Maintaing a little confused :/

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embeck79
embeck79 Posts: 34 Member
in Food and Nutrition
morning to you all!

i hit my target weight this weekend (1lb below target weight :happy: ) hurrah! im very happy and a little shocked as i ditched the scales for a while as i was getting disheartened with it not moving, listened to my body upped my cardio and here i am now and was thinking i would kind of like to maintain now and more toning. when i hit the maintain weight button im shocked at how many calories that i can have daily ive gone from 1,370 to 1,830 which is great but i it seems loads to what im used to.

it would be great to hear from people that are maintaining and how many calories they are on daily and if you are getting the same results, little worried that im going to creep up the scales again.

thanks for reading :smile:

(oopps ive just realised i have spelt maintaining wrong in the topic, silly me! )

Replies

  • dinosnopro
    dinosnopro Posts: 2,179 Member
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    congratulations on surpassing your goal. I don't know how long it took you to do it, but the hardest part will be changing your mindset to up your calories. Other than that just hit your maintenance calories and its all good.


    Again congratulations :drinker:
  • JoolieW68
    JoolieW68 Posts: 1,879 Member
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    Congrats to you!

    I hit my target a few weeks ago and changed my goal here to 'maintain' and it upped my calories by almost 600 per day. That honestly freaked me out a little, so I changed it back to 'lose .5 per week', which dropped it 250 cals.

    I have been pretty good about staying under the new goal, but have gone over a few times. Since I know it's set below my 'maintain' goal, I don't stress over it. I'm sure it's a mental thing, but I like having the goal number lower for some reason. Probably the same twisted reason I keep my bedside clock 10 minutes fast.... mental tricks.
  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
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    I have been maintaining for about a month and a half. I am given just over 1700 calories for maintenance, not including exercise calories. My next goal is to live more "normally" and not log every morsel. After 2 weeks of sticking to the MFP maintenance calories daily with success, I started changing things around to work better for my lifestyle. I usually end up falling short on my calories daily from between 100-300, depending how much I exercised (I try and eat all of those calories back). Sometimes I hit my calorie target, but not usually. I have been going MFP-free every weekend. I still make good choices and eat reasonable portions but I don't log anything on Saturdays or Sundays. For the past 4 weeks this has worked out perfectly and my weight is always between 144-146, perfect for me with a goal weight of 145.

    I have been weighing myself 2x/week while I go through my adjustment period and get the hang of maintaining. I am feeling more comfortable with maintenance these days. I do find maintenance more of an adjustment than losing weight. Eating in a calorie deficit is easy. Eating at maintenance, e.g. not to much, not too little, is much tougher in my opinion.

    Congrats to my fellow maintainers, good work!
  • Zichu
    Zichu Posts: 542 Member
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    I've been maintaining and added strength training in for just over a week now. I've actually put on a pound so far. I'm hoping that's not fat, but more muscle lol. I've noticed I am getting a bit of definition on my arms. My shoulders have always had a bit of definition, but I can see it a lot more now.

    My abs are starting to slightly show when I tense them. I still need to do cardio to burn off the excess fat around my abs for them to come through. I think I've put the most muscle on my chest and thighs because I do cycling and strength training on my legs, but with my chest I have put on about an inch around it. Still need to keep up with the cardio for that as well, don't want it sticking out, want it tightened and flatter than it is now.


    I do hope it's muscle I am putting on. I don't fancy working my *kitten* off all over again because I am eating too many calories. My goal is currently set at 1870kcal a day for maintenance. I eat back as much as I can after exercising. I could do with getting a HRM for cycling just to get an accurate reading so I don't go over my calorie intake for the day.
  • withervein
    withervein Posts: 224 Member
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    You might try easing into your maintenance calories. Spend a week at a smaller loss goal, for example if you have been at losing 2 pounds/week, move to 1.5 or 1 for a week or two, then cut to .5/wk. You may see the scale continue to drop if you keep exercising as you are fueling yourself a bit more.

    Once you get comfortable with adding in those calories through healthy fats, extra veggies, fruits and protein, you can eventually get up to maintenance without the urge to just toss in a drive thru cheeseburger.

    But won't it be nice that you have room for that extra treat! I love feeling fine about a scoop of ice cream covered with fresh strawberries.
  • embeck79
    embeck79 Posts: 34 Member
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    well done on reaching maintenance!

    i think i am going to gradually ease myself into the extra calories, im finding that i get a bit lost of what to eat as im full and i keep thinking i havent reached my calories yet which is then mind over matter not to reach for the biscuits! im keeping up my cardio (love sweating it out) and trying to lift a few more weights to get definition.

    thanks for all your comments and tips :smile:

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