I haven't decided if 170 is my goal or not; I might go for another 10 or so after that depending on how I feel/what size I am at that point. I've thought about shooting for a size 10, but an 8 sounds pretty good, too. However, either way, maintenance is coming and I was wanting to know how to go about transitioning into maintenance mode. Right now, my calorie limit on MFP is custom-set to 1500, but I actually eat around 1300-1400 on most days. I exercise at the gym for about an hour 2 or 3 times a week depending on my work schedule, and for the past little while I've been doing half cardio/half lifting, but as I approach maintenance, I want to focus more on lifting so I can get my body the way I want it.

I'm playing with numbers on MFP now; if I maintain at my current goal, it has me at about 2050 calories a day. If I maintain at 160, it has me at around 1990, so roughly 2000 calories a day I say, give or take, with my current exercise routine. What is the best way to go about moving up to this calorie number? Is it better to ease into it slowly? How did y'all make the move?

I am not there yet, but would you gain more if you eat more calories then what you are eating?? I notice that when I eat heavy I loose more..

I will say this, I rarely gain if I go over my calories. I'm pretty good at keeping things under control even if I splurge. For instance, I splurge for ONE meal; not every meal, haha. And even if I splurge for one meal more than once a week, I still don't gain. In fact, sometimes splurging can either make me maintain or push me out of a plateau. However, on the days that I splurge, I really don't know how much I'm eating, so I don't know what the numbers are to know what I need to eat for maintenance.

It might actually be important for you to keep that splurge meal on your radar—maybe it's key to your success You don't necessarily need to know how much you're eating there (unless it's a wildly outrageous amount, which it doesn't sound like it is) but you need to simply know how many calories you need when you don't count the splurge meal to maintain your weight.

Obviously if your off-plan meal was overly excessive then you wouldn't be losing weight at all.

So for example you find that as you increase your calories that you stop losing weight when you eat 2000 a day PLUS the off-plan meal. Maybe in reality you need 2100 a day to maintain, but that off-plan meal gives you that "extra" you need.

Also, if you're lifting then your caloric needs could be different from what the calculators say.

The best way to find out is trial and error really . You can get one figure from all of the calculators and wind up needing to eat an entirely different amount. I usually toss around the fact that the calculators often put me at 1900ish calories to maintain but the reality is that I need more than that.

Do I need to increase my calories slowly? Is it a bad idea to go straight from weight loss calories to maintenance calories?

I would definitely increase your calories slowly. Most successful maintainers add in a certain amount for a week or two and see what happens-- say 100 extra calories a day for a week, then 100 more for the second week. Everyone is so different that there are no set rules.

What is MFP?

Congrats on your loss! Please feel free to join us in all of the forums. We don't bite!

There is a lot of trial and error in getting to the right amount of calories.I suggest you try Michele's suggestion. I hope you will join us on Maintainer's Forums, we learn from each other and cheer each other on. You don't have to be at goal to be a part of our forums.

Bringing this back up because maintenance really is approaching now and I'm thinking about this again! Haha, wow, it's crazy to think that I'm already 5lbs past my original goal, and about 20lbs down from when this was posted!

I'm thinking about how I should ease into maintenance. Should I start upping my calories the closer I get to goal and just lose weight slower til I get there? Or should I start after I hit goal? I really don't know how to start transitioning from weight loss to weight maintenance. Did y'all still lose some while y'all were trying to get it right? Did you gain back anything lost in the process? Any more advice y'all have is appreciated!

I am close to goal as well. I have about 12 pounds to go. I am planning on moving from 1 or 1.5 pound a week lost down to 1/2 and just lose weight slowly and ease into maintenance gradually. I think it will probably take another 5 or 6 months for me. I figure when I get to that point I will pretty much be at maintenance as far as calories go. I kind of want to do it this way because slow weight loss is best and I can slowly adjust my wardrobe for the long haul. They say you lose a size or two after you go into maintenance as your body adjusts. Not sure though.

I haven't heard that you lose a size or two after going into maintenance. It hasn't been true for me. I was at the size I am now before I got into maintenance. I don't remember how long that was but I do know I lose a size at approximately 15 pouinds of weight loss.

Thanks for this thread. It helped me figure out some questions I need to research for myself. I'm in the high end of my goal size. I love my body but I'm hoping to lose a couple of inches here and there before I move to maintenance mode.

I really hope I don't lose another size or two after going into maintenance. I should have visited this section of the forum earlier.

The idea of loosing inches after reaching goal weight was from some threads I read on weight training while dieting. I think if you do not implement weight training into your plan the less likely you would be to loose size after you reach goal.

I can only speak for myself, but I lift weights (have been since about 1 year into my journey). I hit goal in July of this year and since then have only lost another 2-3 pounds, but I lost over an inch on my hips and and an inch on my waist and went down one pants size.

Lifting weights will definitely play a role. When I was 112 the first time around I was slightly bigger than I am now. I had gotten down too low to 107 and gained back up to 112 whilst lifting and found that I could still wear my smaller clothes despite a gain of 5lbs...which is usually enough to push one into another size when you're in the lower weights. In fact, things fit quite a bit better at 112 vs 107!

Of course this depends on when you add the lifting. If you've been lifting all the way down then there probably won't be any change. If you only start once you hit goal then there will likely be a change.