Okay, so how do you maintain and still exercise?

So, I have finally hitmy goal weight and i LOVE my body! I have figured out my maintaining calories and have been doing pretty well with staying close to it, however...

Now that I have made the gym a part of my life for the past three years, I don't want to give it up. I'm kind of addicted, to be honest. I am 21, 5'7" and 125 lb, and my maintenance cals are 1700. But that's for not working out. How do you still allow yourself to workout without going below calories or gaining weight by screwing up your metabolism? The thought of giving up the gym and all my hard work to become exceptionally fit scares me, but eating that many calories scares me even more! I don't want to gain the weight back.

Does anyone else have this problem? How are you dealing with your new love of the gym? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Well just like with losing, you have to eat back the calories you burn with exercise.

If you are maintaining at 1700 right now, you have your starting point. If you burn lets say 600 at the gym, eat 2300 calories.

Keep track of your calories/weight and revise as necessary.

Hope that helps :)

Melinda
Volunteer Moderator

Thare are a lot of good methods. Here's how I do it.

My exercise is just  part of all the calories I burn for the week... I don't adjust for it.  I know that the current rate of exercise I do, I need a little more than 1500 per day to maintain my goal weight of 128. I eat 1500 any day I am 128 or above, which means that I will eventually driop under 128 again.  Any day I am below 128, I allow myself another 200-calorie treat... today an English muffin with a little margarine.  So by doing this, I regulate my weight.  ISo some days I eat  1500, and others I eat 1700... it's my incentive for exercise. When I average for the week, I'm about 1550, some weeks 1600.

It's more about keeping your eye on the scale, than computing some theoretical number for how much calories you burn during exercise.  You really can't trust the calorie readings on exercise machines... the bike at the gym has me buring WAY more calories than my bike at home.  It's not like you do the math and see if the scale agrees. The scale tells you if you need to make adjustments.

THank you, those are both good suggestions. I plan to incorporate both and see what works for me. Ultimately, I want to be able ot just listen to my body and eat when i'm hungry and stop when i'm full - it's jus that right now, it stops way below my calorie intake at around 1300!

But I will try these and try to let everyone know how it goes

After I hit my goal weight it took me a little while to be able to get close to my expenditure.  Some days I am quite a bit below, but most days I come pretty close.  I have been maintaining for over a month.  I don't like to micro-manage my weight so I just continue to not go overboard on the calories and still incorporate exercise into my routine. (3-4 times a week).  I am usually between 158-162.  With my goal weight of 160.  I do splurge a little, but not as often as I used to.

Don't give up exercise, ever!
The best and most effective way to keep weight off is to exercise!
mypyramid.gov, the government nutrition site, says that at minimum, you should exercise 30 minutes at a moderate intensity on most days, and for people that lost a significant amount of weight, 60-90 minutes even.
And yes, always eat back the calories, and as long as you stay within your calorie limits.
Example: My maintenance calories without exercise is 2000 (Typically 3000 with exercise, I do A LOT of biking). If I overeat one day by 300 calories let's say, I eat 1700 the next day. That way it evens out.

How do you get that many calories and still eat healthy? I am close to my goal weight and am also IN LOVE with going to the gym. I am eating 1500 calories right now, weight training 4 days a week and cardio 5 days a week. But I have a really hard time getting my 1500 calories as it is. I can't imagine how I will increase it. Any suggestions?

I can't agree more.  I've been working out for about 45 days and know my target calories intake per day is about 2800.  I have taken off some fat and toned up some, but I find it very difficult to eat healthy and hit my target calories.  I average about 1800 calories per day, but I feel like I am eating a ton.  I eat a good amount of protein (~120 to 130 grams/day) and minimize the fat.  ratio about 35% prot, 25% fat, and 40% carb.  Been trying to even out the carb and prot. and keep the fat low.  Between egg whites, toast, fruit, protein powder, and cereal or oatmeal at breakfast and healthy lunch (whole bread - 4 to 6 oz lean meat or can of tuna, and pile of veggies), and dinner ( 4 to 6 oz chicken or lean meat, green veggy) along with a few snacks ( serving of nuts, banana, etc), I seem to rarely break the 2000 mark.  I'm down 9 pounds and don't really want to go any lower. 5'-11" male at 169lbs.  Working out 6 times a weeks - 3 days circuit and 3 days aerobic/taebo.  Would like to add muscle weight -- Any suggestions?????  Calorie powder mixes -- creatine????  Any helps is appreciated.

exercise is essential to sucessfully maintaining.

I do have a hard time eating enough, but i know i would have the opposite problem if i stopped exercising.