3 Steps to Calculating Your Maintenance Calories After a Diet3/16/2022 4 Comments At the age of thirty-seven, I was fat, and since the age of thirty-eight, I have never been fat again. That’s the whole idea of effective weight loss – it’s permanent because it’s part of your lifestyle and the way you think about yourself, with pride and a sense of accomplishment. The goal you achieve is your own – you own it. ––Jean Nidetch
All the diets that work, have one characteristic in common: acalorie deficit.
By definition, a calorie deficit is a state in which you’re eating fewer calories than you’re expending to keep your body alive, go about your daily activities, and exercise. This is how you can lose body fat over time.
Once you achieve your fat loss goal and want to maintain your weight, then you don’t need to stay in a deficit. You now need to achieve calorie balance, or a state in which your calorie intake (food) matches your output (survival, daily activities, and exercise).
To accomplish this, you need to increase the amount of calories you’re eating. Hurray!
However, if you increase them too much, you can accidentally get into a calorie surplus, which is the opposite of a deficit and will cause fat gain.
So by how much should you increase your calories without regaining weight?
In this article, I’m going to teach you a three-step method to calculate your maintenance calories for when you’re done with your diet, or when you want to take atemporary breakfrom it.
I take this approach with myself and all my clients to ensure they not only drop fat, but also maintain those hard-earned results.
How to calculate your maintenance calories
Step 1.Work out youraverage rate of loss (ROL)using the last four weeks of your fat loss diet.
Let’s use this example:
- In Week 1, you lost 0.4 lb.
- In Week 2, you lost 0.6 lb.
- In Week 3, you lost 0.4 lb again.
- In Week 4, you lost 0.7 lb.
Add up these four numbers to get thetotal lossover the four-week period:
0.4 + 0.6 + 0.4 + 0.7 = 2.1 lbs total loss
Then divide the total loss by 4 to get theweekly rate of loss:
2.1 / 4 = 0.5 lb weekly loss
Based on these calculations, every week you lost an average of 0.5 lb. This is your ROL.
Step 2. Multiply your ROL by 3500.
A common rule of thumb is that 1 lb of fat equals 3500 calories. This isn’t strictly correct, but it’s still a useful heuristic that yields pretty accurate results.
By multiplying your ROL by 3500, you get yourweekly calorie deficit:
0.5 * 3500 = 1750 calories
In other words, for the past four weeks, you ate 1750 calories less than yourweekly maintenance calories. Therefore, 1750 calories is your weekly calorie deficit.
If you’ve been losing fat eating around 1700 calories per day for the last four weeks, you can multiply this number by 7 to get yourweekly fat loss calories:
1700 * 7 = 11 900
You then add 1750 calories to this number to work out yourweekly maintenance calories:
11 900 + 1750 = 13 650 calories
Step 3.Once you know your weekly maintenance calories, divide this number by the seven days of the week to get yourdaily maintenance calories:
13 650 / 7 = 1950 calories per day
Based on these calculations, you can increase your currentdaily calorie targetfrom 1700 to 1950 without fear of regaining body fat.
An alternative method:
Take the weekly calorie deficit calculated inStep 2(1750 calories) and divide it by the seven days of the week to get yourdaily calorie deficit:
1750 / 7 = 250 calories
Every day, you were eating 250 calories less thanyour maintenance, so you can add this number to your current daily fat loss goal (1700 calories):
1700 + 250 = 1950 calories
If the math totally went over your head, send me an email atfittotransform@gmail.comand I’ll do it for you.
What can you expect when you increase calories to maintenance levels?
As weird as it sounds, you won’t regain body fat (otherwise, by definition, you wouldn’t be in a state ofmaintenancecalories), but your weight can still go up.
The increase is due to the following factors:
- You’re eating more food than in a calorie deficit, so you’re also holding more food in your gut;
- You’re eating more carbs, each gram of which is absorbed and stored as glycogen along with 3 to 4 gr of water. For example, if you’re eating an extra 100 gr of carbs at maintenance, you’ll be holding an extra 300 to 400 gr of water, too.
So don’t panic!
In general, if you’ve estimated your maintenance calories correctly, then this initial weight increase will stabilise after a few days to a week.
If you keep gaining weight, then you’re likely in a small calorie surplus.
If that’s the case, adjust your calories downwards for a few days at a time until your weight starts fluctuating up and down within a small range.
How do you know you’re maintaining weight successfully?
Most people won’t maintain the exact same weight. For instance, it’s unlikely you’ll be exactly 150 lbs year after year. Successful maintenance is the maintenance of your weight within a range of a few pounds, which I call yourweight maintenance range.
There’s no “best” weight maintenance range for everyone. For instance, I couldn’t say, “Everyone should maintain their weight within 10 lbs”.
Instead, you can define your own weight maintenance range based on the way you feel:
- When you’re dropping below the lower end of this range, you’re going to feel more tired, irritable, and hungrier than usual. You can also become more focused on food outside of meal times and more critical of your own appearance, even though you’re not carrying excess body fat. These are physical and psychological signs that you may have become leaner than your body is comfortable with;
- On the other hand, overshooting your weight maintenance range often happens as a result of eating less nutritious food than is ideal for you, so you may notice that your digestion is struggling, your skin is more oily, and you feel sluggish and overall less “healthy”. The increase in body fat can also make you feel uncomfortable about the way you look.
Therefore, your weight maintenance range is the range within which you feel your best in your own skin: on average, you have good energy, stable moods and hunger levels, and a balanced body image.
Do you need to recalculate your maintenance calories if you knew what they were before you started the diet?
The short answer is yes.
If you’ve been dieting for a long time and you’ve lost a considerable amount of body fat, your maintenance calories will be lower than before you started the diet.
The main reason is that a bigger body needs more energy to stay alive, carry out daily tasks, and exercise than a smaller body. So, after a successful diet, you won’t need as many calories to maintain your new, lower bodyweight as you did before you started.
That’s why I recommend you recalculate your maintenance calories using the last four weeks of your diet. With these recent data, you’ll be more likely to estimate your maintenance calories correctly and avoid unwanted fat regain.
Practical Applications
- When you’re done dieting or want to take a break from it, use your rate of loss from the last four weeks of the diet to get the most accurate estimation of your current maintenance calories.
- If your calculation is correct, your bodyweight is likely to increase in the first few days to a week, then stabilise within a relatively small range.
- Your maintenance calories pre-diet are unlikely to be the same post-diet. A smaller body burns less energy, so you’ll likely maintain your new bodyweight on fewer calories.
Thanks for reading. May you make the best gains.
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Jennifer Edwards 2/7/2023 04:35:36 pm I have a question. I have my nutrition cert and somewhat new to reverse dieting. I have a client now who has done fantastic in his weight loss, but now that I am recalculating his maintenance calories, they are actually a bit lower than where his weight loss calories are, due to his lower weight. He is still eating in his "calorie deficit" until i get his new plan, but it is no longer a deficit for him and he has sustained his weight for a few weeks now. What happens now that his maintenance calories are actually lower than his initial deficit calories?? Thank you, Jennifer Edwards Hi Jennifer, thank you for reading the article and for your question. First of all, you and your clients did an amazing job with his fat loss phase! As for your question – Whenever you recalculate someone's maintenance calories after a diet, you're making an estimation. I'd always choose actual data you collected over said estimation. You mention that your client has sustained his weight for a few weeks on his current calories. It sounds to me like his old deficit calories are his new maintenance calories. If his weight isn't changing, and his current goal is maintenance, then there's no need to change his calorie target to a lower one. It sounds like he's already eating at maintenance calories. Hopefully this helps. ––Coach Nikias Hi, Great information on maintenance calories and why to recalculate after reducing certain weight. I have a doubt I checked my maintenance calories 2160 kcal to 2360kcal. My question is losing 1 to 2 lbs per week is healthy, I don't mind if my weight loss journey is slow. Can you please recommend how much weight is safe to lose per month? Hi Antony, thank you for your question. I think losing 0.5 to 1% of your bodyweight per week is likely safe. If you carry a sizeable amount of extra body fat, then you may also lose up to 2% of your bodyweight per week and it would still likely be safe. If in doubt, losing more slowly is usually safer, so, if that's a concern, aiming to lose 0.5 to 1% of your bodyweight per week most weeks is a good rule of thumb. I have another article on this topic, titled "How to Design Your Own Diet", which you can read by searching the title with the search function on the Blog page. I also covered this in episode 3 of my podcast, The Fit to Transform Podcast, available on all major listening platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. I hope this helps! ––Coach Nikias Your comment will be posted after it is approved. | Nikias TomasielloWelcome to my blog. I’m an online fitness coach with a passion for bodybuilding, fantasy, and bread. Want to work with me? Check out my services!ArchivesMarch 2024 February 2024 December 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 March 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018
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