Advice Needed on Maintenance Plan

[KeithL]

I am a 5'11" 63 year old male. I hit my weight goal of 155 a week ago, having shed 20 pounds since mid May. I have been anticipating this day with the assumption that I would have to be vigilant to keep the weight off. And that might ultimately prove to be true over the long term. But right now I'm facing an issue I had not expected: I'm still losing weight. I'm down to 153 but my goal is to maintain my weight in the 155-159 range. While I wouldn't mind parting with a few pounds of remaining belly fat, I am now more interested in adding some lean muscle. I had a bike accident a few years ago that shattered my collar bone and I never fully regained my upper body strength. That is now my primary goal. I have started to ramp up my time spent with my dumb bells.

I was surprised that fitbit didn't adjust my calories burned goal from 2580 per day after I hit my goal. During the weight loss phase I rarely exceeded 1800 calories consumed per day. I had a daily calorie deficit in the 1000 to 1500 range. After having adjusted my eating habits for the weight loss phase, I am now having trouble getting above 2000 calories consumed per day. I could obviously make up for that with cheese, crackers, stout and double martinis. But I fear those old habits will eventually just drive my weight up again.

I am presently experimenting with adding avocado, peanut butter, almonds, and olive oil to my diet to push my calories consumed closer to the 2580 calories burned goal. Is that the right approach? Or should I seriously consider reducing the 2580 calories burned goal to bring it more in line with the calories that I'm consuming? Am I right to be concerned about the long term consequences of a daily 500 calorie deficit?

[WendyB]

Yep by adding those things it should help as they are healthy fats. We do need fat in out diet. Make sure to weigh the avocado as you get a lot more than you think for a serving. I  Avocado.

Congrats on making your goal! Thats awesome!