maintenance calories

I've read a few people mentioning something about how if you stick with a certain deficet of calories after a while your body adjusts and you need to eat some "maintenance" calories to get your metablism up.  Is this true with everybody?  How long do you need to be eating the amount of calories you burn to get your metabolism back up?  Does it help to be a certain kind of food?

It's fairly common among long-term dieters to eventually hit a 'plateau' in their weight-loss.  If your deficit between the calories you take in and the total you use up each day is in the 500-750 range then you can go months before it happens... if ever.  If the deficit has been too severe (more than 1000) you can hit a wall after a few weeks.

A good plan is to have a day at your maintenance calorie intake every two or three weeks.... This can often be timed to coincide with a suitable occasion and that can make your weight-loss experience a little more 'human' and flexible.

It helps if you stick to the same kinds of foods that you've been losing weight with  ... hopefully the wholesome, nutritious kind mostly.  If you up your calorie intake significantly and also add a lot of processed starch, sugar, salt or alcohol into the mix you can find you gain fluid which can be quite alarming on the scales.

Good luck

its very true, but doesn't necessarily happen to everyone...the first time i did this I was at 117pounds for about a month, after losing the first 12 pounds. I then started eating around 1400 calories instead of 1200...after three weeks I lost another 5 and then after 2 more weeks another 2.

don't stress out about this sort thing yet...you'll know when you hit a plateu.

Thanks, it sounds like I might be in the second group.  I am trying to lose 2 lbs a week so I was making sure I had at least a 1000 calorie deficit, I lost 12 lbs in 3 weeks, and the past 5 days I've been at almost exactly the same weight.  I have an oppurtunity this weekend to eat some tasty fried cajun food with my family.  Think I should go ahead and do it or will the fried food do more harm than good?

Don't eat fried food to up your calories, that's terrible for you. Eat more of the healthy things. This will boost your calorie level without the unnecessary sodium and fats and all that garbage.

A 1000 calorie deficit is quite steep, probably caused your "plateau" as it were.

Go ahead and eat the food.  I just started my weight loss journey, again, about a month ago and lost about 12 pounds but have been BAD for the last week and gained a pound or so.  So now i'm getting back onto a diet plus adding exercise that i didn't have the first few weeks.  I have a feeling that since my body is used to the greasy, fattening foods again it will be shocked by the healthy food less and use up the fat stores.  I will keep my process posted.

But several new diets encourage eating more calories two days a week, about a 200 increase, which is modest but enough for your body to think its getting more food so it stops trying to reserve fat, this makes the next two days of lower calories prime time for losing weight.  this is why many dieters see huge weight loss in the first week, i lost 10 pounds my first week with no exercise.  So i say eat the food, but keep track of the calories, if you go over maintenance levels then take the next day to be strict and get back to your routine and the two days will probably net a 0 lb. loss and gain.  Like I said, the first days after your maintenance eating is the best time to lose weight so make sure to exercise.

Original Post by mike9000:

I have an oppurtunity this weekend to eat some tasty fried cajun food with my family.  Think I should go ahead and do it or will the fried food do more harm than good?

5 days isn't a plateau... you can't judge weight-loss day to day because it's natural for things to fluctuate up or down.  However, pushing your calorie deficit over 1000 is not a good thing to do long-term.  Trim that back to 700 by eating a little more on a regular basis.  If you stick to a very small portion of your fried food you should be OK calorie-wise but cajun food tends to be incredibly salty - another good reason for not getting on the scales for a few days afterwards.

Well, i had a weekend of slightly loose but not over the top eatting.  Mmm... crawfish boil!  I weighed this morning and I had gained 2 lbs since Thursday.  Hoping now these next few weeks will start to see it go down again.  Thanks for the advice all.