[Schumeany]

Hi all,

So I reached my goal weight a few weeks ago...and at the time I upped my calories by a couple hundred a day, but left my exercise program as is. I lost a pound that week, which seemed no big deal. The next week I upped my calories another 100 calories a day, and I lost another pound. This week I upped my calories another 100 calories, and so far I have already lost 1.5 pounds. I am now approaching what I consider my low side "red zone" (134 lbs. this morning). I am beginning not to fit into Smalls and am moving into X-Smalls, and I was a little concerned to note today that the Size 4 jeans are a little loose in the waist, so I tried on some Size 2's...and they fit. I know this sounds like whining, but believe me, it is not. I just feel enough is enough...I am as thin as I want to be. If I get much skinnier, I am afraid my periods are going to get wonky and my skin will freak out (I had this problem from a big weight loss in my 20's). So, HELP!!! How did you guys balance this? I don't want to start gorging myself...but I am up to around 2000 cals a day now...and continuing to lose. My cardio and resistance training in pretty moderate -- nothing exceptional. How fast did you guys add calories? Did anyone else have this problem? Did people's weight loss taper off slowly?

[mariarose]

I've only been maintaining for a few months, so take this with a grain of salt of course, but I found that I lost a few, but just a few pounds, after I started maintaining.

At 120 lbs (my goal weight) I upped my calories (and got lazier with the exercise...oops) but I continued to lose weight for a few weeks until I reached 116 lbs. Then without changing anything, I've been there ever since.

So maybe the same thing will happen to you? Your body might pick a weight a bit lower than what you originally intended, but you probably won't keep losing weight forever and ever-- which I was afraid of for a few weeks!

[Shannon in ATL]

I was just thinking about this today myself... I reached my 127 goal at the end of August, continued to lose down to 120. I managed to maintain 120 for about two weeks, then today weighed 117. In looking back I'm not sure I maintained those two weeks- there were unusual circumstances during both weeks. I am also in a size 4 - every pair I've put on this week has been loose.

I have added 100 calories per week pretty much every week - there were three weeks with vacation in there where I blew calories out of the water, a couple of other weeks where I didn't add calories because I knew I had exercised a lot less. I also got sick recently and was out of exercise for most of two weeks.

The weeks I came closest to maintaining I was averaging 1850 per day and exercising about 30 minutes a day on average, five days per week. I'm going to add more calories in next week, want to try 1900 with a consistent exercise schedule and see what happens.

There have been a couple of other threads about this recently, I'll look for those and edit if I find them.

Edit:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156194

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=152501

[fiberlover]

Now that you are eating what would be maintenance calories, your body might just be adjusting and need to lose some more. Maybe that is where your happy weight is?
Maybe you could eat the same volume of food, but make sure it's full fat/real versions of those foods.

[benchmarkman]

I've been “maintaining” for five years now. I put it in quotes because I've actually lost 3 - 4 lbs a year.

I also feel like you and want to gain a few pounds back. There is a huge catch there, at least for me, every time I see the number on the scale go up I freak out and take steps to lose back the 1/2 lb I gained. I get scared that I won't be able to control my weight gain and then I lose additional weight. I am a male and right now I’m 5'10 and weight 135lbs, which is still in the healthy weight range but very close to under weight.

If you find a solution to this problem please, please share.

[JayEll]

Well... I've never had this problem.

I'd say, ease up on the exercise, especially the cardio. How does that make you feel? Do you get scared at the thought?

Jay