Thread: Goal Weight Reached - how to maintain?!

Hello Everyone, this is my first post on the site! I've recently hit my goal weight of 126 but I have no idea how to maintain it - I've been eating 1200 calories a day to lose weight and now have no idea if I should/how to increase that!

Help! I'm scared of gaining the weight back! I want to be this size forever!

Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can help myself?

Hi,

First - CONGRATULATIONS!!

Yours is a problem I would dearly like to have!

I would suggest you increase your daily calories by 100 each week until your weight stabilizes. Remember to eat a little more if you exercise hard

Well done on hitting target!

Maintaining is going to be harder than you expect. You really need to increase calorie intake very slowly in order to find out what your maintenance level is. I would suggest you first find out what your BMR level is, and use that as a base line then very gradually increase to about 250 to 300 cals above the BMR.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

Ive been trying to work out what maintenance is myself since November. Ive actually lost weight since then, but I think im now at more stable level. Initially my weight was all over the place, and it seemed that very little extra food would put my weight up. Even now I can gain 3lb in 2 days, by eating amounts of food that I would have lost weight on before.

After 4 months of maintenance I realise its something that Im going to have to work at forever if i want to keep the weight off, although my weight loss has been a lot more than yours, so you may not have such a struggle on your hands. Its all down to the pesky fat cells, they may be empty but they aint going away.

Good luck with it, and congratulations on getting there, its a fab feeling isnt it.

Hi Lift and Lynn,

Thanks for replying to me and thanks for the congratulations! It's astonishing how many resources exist on the internet about weight loss and how few exist regarding maintenance! Most of the maintenance pages I did find related to gastric band surgery etc so not relevant to my situation.

According to that BMR calculator you posted, I can eat 1963 calories a day and not gain weight, which after months of eating 1200 a day seems like a crazy amount! This week, I've decided to up my daily intake to 1400/1500 by adding a banana and a yoghurt and see how I get on with that, with the hope of increasing it to around 1900ish in a few months time.

Hopefully this will keep me skimming along at 126 nicely, I just have this fear that I am going to become fat again, but I think that fear is healthy as it will keep me on the right path to maintain. My original goal weight was 140, then I went to 133 and now 126. Part of me would love to be 120 so I might maintain at this weight for a couple of months and then see if I can shift 6lbs. We'll see how I feel.

Thanks for your replies!

That sounds like a very good plan. Im jealous of your BMR at 1900! lol, mine is 1333, but I find that 1200 is really my maintenance level, but then Im probably much older than you and ill be the first to admit im not very active (at all!) Good luck with the plan, and if you do what you plan im sure that other 6lbs will come off by itself over the next couple months.

You will be having a very skinny summer! Yayy!!

Made a bit of an error there - my BMR is actually about 1500 but when you take the Harris Benedict into the equation its 1900.

I will try and work myself up to about 1700 slowly but surely. I'm enjoying the extra calories but know it's going to be hard work!

Thanks so much for your reply!

Hello Scarlet

Cngrats for your weight loss. Maintenance for me is almost as hard as weight loss, because basically we have to be a bit carefull for the rest of our lives

I have the exact same bmi you do (though I weight less because I'm short) and I mantain at around 1500 cals a day with some exercise. Once a week I cheat and overeat a bit on cookies (sad but true, old habits are hard to go away totally).

Good luck for this new journey

Hi and congratulations on reaching your target. There's nothing quite like being slim is there?
I weigh myself twice a week - if I go up by more than 2 lbs, I cut down on the calories for a couple of days. I allow myself treats now and then, but I'm never going back to how I used to eat. I've lost 7 and a half stone and have maintained my weight for the last 5 months.

That's the kind of attitude I have, you can experiment by having 2 healthy B's and A's etc. It is a lifestyle change not a quick fix , although we are human and have our lapses now and again , we are able to draw a line under it and carry on having fab food and treats. I will have been at target for 2 years come August - I took the scenic route but I know I'll never go back to how I was. Good luck everyone ! X :0)

Hi,

I'm wondering how active you are, and if you have access to a way of getting your body fat measured (at a gym, say)? At your height (which is the same as mine, BTW) and 126lb, your BMI is 19.8, and at 120lb it would be 18.9, which is perilously close to being underweight. So an emphasis on body fat% rather than weight would probably be healthier for you long term.

If you exercise regularly, including resistance training, you will tone up your muscles which will give you a firm, lean appearance, and increase your metabolic rate, so you can eat more without gaining. You may also lose inches, even if you don't lose weight.

Well done for the weight loss, and the best of luck with this new and exciting phase of your life.

Barbara

Hi Scarlett,

First I would like to say congrats on your achievement. Second from my own experience it's has to do more with what you eat than how much you eat. I went from 170 to 119/121lbs and the way I maintain it by avoiding refined carbs and sugars at all cost. Mostly I eat veg's, fruits, and fish.

Yes, it's just about finding your maintenance level of calories. Slowly up your calorie intake, which will feel nice! When you no longer lose weight, then you have found your maintenance level of calories.

What you can do now is just eat the same but slightly more and make sure that you aren't ever hungry. Don't eat until you are full, but until you are content. You should be able to stay the same weight this way. If you have been doing cardio/exercise to lose weight, you should try to continue with it.

Good job! Try to figure out which habits you'll keep around, and then focus on keeping them. Just make sure that you're forgiving of yourself. You'll not keep to your habits every day forever and ever. If you stop for a day or two just remember to start back up when it comes to that.

Congrats! Hope you are getting on well?

When I joined SW I thought 11st would be a good weight for me - just inside a healthy BMI. I didn't think this was setting my sights "low" enough as I didn't want to be teetering on the edge of overweight forever, so I set my target at 10st 7lb. I achieved this but kept losing weight, so re-set my target at 10st. I've made it but now to maintain . . . I have a new found love of running, walking, gym and have even done a kickaerobics class; I love food too much to lose anymore weight (even though friends show their concern of this!!), so for me it will be keeping it off to maintain. I will continue with my SW healthy eating and body magic, and use healthy extras to keep the balance.

Thanks for the tips - I can see myself reading this thread often.