I was just curious what everyone else's maintenance calories were.

My maintenance calories at my goal weight are about 1700. Which is another thing I'm looking forward to, I can eat a little more, because right now I'm eating between 1200-1300.

I was just wondering what everyone's plans were once you reach goal and if you're looking forward to being able to eat a little more

I love to eat and carefully planned weight loss/maintenance to ensure I would end up with a metabolism that let me eat like I wanted to eat for the rest of my life. I started losing weight on 1500 calories a day. When my weight loss slowed down, I increased calories to 1800 calories a day and that increase in calories helped me lose the last 10 lbs (counter intuitive!). I currently eat anywhere from 2000 to 2400 (depending on my level of activity for the day). I have been maintaining since March

I can maintain my current weight (135-137) on an average of about 2000-2200 calories. I'm expecting to maintain my goal weight (120-125) in the 1800-2000 calorie range.

I'm still tweaking my maintenance calories, but it's looking like it's going to be somewhere around 2000 calories to maintain my weight in the 135-140 range. Maybe a bit higher. I'm still figuring it out. This is with my current schedule of about 10 hours of exercise a week.

Wow! Everyone's maintenance calories are way higher than mine. But then I'm not an avid exerciser, either. When the weather is nice, I walk a lot. But during the cold months, I basically do nothing. Which is why I can only eat about 1200 calories a day.

I guess I'll have to wait till I get there and see what calorie level works best. Maybe I'll be able to eat a little more than 1700, maybe not. I'll try the 1700 for a while and let the scale be my guide.

I'll just have to wait and see

I have a question for you LLV. What is your regular day of foods like. I really can't seem to combine my food into 1200 cal. It seems that I always end up eating more than I should. May be I am not eating foods that are nutritious and filling.

Well, I vary stuff. And I eat quite a few calorie-controlled meals. Like Lean Cuisines and Healthy Choice, etc.

Breakfast I try and keep low. I don't normally eat more than 200 calories for breakfast. I eat a LOT of egg whites and Egg Beaters. I buy the all-whites liquid egg whites in the carton and most days I have 1/2 cup egg whites and 8 ounces of the "Carb Countdown" chocolate milk. No, I don't count carbs, I simply buy that milk because it's low in sugar. 1/2 cup of egg whites and 8 ounces of the low-sugar chocolate milk puts me at about 157 calories for breakfast.

However, sometimes I have a bowl of cold cereal or hot cereal. I really love the hot oat bran and hot multigrain cereals, as well as oatmeal and cream of wheat. That puts me up a little in calories for breakfast, but if I do that then I just watch how many calories I eat for lunch.

Really it depends on what my plans are. If there's something particularly heavy on the calories that I want for lunch, I just have my eggs for breakfast. I try and balance everything.

Lunch varies as well. Like I said, my freezer is stocked with Lean Cuisines and other calorie-controlled meals. It's a way for me to get my protein as well as some vegetables in one package.

Dinner, I just fix whatever I want as long as it's within my calorie allowance for the rest of the day

Thanks LLV. I never tried those frozen meals before, may be I should. I do eat egg beaters too, but usually I eat cold cereal. Last few weeks it seems to me that I just can't get away from hunger.lol. I need to switch them up little bit, i guess.

I know what you mean!

And poop, that should read "what are YOUR maintenance calories!"

I'm a big exerciser so at 125# my maintenance calories are around 2200. I could probably even eat more than that, but that's where I keep it for now. Been maintaining for 18 months now!

I wish I knew. Then maybe I could stop this yo-yoing the last 15 lbs.