Maintenence Calories help?


(Heather Meyer) #1

Hey all…

Okay…so i have had several low calorie days and by low calories i mean 600-900 calorie level days abd I have been told that its important to eat up to maintenance?? on occassion to prevent downr-regulation of metabolism. For me, i dont really ever get above 1100. I actually feel rediculously full going that high and i cant fast at all if i want to get there.
But for the purpose of making sure my metabolism is on-pointe, i was wondering what eating at maintenence would look like. So could one of you lovelies help me figure that out?

Now… i dont know my current weight because i have been trying not to weigh on Keto exceot for once every 3 months. Its been almost 2 months and my starting weight was 275… So i am going to make a haphazard guess that my weight is in the 255 range.

So… 5"11 and 255lbs BF% 56ish


#2

I found this helpful in regards to calories on Keto in general, are you trying to enter maintenance now or just trying to plan for future?


(Ken) #3

Highly unlikely that concept currently applies to you. Especially if you feel sated with your current intake and are still dropping pounds. The exception is if you Stall for more than six weeks or so. You may have to make some changes later on, but if you’re still making progress don’t worry about it.


(mole person) #4

This isn’t something you even need to think about. You’re not hungry for a ton of calories right now because your body is happily fueling off of your own body fat. You will get hungrier as you approach your goal. You don’t need to think about calories or metabolism. Some days I eat 800 calories and others 1800 depending on appetite. The scale doesn’t even see the difference and my metabolism hasn’t suffered in the slightest.


(Erin Macfarland ) #5

I guess I’m trying to figure out why you’re wondering about maintenance at this point after just having started…if one of your goals is weight/fat loss you have plenty of energy stores to draw on at that BF %


(Erin Macfarland ) #6

@Ilana_Rose exactly! When you get close to or at your goal weight or a healthy body composition you get VERY clear hunger signals.


(Full Metal KETO AF) #7

Part of the problem with sticking precisely to a macro count and calorie amount is that it’s really impossible to accurately predict what an individual’s daily caloric needs are. Whatever a calculator tells you is just a guesstimate of your needs. And in particular a calorie isn’t the same when they come from different macronutrients. A sugar calorie is much different from a protein or fat calorie. Your daily caloric needs vary day to day, minute to minute. It’s an ongoing calculus equation that your metabolism is engaged in constantly. As @Ilana_Rose says “some days I eat 800 and some days 1800”. I recommend shooting for calculated macros especially when people are chronically under eating, but also listening to your body when you’re loosing weight and things are working correctly.

I realize there’s a lot of people who obsess over scale numbers, get depressed if it doesn’t move, and fall off track because of non progress. There’s a lot of “my scale is a liar” comments here. People seem to hate their scale when they don’t loose, and love it when they do. But I find daily weigh ins motivating and helpful for making food choices and weeding out what’s not working. If I go up 5 pounds I know it’s temporary and I look at what I have been eating and decide what was indulgent and what it was I didn’t really need. It’s just a tool, not a thing trying to undermine your progress. I enjoy tracking and weighing in every morning. The records I have are inspiring when I feel progress has been slow and I need a good self inflicted kick in my butt to analyze how I can do better. I think if I went three months without weighing in I would go through more stress if I found a three month period had passed without change. That would be very frustrating for me and make me feel if I had been paying more attention to what I was doing things could have been way better. Just me though, I know how my brain works. :cowboy_hat_face:


(mole person) #8

I’m the same. My scale is my best tool.