Body weight maintenance help

Well, I don't think nutritionists or dieticians will chime in here for free - but there are a lot of regular people here who have maintained their weight loss for years.


I'm one of them. I lost 70+ pounds 14 years ago and have kept it off.


"Revving up the metabolism...." you can only do so much.

I get some exercise on most days, I think that's important.

I log my food and stay (mostly) within my calorie goal that I have determined to be around 2100 calories per day (5'7' 145 pounds, female, age over 60, retired)

The four-meals-a-day or two-meals-a-day will give you the same results. Stay in calories. That's it.

Sijomial is right: Metabolism is the summation of energy requirements of your cellular activity, at rest (in the strictest sense). It's not very subject to deliberate manipulation. The effects you can have on it are pretty tiny, in the context of all day calorie burn, and slow to achieve.

If you think of metabolism (more accurately) as the main part of BMR/RMR (basal or resting metabolic rate), then all day calorie expenditure (TDEE, total daily energy expenditure) includes BMR/RMR, daily live activity (NEAT, non-exercise activity thermogenesis), and intentional exercise (EAT, exercise activity thermogenesis). For most typical people, that's descending order of magnitude, i.e., BMR/RMR > NEAT > EAT. (Obviously there are exceptions to that order, like professional athletes, even some very active recreational endurance athletes.)

This is a good article, science based:

https://examine.com/nutrition/is-my-slow-metabolism-stalling-my-weight-loss/

I know you're not trying to lose weight now, but the explanation in the article will clarify the issues for you, and give some ideas about the small things you can change to possibly increase TDEE. I'd note that they use different terms for NEAT and EAT (there are various terms in common use, I used the ones most common on MFP). Same basic idea, though.

If we're talking about increasing RMR/BMR, a few things help *a little*. If you gain muscle mass, a pound of muscle burns more at rest than a pound of fat (though both do burn calories just existing, i.e., they're both metabolically active). However, the difference is only around 4 calories per day per pound of muscle vs. fat. Small potatoes, especially in that for a woman a really excellent muscle mass gain rate under ideal conditions (which include things like youth and calorie surplus) would be up to a quarter pound a week. Most of us can't reach ideal conditions, so if we work really hard, we'd be adding less than one daily calorie to our calorie budget each week via muscle mass increase. Wheeee.

Still, regularly doing progressive strength exercise, or to some extent any progressively challenging exercise, also adds a tiny amount to BMR/RMR daily for things like muscle repair. So, if you want a higher calorie budget, keep exercising, strength and cardio, and keep challenging yourself. There's some research I've seen that suggests the BMR/RMR effect of that (separate from the exercise itself) could maybe be up to a few tens of calories daily, so also not hugeHuge.

Also, the energy to digest food is in RMR (Thermic Efficiency of Food). There are some very limited hints (not proof) in research that it takes more energy to digest complex whole foods vs. highly processed foods, and it definitely does take a bit more energy to digest protein vs. fat or carbs. Clearly, eating all protein is a non-starter, because that would be super-bad nutritionally, and sub-ideal nutrition has bodily effects that would wipe out the benefits of that TEF. If you get at least adequate nutrition including solid protein levels, and eat a lot of whole foods (veggies, fruits, whole grains, etc.), you're doing about the most you can on that front. The effect is still pretty small, though, handful of calories daily at best, I suspect. (Some people will tell you that all TEF effects are already netted out of food calories. I'm skeptical that this is true across the board.)

The bigger deal, the one many people ignore, is NEAT. When we are in a calorie deficit to lose weight, there can be a decrease in spontaneous movement (i.e., stuff like fidgeting) and even some metabolic processes (like hair/nails growth rate). We may even rest more, put off high-effort chores, drop high-effort non-exercise hobbies (and tell ourselves we did it because we "don't have enough time" or "don't enjoy that anymore"). Simply going back to maintenance calories and staying there, with time, may restore that slowdown, and increase TDEE a bit. Size of that change is hard to say: Anecdotally, it seems like some people have a bigger response than others.

I have zero science to support these two next bits, but I think they could be important.

If we're at reduced calories for many months, some of our reduced-energy adaptations (like the kinds of home chores or hobbies we choose) can become fixed habits. In order to put those calorie expenditures back in our day, it may be necessary to *intentionally* change those habits, and increase activity: Take on some home repair/decoration projects, pick up old active hobbies, restart the garden that was so much work, etc.

I also think there's an effect of exercise and fitness that can influence NEAT. I'm a pretty active li'l ol' lady (age 65), fit for my age. When I compare myself to same-age women with superficially similar life circumstances, it's pretty obvious to me that movement of many types is easier for me, and more fun to me. It's harder and less fun for some less-fit others, and they simply do less as a result.

If we go to an art fair or something, with lots of walking, they take rest breaks (and maybe get a snack while they rest!) more often, and I'm more likely to keep walking. When we take trips together, I'm hopping out of the car at the hotel, getting the luggage cart, doing most of the car-unloading, pushing said cart to the room, lifting any heavy stuff that needs lifting. Without a cart, I can make 1.5 or 2 trips car to room while they make one. I volunteer myself for active tasks/chores they don't enjoy, to help them out. Those are calories being burned. (Those are tiny examples that are easy to explain, but it's an all day every day effect: They spend more time watching TV than I do, they hire effortful chores done that I'd do myself, etc. Even comparing myself, I run up and down stairs more often every day, when fat me used to budget those trips to minimize the effort.)

Apart from that, going back to better science-supported ideas, there are ways you can work to increase your NEAT, consciously and intentionally. There's a thread about that here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

Not all of those things are viable for everyone, but maybe some will be.

The final thing I'd mention is "reverse dieting". It's controversial, but anecdotally it does seem to work for some people. I mentioned early that some people seem to automatically increase spontaneous activity when they increase calories to maintenance. This is an extension of that idea. I suspect it will not work for everyone. I've never tried to do it intentionally myself, so you would want to seek out authoritative sources if you want to explore it.

The basic idea is that you stabilize your weight, then add a small increment of daily calories, maybe 100. Then you let that ride for a period of time. Some people go a week, but I'm skeptical that's long enough. If weight stays stable, you increase calories again, by another small increment. The notion is just to keep repeating that, until weight starts creeping up. (Seeing the weight creep is what makes me say a week is too short, and I'm pretty sure it would be too short for a premenopausal woman. If a person goes over actual maintenance calories by 100 daily for a month, you'd expect to see about a one-pound gain. If daily scale fluctuations are a couple of pounds or more from shifts in water & digestive contents fluctuation, picking out those tiny fat-weight changes is going to be difficult over a short time period, even with a weight-trending app.)

As background, I'll say that I've been in maintenance at a healthy weight for 5+ years now, after around three previous decades at a class 1 obese weight, the last dozen years of which I was a fairly-fit fat person, competing as a recreational athlete (not always unsuccessfully). I have more muscle mass and mobility/fitness than many other women my age, though I'm no Amazon or anything, just a regular active person. I've never done a formal reverse diet, though I did gradually increase calories over a period of weeks to reach maintenance calories (for other reasons). I do think about NEAT, just trying to keep moving when I have choices and it doesn't interfere with good life balance. By taste preference, I eat large amounts of veggies/fruit, and do work for good overall nutrition. I work out 6 days most weeks. Based on logging experience of almost 6 years, my calorie needs are 25-30% higher than MFP estimates (and about that much higher than my good brand/model fitness tracker estimates, too). I have no idea why that's true. It could be genetics or anything; I have no way to know. I'm not claiming anything about my lifestyle or choices has that result, because not everyone with similar lifestyles has that effect.

That's what I've got, some factual, some speculative.