I am very close. I only have 7 pounds left to lose and I am beginning to investigate the best way to go about starting the pre maintenance phase. I count calories, and need to know how...and when...I should begin increasing them. I am still losing weight slowly on 1500 calories a day. I would love ideas or tips on how to best begin to increase my calories without gaining weight but still losing, even if at a snail's pace. Thanks so much!

Hi Christina!

Of course you belong here right now -- what took you so long to join us?

Seriously, you are wise to be thinking about transitioning to maintenance now. I'm a calorie counter too and here's what I'd do, if I were you. Stick with the 1500 calories from now until you reach goal, so long as you're still losing (even slowly). Once you're there, bump up 100 calories/day every week and keep track of what happens. Alternatively, you could keep your calories at 1500 and add a controlled treat meal each week. It's whatever works best for you.

The key is to keep tracking calories and monitoring the effect. So long as you're adding in calories gradually, nothing horrible can happen, like a five pound gain in a week.

I'm guessing that you'll be able to maintain on about 500 calories more than you lose on, but that's just a guess. It's all trial and error to see what how your body responds.

Libby just reached goal and started maintaining a few weeks ago and hopefully she can share some of her experiences and advice with you.

Congratulations on what you've accomplished! We'd really love to have you join in on all our threads now and we hope to hear lots more from you.

Hi Christina,

Welcome to Maintainers. I joined 2 months ago when I met my first goal. I've continued to do exactly as I did up to that point and have since lost another 5 lbs. I don't know if I'll be able to sustain this low of a weight, since I've never have in the past. But I sure feel good at this weight so I'm going to continue doing the same thing.

There is a lot of great information in the Sticky section of this forum and I'd highly recommend you read it. I learned so much from reading Meg's and Susan's posts.

Here's wishing you reach your goal in no time.