Question for a new maintainer re: calories.
QuirkzforDayz
Posts: 12 Member
Hi everyone,
I hope you're doing well.
I have just hit my goal weight (5'2" and 130 lbs.) and am trying to maintain (yay!). I've been eating 1,200 calories per day to lose weight, and MFP recommends eating 1,600 calories to maintain my current weight.
My question:
Do I just go straight to 1,600 calories, or should I gradually increase my intake by say, 100 calories per week (i.e., 1,300, then 1,400, etc.)? What have others done?
Thanks in advance.
Best,
Eridove
I hope you're doing well.
I have just hit my goal weight (5'2" and 130 lbs.) and am trying to maintain (yay!). I've been eating 1,200 calories per day to lose weight, and MFP recommends eating 1,600 calories to maintain my current weight.
My question:
Do I just go straight to 1,600 calories, or should I gradually increase my intake by say, 100 calories per week (i.e., 1,300, then 1,400, etc.)? What have others done?
Thanks in advance.
Best,
Eridove
5
Replies
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Well, ideally you would ease into Maintenance and only have a couple hundred to add.
I don't really think it matters, do what you feel best doing. It all depends on how fast you were losing on 1200 and various other things like your activity and how accurate you feel you were on your calories in.
Pick one, stick to it for a month and see what happens. If it were me, I'd go right to the 1600.5 -
Personally, when I am at my ideal weight I just try to eat healthy and don't count calories at all. I keep a check on my weight, though, and if it starts going past 140 I start watching the calories more.3
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Personally I just flipped straight to maintenance, didn't even get a blip on the scales which some people do (and another cohort seem to fear), I just stopped losing weight. Ideal really!
I'd at least halve the apparent deficit in one go rather than mess around for weeks though.
Maintaining long term does really need a weight range not one single weight so if 130lbs is going to be your upper limit then maybe add cals slower and if it's the lower limit then add faster.
In the end though the transition to maintenance is just a tiny part of the rest of your life, this won't be the last the you need to adjust your calories so it's not a bad idea to see adjustment and experimentation as routine.6 -
If you have data on the rate you lost as well as how close you came to your daily target over time, you can refine the estimate from MFP using the assumption that 3500 calories is roughly a pound. When I switched, I think it was only an extra 111 calories per day because I had slowed my loss rate down. I put some of that weight back on the last quarter of 2020 when, for some silly reason, I started baking bread again.
I remember continuing to lose after going into maintenance. I remember being worried about that. Ha. Funny. If that's not something you're worried about, why not try 1500 for a month and see if you keep losing, start gaining, or stay the same? Then play around a little and get it dialed in. The main thing is to just stick to it. And don't eat as much bread as I did.6 -
I also went straight to maintenance, but I had been increasing calories as I approached my goal weight, so there was not much change.
As you work out what maintenance looks like for you, I wonder (as others have asked) what you see your maintenance range as being? I also wonder what you have learned about how your weight fluctuates during a week or a month? I started out thinking that I would be maintaining in a much wider range (75kg +/- 2.5 kg) than I am actually maintaining in (75kg +/- ca. 1kg, ideally +/- 0.5 kg, but I no longer menstruate). I also wonder how you are going to define "success" in maintenance? I keep records of more-or-less daily weigh-ins which mean that I have a monthly average; for me "success" is keeping that monthly average within my maintenance range, so I am not too fussed if I have a few weigh-ins each month above my maintenance range.3 -
To answer your specific question, I continued to lose past my original GW of 155, gradually stopping in low 150’s as I gradually added in calories.
I had read folks sometimes bounce up a couple of pounds when the eat at maintenance. True, so I didn’t freak out too badly, as I drifted back up to 155’s.
I weigh daily, but focus on my average monthly weight & track my average yearly weight as well.
After a couple of years, I could see I average each year in the 156’s. BMI in 23’s.
I found if I went lower, I got too hungry. If I go above ~ 157 I get more of a tummy back.
I tend to weigh more in summer & less in winter. It becomes easier to figure out our path in maintenance over time, as we can identify our trends & what works best for us.
Whatever you do, don’t give up!
🌸Maddie
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Personally, every single maintenance break and had (including the one that ended up being my final maintenance) was done by just eating at maintenance. Usually people ease into it to avoid a jump on the scale or a sudden change of pace, but the scale doesn't phase me and my dieting looks almost exactly like my maintaining (quantities and frequency being the only difference), so I just jumped right into it. There is no right or wrong. Do what you feel comfortable with.1
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I also had the same motive of gaining weight and maintaining it when achieved. I am 5’11'' and weigh 165lbs now (checked 2 days back). I am taking ginihealth multivitamin to fulfil the deficiency of necessary vitamins. It’s been three weeks even after daily workout my BMI is at normal level. You can try this too!0
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I upped my calories when I reached goal, then coasted down a few pounds past goal before leveling out at what seems to be my happy weight, a few pounds lower than I had planned.
After a few years I decided to set my calories permanently to lose half a pound a week, which allows me to make logging errors and still maintain.4 -
Once I had reached my goal weight (after 10 months of dieting which had resulted in a 5 stone weight loss), I decided to up my calories slowly.
I increased by 100 calories a day, and did that for a month. As I was still losing, I increased another 100 calories a day the following month, and then did the same again and again and again. After 5 months, I had lost a further stone plus so that was definitely a bonus of the slow increase. However, losing more weight wasn't the driving force for a gradual increase in calories because I had actually been perfectly happy with my original goal weight.
After 5 months, I was eating/averaging 2000 calories a day and my weight loss was minimal so I decided to stop increasing. Sometimes I wonder if I could have pushed my calorie uptake up a little bit more, and still maintained, but I'll never know!
Like everything, there will be pros and cons of both ways so just do what you feel will work best for you.4 -
I think it's up to you. I went straight to my maintenance...but I was only ~200 below at that time so I don't think it was a big change really.0
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What is with the disagrees!? I am starting to think 90% of people on here have eating disorders. As long as you are at a healthy weight, which for me is 135, there is really no reason to count calories or log food as long as you don't have some sort of health problem that requires it. I do use MFP as a mealplanner and like that it automatically shows if I go over in fat and calories. I have it set to 1500, but sometimes eat 3-400 over my plan and have yet to gain any weight. I am 5'1.5. I do weigh myself at the same time most mornings just to make sure I maintain my weight loss.Personally, when I am at my ideal weight I just try to eat healthy and don't count calories at all. I keep a check on my weight, though, and if it starts going past 140 I start watching the calories more.
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The disagrees (none of them mine) probably come from all of us who have been unsuccessful numerous times at keeping the weight off when we stop tracking. LOL
I've been in my maintenance range for about 18 months now. The longest I've managed it. For me it means not changing anything about the way I was doing things to lose it in the first place. Where your calorie goals are set probably has as much to do with how well you track as anything. I'm more of a ballpark sort of tracker and find that if I keep mine set at 1350 (my burn includes some bicycle miles, some walking and a moderate amount of ST), my weight stays pretty stable.
I think we all have to do the work of figuring out our own individual plans. I would suggest keeping the calorie goal low. It's much easier to gain weight you didn't want to take off (what?!!) than to lose weight you didn't want to put on.3 -
@NVintage I suspect you got some disagrees because many people have reached goal weight. Then they cease to weigh and log their food and gain weight back.
An interesting question would be how many repeat maintainers are on the boards. I personally, lost 96 pounds but always out exercised my diet until I was injured for most of a year. Had never learned to weigh and log my food. The weight came piling on. I have lost 86 pounds(weigh less than before) now and will continue to weigh and log my food into maintenance since I have been injured from this March to the present.5 -
I think many approaches to the transition can work, but that personalizing is key.
I actually think personalization is pretty vital to the whole weight management process, and especially to maintenance. If a strategy doesn't work pretty smoothly, almost effortlessly, with a person's preferences, strengths, limitations . . . it's more likely to break down if some other aspect of life becomes demanding.
I decided to add calories slowly, to coast into maintenance. Among other reasons, knowing myself, if I added 250-500 calories all at once, my indulgent, hedonistic self would be more likely to spend that on some daily big treat.
Nutrition is important to my better self, though, so adding slowly encouraged me to add some smaller pleasant tweaks to my eating, including some contributions to better nutrition. Those became habits that stuck, rather than "one big treat every day" becoming a habit.
But that's just me.4 -
I understand logging in food for a time after losing weight, at least until comfortable with healthy portions, etc. but anyone who thinks there's anything wrong with someone NOT doing that when at a normal weight is sick in the head! sorry:D0
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What is with the disagrees!? I am starting to think 90% of people on here have eating disorders. As long as you are at a healthy weight, which for me is 135, there is really no reason to count calories or log food as long as you don't have some sort of health problem that requires it. I do use MFP as a mealplanner and like that it automatically shows if I go over in fat and calories. I have it set to 1500, but sometimes eat 3-400 over my plan and have yet to gain any weight. I am 5'1.5. I do weigh myself at the same time most mornings just to make sure I maintain my weight loss.Personally, when I am at my ideal weight I just try to eat healthy and don't count calories at all. I keep a check on my weight, though, and if it starts going past 140 I start watching the calories more.
There's also no reason *not* to keep counting calories, either, if it works for a person, isn't obsessive/compulsive or otherwise dysfunctional, of course.
I didn’t click disagree, though. You just reported your approach: I don’t see what’s to disagree with, either. If you’d said that was the only way, or everyone ought to do it, or something like that, I probably would’ve disagreed.
I keep counting because my hedonistic base instinct is to eat every delicious calorie I can. Continuing to count lets me cap those calories at a rational level now, reasonably consistently, so future Ann will be happier, too, because of being at a healthy weight.
Personalization. Important. 😉3 -
I understand logging in food for a time after losing weight, at least until comfortable with healthy portions, etc. but anyone who thinks there's anything wrong with someone NOT doing that when at a normal weight is sick in the head! sorry:D
Seems a little harsh, maybe?
Some people just don't have good empathy circuitry, can't imagine other people's thought patterns and preferences being different from their own, so kneejerk assume the other person is Just Wrong, rationalizing, whatever. More common to see that lack of empathy, IMO, in people who think that continuing to count is a sure sign of OCD, or being too tightly wound, a control freak, anxiety ridden, or whatever. Even some who argue that not needing to count is the ultimate good, psychologically healthy outcome are taking it further than necessary, IMO. Whatever.
For clarity: I think there's nothing wrong with stopping counting, just watching the scale. Whatever works for a person, works, and that's great . . . whether it would work for me, or not.5 -
Thank you, Ann!:) I do think there's some people, like yourself, that can continue with it in a healthy way. & it is important to stay vigilant and not fall back into unhealthy habits. It's just easier for me to take 10 seconds to weigh myself in the morning than to think about calories. I know I'm not going to gain very much in 24 hours that I can't remedy by eating healthy the next day.1
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Thank you, Ann!:) I do think there's some people, like yourself, that can continue with it in a healthy way. & it is important to stay vigilant and not fall back into unhealthy habits. It's just easier for me to take 10 seconds to weigh myself in the morning than to think about calories. I know I'm not going to gain very much in 24 hours that I can't remedy by eating healthy the next day.
Honestly, for me I think it's at least as much about the regret I'd feel if I lost weight when trying to maintain, realized I could've been eating more delicious food up to that point, but missed out. 😆 It's really not about vigilance at all, subjectively. Also, from experience, I'm better at controlled minor re-loss than controlled minor re-gain: Less likely to overshoot on re-loss. Flawed character, all of that, but I know myself pretty well by now, and am willing to game my inclinations as needed. 😆
For me, there's less stress or anxiety in continuing to count . . . and it's ultra easy within my lifestyle (not cooking for a family, no one else cooking for me except on infrequent social occasions, etc.). It's more than worth the 10 minutes a day or less that it takes, for the pleasure and ease that comes with it.
We're all different.3 -
I think sometimes people on MFP forget that while it is highly possible to count calories very precisely and be just fine, there are entire swaths of people who should NOT count calories precisely or long term because it trips them right over the line into eating disorder territory. Some people who have had eating disorders, some people who have just plain OCD or certain types of other bad relationships with food that never quite cross over.
MFP is just a tool and is neutral but people DO need to be aware that as 'just a tool' it can be harmful for some people and helpful for some people and that the personalization thing Ann mentions is vitally important into making danged good and sure you stay on the right side of that health line MENTALLY as well as physically.3 -
wunderkindking wrote: »I think sometimes people on MFP forget that while it is highly possible to count calories very precisely and be just fine, there are entire swaths of people who should NOT count calories precisely or long term because it trips them right over the line into eating disorder territory. Some people who have had eating disorders, some people who have just plain OCD or certain types of other bad relationships with food that never quite cross over.
MFP is just a tool and is neutral but people DO need to be aware that as 'just a tool' it can be harmful for some people and helpful for some people and that the personalization thing Ann mentions is vitally important into making danged good and sure you stay on the right side of that health line MENTALLY as well as physically.
Yes, indeedy. That realization that others' heads don't necessarily work the way our own heads do: Useful insight, good to operationalize into our relating to others, if possible - though not always easy. IMO only, of course. 😉
Bringing this tangent back to the OP: I hope you're getting some ideas about the alternative approaches others have taken to transition, and why they took them. Further, I hope that some of these notions, or a personal hybrid of several, will resonate and work well for you.1 -
When I was in maintenance I gradually increased. But I also knew that my maintenance calories are WAY lower than any chart ever thinks they should be. With the lower weight, wasn't certain where it would land. When I lose this remaining weight, I'll have to do it the same way. its just my weird body having to be atypical.
for most, It boils down to personal preference.1 -
What is with the disagrees!? I am starting to think 90% of people on here have eating disorders. As long as you are at a healthy weight, which for me is 135, there is really no reason to count calories or log food as long as you don't have some sort of health problem that requires it. I do use MFP as a mealplanner and like that it automatically shows if I go over in fat and calories. I have it set to 1500, but sometimes eat 3-400 over my plan and have yet to gain any weight. I am 5'1.5. I do weigh myself at the same time most mornings just to make sure I maintain my weight loss.Personally, when I am at my ideal weight I just try to eat healthy and don't count calories at all. I keep a check on my weight, though, and if it starts going past 140 I start watching the calories more.
Don't know why the disagrees other than maybe from people who haven't been successful maintaining their weight loss when trying to do that. I actually only sort of spot/half-butt track on MFP to be honest. I want to move toward eating more intuitively simply bc I don't want to be tied to an app.
If it works it works. I do the same as you --- I'd get more cognizant of it if the scale started creeping up consistently or my clothes started getting a bit tight.1
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