I reached goal 6 months ago...
 

Hi everyone,
I lost 25 pounds, I have been maintaining this loss for 6 months. I started this journey at 170 pounds & I reached my goal weight of 145 pounds by eating healthy and working out religiously. I am 5 feet 9 and have an athletic build body type. I work out for 1- 1.5 hrs everyday.

Maintaining hasn't been easy, some weeks I do awesome, yet other weeks I yoyo and I still have an OCCASIONAL binge day where I fall off the healthkick wagon eating the wrong foods! I do give myself a 5 pound fluctuation, but I will not let myself go over 150 pounds, I always go back to eating 1200 calories a day to get back to goal weight when I get close to that number. Does anybody else deal with this? How many calories should I be eating to maintain this weight? I have been multiplying my weight X 10, does this sound right calorie wise? Today I weigh 147, so I guess I want to know if this is normal to fluctuate a few pounds? I certainly am aware for sure of my weight at all times, being I certainly want to KEEP it OFF this time around!

Welcome evilwoman! Love the username!

Yep! I think we all deal with that. Over and over and over again. The trick is to keep doing it, as a fact of life.

As for how many calories to eat, we should make a sticky on that one (Meg, can we make a sticky?). The calorie calculators are notoriously inaccurate for so many people. If you've been maintaining for a while, you actually probably already have a good handle on it. If 10x your weight in pounds works for you, keep doing it.

Anne

Hi , Congratulations on your wt. loss. I definitely deal with this over and over. I try to maintain at 145 lbs. I've been as low as 139 lbs. and as high as 151 lbs. (which sent me into a panic). I also occasionally eat things that I shouldn't and it usually does show up on the scale. It seems now to take me longer to get back on track once I do mess up. I believe it is totally normal to fluctuate a few pounds but each time it happens, I get renewed determination to get it back off. As for calorie amount, it is so individual that I really can't say. I find that anything over about 1500 cal's and I will gain and this is even with getting almost daily cardio exercise.

Many thanks wndranne and lilybelle, it means a lot to have support in maintenance too! I had a bad binge wknd, but I am back on track today. I am happiest weighing 145, but staying there is a different story. Although I ALWAYS have re-newed determination to get back to that # whenever I mess up. I know that if I binge too often, I have to pay the consequences of a few extra pounds, but hopefully one of these days the binges will be a thing of the past...

Hi and welcome evilwomaniamshe,

Congratulations on your loss! A lot of the maintainers here can tell you that there is no set number of calories to eat for a certain height and weight. We've all had to figure out what works for us. Many of us have learned not to trust those online calorie counters because our bodies just don't behave "normally." I have been "maintaining" for 2+ years, but honestly, am still figuring out how to do this! It's been more of a roller coaster for me - for the last year I've gotten too lax and gained a few pounds, try to go back to 1200-1400 cals to lose it, maybe lose it, but go nuts because I'm not eating enough and am too hungry, etc. etc. In the last month I've finally gained a bit better control and have started to lose, albeit slowly, at a healthier level of ~1800 cals/day and lots of activity. I think a big problem for me is that when I go to such a low calorie intake, I suspect I'm depressing my metabolism. I HATE this roller coaster and am trying to get off of it. So maybe you don't want to go that route, if your body is anything like mine...

I've heard a lot of maintainers suggest that when you go on maintenance, you take your losing calorie level, and add 100-200 calories, and eat at that level for 1-2 weeks. Add 100-200 more, wait a week or 2, etc. This can help you figure out what your true "maintaining" number of calories is, and then you can tweak it to suit your schedule and eating/exercise habits (some eat a little less during the week and have a treat day or meal on the weekends, eat a little less if you don't work out that day, etc.). Some say that if they eat "clean" they can eat more and still maintain than if they eat junk food. There is a wealth of information in the maintainers forum. Poke around, join the weekly chat and other forums, make yourself at home. Hope to "see" you around!

Megan

Thanks Megan for welcoming me to the forum and also for the tips. Yeah maintaining is far harder than losing without a doubt! It's nice to know that I am not the only one though that rollercoasts now and again. I am aware though if I am up a few pound to get back on track as soon as I can! I think working out 1.5 hours everyday has been my so called saving grace or I would have been right back to chubdom if I was not such a fitness freak! I also lift 10 pound weights daily too, I am not one to take a day off, no sir ri, call me an ADDICT, but hey there are worse things to be addicted too I suppose.

It feels good to be back on track again today, day 2 so hopefully with even more DETERMINATION, I will be back to 145 and try my damndest to stay there!