Did you all know this?

OK, So I've been "talking" to Andrea in her Depressed thread, so she can correct me if I'm restating this all wrong, but here goes. Even after you reach your goal weight you have to keep working out harder and/or reducing your calorie intake to STAY at your goal weight.  As your body gets fitter you use fewer calories to do the same things.  So then there can be excess calories not used up (therefore being stored as excess weight) even on a fairly low to medium calorie intake. I had always thought that once you got to your goal, you could just keep doing the same things to stay there.  Apparently not.  Am I the only one who didn't realise this?

Kinda sorta. According to my nutritionist, you still need to eat what you spend, no matter what size you are-- but as you get smaller, obviously, that's a lot less calories(or a lot more workouts.)

Heya,      Yes, your maintenance calorie level will be mostly determined by your weight, your activity level, and your sex.  Personally, when I get to 122, if I continue treadmilling once a day, I will be able to eat roughly 1,650 calories each day.  If I add in going to the gym for the other equipment twice a week, I'll be able to eat closer to 1,800 calories per day.  So my routine will actually be a bit easier cause I only eat 1,250-1,500 calories right now.

But what if your body eventually gets efficient enough that it's not using as many calories as it used to?  That seems to be what Andrea was saying is happening to her

Absolutely you will not burn as many calories at your goal as you do now (eliminating exercise from the picture) so you will not be able to eat as much as you were when you were heavy.

Heya,      No, a body cannot create calories out of thin air.  I am very conservative about recording the high end on calories consumed and the low end on the exercise output I get, so the formula we got from HMR never fails me.  I can control exactly how much I lose in a week if I follow it exactly.  It's always been that way no matter what weight I've been.      I think the concept that's being talked about here is that as you get lighter, the calories needed for basic metabolism fall.  In addition, the calorie output from exercise you achieve when you weigh less lowers.  So it is mandatory that you increase your exercise as you lose since one can only lower calories so far and remain healthy.  You have three options for increasing exercise: more often, longer, and/or harder.  Every 20# lost, I have adjusted my treadmill so that my calorie output per session never falls below 350.  Since muscles are very adaptive, it also helps to throw in different types of exercises to stimulate your body in different ways.

Yes, Julie.  Your second paragraph is exactly what I'm talking about.  So as long as I continue to increase the intensity everything should be OK, right?  I think that's the point Andrea was trying to make is that she can't increase her time (she's already exercising every day) OR the intensity, (because of back problems and due to her car accident.)  I just wasn't getting the whole picture.

The equation doesn't change once you reach goal.  If you eat more than you burn you will gain weight and if you eat less than you burn you will lose.  You will not be able to eat what you used to eat when you were overweight when you reach your goal, because that will put you on the wrong side of the equation and you will begin to gain weight again.  You  should, however, be able to eat more than you were eating to reach your goal.  The idea once you get to goal will be to find the balance where your calories in equals your calories out so you maintain your weight. At any weight, adding exercise burns more calories, which gives you some leeway with how many calories you eat.  You have to be careful, though, because exercise really doesn't burn as many calories as you might think whereas you can add calories very easily.  For example, walking an hour (at a normal weight) burns something like 300 calories.  On the other side, one Egg McMuffin is around 300 calories.  If you're willing to walk an hour a day to add an Egg McMuffin to your daily diet, more power to you.   To sum up, you will never be able to eat like you used to, that's why you were overweight.

Yeah, I get that.  I know I will never be able to eat like I used to.  My concern was that even my new healthy eating habits would not be enough to keep the weight off once i finally achieved my goal weight. What I mean is that if I eat 1300 calories a day and walk 45 minutes every day and get down to 140 pounds, then continuing to eat 1300 calories a day and walking 45 minutes every day might not necessarily be enough to stay at that 140 pounds.  I will have to walk faster, (maybe even run, shock horror)  or walk a lot longer.

I've never heard of a normal BMR being as low as 1300 calories.  I think the typical range for women is 1600-2200 or so.  If you actually stayed at 1300 calories once you were at goal you would most likely continue to lose weight.