Hi everyone,

I apologize ahead of time if this has been mentioned in another thread but I could use some advice. I've finally reached my goal weight after a year of hard work and now I'm ready to maintain. However I'm not sure how...
Currently I eat 1300 cals/day and work out for 45 mins, 6 days a week. My plan is to increase my daily calories to 1600 and cut down the work-outs to 5 days instead. This will still leave me just below my BMR (which is 1800 approx) and with a calorie deficient at the end of the week just in case. Is this a good plan? The last thing I'd want to do is gain back the weight. It's tough to imagine eating more and working out less and not be worried I'd going to gain it all back. I think I've sort of brainwashed myself to think that if I don't follow my plan exactly, I'll gain weight instantly. For example, today I decided to take a day off from the exercising, even though I still worked out 5 out the 7 days, and treat myself to one chocolate bar. But soon after I ate it, I felt fat and gross so I grabbed some weights and did a few reps. Now I just feel guilty. Does this go away?

Hey Tiger! Congrats on your weight loss! I think transitioning to maintaining is very individual and ultimately you will find a way through trial and error. There are some informative sticky threads here in Maintainers that may help provide some guidance! Also feel free to join in the chat thread or accoutability threads to track your food and weight and see what works for you!

Hey Tiger,

To find your maintenance sweet spot, slowly increase your calories and watch the scale.

I started at 1400 calories a day. For a couple of weeks, I raised calories to 1600 calories a day, then 1800 calories a day. I added in a treat meal on the weekends (nice dinner, glass of wine, split dessert). I paid close attention to the scale and I found that 1800 calories a day + weekly treat meal was about right for me.

As far as a chocolate bar - that might make me feel guilty. I generally buy really nice bars of dark chocolate from World Market and eat a 100 portion when I'm craving chocolate. To me, a whole bar represents my past, how I used to eat. I just don't eat like that anymore.

It's a very personal and unique journey, so you have to figure out what's right for you. A food journal might be helpful, write about what you ate, how you felt about it, why you felt that way, how you wish you had felt.

Welcome to maintenance! It's a great place to be! I'm fairly new to it as well but I can't find my sweet spot because of my binge eating problems. I totally get how frustrating it is to give yourself a treat and then feel guilty about it. All I can suggest is that you drink lots of water and just get right back on track. I think over time, you and I will see that a treat here and there are just a normal part of life.