How to move from weight loss to maintenance calories?

[NormalForNorfoIk]

I appreciate this may be a frustrating topic for some so I apologise in advance.

Having gone from 75kg to 55kg since October (losing 27% of starting weight), I now think I need to start tailing off my weight loss and transition towards maintaining.

However, I am so deep into a routine (which has made consistent weight loss fairly straightforward and not much of a struggle) I cannot overcome that desire to see the scale dropping each weekly weigh in and I seem to have now instilled habits where going above 1600 calories gives me concern (my target is / was 1500 - 1600). This gives me a deficit of around 800-1000 calories per day.

Has anyone managed to make this transition into maintenance calories and how did you do it? I don't want to just snack more for the sake of it and I think it's as much of a mental shift as getting into the weight loss mindset in the first place.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QBA56N-ZHXQ

This is not from experience because I'm still very much obese but these videos seemed to make sense!

I would try slowly building the calories up by introducing bigger portions. You could increase your calories by 100 a day for a week (eat 1700 for a week then increase to 1800) so it’s a more gradual shift.

You could add in additional fats if you don’t want to snack so things like nuts, avocado, oils etc. This will mean more calories but not necessarily too much more food and is good from a health perspective too.

i think this will help with your mindset around it and also help your body get used to the additional calories.

Thanks @HeddaGobbler that is very useful and I've seen this lady on my Instagram and used some of her recipe tips for volume eating. I'll take a look at her longer videos too. Good luck with your weight loss journey! It's definitely a marathon not a sprint.

@Livingthedream1978 that makes perfect sense, adding e.g. 100 extra "healthy calories" per day. It's very much the mental aspect of it I am struggling with. I want to get a handle on it before it goes too far. I have some walnuts in the cupboard, I might mix some in with my afternoon yoghurt snack. How radical!

You could just relax a bit on the weekends. I like calories banking even in weight loss, it’s easier for me to be in a deficit on weekdays than Friday Saturday and sunday.