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My guess would be the answer is "moderation". You will be able to eat more calories when you get to your goal weight, as you should not be eating at a major deficit if all you are trying to do is maintain. Should you be exercising all the time? Probably. I don't know, that's just my inclination...maybe I'm not much help, I'm no expert. I went from the 1200 cal up to 1460 I think, as I decided to try for only 1pound/week. If I choose maintain weight, it allows me 1900 or so...so if you can fit in some ribs in with the extra few hundredc calories, do it!
PS I eat steak all the time, and did so even when I was on 1200 cals. Just choose a nice lean sirloin...
Good luck! Hopefully someone will have an answer that is better than my admittedly jumbled version of an attempt at help! But you're doing GREAT!!!

Congratulations on your loss! To answer your question, you can change your daily goals to your maintenance level and then log everything in until you are comfortable knowing how much you need to eat/exercise to maintain you weight. Yes, you will still need to exercise regularly and watch you portion sizes - this has to be a lifestyle change for you if you want it to be sustainable. I personally would not have cut out any particular food group. When I've done that in the past, I'd always end up regaining weight when I began eating 'normally' again. Good luck!

You can eat red meats now. You could all along. As long as you fit them into your caloric goals and didn't deprive yourself of other nutrients you will be fine.

You can change your settings under goals in the "my home" tab to maintain your weight once at your goal.

Eat more, but don't go over maintenence. Your particular food choices are irrelevant.

When you are at your goal weight and you want to maintain, click on settings, then go to your update diet/fitness profile, and then you can change your goal from wanting to lose to maintaining and it will adjust your calories accordingly.

If what you're doing is working for you, then don't get caught up in the chatter. Eating a piece of steak will not derail you or cause problems. The body just reads it as protein and nutrients.

I agree with never giving up anything, Alot of people binge eat when they deny themselves something. Yesterday I had an oatmeal cream pie cookie :laugh:

ok..... The bottom line is this. You body comp deals with how many calories your body needs a day to survive. Muscle mass and activity have a lot to do with the amount of calories you need daily.

The only purpose to eating is breakfast will supply you enough energy until lunch, lunch to dinner. If you eat more than what your body needs than you gain weight. If you cut back on weight training and cardio you body will lose muscle mass and your metabolism will slow resulting in needing less calories. However, most people continue to eat the same amount....

So, this program is suppose to get you to live it daily. Know what you can and can't have... If you are already speaking of slowing down, returning to more red meat and getting back to old foods that you loved before you are headed down the wrong path.

You can have moderation of anything... However, it is a delicate balance.... I would tell people to never eat their "work out calories", this defeats the purpose and allows you more food (only if hungry) it is not "free" food! Do not be decieved.

I would say, stick to the diet you love, evercise doing things you love and all will work out. Don't look at this as an end! As you know, no such thing exists!

I am going to read this post to myself once a week as my own personal reminder...

Congratulations on your loss! To answer your question, you can change your daily goals to your maintenance level and then log everything in until you are comfortable knowing how much you need to eat/exercise to maintain you weight. Yes, you will still need to exercise regularly and watch you portion sizes - this has to be a lifestyle change for you if you want it to be sustainable. I personally would not have cut out any particular food group. When I've done that in the past, I'd always end up regaining weight when I began eating 'normally' again. Good luck!

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You should calculate your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expendture) and work out how many calories you need to maintain. You will probably be surprised as to how much you can eat. As you do not have much more weight to lose, you should probably aim for 1/2 lb a week (250 calorie deficit) and work you way up to this calorie intake (and then to maintanance when you are there). You need to take into account your exercise as the deficit should be calories out less calories in. The more you exercise, the more calories out there will be, and as such, the more calories in you need to keep the deficit stable.

Allowing yourself to eat at a higher level, but still with a deficit, will make your weight loss more sustainable.

THIS. Being so close to your goal you should start eating more now. If you stay at 1260 and then suddenly jump to maintenance, you will gain weight. Your body is now used to eating 1260 plus exercise calories and your metabolism has more than likely slowed down some. The key is to start building up SLOWLY so that your body can adjust to getting more food. Like the above poster said, calculate your maintenance calories by figuring out your TDEE (search it in the forums, there's tons of threads on how to do this). Once you have this number, add 100 calories to your diet every 1 or 2 weeks. This way once you hit maintenance it won't be such a drastic jump. You will continue to lose weight even while adding calories (it may take a couple of weeks to get used to, but stick it out..even if you gain at first it will go away). As for the red meat and anything else you've been restricting...NO food will cause you to gain weight if it fits into your calorie allowance. If you can eat it without going overboard, do it!