# Maintenance Calories After Weight Loss: How to Stop the Rebound

> The cut ending is where people regain. Raise calories slowly, keep logging, keep protein and steps, and use the coach against the first unstructured weekend.

The diet did not fail when the scale moved. It fails in the two weeks after you "finish." Appetite is high. Clothes fit. Logging feels optional. You eat like the smaller person you were not, at the hunger of the larger person you were. Weight returns as water first, then fat. Option 1 is Khatwa. Photograph dinner even when the cut is over. Ask the coach what Saturday can look like at maintenance. Favorites keep the meals you already eat one tap.

## Maintenance is a target, not a vacation

Your new maintenance is lower than when you started because you are smaller. Find it the same way you found the cut: log for two weeks, watch the 7-day weight average. If it creeps up, you are not at maintenance yet. If it holds, you are. The original estimate lives in [how many calories to eat to lose weight](https://www.khatwa.se/en/blog/how-many-calories-should-i-eat-to-lose-weight.md). Add 100-200 calories at a time instead of jumping to "normal."

## Keep the habits that made the cut cheap

- Protein stays high so muscle stays.
- Walking stays so NEAT does not collapse on the couch.
- The log stays, even if you only photograph dinner.

You do not need a perfect diary forever. You need enough signal to catch a 400-calorie nightly drift before it is 4 kilograms. Khatwa favorites make the meals you already eat one tap. The coach is useful here: "I am at maintenance, what can Saturday look like?" is a better question than deleting the app.

## If the scale jumps 2 kg in five days

That is usually glycogen and salt, not a full fat regain. Keep logging. Do not crash back to 1,200. If two weeks of averages keep climbing, close the gap again by 200 calories. For a stall during the cut itself, use [the plateau guide](https://www.khatwa.se/en/blog/weight-loss-plateau-fix-ai-diet-adjustments.md) instead.

### Finish the diet by keeping the log

Photograph meals, hold protein, ask the coach what maintenance looks like this week. Free on iOS and Android.

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