More Complex Than Expected

I still haven't reached my happy place yet for this maintenance thing. I've been increasingly hungry over the last few days, which has been affecting my sleep. Last night I even started getting that creepy crawly feeling in my abdomen before I went to bed. I'm starting think that feeling is just a really weird way my body has of telling my it's hungry and wants food.

Anyway, I felt it was bad enough to eat something even though I'd met my calorie allotment. So I had some lowfat yogurt and granola right before bed which quelled whatever the heck it is that was happening. Unfortunately I still woke up around 2 am with the crawly feeling (which felt more like real hunger this time). I just dealt with it until I got up for the day. I weighed and low and behold had lost another pound. Down to 219.6 lbs. (started at 223 two weeks ago). Since the objective of maintenance is to MAINTAIN (duh!), obviously I haven't found the right calorie level to match my calorie burn. I did start out with a low calorie level because I thought I had decreased my activity level with the new job, but I guess it wasn't as much as I assumed it to be. And I added the bike sprints this week. I'm thinking it probably would be a good idea to stop that during the maintenance phase and keep it in the toolbox for deficit time.

With all that in mind, I'm raising the calorie level 100 calories to 2300 calories a day. I'll weigh tomorrow and see if I stay at the same weight or go up. That will tell me if the plan to add calories is a good one. I'll be very active this weekend in Wisconsin, so I'm not worried about gaining if I stick to my calorie level. And I'll regroup next Tuesday to evaluate where I'm at and if I'm on the right track. I've decided that Rog is right, that two months is a better timeframe for doing this. Since I'm still not truly in maintenance yet, I'll start the two-month clock when I'm confident that I am. No hurry...I'm learning a lot every day because this maintenance thing is way more complex than I ever expected it to be. If I do this correctly now, my deficit phase will kick some major ass.