Maintaining lower weight
beulah81
Posts: 168 Member
There are a few threads on maintaining at higher weight being easier. Are there any of you that find that maintaining on the lower end of your goal similar to maintaining at 5 to 10 lbs higher weight? Are your hunger levels higher at the lower end or about the same? Maintenance takes vigilance but when I look purely at numbers it takes about 30-50 calories less per day to maintain at the lower end. Just wanted to hear what your experience has been.
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I picked my goal rather arbitrarily, so when I reached it and had no problem eating at that level I just needed to decide if I wanted to push myself to get thinner, or work on something else. I have never wanted to control my diet exactly that 50 calories a day was going to be a deal breaker.
For me I am either moving forward or back, I can't just stay the same so my focus went from worrying about my weight to trying to increase strength and fitness levels. That has come with some weight gain.
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Well, especially for women of childbearing ages I think the body is going to fight to keep a certain amount of fat to protect a potential pregnancy so hunger is likely going to increase at the lower body fat numbers.
I maintain quite comfortably at 21-22 BMI and have no desire to go lower, but when I first got to this weight it was a struggle to not eat more. It took time for my hormones to settle.12 -
My body appears to have a number of different "set points" where it likes to chill, and I think it's because I'm kind of a boring eater and my meals seem to have groupings that work out well at different calorie levels. I can meal prep for 1450 calories and 1850 calories super easily and those tend to be where I fall if I just log what I've eaten instead of planning ahead. On the other hand, hitting a target of 1700 calories, for whatever reason, is ridiculously hard and I end up filling a 150 calorie gap every night by eating lunch meat or nuts or something, even if I wasn't hungry.7
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There are a few threads on maintaining at higher weight being easier. Are there any of you that find that maintaining on the lower end of your goal similar to maintaining at 5 to 10 lbs higher weight? Are your hunger levels higher at the lower end or about the same? Maintenance takes vigilance but when I look purely at numbers it takes about 30-50 calories less per day to maintain at the lower end. Just wanted to hear what your experience has been.
I read elsewhere about the difference only being 30 to 50 cals. My lowest weight as an adult was 130 pounds and was when I was walking about an awful lot during the day. I stuck at that weight for 2 years then graduated and became more sedentary got into a relationship and ate more. Gained around 30 pounds. It was the massive change in output and intake that piled the weight on. I don’t remember finding 130 that hard to maintain at the time. I had no clue what I was eating calorie wise , it was 25 years ago. No internet let alone mfp!1 -
To an extent this could be symptomatic of scale fluctuations. If users only weigh weekly or monthly they see their goal weight once and take it as gospel where in reality that number is 2-3 lbs lower than an average weight due to hydration differences. They say "woo, I crossed the finish line" and switch to maintenance; slightly higher intake, possibly more carbs, and then are shocked at their next data point (a week or more later) easily being pounds higher.7
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I'm 5'6" and have maintained at 120-125 for the past 5 or so years. I am a runner, so I don't find it that difficult to maintain. I originally intended to stop losing weight at 130-135, but when I increased my training from 25 mpw to 40, the weight continued to drop. I burn a lot of calories, more than the app tells me I am. I eat much as I always have, but logging keeps me accountable and helps me limit the amount. It means I eat one cookie for dessert, rather than ice cream and 2 or 3 cookies. I still drink beer, but not every day. For me, logging all my meals has made the difference between maintaining and continuing the diet yoyo that I was on for years.11
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I'm maintaining a few pounds higher than I'd like. mostly because I still fight emotional eating issues. So far though I am maintaining which I consider a win.14
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I maintained a low (for me) weight for almost two years but in the last 6 months have slowly gained around 5lbs - I have spent most of that time trying to get back to the low end but its a struggle, (think I might be peri-menopausal!) - currently for me it feels its harder to maintain at the low end, whereas at 129-131 feels fairly easy.6
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I was aiming for 54kg and maintaining at that weight, but for the last three months I seem to have been hanging around the 54.5 - 55.5 kg mark, which is fine by me. If I wanted to drop down to 54 and maintain at 54, I think my 'diet face' would look even more gaunt than it does.3
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I’ve asked this same question myself with no real answer. I’m 5-7 and maintain pretty effortlessly at 145-150 on 2000 calls. But when I drop to UGW (130-135) I find it impossible. The calculators say it’s maybe 80 cals less a day. I have no idea why, but it’s simply not true in my case. I need to stay at 1700 to maintain at a lower weight. For whatever reason (mental or physical) I’ve been unable to do it.11
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I have no issues maintaining a lower weight. I am 5'7, I like to stay around 128-132lbs with my current physique.
For me it's also about bodyfat % too. When it gets higher my appetite starts to decrease and I seem to get back down fairly naturally.5 -
I have no issues maintaining a lower weight. I am 5'7, I like to stay around 128-132lbs with my current physique.
For me it's also about bodyfat % too. When it gets higher my appetite starts to decrease and I seem to get back down fairly naturally.
Ditto for me - not really about weight alone but how lean I am.
Dropped to a low for me weight with no great problem, maintained there fairly easily.
Had a great training year and put on a decent amount of muscle and got leaner, still not very lean by modern standards, but appetite went up and up to the point where hunger was making me struggle to keep my weight down. Let myself drift up a few pounds and returned to comfortable maintenance (weight trend tracking and mindful eating).
In contrast this year has been a awful training year, due mainly to multiple injuries, but I dropped to and maintained fairly easily at the same weight that I previously struggled with. A few percentage points of BF% seem to me to be the difference.
I'd like a six pack in the same way I'd like an Aston Martin, would be great but I'm not prepared to make the compromises necessary to achieve and keep it long term.13 -
I’ve asked this same question myself with no real answer. I’m 5-7 and maintain pretty effortlessly at 145-150 on 2000 calls. But when I drop to UGW (130-135) I find it impossible. The calculators say it’s maybe 80 cals less a day. I have no idea why, but it’s simply not true in my case. I need to stay at 1700 to maintain at a lower weight. For whatever reason (mental or physical) I’ve been unable to do it.
Well one thing I think about maintaining at a lower weight is that you burn less calories in general so I am not sure if in addition to the 80 cals less to maintain you also get less cals from exercise. (a 150 person person burns more running 5 miles than say a 120 person does as an example) So maybe that is part of the equation as to why some folks feel more comfortable (or it's easier) at 5 or 10 pounds more than they would like.
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Dropped wt from 196 over the past 4 yrs, first to 160 and then to 150.
Of course, there is variation and while I can easily regain and put wt back on up to 155-160, if I don't carefully monitor what I eat, I can't seem 2 get below 147 and find myself currently maintaining bet 148-152.2 -
I seem to have points my body sits at. I saw it coming down. I see it going up. I can sit at 150, 165, 175. It's hard to maintain under 150. But it was pretty easy for me to maintain 150-155 as long as I was walking every day. Stop walking and I go to 165 and just sit there. Same calories.
I'm 5'10" so 150-155 is the weight I was as a slim college grad. I'm now 60.3 -
I have found that losing is hard but maintaining isn't. Once my body is at a weight for awhile, it seems to want to stay there. I do log and weigh regularly - a must! But it is worth it. I'm 5'4" and maintained at 125 for about 7 years. Accidently lost 10 lbs (another story), liked it so stayed there for the last two years. I'm hungry at the normal times: stress, tired, lots of exercise, or if I overeat. I might eat too many calories one day and too little the next day and doesn't seem to matter. Never eat a bag of cookies or chips. Use to but out of the habit.5
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I'm only at the end of my second month of maintenance, and so far I'm just enjoying eating a few extra calories while doing the same things I was doing to lose. (Daily weighing, daily exercise, logging everything if possible.)
I'm in the process of figuring out exactly how much I need to eat/exercise to stay here. I kept losing initially when I hit maintenance, so it was a joy to realize I needed to bump my calories up a bit around the holidays.
I'm crying over that, as you can imagine!
I still don't know exactly what I'll need to do to stay here indefinitely, but I guess I'll figure that out with more data.
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I am so thankful to each one of you for sharing your experiences!2
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I’ve asked this same question myself with no real answer. I’m 5-7 and maintain pretty effortlessly at 145-150 on 2000 calls. But when I drop to UGW (130-135) I find it impossible. The calculators say it’s maybe 80 cals less a day. I have no idea why, but it’s simply not true in my case. I need to stay at 1700 to maintain at a lower weight. For whatever reason (mental or physical) I’ve been unable to do it.
That's me! Totally3 -
The first 1-2 years after losing say, 15-20lbs or more, the body may feel it has been ambushed by weight loss, and it really wants to put the weight back on. Weight fluctuation of 2-4 lb (shorter, smaller folks) or even up to 5-10 (taller and heavier peeps) is normal esp considering water retention (monthly cycle for the ladies, and sodium intake or exercise being possible variables) but after two years the metabolic rate, hormones, and other body chemistry should start to adjust making it a bit easier to adhere to the lost weight.
Hang on! Lean and clean protein answers a lot of the struggle with hunger and maintenance.1
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