Best way to approach maintenance diet?

austin_88

austin_88

New member
OK I am 0.9kg/2lbs away from being at my goal weight, and I need to know how I can successfully maintain my new weight.

I am 5'6" and currently 120lbs. My goal is 118lbs. I started off at 138.5lbs last July.

I have looked up what my BMR would be (Harris Benedict Formula), my BMR is 1397 x Moderaly Active (1.55) = 2165.

Should I increase my calorie levels to this right away? Or should I do it gradually? I probably eat on average 1500 calories a day, but it differs every day, some days it could be as low as 800 some days as high as 2000. If I increase my calories to 2165 immediatly would I gain weight?

If anyone has any articles on maintaining body weight that would help me? There is so much info on how to lose weight, but not many on what to do when you get to your goal weight!

Or if anyone could give me tips on how to formulate my maintenance plan? I aim to be at this point in 3 weeks (3 weeks to lose 2lbs).
I am going to include in this plan:
3-4 Full Body Resistance Workouts Per Week
5 x Light Cardio Sessions (I ride my bike to work, or walk, it's an 11km return trip. I dont do this for the weight loss benefits though, its better for the environment and my pocket!)
I am also a very active person on the weekends, I go to the beach a lot and swim at the pool.

Any help would be great! Im pretty stoked to be only 2lbs away though :party:
 
Are those calculations for 120 or 118?

What happened to your journal?
 
I just realised those calculations are for 120lbs.

Work got in the way, although being busy helped with my weight loss as when im bored i just eat and eat and eat.

My BMR for my goal weight is: 2153 - not much of a difference
 
I personally would do it gradually (staying with a 600-calorie deficit for another week, then increasing your calories by 50 a day would get you to goal in 18 days). But I don't have nearly the swing in extremes that you do - most days I'm within 100 calories of the day before and the day after.

Once you're at maintenance, what do you anticipate your calorie range will look like? Are you planning to keep a wide range like you have now, or narrow it down?
 
allyphoe said:
I personally would do it gradually (staying with a 600-calorie deficit for another week, then increasing your calories by 50 a day would get you to goal in 18 days). But I don't have nearly the swing in extremes that you do - most days I'm within 100 calories of the day before and the day after.

Once you're at maintenance, what do you anticipate your calorie range will look like? Are you planning to keep a wide range like you have now, or narrow it down?
Click to expand...

My days are very unpredictable, sometimes I only have time to shove down three meals a day, others I go out to dinner and eat a bit more than I should, and Im not the type to eat the same thing every day.

I hope I can eat the same amount for most days, but the thing is I don't want to count calories. I have a general idea of how much energy is in food, so I hope I can just eat when im hungry and make sensible decisions.

I think what I might do is listen to my body for a week, up my breakfast intake (currently I only eat a small bowl of oatmeal), then I wont get so hungry before lunch. It would probably look something like this:

Breakfast:
2 Poached Eggs
2 Slices Wholemeal Bread Toasted
25ml BBQ Sauce

Lunch:
2 x Sushi Hand Rolls (Tofu) with 10ml Soy Sauce

Dinner:
Portion of Meat (Chicken, Steak, Lamb, Fish) appropriate serving size
Vegetables - 1 x Potato, Broccolli, Peas, Corn, Carrots

Snacks:
175g Low Fat Vanilla Yoghurt
Pasta Cup-A-Soup
Chocolate Freddo
Banana

TOTAL CALORIES: 1800

Would staying between 1800-2000 calories be OK?
 
austin_88 said:
Would staying between 1800-2000 calories be OK?
Click to expand...

If it isn't, it'll show on the scale sooner or later. :) You'd be theoretically 150-350 below maintenance, which is a pound every 2-3 weeks. But there's enough imprecision in both BMR and in calorie-counting, and your goal BMI is quite low (so I anticipate you'd have a hard time getting your weight much lower than that), that I suspect you wouldn't lose at that level.

Oh, and since you seem to be concerned about gaining when you take your calories back to normal - I'd go a good month at about what you plan maintenance to be, and get a feel for how your weight moves around, before I fiddled with the calories. You don't cause hormonal water retention by eating more, and you can't fix it by eating less. :)
 
How did you lose the weight? Did you count calories along the way?

At maintenance, my instinct says that you have to be vigilant about counting calories because you are trying to match expenditure & intake. If you don't want to put the effort into it, then it sounds like it really isn't important for you to maintain the weight...? Using the busy excuse doesn't fly with me. Either your health is important to you or not, either you want to set yourself up to succeed or not. Having 1 meal a day on some days isn't setting yourself up to succeed.

Maintenance can be a slippery slope. It's best not to start sliding.

Your instincts about gradually increasing your calories seems to be the best way to go. Do that (1800) for a month and see how things go. If you've lost over that month, I would bump it up to 2100 and then see how that month goes. IF YOU DON'T COUNT CALORIES, you will not be able to figure out a number that is going to work for you.
 
paydirt said:
How did you lose the weight? Did you count calories along the way?

At maintenance, my instinct says that you have to be vigilant about counting calories because you are trying to match expenditure & intake. If you don't want to put the effort into it, then it sounds like it really isn't important for you to maintain the weight...? Using the busy excuse doesn't fly with me. Either your health is important to you or not, either you want to set yourself up to succeed or not. Having 1 meal a day on some days isn't setting yourself up to succeed.

Maintenance can be a slippery slope. It's best not to start sliding.

Your instincts about gradually increasing your calories seems to be the best way to go. Do that (1800) for a month and see how things go. If you've lost over that month, I would bump it up to 2100 and then see how that month goes. IF YOU DON'T COUNT CALORIES, you will not be able to figure out a number that is going to work for you.
Click to expand...

1. I don't want to count calories for the rest of my life.
I believe I can maintain my weight by listening to my body, finding out whether I am hungry or not. For the first couple of weeks I will still count calories, but it seriously takes so much time.

2. Being busy does not interfere with my health or weight loss. Simply by being busy I wasn't thinking about food, I squeezed in all my meals however, I just didn't snack - which is a good thing.

For a lot of my weight loss I didn't even count calories, I don't believe you HAVE to in order to lose weight.
 
tonymcclellan said:
Are you trying to just comfortably maintain?
Click to expand...

Yeah. I dont mind if I go up by 1kg, or decrease by 1kg, but I would roughly like to stay the same weight.

Im going to be working harder with my weights too, so if my weight does go up because of that (doubt it will because muscle is very hard to put on for my body type) then thats ok. When the clothes start to get too tight I think then I will worry.

Im not gonna stress about it too much. Ive found when I eat 3 larger meals a day I actually overall eat less than eating snacks throughout the day, because I am full and satisfied. So I could even lose more weight? I would be happy with that too.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!
 
I would say then just eat what you like, which should be different now then before you learned about good choices. Now you understand the importance of vegetables/fruits/protein and such. If you notice you are putting on some extra pounds, look at what you've been eating and re-evaluate.
 
I wouldn't count calories forever either, but like a poster said before, go up about 15-20% in calories each week daily. Keep counting until you are up to your maintenance level and count that out for about two more weeks. This way you know what the amount of calories you should be getting looks like... once you are comfortable I would say see what happens as far as you being able to "wing it".

Good luck and congrats on your dedication...
 
Couple of things:

1. Are you happy with the end-result. The scale says what you wanted it to say.... but what about the important stuff like physique and how you feel?

2. As stated above, gradually increasing caloric intake is the way to go. You have to remember that in the face of a diet, your metabolism will slow down a bit to counteract the 'stress' you are placing on it by dieting. It will also adapt as you start eating more by picking back up a bit. Best to take things in steps.

3. I don't count calories. I've mentioned a few places around here but all I do is figure out my total daily caloric intake for my current goal. From there I figure out how many grams of macronutrients I want to comprise that caloric intake. From there I decide how many meals I want to consume. I then divide that total number of calories and macros by my number of meals and I'm left with a rough estimate of what each meal should look like in terms of cals and macros.

Once this is done, I simply create a bunch of balanced meals on a spreadsheet that close to fit what I'm after in terms of numbers and bingo.... there's no more calorie counting. Just stick to closely to the meals on the sheet and don't worry about anything.

I'll also add that I'm not 100% strict. If I want to eat something.... I'm going to eat it. Of course I moderate this and the vast majority of the time I stick to the plan. But I don't deny myself simple pleasures.

Maintenance is possible. It's not something I'd shoot for personally. I like to believe that there's always room for improvement. But that's the sort of person I am. I've met plenty of people who are content and that's fine.

You mentioned that you are going to start lifting more weights. Realize that progress shouldn't be monitored by way of the scale. Especially if you are going to be focusing more on resistance training and eating more. There's a good possibility for adding some muscle.... not much.... but some. Don't fall into the trap of freaking out with the scale.

I'd really start monitoring measurements and taking pictures to get an adequate measure on what's going on. Every 2 weeks or so would suffice. It's worth it.

Congrats on *almost* reaching your goal. :)
 
Steve said:
Couple of things:

1. Are you happy with the end-result. The scale says what you wanted it to say.... but what about the important stuff like physique and how you feel?
Click to expand...

Well.. that's the thing I've just about gotten to my goal and I look in the mirror and see that I could lose a couple of kilos of fat. I don't want to have a set number or goal, because if I say I want to be 50kg that would be unhealthy. So I think once I am looking better, reach goal waist measurement (24-25") and fit into all my size 4 clothes nicely I will say thats enough. Im just a bit scared that my image might be distorted. SO! I wont look in the mirror much, I know if I do that then I think I am bigger than I am.


Steve said:
Maintenance is possible. It's not something I'd shoot for personally. I like to believe that there's always room for improvement. But that's the sort of person I am. I've met plenty of people who are content and that's fine.
Click to expand...

The thing I am scared of the most is meeting my goal, and having nothing to reach after that. That goes with everything in my life. I am going to plan some more long term goals that are weight loss related and some that aren't

Thanks for all the advice. I've been on a holiday for the past 5 days so I will see what the damage is on the scales tomorrow, although did a ton of exercise so hope its not too bad!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top