I'm also curious about how much more folks are eating in maintenance. I know WW Online has you eat 4 points more in maintenance but I'm curious to know how well it translates in real life.
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Originally Posted by luckymommy
I can eat the way I'm eating now for the rest of my life, but it would be fun to think that I could eat so much more.
When we're losing fat, we're in a calorie deficit and using stored fat for some of our caloric needs. Once we decide that our weight is where we want it to be, we switch to calorie equilibrium, where our calorie intake matches our calorie burn and no stored fat is used.
Finding calorie equilibrium is a bit of a trial and error process. There isn't a formula that says we can eat X more calories per day (and I bet even WW adjusts those four points up and down, depending on results). So what most of our maintainers here recommend is adding back calories, a hundred or so at a time, and monitoring weekly progress. If you're still losing, add more calories the next week. If you gain, ack, back off a bit! When your weight is stable, then you'll know what YOUR maintenance level is! It's going to be as different for each of us as our calorie deficit level is.
Many of our maintainers save their extra calories for a weekly splurge meal or treat, rather than adding back in a set number each day. That way, if you know you have a party or dinner out, you have some wiggle room for a glass of wine and sharing a dessert, for example.
You didn't ask about exercise in maintenance, but might be interested to know that most maintainers do as much or more exercise (duration and/or intensity) in maintenance than they did while they were losing. Weight loss vs Maintenance Exercise
Whatever works for you will be great! But your maintenance calories will definitely be more than your weight loss calories at your goal weight.
Meg did a great job explaining it! Shocking, isn't it.
I just wanted to state though that there is "no going back to the old ways" thing going on here. It's not like, "yay I lost the weight now I can go back to eating regularly again - normal.". No, the time that we were losing, that was our NEW normal that we've just created. We go back to our old ways - the ways that made us heavy, then we'd get heavy again. But I take it from your wording of your post that you pretty much knew that! For many years I didn't. It was I can't wait to get off this diet so I can go back to normal again. Ummm - no. It really is all about establishing new and healthy eating/exercise habits - forever. Or for at least as long as you want the weight off for - which is pretty much - forever.
My ongoing, never ending maintenance looks almost identical to my losing journey. Which is good. Because during that period I customized and perfected a plan perfectly suited for me. I discovered GREAT foods that I enjoy thoroughly, even more so than the ones I was eating prior. Though I still do some tweaking here and there as I discover even more great "food finds" and recipes. I personally go the add in a splurge meal every now and then route. It's been working great for me.
Through experimentation, a little detective work, some careful monitoring and trial and error you too will find your comfy maintenance spot.
Yes, you do get to eat more! That said, how much more varies from one person to another, and with your maintenance level of activity/exercise. That's why it's important to add in calories slowly, over weeks. Your body's metabolism is shifting once again. What you can eat to maintain may be very different from what someone else can do.
Whatever you do, don't celebrate your weight loss with food! That makes no sense. It would be like celebrating sobriety by getting drunk.
You are only partially right about WW having you eat 4 more points a day on maintenance. That is for the first week. If you have lost at the next weight in, you add 4 more. You keep on this way until you have a gain. Then you start cutting back until you reach your goal again. Whatever number you have then is your maintenace points.
For those that count calories, one point averages about 50 calories.
Exercise is imperative for maintenace - 6 hours a week.
At present, my answer has to be a resounding No.
However, if I were answering this during my first two years of maintenance, my answer would be yes.
I lost from 190 down to 115 lbs over a 16 month period,
while eating a 16 month average of 1250 calories per day.
I am short, over 60, and mostly sedentary with 1 hr of daily low-impact exercise,
and a bit of mild strength-training.
This is the maximum amount of activity/exercise that I, personally,
can sustain as a lifestyle
(due both to my abilities and my interests).
My first two years of maintenance, in order to maintain my weight,
I was able to eat a daily average of about 1400 calories.
This was less than amount that the Charts say my burn should be,
but was still 150 more per day than my dieting calorie average.
However, during my third year of maintenance, in order to maintain my weight,
I was only able to eat a daily average of about 1200 calories,
which is a bit less than I ate while in my weight-loss phase
(weekly average weight loss about 1 lb).
Then, last year, during my fourth year of maintenance,
in working to maintain my same weight, I had to drop my calories further,
and only ate a daily average of about 1050 calories,
AND even while doing that, my stabilized weight still had a 3-4 lb creep up.
Start of year, I mostly weighed 115 lbs...but last of year, I mostly weighed 118-119 lbs.
I am hoping that this was some kind of temporary phenomenon,
involving my body's adjustment because it very much wants to regain lost weight,
and that this next year, which will be my fifth year of maintenance,
my body will have adjusted, and
I will be able to eat at least the same calories (1050) without any weight-gain.
My health is fine, and...other than the fact that I am older...
....there appears to be no medical reason for this change.
Perhaps no one else experiences this.
I've certainly never had anyone tell me it happened to them,
but I don't know anyone else who has maintained a large weight loss for 4 years, AND KNOWS exactly how many calories they've eaten
because they have logged all of their food every day.
I am very aware of these details, because since 9/20/2004,
I have logged ALL of my daily food EVERY day into a computer software food journal (DietPower).
As of today, that is 1918 consecutive days.
It has become a Habit for me, like making my bed and brushing my teeth,
and I intend to continue doing it forever.
For the past few years I've been sending this extra detailed information
to the National Weight Registry to add to their survey knowledge,
(as I'm a participant), but I've received no feedback about it from them.
Last edited by Bright Angel; 12-20-2009 at 10:48 AM.
Yes, I do eat more during maintenance. I lost weight eating around 1400-1600 calories a day, I maintain around 1800 calories a day.
To be clear though, my maintenance looks just like weight loss, except with more calories. The foods I eat now are nearly 100% different. I didn't get to goal weight and return to my former poor food choices. I just started adding in extra calories of equally healthy foods. It was nice, instead of having to choose between a yogurt and a 1/4 cup of almonds in my day, I could have both.
I do have a weekly treat meal, as well. But even then, I try to stay within my usual "rules" - no fast food, no fried foods, limit the bread basket, 1 glass of wine, no cream-based sauces.
Bright Angel, thanks for your detailed account. You might have already heard this, but from what I've read, as we age, we lose muscle mass and that means we burn less calories at rest (RMR) than we would if we had more muscle. I was wondering if you could increase your weights by lifting heavier ones? That sounds like very few calories to me.
I can definitely understand that I cannot go back to my old eating habits. I am determined not to do this ever, never, ever!
I think my question stemmed from a combination of curiosity, excitement (about the prospect of life at goal) and fear of maintenance. To me, maintaining is a lot more daunting than losing. I've lost weight before and I was at my goal weight not that long ago, but then I gained back and then some very quickly due to some excuses (chronic daily migraines, a son with a disability that is very challenging to care for, and some trauma as a young adult.....all of which culminated into a major food addiction). I'm very determined to do this right this time.
The difference this time: I am coming to 3fc daily and very frequently during the day/night. I have cut out junk completely (even quit drinking Diet Coke). I have accepted the situation with the migraines and no longer use food to make myself feel better (before, I felt that since I'm in constant pain and nausea, I should at least derive pleasure from food and I have an excuse not to work out). I now know that the food only feels better as it enters my mouth and goes down my throat. The second it passes that threshold, it no longer feels good. It starts to feel very, very bad.
I count calories and keep them in a program (www.loseit.com). I have never done this before. I used to keep it in a paper journal and I wasn't consistent with it. I now workout no matter how I feel (unless I have a terrible cold or the flu) or if my migraine is so severe I can't see straight.
Ok, I'm so sorry for posting all of my "stuff" here! It's just not that interesting! I really appreciate everyone sharing their input and, as I said in my original post, I cannot WAIT to be here as a maintainer.
Don't apologize for sharing your "stuff"! It's part of who you are and helps us to get to know you better. Trust me, we all share our "stuff" and are all the better for it.
Yes, but not necessarily as much as you might think. If when you get to your goal weight you are still losing a pound a week, then you might be able to add back in 500 cals/day. Most of us find that our weight loss slowed significantly when we got close to goal, for the simple reason that a smaller body requires fewer calories! So if you're only losing 1/2 lb per week when you're getting to goal weight, you might only able to add back 250 cals, for example.
Personally I lose about 1/2lb per week eating 1400 cals/day most days and closer to 2000 one day a week. I can maintain on 1600-1800 with one day closer to 2000.
When I was losing I ate between 1200-1500. When I got to maintenance I slowly started adding in more calories to reach 1800. Two days a week I go up to 2000 without any problem.
I basically eat the same foods as when I was losing just more of them and I'm thrilled about that. I really love the foods I eat now and don't miss my old way of eating.
Congrats on your weight loss; you'll be maintaining before you know it!
I am eating and recording an average of 1142 calories per day, which I have been eating since early summer, a few months before I got to goal in October.
This is an average of 91 calories higher than I was eating for most of my weight loss August 2008 - June 2009.
I estimate and record exactly, still faithefully but it is an estimate without a food scale (I measure), and so for this reason I have considered that I am in fact, probably eating closer to 1300 a lot of the time. I eat low so that I can do things like have an amount of a strange cheese and record it as the same calories I count in that amount of every other cheese I eat. And so on.
But no, so not different (yet) and I say this as a maintainer, because my weight appears to be maintaining, but I should add that my goal -- met in October -- was 140, I am 136 at this morning's weigh-in and I do actually desire to be 130-135 lbs (I have been going up and down 135-138 in recent weeks).
So I am still "trying to lose" and believe I am losing, albeit very, very, very slowly. I was hoping to maintain at higher calories than this, and at 5'8 I would be satisfied, of course, to stay at my current weight. In the meantime I hope to lose a little more though I eat low and still work out a lot so I'm not actually willing to 'do more' to keep losing.
My exercise, essentially, has gone down in time and up in intensity.
My cardio was nonexistent for the first 50 lbs of my weightloss.
Then it was heavy (90 minutes per weekday of exercise bike / 60 minutes per weekend day) for much of the last 50 lbs.
Then I dropped it down to 1 hour of bike Mon-Sat with Sundays off. This is what I did for the last few months of steady weightloss this fall, and what I do now. I did, however, continue upping the intensity as I was able.
Weights and floor exercise routines remain the same, though I am about to start using 5 lb weights now that my 3 lbs have become easy. I don't really plan to go up from there or anything, though (just was never a particular goal of mine, my 3's served me well this whole time).
Floor/body exercises stayed the same, though for time reasons I started doing an abbreviated (~10+ minute) version of them every day instead of a long session 3x per week.
I am eating and recording an average of 1142 calories per day, which I have been eating since early summer, a few months before I got to goal in October.
This is an average of 91 calories higher than I was eating for most of my weight loss August 2008 - June 2009.
I estimate and record exactly, still faithefully but it is an estimate without a food scale (I measure), and so for this reason I have considered that I am in fact, probably eating closer to 1300 a lot of the time.
I am glad to hear you say this. I am a newbie at calorie counting and have read about starvation mode and losing muscle mass and these low of numbers. So i upped my calories closer to 130o, stalled then gained. It admittedly could have been other factors, but I went back down to my weekly average 1130-1200 the stall stopped and the weight started to come off again.
Do you eat more calories when maintaining?
