Coach Chris McMahon

This article is a comprehensive guide to maintaining your weight after weight loss.   

You will learn to maintain your weight loss without fearing the scale and obsessing over gaining the weight back. I will share the exact steps I share with my friend and online fat loss client, Scott.

Scott has lost over 20 pounds since we started working together, and he has transitioned to maintenance while enjoying more food than he thought possible.

If you don’t know me, I’m Chris & I fell into fitness in college. I had no plans to work as a trainer and nutrition coach. Yet here’s my transformation from skinny, bullied music theatre kid to a level 10 caffeine fiend & strong dad. 

You’re reading this because you want to lose weight and keep it off for good! You are in the same boat as my pal, Melanie.

She has been enrolled in my online coaching program for over a year while being a busy mom of two.

Melanie aimed to feel comfortable in her skin, exercise more frequently, and curb her food anxiety. She also wanted to stop putting pressure on herself to be perfect.

She credits her 20-pound weight loss to a lifestyle change, not a diet. It helped her overcome the guilt of trying to lose weight while living a normal life and becoming a healthier version of herself.

These are just a few folks who have achieved their goals while keeping their busy schedules and losing weight. You can read more about their success here.

Now, let’s talk about maintaining your weight after weight loss.

What is Calorie maintenance?

This article will look deeper into maintaining your weight after weight loss.

The only way this is possible is if you are in calorie maintenance.

When you eat, you take in energy. While you go about your daily life, you burn that energy.  

Energy balance plays a role in your weight management.

This concept is referred to it as Calories-In, Calories Out. 

• If you take in more energy than you use, you can gain weight. (Energy Surplus)
• If you take in less energy than you use, you can lose weight. (Energy Deficit) 
• If you take in the same amount of energy as you use, your weight will stay the same. (Energy Balance) 

In other words, body mass remains constant when caloric intake equals caloric expenditure.

Here are the factors influencing how many calories you need to sustain weight.

Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE): The total sum of Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Thermic Effect of Food (TEF), and Energy expenditure in Physical Activity (EEact)

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): The calories your body uses to perform basic life-sustaining functions and maintain homeostasis (e.g., the calories you would use to lie in bed all day).

This accounts for 50-70% of total energy expenditure.

Thermic Effect Of Food (TEF): The energy used to digest the food you eat.  

This accounts for 10-15% of total energy expenditure.

Energy Expenditure in Physical Activity (EEact) The energy you use for planned physical activity (workout) and unplanned activity such as standing, walking, or blinking (nonexercise activity thermogenesis, NEAT)

This makes up the remainder of the total energy expenditure.  

Why does this matter for maintaining your weight?

If you have been yo-yo dieting for most of your life, you need to determine how many calories it takes to sustain your goal body weight.  

Your TDEE will change the leaner you get, but that doesn’t mean you will need to eat an ultra-low-calorie diet for the rest of your life. Consider how your life will change when you are leaner.

Your metabolism will change because the leaner you are, the less energy your body needs to maintain its essential functions.

The more obese someone is, the higher their metabolism will be because it takes more energy to sustain their size.

In theory, if you are consuming a well-balanced diet with healthy portions of protein, your metabolism will get a slight boost thanks to the thermic effect of food.

Your energy levels will improve, and you will be more active during the day through planned workouts and daily movement.  

Heck, those workouts will help to preserve and add muscle mass to your body, increasing your metabolism, too.

You will need to eat more food to sustain your body weight.

Will it be as many calories before losing the weight? It likely won’t be, but it will be more than you think.

No one should expect to need to diet for the rest of their lives. It isn’t sustainable or healthy.

The goal is to reach a stable weight where one thrives, has more energy, and is not in a perpetual state of dieting.

Concerns About Weight Maintenance

Let’s get one thing straight about scale weight.

No one is a single weight for the rest of their life.

It is normal for the scale to fluctuate; however, I can only imagine how you might feel after working hard to lose all that weight and then considering the possibility of gaining weight back.

But here is the good news: Even if you gain back a few pounds, you know precisely how to lose it again, right?

And if you’re not sure, you should check out my ultimate fat loss guide.

Remember that maintenance means maintaining your weight between 5-10 pounds of your “goal weight.”

You’re not going to gain fat overnight.  

Scale Fluctuations and Maintaining Your Body Weight After Weight Loss

You will see scale fluctuations, but they are usually due to water retention and increased food volume, not fat. This is normal when transitioning from a calorie deficit to maintenance.

Here is a complete list of reasons why the scale will fluctuate.

A boost in carbohydrate intake. Your body retains water if you consume smaller portions of carbohydrates during the week and eat a few carb-heavy meals on the weekend. Roughly 1g of glycogen, the energy form of glucose and carbohydrates, allows the body to store 3-4g of water. 

Don’t worry; everything evens out regarding water weight—there is no need to avoid carbs, especially when it is a meal with family or friends. 

A boost in sodium intake. Sodium, AKA salt, causes the body to retain water. If you enjoyed some fried food, the scale might reflect it. But again, it’s water and not fat.  

Exercise. You might notice the scale jumps up after a training session, and that’s completely normal. When you train, you create tiny tears in your muscle fibers, and your body goes into repair mode, leading to inflammation. This is good because your muscles are growing, and the inflammation can lead to extra water retention.  

So, enjoy the delayed-onset muscle soreness and understand that the scale can reflect the inflammation.

Water intake. This is pretty straightforward; however, if you are trying to stay hydrated, the scale reflects it.

Bathroom break. It takes roughly six to eight hours for your body to digest any food you have consumed. 

You will weigh more if you weigh yourself in the morning before going to the bathroom.

So it could just be poop, and it’s not fat.

Hormonal Shifts. If you are about to get your period or finishing your period, you may notice a different number on the scale. This has a lot to do with your hormones.  

Estrogen levels are higher right before your period, which can lead to water retention. The hormone progesterone spikes toward the end of your cycle, which, too, can lead to water retention. 

Supplements. Certain supplements, such as Creatine, are associated with water retention. This particular supplement can draw water into your muscle cells; however, after a few weeks, it should balance out. 

These are just a few reasons the scale can fluctuate. Some might be from a weekend out, and others are just a part of life. 

Problems With Maintaining Your Weight

There are two big problems with entering calorie maintenance.

Problem number one is treating maintenance as a free-for-all.

And problem number two is getting over the fear of increasing your calories.  

On one end of the spectrum, someone can think entering maintenance means eating anything and everything without needing to think about tracking, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

If you eat the way you did before your diet, it is easy to enter a calorie surplus, especially if you are overrestricting to lose weight fast.  

But if you genuinely want to maintain your weight, taking a more sustainable approach to fat loss is essential.

Also, you can’t forget maintenance means maintaining your weight between 5-10 pounds of your “goal weight.”

If that makes you nervous, read the next section a few times, and things will get easier.  

Short-Term Maintenance & Long-Term Maintenance.

Short-Term Maintenance

Short-term maintenance is helpful during a more extended diet phase, also known as a “diet break.” In most cases, this break will last 7-14 days.

Diet breaks can be an effective way to curb diet fatigue.  

Diet Fatigue: Feeling burnt out mentally or physically from consistently being in a calorie deficit.

The longer you have been dieting, the harder it becomes to “stay motivated.” Short, pre-planned breaks can be helpful, although most individuals I coach will naturally take “diet breaks.”

• Vacations
• Holidays
• Work Trips
• Taking care of a sick child

All of these events are unplanned diet breaks that naturally occur.  

Instead of beating yourself up, treat it as a part of your diet plan because it’s not about perfection.

It is about what you can do consistently and how your diet phase is affecting you psychologically.

I recommend taking a diet break if you notice any combination of the following:

• Poor Mood
• Increased cravings
• Increased Stress Levels
• Low Energy
• Poor Sleep
• Poor recovery
• Poor training sessions

Or you are within a few pounds of your goal weight and ready for long-term maintenance.

Long-Term Maintenance

Long-term maintenance is when you have lost weight, feel good in your body, and are ready to take a more extended break from dieting.  

It could be a few months or years; it depends on your feelings.

In truth, you will experience short-term maintenance before long-term maintenance, and it will only make being in maintenance easier.

The extra calories and wiggle room can benefit your training and other areas of life, depending on how lean you have become and how long you’ve been dieting.

Once you determine the length of your maintenance phase, you can determine your maintenance calories.

Calculating Your Calories For Maintenance

How do you calculate the calories you need to maintain your weight after weight loss?

There are three options that you can use while trying to determine your maintenance calories.

If you are a big fan of math, you can increase your current calorie intake by 10-15%.

If you aren’t a fan of percentages, you can multiply your current body weight by 14-15.

If you are not a big fan of math, you can add 200-300 calories to your weekly calorie intake.

These three options provide you with estimated maintenance calories.

Choose the latter if you are nervous about seeing the scale quickly increase.

All three options require the following practices:

Track Your Progress: Weigh yourself daily and use the weekly average to notice trends. It’s not about single days; you shouldn’t freak out if the scale goes up.  

Weekly averages paint the best picture of your weight trend.

Adjust Caloric Intake: Your weight will take a few weeks to stabilize; that’s why weekly averages are so important.

Your progress might look something like this:

• Week 1: Increase calories by 300, and weight stays the same.
• Week 2: Increase calories by 300 and weight increases
• Week 3: Keep calories the same, and weight comes back down.
• Week 4: Keep calories the same and weight stays the same.

Repeat until the weight stays within the same range.

Be Patient: Finding your maintenance level takes time and adjustments.

If you rush the process, you risk gaining more weight than you would prefer.  

Consider maintenance a continuation of your fat loss phase. It will take some time, but you will be glad you stuck with it.

Eventually, you will stop tracking calories while maintaining your weight loss.

Moving Beyond Calorie Tracking

Remember, the goal isn’t to diet forever, and if you have been tracking accurately, you will have a good idea of the proper portion sizes.

So, you’re ready to reduce calorie tracking frequency.  

The first step is reducing the metrics you track, such as moving from specific macro goals to just trying to hit your calorie goal + or – 100.

Once that feels easier, it is time to reduce your tracking amount.

Here’s a systematic approach:

Month 1: Track 6 days with no tracking 1 day per week.

Month 2: Track 5 days with no tracking 2 days per week.

Month 3: Track 4 days with no tracking 3 days per week.

Month 4: Track 3 days with no tracking 4 days per week.

Month 5: Track 2 days with no tracking 5 days per week.

Month 6: Track 1 day with no tracking 6 days per week

Month 7: Eyeball it

It will take time, but this is a way to develop more confidence with your “intuitive eating.”

Final Thoughts on Maintaining Weight After Weight Loss

Maintenance is not just about a number on the scale—it’s about feeling energized, balanced, and comfortable in your body. By following these guidelines and staying committed, you can achieve sustainable weight maintenance and enjoy the benefits of a healthier lifestyle.

And if you’re not ready for maintenance, still have fat loss goals, and are tired of losing and gaining the same 10-20 pounds, click here to get my ultimate fat loss guide so you can stop yo-yo dieting and keep the weight off for good.