What does a maintenance day look like for you?

Started by slimandshady, Sep 26 2021 10:18 PM

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#1 slimandshady

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Posted 26 September 2021 - 10:18 PM

i’m curious how you guys go about maintenance days. do you eat your usual foods but just more of it? do you let yourself indulge in whatever you want, kind of like a “cheat day”? how often do you eat, and how much?

bonus question: how do you calculate your maintenance calories (especially if you have metabolic damage)?

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#2 duvetne

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Posted 26 September 2021 - 10:39 PM

Usually I just binge from plateau frustration, lol. Otherwise, I'd probably try and swap my regular meals with slightly higher-calorie options, and eat more snacks. I'd plan it all out beforehand to minimise anxiety.

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#3 WithoutMuchHope

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Posted 26 September 2021 - 11:37 PM

When I'm having a planned maintenance day, I try to eat 3 normal meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) rather than just picking at things and snacking all day, and I try to have a mix of treats and healthy stuff. Maybe even a snack or two if I feel like it.

If I'm eating out with family or friends I'll usually restrict the rest of the time when they don't see me, and then do the meal out almost like OMAD, and I feel like that's a maintenance day. I don't really gain weight from doing this, I'm just losing very slowly. It's taken me 6 months to lose 10lbs, but I never binge and I've kept it off. I don't know how well my body can keep going, but I just want to get to bmi 19, and that's like 5-6 more lbs or so. I'm happy to wait another 6 months for that, I just want to get to and stay at bmi 19.

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#4 KittyMoonsugar

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Posted 27 September 2021 - 12:08 AM

During the week, I low restrict an average of 400 calories or I fast, so my body really doesn't have alot to work with. I make weekends my maintenance days to eat whatever I want- as long as its completely natural and super nutritious. I meal prep earlier too and refrigerate in Tupperware. It makes planning so much easier. I really try to aim for 1000-1200 calories, but I still only average 800-900 calories. Heres what today looked like-

Breakfast-
1 medium-boiled egg: 70
1 pear: 100
1 Gala apple: 71

Lunch-
Yesterday's Wedding Soup Leftovers: 150
Yesterday's Guacamole Salad Leftovers: 120
Half of a half serving of Rum chocolate my boyfriend shared with me: 50

Snack-
Gala apple: 71
A small serving of low calorie seafood broccoli soup that I meal prepped for tomeowrow: 89
3 Bites of Lentils: 40

Dinner-
1 tiny box of All Bran cereal (eaten with black coffee instead of milk): 140

Total: 901

My advice is that if you are trying for maintenance days, make sure you're getting as much nutrients in as you can, as that will help your body heal a bit from all the nutrient depletion we put it through.

I haven't been having balanced maintenance weekends for very long but omg I feel so much better! I have bounds of energy for exorcise. I'm less stressy and more happy! Also never feeling too full, but never feeling hungry feels great too!

I hope this helps!! ♡
Good luck! ♡
Stay safe! ♡
Drink plenty of H2O! ♡

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#5 FluffSkin

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Posted 27 September 2021 - 12:19 AM

Always OMAD. Already eat lots of different things & alot volume so pretty much just increase fats. Easiest way to up calories.

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#6 coldbambi

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Posted 27 September 2021 - 12:31 AM

I make sure I don't go over 1400 calories. Have a big dinner and lunch and maybe a small desert

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#7 Shellsnswans

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Posted 27 September 2021 - 12:55 AM

My maintainable day is always a Sunday. Day off work spent with family. So try not to do anything ED related (they know my tricks)and try to just enjoy the day.
I will normally skip breakfast, just not a breakfast person. Then have lunch usually soup and oatcakes or a boiled egg and oatcakes. I will make a Sunday roast with veg and roast potatoes. In the summer it may be a bbq or a picnic. Having a sweet tooth will always have a dessert like meringue and berries.
Occasionally might even have a scone thrown in there if I have behaved the previous week.
I don't count calories anyway just limit portions. But on a Sunday portion control is out and I eat until I’m satisfied. I’m fortunate I don’t really binge (although some of you may class my Sunday as a binge) so I think eating portion control can work for me. Although I don’t take the chance and left overs are given to others to take home or binned immediately.

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#8 aquietmeow

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Posted 27 September 2021 - 12:56 AM

tbh currently regretting my maintenance day because i gained

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#9 ekkiana

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Posted 27 September 2021 - 01:00 AM

I did a “high calorie” day in an attempt to boost my metabolism or just to freaking try and break my 3 week plateau and I wasn’t planning on it but I just sort of ate whatever without counting calories but I regretted it because I only ate high sugary things and purged at least half of it. Then fasted for the rest of the day. So I’d say plan ahead if you want to make sure you don’t get that “out of control” feeling like I did :s

Oddly enough I was down almost 1kg the next day ? (Probably food/water weight though)

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GW 2: 60kg (BMI 20.8) - Healthy Weight
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UGW 2: 30kg (BMI 10.4) - Underweight (Will never get here, it's too low, I'd die I think, but hm I wish I could say I'd made it to BMI 10, so fucked up)

#10 ekkiana

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Posted 27 September 2021 - 01:04 AM

aquietmeow, on 27 Sept 2021 - 12:56 AM, said:

tbh currently regretting my maintenance day because i gained

It would probably just be food/water weight! It’s okay

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#11 slimandshady

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Posted 27 September 2021 - 12:57 PM

Thank you for the insightful replies! I think a maintenance day full of nutritious foods would make me feel less crappy about having a higher intake - I saw a lot of people having maintenance days of whatever they wanted and thought that’s how I should go about it to avoid binging in my usual restricting days, but I think that might actually open up a higher possibility to binging.

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#12 aloof!

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Posted 27 September 2021 - 01:02 PM

usually a mix of a binge day and actually meeting all my nutritional requirements. ill usually put a big focus into meeting my macros, getting all my vitamins, etc. and then use any leftover calories to get any cravings i have dealt with.