Been in maintenance as of Tuesday 3/27/07. Before this week I was keeping my calories between 1400 and 1750 calories. Before that I was consuming between 1200 and 1500 a day (Did that forever). But as I got closer to my goal weight, say within 10 lbs or so, I slowly started to increase my calories. I now consume between 1850 and 2055 a day. Since I'm "moderately active" (workout 5 days a week with cardio and 3 days of weight training and on my days off I walk), I figured my maintenance calories to be 2055. So far so good. The scale hasn't moved. The extra calories are all good choices. I basically increased my fiber and veggie intake, everything else is basically the same. Dairy, protein and fruit hasn't changed. I don't want to increase my intake of sugar for sure.

With all of that said, I have a few questions for you seasoned maintainers:

1. Do I sound like I'm on the right track?

2. How tall are you and how much do you weight?

3. How many calories do you consume daily?

I am 5' 1" and 125 lbs and keep my daily intake between 1850 and 2055.

Thanks for reading and any helpful hints.

Hi Libby! You sound like you're handling maintenance exactly right - you're adding a few hundred calories of quality food and carefully watching to see how the scale reacts.

So ...

1. Yes!

2. I'm 5' 4" and about 140 pounds now, looking to get back to 135.

3. My maintenance calories are around 1600. Since I'm trying to lose five pounds, I've dropped my calories down to around 1100. Keep in mind that I'm 52, post-menopausal, and hypothyroid so my calorie requirements are probably on the low side of average.

You're doing great, chickie!

Meg you rock! I hope I look HALF as good you when I'm in my 50's! You look like you are my age.

I will keep up this pace now that I have your blessing and if I start to gain, I'll scale it back a little. I know my body a lot better than I used to, so, I'm sure I'll get the hang of this.

Thanks again for the speedy reply!

You're such a sweetie!

Do you prefer Liz to Libby? I see people calling you that in posts.

And I think you hit the nail on the head with what you said about 'knowing your body'. No calculator can figure out your maintenance calories for you. It's going to be you observing and tweaking and learning exactly how food and exercise impact your weight.

The biggest mistake people make when they reach goal is thinking that the hard work is over and now they can go back to 'normal' eating (let's pause and remember that 'normal' is overweight in the US today). In contrast, you're doing it exactly right by eating the same healthy foods in slightly larger quantities, continuing to track your calories, and exercising ... in other words, doing the same things you did to lose the weight. With your attitude, I KNOW you're going to be a fabulous long term success story! (isn't this guy hysterical? )

Hi Libby, it looks like you are doing great. I added extra high fiber foods to get my calories right and I eat plenty of fresh fruits and veggies. Whole wheat products in anything that it's available in.


I'm 5' 7 and currently 142 lbs. I eat usually 1600-1700 calories a day. I'm 47 yrs. old. My exercise is mostly cardio. I walk 2-3 miles per day 5 x a week. I do a little on my elliptical but not much. I'm currently doing a lot of gardening and lawn work. I had a few bad days last week and got back up to 145 and cut cal's down to 1400 for several days to get those lbs. back down. I am trying to stay in 140-145 range.

Fiber...oh yeah. I consume between 35 and 50 grams a day of the stuff. It's a marvelous thing.

Hi--Congrats on your weight loss. I'm 5'8'' and I maintain at about 172 pounds after a 120 pound loss. I'm quite muscular though. You can see photo in goal photo album. Although I'm not tiny, I'm happy at that weight. I think you'll find that we're all different.

Oh, and I eat 1600 cals/day plus or minus depending how my weight is doing. Currently 1200, training for 1/2 marathon.

Your plan sounds great!

1. You sound like you're doing great!
2. I'm 5'4" and my scale is broken, but I think I'm 135, trying to get back to 130.
3. It varies between about 1400 and 2200 but I average 1700-1800. I was eating more like 1800-2000 before gaining these five pounds (due to some indulgence and lack of exercise). With my current calorie level I'm doing cardio 3-5 days a week (30-40 minutes each time) and strength training once a week, plus walking on the weekend if the weather is good.

Thanks for all the great advice ladies. Liz or Libby will do fine. My name is actually Elizabeth, I have been known as Libby online for years, but people in the non-techno world call me Liz.

Tomorrow will be 1 WEEK in maintenance. YEAH!!! Off to work out. xoxo

Congratulations on your first week!

I'm 5'2" 1/2, weigh 122, maintain on 1400-1500 and a lot of exercise. I'm also 52, post-menopausal, and my thyroid seesaws between hypo and hyper.

I LIVE on bathtub size helpings of vegetables and rarely get more than 30 gr of fiber. How do you manage to get 50????

Mel

I eat a bowl of oatmeal with raisins and walnuts every morning. I do eat dairy, but I love this new Silk Soy Milk with added Fiber(5 grams per 8 oz). I drink 1 1/2 cups of that with breakfast. (it's the liquid in my oatmeal). I eat the real thing when it comes to oatmeal. Sometimes even steel cut.

For lunch I have at least one raw and one steamed veggie. I eat Food for Life Bran for Life bread (5 grams per slice), then I usually have a small apple or a banana (usually half) For dinner, I might have some brown rice or whole wheat pasta, if not, I will have beans. I average about 35 - 40 a day. I do get to 50 some days, but not most. I do eat plenty of protein. Fish, chicken, nuts (obviously) and beans. I eat an oz or less of cheese a day.

Thanks for the input.

Great work getting to maintenance!! You should feel very proud of yourself.

I'm 5 ft. 3
I weigh c. 126 (my official WW goal weight is 136, but I'm happy to stay at or below 131)
I don't track calories, but I do count Points (the WW system for tracking fat and fiber grams plus calories for each serving of whatever). When I was losing, I stayed at 20 points. Now I eat 26.

To stay where I want:
Lots of exercise
Water (tho. I should be drinking more)
Doing the things that worked to get the weight off
Not being afraid to ask for more help

All the best to you.

Libby ~ LOVE your progress slide show. You and I are the same height so you must have a lot of good upper body muscle mass to fit in size 3 jeans at 125. I only just got into size 4's at 110, but I'm a pear shape, so most of my weight is below my waist.

Here are three web sites to help you calcute how much you need calorie wise.

- http://nutrition.about.com/library/b...tion_guide.htm
- http://www.calorieking.com/tools/weight_maintenance.php
- http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/calories-goal.php

I took an average of them to come up with 1,400 for maintenance, which I'm not doing yet because I'd like to lose three more pounds to get down to 105 which I used to be in my twenties. Since I'm so close, I'm 'going for it'.