Im about half a stone away from reaching my goal weight...I dont think it will take too long to shift it. My question is..

[TenaciousD]

Once I reach my ideal weight, how do I maintain it without loosing anymore or regaining what ive lost? Do I stay on 1200-1400 calories a day or would I increase it slightly? I would continue with exersise of course. Just wondered if there are any other people on here that have lost weight and managed to keep it off, if you could share your secret with me! Thanks

[pinkymoo]

I'm nowhere near finished but I would have said you need to up your calories a little in order to stop loosing. I found this site which takes your bmi and works out how many calories you need to eat to maintain that weight.

caloriecontrol.org/calculat...

Hopefully some members who have reached their goal will be able to help you more,

[TenaciousD in reply to pinkymoo]

Thanks, ill have a read

[laurav2166]

Have you got an appy phone or an ipad? If so the 'my fitness pal' app is amazing and will tell you how many calories you can eat x

[TenaciousD in reply to laurav2166]

Yes i downloaded my fitness pal the other day but its saying i can have 2100 cals per day but surely this would be too much!

[laurav2166 in reply to TenaciousD]

It would depend on your height and how active you are. I am 5"1 and moderately active and once I reach my target I wil need 1600 cals to maintain. How tall are you?

[TenaciousD in reply to laurav2166]

Im only 5 foot 4!

[laurav2166 in reply to TenaciousD]

Yes 2100 does seem alot then-depending on how active you are. Maybe take a look at your settings-check youve got your height and weight set correctly

[TenaciousD in reply to laurav2166]

Ok thanks, im very active..that could be why.

[gingernut49]

I lost three stone on the 5:2 Diet up until April last year and now I just 'fast' (500 calories) one day a week. It's so good for your body too - as in the BBC Horizon programme vimeo.com/54089463 "Eat, Fast and Live Longer" which honestly changed my life. With every other diet I'd tried before I'd stop dieting and promptly put it all back on again and more. This is more a way of life than a diet and it really works. Kate Harrison's book The 5:2 Diet is a very good read and explains more. As others have suggested MyFitnessPal is a brilliant app, though now I only count on one day a week.

[TenaciousD in reply to gingernut49]

Thankyou

[Hidden]

Hi TenaciousD,

You basically go into a "maintenance" regime. You would probably be best advised to find the number of kcals you can consume daily (approx) without either gaining or losing weight. In theory this will be about 2000 kcal for women and about 2500 kcal for men. BUT, that generalised theoretical figure doesn't take into consideration many of the potential variables, e.g. levels of activity, metabolic rate differences, and various other things.

Having said that, they're probably not bad figures to start with.

Oh and another variable is just how much body mass you actually have - bigger body's need more maintenance calories than little ones.

Now that all seems perhaps a bit heavy and something of a palava, but armed with the knowledge you now have - from your weight loss journey - and the new eating habits you've gotten into, it's mainly a matter of sticking to sensible, nutritious eating in sensible-sized portions and sensible occasional 'treats' rather than sliding back into your old "bad" eating habits that made you overweight through storing excessive body weight.

You see, it's probably at this end of the weight loss bus ride that you really work out that they were right when they said things like - "it's all about changing your eating and exercise/activity habits" and "it's about a change in your lifestyle"

To have lost your excess weight, you must have made changes to your eating habits.

Enjoy life in your new slimmer, lighter body. Hold it precious and don't let go of it!

Well done.

[TenaciousD in reply to Hidden]

Oh thankyou, you always give such good advice x yes im enjoying the new me, and want to keep like this now