Maintaining healthy weight after diet

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lventra23
lventra23 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all, does anyone know the best way to maintain the weight you've lost? Once I hit my target with a restricted 1200 cal per day. Should I slightly increase this daily amount or stay the same to keep the weight range?

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  • Rockymountainliving
    Rockymountainliving Posts: 27 Member
    edited October 2023
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    Year one (last year) I ate 1200-1300 day and lost 25 pounds. I'm in year two and eat 1450 day, sometimes up to 1700 depending on my activity level and I lost 10 the first half and have been maintaining since May. At first when I increased calories, I put on a few pounds then leveled back down. I am short and older so the 1200-1300 was manageable but oh the increased calories is so great this year!
  • msmettalife9824
    msmettalife9824 Posts: 9 Member
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    Last month, I was where you are now. I kept around 1200 to 1300 calories, watching weight carefully to address any increase immediately. I am now around 1400 calories but, I continue to monitor daily. Over thanksgiving, I gained 2 lb so am back to the 1200 calorie restriction and am almost back to my weight goal. From what I read, you need to train your body to accept the new weight at the standard and that takes time for the body to adjust to. I suspect as I keep maintaining my ideal weight, I will gradually be able to eat more calories per day. Best wishes.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,545 Member
    edited October 2023
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    Reverse dieting. Increase your calories slightly each week until you get to what your maintenance should be. Figure you may gain a few pounds initially as your water weight comes back, don't worry about that. Say you lost 30 pounds, and you gain 3 back from that water, have a target weight range from there. If you're getting high, cut back on treats and portion sizes for a week or two. Do that for a few months, and over time it gets easier since the body wants to maintain at wherever it's at.

    Keep doing whatever exercise you were doing. Add more perhaps, since you're probably lighter now and with more energy.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,810 Member
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    It depends. Were you still losing when you hit your goal weight? If so calculate how much your deficit is. Losing 1/2 lb a week when you hit your goal would mean your maintenance is about 250 calories a day higher. Use that as a guideline for reference.

    If you stopped losing for awhile then you’re at your new maintenance and need to stay at those calories.

    Maintaining weight can be a bigger challenge than losing. Can be depressing to think that after all that work you still have to be cognizant regarding calories and can’t just go back to your old eating habits.
  • CrazyMermaid1
    CrazyMermaid1 Posts: 346 Member
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    Yes maintaining is way harder than losing. I tell myself that whatever I don’t gain I don’t have to lose.
  • pony4us
    pony4us Posts: 127 Member
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    I actually find maintaining pretty easy. I'm older (mid 70s) and short, and am maintaining at about 1450 cals. When I was within 5 pounds we left to snowbird in Florida for a couple of months, I used it as training wheels for maintaining. I ate at 1450 cals, I did not worry about weighing food but did my best to eyeball because that is just the way I want to live my life...and didn't want to deal with it on vacation. I also didn't weigh myself. When we got home I was at goal much to my surprise.
    I still track my food on MFP but by looking at portion size and eating sensibly. I do weigh myself a couple of times a week, if I ever do see a jump I would go back to tracking more seriously.
    Believe it or not there was a time when people lost weight without apps or accurate calorie counters (anyone remember the little calorie books). I grew up that way, a simple matter of eating less, eating more fruit and veggies and moving a but more. It works for me, you may be different.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,017 Member
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    I've been maintaining my weight for most of my life except for that decade where I gained 50-60lbs (in my 50's) and now maintaining again. Early in my life I ate what I wanted, which obviously caught up to me and caused a few health problems and now I've been low carb, lower carb and ketogenic for over a decade. I've maintained my weight by eating this way and only eat until I don't feel hungry anymore, which I contribute to how that has effected my hormones that deal with satiety and hunger, and it's been very effective so far. Basically I didn't do anything different when I went to maintenance. I always look in the mirror and check my cloths for weight cue's and maybe eat a little less or eat a little more, that's about it, and I don't count calories per se, but I do check a few times a month out of curiosity. That's what works for me.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
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    lventra23 wrote: »
    Hi all, does anyone know the best way to maintain the weight you've lost? Once I hit my target with a restricted 1200 cal per day. Should I slightly increase this daily amount or stay the same to keep the weight range?

    You definitely wouldn't stay the same. That 1200 calories has a deficit built in. Theoretically, you'd change your goals to Maintain My Current Weight (Go here: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change-goals-guided or More > Goals in app) but this plan has value:
    Retroguy2000 wrote: »
    Reverse dieting. Increase your calories slightly each week until you get to what your maintenance should be. Figure you may gain a few pounds initially as your water weight comes back, don't worry about that. Say you lost 30 pounds, and you gain 3 back from that water, have a target weight range from there. If you're getting high, cut back on treats and portion sizes for a week or two. Do that for a few months, and over time it gets easier since the body wants to maintain at wherever it's at.

    Keep doing whatever exercise you were doing. Add more perhaps, since you're probably lighter now and with more energy.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,737 Member
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    lventra23 wrote: »
    Hi all, does anyone know the best way to maintain the weight you've lost? Once I hit my target with a restricted 1200 cal per day. Should I slightly increase this daily amount or stay the same to keep the weight range?

    During weight loss, I'd recommend experimenting and finding eating and activity patterns that you believe you can continue long-term to stay at a healthy weight. Practice those patterns until they become your new habits that can continue almost on autopilot once you reach goal weight. Exactly what those habits are will differ from one person to the next: Figuring it out is sort of a fun, productive science fair project for grown-ups.

    If you haven't done that during loss, it IMO needs to happen ASAP in the first few weeks of maintenance. Finding reasonably happy, practical, personalized habits is key, IMO. If you pay attention to long-term maintainers here, there may be some habits that are common, but there's lots of variety.

    (There are a bunch of threads in the Maintaining Weight area you can read, https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/goal-maintaining-weight . The "Most Helpful Posts" section there is a good place to start.)

    For myself, I chose to gradually increase calories as I reached goal weight. One of my flaws is hedonism, and I feared that if I suddenly had hundreds more calories available daily, I'd start eating some bigger treat food daily. Instead, I wanted to find a balance with some pleasant, nutritious tweaks in my routine, and some periodic or smaller treats.

    Personally, I kept calorie counting, because I don't find it burdensome or obsessive. I liked being able to eat every delicious calorie I'd earned, but still stay at a healthy weight. I do count in a more relaxed way now (year 7+ of maintaining), skipping some hard-to-log unusual days - though I do write down on paper what I ate. I "calorie bank" in maintenance - eat a small number of calories under true maintenance most days, to indulge occasionally. That suits my hedonistic streak.

    Generally, I do exercise I find so fun I'd do it even if it weren't good for me. It's an outdoor thing, so I do some less-fun indoor stuff in Winter so I don't have to start conditioning from zero in the Spring. Also, after being active for some months/years, I clearly understand that I start feeling crummy - moody, still, etc. - if I skip workouts for more than a few days. That keeps me going in Winter.

    I'm not bugged if my weight creeps up a few pounds. If my jeans start feeling snug, I creep it back down again. (I hate to clothes shop, so that's an impetus to stay in one size. Having to buy a whole new wardrobe was the worst thing about loss, for me.)

    That's what's worked so far for me.

    You can find your right formula, if you work at it. I'm cheering for you!

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