How much do you fluctuate and still consider yourself "maintaining"?

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Running_and_Coffee
Running_and_Coffee Posts: 811 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I know it's a slippery slope between "oops, I ate Chinese food last night and the scale's up" and "my pants are getting tight." How much leeway do you offer yourself--especially if you're on the smaller side.
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  • mfpmishka
    mfpmishka Posts: 36 Member
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    3 lbs, for 2 days...usually water retention lasts 2 days for me, on third day my weight should be back to normal
  • HappyGrape
    HappyGrape Posts: 436 Member
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    5 for me.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 4,981 Member
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    I also have a 5 pound range.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    5-7 lbs of actual fat. I don't sweat it if I'm up more than that in water weight (shoots up quickly). I go more by how my tightest jeans fit than the scale.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
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    9 lb. Odd number, I know. But I've been competing at 181 lb (thinking about dropping to 165), so I make 190 my cutoff.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,345 Member
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    I have a 5lb range. I ignore e.g a 4lb gain overnight from eating high sodium food or the 3lbs I gain at TOM - all water weight. Its only if my weight was going consistently upwards over several weeks that I would take action.
  • MichelleWithMoxie
    MichelleWithMoxie Posts: 1,818 Member
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    about 5-7 lbs.
  • jlscherme
    jlscherme Posts: 157 Member
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    around 10 lbs, I'm tall also @rainbow198
  • krazy1sbk
    krazy1sbk Posts: 128 Member
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    Mine is only about +/-3 lbs. I'm a small person (121 is my norm), but I'll get as low as 118 in the summer if I'm really active; when I hit 125 I know it's time to be careful again. Right now I'm at 125-126, so I'm trying to be very deliberate about what I eat (though I'm a teacher and I know it's probably end-of-year stress).
  • cqbkaju
    cqbkaju Posts: 1,011 Member
    edited May 2017
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    I don't consider a specific weight change for a few days or even a single week to be relevant to my "maintenance."
    I track weekly: every Wednesday morning I measure my waist and step on the scale.
    Roughly the same time every Wednesday, after using the restroom and before eating or drinking anything.
    Wednesday because it is in the middle of the week and it helps balance out any outlier data from the weekend.

    If my weight and/or waist appears to consistently increase (or drop) for 3 or 4 weeks then clearly I am not "maintaining" something.
    That may or may not be a good thing depending on my goals.

    Weekly trends help account for things like cortisol and water weight.
    It is also the same method I use when tracking a cut or bulk.
    Generally, if my waist is shrinking and my weight is going up then that is still a Good Thing (tm).
    You get the idea.

    I would think tracking long-term like this would be especially important for women when they have other biological processes to consider.

    Basing your weight changes on a few days is not an ideal way to track trends.
    Even The Flowchart says you need about 3 weeks to see "results" so why fixate on something like 2 or 3 days for "maintenance"?
    Yes, maintenance is a "diet program".

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  • WickedPineapple
    WickedPineapple Posts: 701 Member
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    I'm small, so my range is about 4 lbs. If I go above my range or stay in the upper pound for more than a week, I'll cut a little bit.
  • cburke8909
    cburke8909 Posts: 990 Member
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    Love the flow chart
  • Macy9336
    Macy9336 Posts: 694 Member
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    My range is +/- 3lbs that I fluctuate within.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    I've been in the same 3 lbs for two months now, I guess I can stop being so anxious about it, but I am logging and tracking still.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    maintenance is a range. in maintenance I typically fluctuate 2-3 Lbs day to day up or down...occasionally more from things like airplane travel, etc. I have an app that graphs the trends...the day to day data is up and down, but the trend line is pretty much straight which means I'm maintaining. You could also just look at the average.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
    edited May 2017
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    Normally I stay in a 3 lb range when I weigh every morning, but I swing quite a lot of water weight with glycogen depletion/refueling for races and long training runs. I look at long term trends to determine if I'm actually maintaining. When I initially started maintaining, I had to up my calories a bit because I was slowly losing 1/2-1 lb a month on average.

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  • pappabearfitat50mfp
    pappabearfitat50mfp Posts: 2 Member
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    around 5#
  • swim777
    swim777 Posts: 599 Member
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    krazy1sbk wrote: »
    Mine is only about +/-3 lbs. I'm a small person (121 is my norm), but I'll get as low as 118 in the summer if I'm really active; when I hit 125 I know it's time to be careful again. Right now I'm at 125-126, so I'm trying to be very deliberate about what I eat (though I'm a teacher and I know it's probably end-of-year stress).

    So true!! I'm there with you. It definitely affects my eating habits as well as sleep

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