Calories to Maintain Body Weight

In order to lose weight you will have to be in a caloric deficit, this shouldn’t be news to you.

Eating at BMR will maintain your weight

Once you’ve lost the weight you wanted, you can start eating at your daily caloric maintenance level. This is a big difference from going back to eating the way you used to eat that caused you to gain the weight that you just try to lose.

In other words, if you’ve just gone through a dramatic weight loss you have learned two things:

1) You’ve learned how little food you need to eat to lose weight

2) You know how much food you used to eat that caused you to gain weight

BUT you have one more step to go and that is:

Learning how much food you can eat to MAINTAIN your new weight

This last point is the final step for lasting weight loss. Obviously you can’t go back to eating the way you used to, otherwise you’ll just gain weight again.

On the other hand you don’t want to be on your weight loss diet either otherwise you’ll continue to lose weight. What you need to do is increase your calories to your estimated BMR. From there any extra exercise you do might allow you to eat a bit more food.

Pretty simple stuff. If you stick with a good BMR estimate as your maintenance calorie level you should be fine with maintaining your new lower bodyweight.

John

Posted by johnbarban in Weight Loss

Tags: Weight Loss, weight maintenance |15 Comments

15 Responses to “Calories to Maintain Body Weight”

Alex Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
This is the most important part of dieting that no one talks about. I rarely ever see literature about how to maintain your new weight. How many people do you hear about who have lost lots of weight, but only know how to eat to gain or lose weight. Guess there’s not a lot of money to be had in weight maintenance, huh?
Jordan Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
And, of course, ESE could also be very beneficial for weight maintenance, not just weight loss. If someone tends to eat a little bit too much every day, an IF a week could really even things out. Increase the margin of error, so to speak.
Robin Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
It’s the foods you don’t eat that determine weight loss, coupled with the quantity. The phrase “caloric deficit” is really smoke & mirrors.
Shea Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
yeah, for some reason the idea of just how much the way i eat after i’ve lost all the weight i want to lose will be different from the way i ate before (both during my cut-down and before i started losing) has been the biggest light bulb to come on for me from this whole process of losing 50 lbs. up to now with about 20 lbs. more to go.

it is puzzling primarily because it is so freakin’ obvious: the way i look or want to look is a direct result of the way i eat, and if i want to change/maintain the way i look i need to change/maintain the way i eat, which in my case means a lot less than i was eating a year ago. i might wish that it were different, that i could eat however i wanted and still look the way i want, but there is just a pretty definite (and definable) level of calories in/out for me, so i can either adjust my habits or adjust my expectations.

i will say that when i lost a significant amount of weight before from eating low-carb, and then put it all back on and more, the method itself provided a built-in excuse because i was still eating low-carb/high protein when the weight started packing back on, so that plus the hours and miles of cardio i was running each week allowed me to deny what was happening was actually happening (i.e., “if i am eating low-carb and running 2-3 miles a day, it is not possible for me to be getting fatter again,” even though i patently was getting fatter).

now at least i know a) what it takes to consistently lose fat, and b) why it works, and c) what it feels like to eat at that level, and that it’s not impossible, unpleasant or overly strenuous, and d) what level and why i will need to eat at that level once i hit my goals. this is not to say that i can’t or won’t gain the weight i’ve lost back at some time in the future, but it does mean that if i do i will know exactly why i have re-gained, exactly what i can do to fix the situation, and that i only have myself to blame because of the food choices i have made, which is at once both liberating and sobering (the laws of physics and thermodynamics can sure be demanding taskmasters sometimes…).

so, in conclusion, sweden is a land of many contrasts (and good point, john).
johnbarban Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Alex,

You got it. This is never talked about. It’s actually not that had, just using a decent BMR calculator will show you the right amount of calories to eat for maintenance. BUT the trick is getting used to this level psychologically.

JB
johnbarban Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Robin,

Caloric deficit is used as a common explanation because most people think and phrase the question about weight loss in terms of the amount of calories that they need to eat on a daily basis to lose weight. With this as a starting point a ‘deficit’ is the simplest way to explain it.

But what do you mean by smoke and mirrors? This phrase usually refers to some level of deception…however indicating to people that a caloric deficit is required for weight loss is not a deception, rather it is the simplest explanation for what is needed to achieve weight loss.

JB
Michael H Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Hey JB,
Thanks for the post. I agree most people usually don’t think about maintaining after losing. I was just thinking about the part: “otherwise you’ll continue to lose weight” and I was wondering if someone does not stop losing body fat then is it at all possible to gain muscle that way. In other words, is it possible to lose body fat while building a significant amount of muscle (nothing beyond realistic though) at the same time?
johnbarban Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Michael,

Building muscle happens independently of fat loss, and in many cases at the same time. There is no necessity to gain fat mass in order to build muscle.

In other words it is perfectly normal to build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

JB
JoeZ Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
John,

When incorporating ESE, do you take in a little more on the feeding days?
According my BMR Calculator, at my ideal weight, I should take in 1600 calories a day, which is 11200 calories a week (1600 x 7). If I stop eating 3 days a week, do I then eat 2800 calories a day for the remainder 4 feeding days?

Thanks for all you do.

JZ
johnbarban Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Joe,

Pretty much yes. But be careful how you’re measuring your calories. Keep in mind that with ESE you’re still eating every day, it’s just that you’re cutting out a few meal on two consecutive days in order to complete at 24 period without food.

JB
Adam Says:
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:09 am
Hi John.

I have a friend whom I told him that he should just eat less calories to lose weight and that macronitrient ratios doesn’t matter, which I gathered so far from your website. He then said if that’s the case, he would love to eat 1000 calories worth of Snickers bars a day.

I was kinda at a loss for words. On one hand, Snickers bars are nutritionally pretty barren. But if I told him otherwise, I would contradict myself in saying macronutrient ratios don’t matter.

What should the answer be?

Adam
Fable Says:
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:21 am
Adam, Tell him to go ahead, if weight loss is his sole goal He sure would lose weight. However, he would probably be quite miserable and maybe also sick, as eating only one type of food will almost always cause all sorts of trouble. That, however, goes for ANY type of food. He would also be miserable eating only goji berries, or only coconut oil or only pizza or only carrots.. See? For most people, the greatest possible variety in eating will probably make them healthier and happier.
Wood Says:
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:36 am
John what do u think why is there so few muscular, lean guy or girl around? I have some “pen” friend on a forum where we talk about working out, nutrition etc. Everyone try to make a bodybuilding diet (6-7x eat, only chicken breast, rice, veggies, lot of protein powder) and only few is muscular. At a point everyone stop the diet because they lose muscle. If working out prevent muscle loss why everyone thinks that they losing it? Or they just think and they didn’t have either? I asked Brad Pilon about it and he said there are just too high expectations.
So can someone achive a bodybuilder like body? (Not the steroid freak type, but there are good proven (?) – well who knows natural bodybuilders.
johnbarban Says:
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:32 am
Adam,

Tell him to try it and see how long he lasts…I’ll bet he gets sick of snickers bars within the first 2 bars and doesn’t even make it one day. Also tell him to try doing it with pizza, burgers, potatoes, french fries, whatever you can think of…nobody can eat the same food all day long without getting completely sick of it and actually repulsed by it. But if he doesn’t believe you, tell him to try, no way he lasts more than 1 day. But it’s a great experiment to show people who say that how absurd of an idea that is.

JB
johnbarban Says:
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:38 am
Wood,

The problem is that most ‘natural’ bodybuilders are also on drugs. Pilon is right, they have unrealistic expectations.

JB

Calories to Maintain Body Weight

15 Responses to “Calories to Maintain Body Weight”

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