Calories for maintenance

[Losing the old Harley 33]

Hey guys and girls,

I posted not that long ago regarding calories required at maintenance, I’m near 8 months PO and have reached my goal weight about 2 months ago (176 pounds), over the past 2 months I have continued to keep losing and now sitting around 152 pounds.

I saw my dietician two days ago and she had requested that I up my caloric intake as it was sitting at 700-900 calories a day before. She done up a draft plan with items she wanted me to consume, some of the changes she made was changing my no fat milk to full fat milk.

The last two days I’ve eased into it and have been consuming around 1300 calories a day which include 105 grams of Protein, 90 grams of carbs and 60 grams of fat. Still losing fairly quick .5 or a pound in 3 days.

Today I will up it to 1500 calories and see how I do, those of you hitting the maintenance stage.

how long did it take trial and error to find that “sweet spot” where you didn’t gain nor lose?

How many calories do you need to consume to be able to maintain?

How long have you maintained for?

How long PO were you when you had to move into a maintenance routine?


I have been incorporating healthy fats as requested, what are some of your go to meals/snacks that are healthy to up the calories?

[Healthy_life 1,437]

@Losing the old Harley

Woah !!!!.......700 to 900 is weight loss mode calorie, No wonder you couldn't stop losing weight. Glad your moving your calories up. Hope you get to your sweet spot soon.

how long did it take trial and error to find that “sweet spot” where you didn’t gain nor lose?

Can't remember how long it took. I just remember is was frustrating. i wished it was a magical set calorie and macros for all of us..Just takes fine tuning.

I'm female 5'5" Maintaining for me is staying with in a ten pound bounce range. If the scale moves up I change my calories and macros to bring it back down. I eat mainly healthy but, I like having the freedom to choose when to indulge and live life.

How many calories do you need to consume to be able to maintain?

• I'm at 1000/ 1100 to lose weight.
• I can eat 1300/1500 maintaining.
• Distance running/ carb load for seven days - around 2300/3000 calories.( Takes many small meals)

How long have you maintained for?

four years.

How long PO were you when you had to move into a maintenance routine? 

I got to goal 140 in six months. After goal I dropped to 125. I like to maintain in the 130's It's where I feel healthy.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Healthy_life

[RickM 1,753]

You lost fairly quickly, which implies that you still have a relatively strong metabolism, so you have some work to do. As a very rough approximation of where you should be, take the average of your last couple months' loss; for every 5 lb (2.3-ish kg), that's about a 500 calorie per day deficit that you need to make up. For instance, I was losing at 10lb per month the last three months of serious weight loss, which works out to around 1000 calories per day deficit; I was averaging 1100 calories per day, and am now maintaining (for the past 6-7 years) in the 2100-2200 range. This will at least give you an idea of how large the steps up that you should be making to ease into your maintenance range.

I started working toward maintenance at the six month mark when I was 10 lb from my goal (or about a month away) so I started increasing things then to slow things down; as this was early November, I in part just let the holidays happen and it took another two months to lose that final 10 lb, and I had minimal overshoot; I still needed to fine tune things from there, but I was pretty close by then.

[Losing the old Harley 33]

49 minutes ago, Healthy_life said:

@Losing the old Harley

Woah !!!!.......700 to 900 is weight loss mode calorie, No wonder you couldn't stop losing weight. Glad your moving your calories up. Hope you get to your sweet spot soon.

how long did it take trial and error to find that “sweet spot” where you didn’t gain nor lose?

Can't remember how long it took. I just remember is was frustrating. i wished it was a magical set calorie and macros for all of us..Just takes fine tuning.

I'm female 5'5" Maintaining for me is staying with in a ten pound bounce range. If the scale moves up I change my calories and macros to bring it back down. I eat mainly healthy but, I like having the freedom to choose when to indulge and live life.

How many calories do you need to consume to be able to maintain?

• I'm at 1000/ 1100 to lose weight.
• I can eat 1300/1500 maintaining.
• Distance running/ carb load for seven days - around 2300/3000 calories.( Takes many small meals)

How long have you maintained for?

four years.

How long PO were you when you had to move into a maintenance routine? 

I got to goal 140 in six months. After goal I dropped to 125. I like to maintain in the 130's It's where I feel healthy.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question with an in depth response. Yes i can see why I couldn't maintain on 700-900 calories lol however it would be a lie if i said it was easy consuming 1300 calories let along 1500 lol this early out. It takes me about 7 small meals as my restriction is very much real haha.

Great to hear I'm not the only one that reached goal weight so early out my dietitian is amazed and hasn't seen it happen this quick before. I work out 4 times a week and run and live a very active life so extra calories is a must to try to maintain.

I was getting really concerned when the scales wouldn't stop moving I don't wish to be very thin (i know how ironic). My dietitian said that I was one of the "lucky" ones where my metabolism has adjusted really well and took a full 360 degree change and is burning at a high rate.

[Healthy_life 1,437]

1 minute ago, Losing the old Harley said:

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question with an in depth response. Yes i can see why I couldn't maintain on 700-900 calories lol however it would be a lie if i said it was easy consuming 1300 calories let along 1500 lol this early out. It takes me about 7 small meals as my restriction is very much real haha.

Great to hear I'm not the only one that reached goal weight so early out my dietitian is amazed and hasn't seen it happen this quick before. I work out 4 times a week and run and live a very active life so extra calories is a must to try to maintain.

I was getting really concerned when the scales wouldn't stop moving I don't wish to be very thin (i know how ironic). My dietitian said that I was one of the "lucky" ones where my metabolism has adjusted really well and took a full 360 degree change and is burning at a high rate.

Six months is not the norm. I was not expecting to get to goal this quickly either. I would have been just as happy if it took me a year or more.

Never thought about what it would be like to stop weight loss. It was something my team did not touch on much. Most things are weight loss related. Great to have support here to go into maintenance. It's kind of a chore to up you calories when you are used to 700/900. It will get easier with time.

[Losing the old Harley 33]

On 01/17/2019 at 07:32, RickM said:

You lost fairly quickly, which implies that you still have a relatively strong metabolism, so you have some work to do. As a very rough approximation of where you should be, take the average of your last couple months' loss; for every 5 lb (2.3-ish kg), that's about a 500 calorie per day deficit that you need to make up. For instance, I was losing at 10lb per month the last three months of serious weight loss, which works out to around 1000 calories per day deficit; I was averaging 1100 calories per day, and am now maintaining (for the past 6-7 years) in the 2100-2200 range. This will at least give you an idea of how large the steps up that you should be making to ease into your maintenance range.

I started working toward maintenance at the six month mark when I was 10 lb from my goal (or about a month away) so I started increasing things then to slow things down; as this was early November, I in part just let the holidays happen and it took another two months to lose that final 10 lb, and I had minimal overshoot; I still needed to fine tune things from there, but I was pretty close by then.

Thanks Rick for such a good reply it was very helpful. Glad to hear your still maintaining, yes my metabolism is very strong lol

[Losing the old Harley 33]

2 hours ago, RickM said:

You lost fairly quickly, which implies that you still have a relatively strong metabolism, so you have some work to do. As a very rough approximation of where you should be, take the average of your last couple months' loss; for every 5 lb (2.3-ish kg), that's about a 500 calorie per day deficit that you need to make up. For instance, I was losing at 10lb per month the last three months of serious weight loss, which works out to around 1000 calories per day deficit; I was averaging 1100 calories per day, and am now maintaining (for the past 6-7 years) in the 2100-2200 range. This will at least give you an idea of how large the steps up that you should be making to ease into your maintenance range.

I started working toward maintenance at the six month mark when I was 10 lb from my goal (or about a month away) so I started increasing things then to slow things down; as this was early November, I in part just let the holidays happen and it took another two months to lose that final 10 lb, and I had minimal overshoot; I still needed to fine tune things from there, but I was pretty close by then.

I just done a quick calculation. Since September i have lost since September 2018 an average of 8 kg a month, (32kg in 3.5 months), which would mean i would be in a calorie deficit of 28,000 calories a month averaging out to be around 800 calories extra i would need to add a day does this make sense?

[Healthy_life 1,437]

BMR and TDEE Calculators are not 100% accurate. Posting for information.

BMR calculator

https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bmr_calculator.htm

TDEE for weight loss, maintaining or bulking calories

https://tdeecalculator.net/

https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/calculate-your-total-daily-energy-expenditure-tdee.html