a notch. FYI - at 5-7” and 135, my maintenance is closer to 2100.
  • prehistoricmoongoddess
    prehistoricmoongoddess Posts: 1,002 Member
    My maintenance calories at my goal weight are 34 calories more than what I am eating now for weight loss, so is a non starter.
  • SummerSkier
    SummerSkier Posts: 5,123 Member
    I think there is a fallacy in the logic of this approach but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe because it doesn’t account for variation in maintenance cals over long term. Age? Activities level? Etc. I looked into it once years ago but it seemed like I would have had to have the patience of job.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,324 Member
    sounds logical to me.. and you'd also be used to your calorie amount for life and be able to adjust easier. I hope it works for you.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    By happenstance I lost weight on the calories I got for maintenance.

    (Happenstance because I never thought to look at my maintenance cals until I was close to it)

    Sedentary, 5’1, 130lbs, 54yo 1200 cals to lose 1lbs a week.

    Maintenance, sedentary, 5’1, 105lbs, 55yo, 1200 cals to maintain.

    It worked, it just slowed as my weight decreased. In fact, I just glided into maintenance because I stopped losing at 1200 and 105lbs. Ideal really.

    NB: I ate all my exercise cals until the last 5 lbs when I shaved 25% off.

    NB2: my NEAT has increased over 9yr of maintenance but, if I was ever totally sedentary again, 1200 would probably be accurate, but it is 10yr later.

    Cheers, h.
  • SummerSkier
    SummerSkier Posts: 5,123 Member
    H. Sadly you know MFP gives us short gals 1200 for everything. The calculation is set to never go below. That’s why the # s say that so often.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    That method probably only works if someone has a lot of weight to lose..I'm pretty sure I've seen other threads on this and people saying it did work for them.
    At the end of the day losing weight happens when we take in less calories than we burn.

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