How to decide when to switch to maintenance?

for me it5 was finally being happy with how i look and you can always go back to weight loss mode if you want. i switched my goal from 1200 to 1400 and upped my carbs a little because i do low carb... i think its great that you dont have access to a scale,... sometimes the scale lies but maintience is whenever you want it to be if youre happy !!! btw u look great in your pic!!!

My goal has already been upped to 1460 because of switching to 0.5 lb per week, but for maintenance I think I'd be on about 1700-1800 before exercise calories because I'm 5'7 and "lightly active". Thing is, I am still not happy with how I look, even on (I think?) under 120 lbs...though I'd love to go lower, I logically know that it wouldn't be healthy. Thanks for saying I look good in my pic, but it's surprising because that was taken when I was on about 135 lbs! Basically I'm just having an internal battle between wanting to look better and knowing it might not be a good idea because it'd put me on TECHNICALLY "underweight"

Do you work out with weights? My goal is higher than yours, but I also didn't like how I looked when I got there. I thought "oh need to drop another 10". Did (cause I totally could at 5'3 130 is FAR from underweight). Nope still didn't like what I saw, turns out, I just needed to work out with heavier weights -- I am over my original goal at the moment, but look how I envisioned looking at my goal.

Only you can judge that. When you're happy with how you look (as long as you don't have an unhealthy view on how much body fat you should have), and when you can look in the mirror and feel confident, then you stop.

I want to get into the 'normal weight' band with my BMI. Originally I was officially 'obese'. Now I am down into the 'overweight' category.

I know some people say BMI is not that useful, but it is a target to aim for.

Also, I want to look down and see my feet instead of my bulging stomach

If you're not already, try lifting weights. When I reached my goal weight of 128, I wasn't happy with how my body looked. Then I went down to 120 and I still wasn't happy. It took me a while to realize that I didn't need to keep losing weight, I needed to lose FAT and build more muscle. After 3 months of heavy lifting, I still weigh 120 but my belly is flatter, waist is smaller, and my chest is bigger. If I had kept on going like I was, eating 1200 calories a day and doing lots of cardio, I would have eventually started looking like a skinny 10 year old boy with a lower belly roll. lol

I am doing body pump 4ish times a week (hour each time)...does that count? It's kinda cardio too but it is working with weights, and I've noticed over the last few weeks I've been able to lift a little more each time. Do I need to do more lifting on top of the body pump classes? If so, howww would I go about starting? I'd have no idea about how to use any machines at the gym or anything

I'm not sure what body pump is, but if it's like most weight lifting classes they use light weights, high reps. To build a significant amount of muscle and strength, you need to lift to heavy weights. A good rule of thumb is, if you can do more than about 15 reps, it's too light. Muscle hypertrophy usually occurs at 8-12 reps. To be honest, I've been lucky in that I have a husband who is a former competitive power lifter, knows about weight training, and we have a complete set of weights with power rack at home. If it weren't for all of that, I would probably ask someone at my gym how to use the machines (most have helpful diagrams that show you how to use them), hire a personal trainer, and/or I've heard there's a very good book called "New Rules of Lifting for Women." I haven't read it, but apparently it's good for helping with getting started and even giving tips on how you can train at home. Good luck!

How often would you suggest I do strength training then? Maybe add it in on the 3 days I don't do body pump? I do at least an hour (nearly always closer to 2 hours) of cardio every day (cycling to and from work (22km), and step and zumba classes - fun stuff not just machines at the gym). How much strength training should I do per session? How would I go about putting together a routine for it? Sorry for all the questions, and thanks for all your help!! I'm just so clueless about all of this

To start, you could maybe do body pump one day a week and heavy lifting another two days a week. You need a day off in between weight lifting days. I used to go to a class at my gym that sounds similar to body pump. When I started heavy weight training, I gave up going to that class. Don't get me wrong -- that class was fun, helped me build stamina, and burned lots of calories, but it wasn't helping me build much muscle. That's not what they're really designed to do. I started with doing full body weight training (a combination of bench presses, curls, bent over rows, tricep work, deadlift, leg extensions and leg curls, dumbbell squats, and core strengthening exercises) 3 times per week. I did one or two days a week of cardio. Now that I'm lifting heavier weights, I've cut back to two days per week of weights and the other days I do short intense cardio sessions or take the day off from exercise. Recovery time is important when you're lifting weights.