Is maintaining weight harder than losing weight?

magsmichelle

I entered the new realm of maintenance recently, and for some reason it scares me. Especially since i have seen people on here say "you may find it harder".

If you found it harder, why? My maintenance according to several sites seems to range from 1500-1900. which isn't all that much and makes no sense since I have lost weight eating 1400 calories.

TavistockToad

If you lost weight at 1400 then your maintenance will be at least 1650 if you were losing half a pound a week and up to 1900 if you were losing a pound a week?

snowflake930

For me it is harder. I have been on maintenance for 15 months, on MFP for a total of almost 3 years. I have to monitor myself as, it (my weight) could easily get out of control. I absolutely can not go back to eating the way I did before MFP. I was morbidly obese and eating twice the amount of calories I should have been eating. It is still moderation and portion control. I give myself a 5# range and weigh myself almost daily. It is just the way it has to be for me.

Others on maintenance, can handle this better than me. As in most things regarding weight and nutrition, it is an individual thing.

As we all know, the statistics are staggeringly against most people keeping the weight off more than 5 years. My long term goal is to be one of those people and for me, that means monitoring myself.

Congratulations, and good luck finding your best way to handle maintenance!

DayByDayGetStronger

It's perceived as harder cuz tracking your food can never stop while maintaining. "Diets" have an end date and people don't plan for maintenance from the get-go. Does an alcoholic say "ok, I've been sober for 6 months now and did really well, back to the bar I go"? Nope.
The book Thin For Life is a great read BTW.

Jennifer
your friendly dietitian

Timorous_Beastie

It's not really harder. But it's not any easier, either. Everything you did to lose weight, you have to keep doing to keep it off, just with a little more calories.

The part that may be harder is that losing comes with it's own rewards that keep you motivated. Lose 15 pounds and everyone says how great you look. Keep those 15 pounds off for a year or two and no one says anything. It's odd going from seeing constant change and progress to minimal change and progress.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

It was harder for me at first but now it's easy. The main thing for me was that it was hard not to see the scale progress anymore-- that had been my reason for doing everything that I was doing so when I got to maintenance I needed to find new reasons. For me (and most people I know in maintenance) what was required was a shift toward fitness goals. So instead of eating and exercising with an end goal of weight loss I changed my mindset to eating and exercising with the goal of deadlifting 200 lbs, squatting my body weight, doing a mud run, etc.

Personally, and I realize this may be different for different people, the longer I do this the easier it is because it just becomes a habit and not something that requires conscious effort. So in that sense maintenance has been easier.

sijomial

Far easier and more enjoyable. I like food!

SergeantSausage

The evidence tends to point to it being harder ... or something.

For every 10 folks I've seen lose weight, at least 7 or 8 of them don't/can't maintain - anecdotal for sure, but the massive number of folks who regain is self-evident, and ... "yo-yo" is a thing, right?

nxd10

I like food too and haven't found maintenance hard. It's just boring because seeing your weight stay the same isn't as fun as seeing it go down. And you do it forever. AND if you mess up and eat too much over time, you gain weight instead of just stop losing weight like you did in deficit.

The evidence shows that people go back to their old habits and 65% regain the weight they've lost within 4 years. Answer: be part of the 35% that don't. Don't go back to your old habits.

What helps me is still being really happy that I am thin every single day. Every day I look at that scale and I'm still in a zone I consider a victory. My goal is to STAY then, not get thin. And I really do love to eat, so enjoy picking out my very favorite calories and savoring them and leaving mediocre food on my plate. It's been three years. My only regret is I didn't so this years ago.

Perhaps I'm a thin glutton.

KeepTheFaith9

I'm new at it but so far for me it's hard but not as hard as losing. But you're doing it forever (hopefully), where with losing you knew you were working toward a goal and if successful it would end at some point. Still a goal to maintain, but it's different.

SteveMFP123

I'm still losing but I can't imagine maintaining being harder, I will be able to eat so much more which will be amazing. The calories I'm on now is rough, I'm still set to 2lbs/weeks with 24lbs to go which is aggressive but it's just about bearable.

indunna

Timorous_Beastie wrote: »

It's not really harder. But it's not any easier, either. Everything you did to lose weight, you have to keep doing to keep it off, just with a little more calories.

The part that may be harder is that losing comes with it's own rewards that keep you motivated. Lose 15 pounds and everyone says how great you look. Keep those 15 pounds off for a year or two and no one says anything. It's odd going from seeing constant change and progress to minimal change and progress.

This. When I was losing
1) I anticipated it would require effort
2) I made progress in terms of weight loss when I stayed on track
3) I knew the level of restriction was temporary

When I started to maintain
1) I did not anticipate how much effort it would require
2) I didn't get the same feeling of progress when I stayed on track
3) I knew the level of restriction was permanent

Just to put into perspective when I was losing I ate around 1400 calories per day and exercised around 400 calories per day. In order to maintain I eat around 1600 calories per day and exercise around 200 calories per day. When I was gaining (pre-MFP) I ate around 2400 calories per day and exercised 0 calories per day. So yeah, I was able to relax things when I got into maintenance but not as much as I thought and its forever.

Don't get me wrong. I am still figuring maintenance out (6 months in) and I do think I will be able to up my calories a bit (100 or 200) eventually. BUT it is not as relaxing as I secretly anticipated.

paradi3s

It really depends. It may be hard mentally because people think the extra calories will make them gain (which in my experience didn't happen), or it may be hard because after a time of being used to eating less, it'll be hard to eat more (a problem for me, though no one really sympathized hahahha).
I feel like maintaining is a bit easier, since all that's needed is to hit your calorie goal. But it'll be a bit hard to find the exact number of calories you'll need in order to maintain. It'll take a few weeks and can be a bit stressful, too.

snowflake930

As I read the replies on this post I am thinking, that if the statistics show 80% (some are even higher than this) of the people who lose, gain back the weight, with some people gaining even more weight than they lost, it occurs to me that most MFP'ers, who are responding to this thread, are in the 20% who keep it off for more than 5 years.

This statistic, indicates to me that 80% of the people are unable to keep the weight off, for whatever reason, so it stands to reason that maintenance is harder. Or it is for most people

It would be interesting to see how many people have kept the weight off for more than 5 years, here on MFP. They are the true success stories, in my opinion. I see a lot of posts on the forums about people returning to try again. Indicating they were unable to either reach goal weight at all, or were unable to keep it off.

qudoos

Guys! I went down to my ideal weight (lost 17KGs) using myfitness pal but due to injury now gained it again. Ay good suggestions and friends will do the trick ! Please add freely.

bwogilvie

snowflake930 wrote: »

This statistic, indicates to me that 80% of the people are unable to keep the weight off, for whatever reason, so it stands to reason that maintenance is harder. Or it is for most people

My hunch is that most people who lose weight gain it back because they return to their old eating habits. That's why I have stayed with MFP after reaching my goal weight in mid-December; I want to continue with my current habits, including (for the time being) logging.

BigGuy47

snowflake930 wrote: »

80% of the people are unable to keep the weight off

Be the 20%. It's good to have goals.

sun_fish

I find maintenance harder. When in losing mode, there was a specific goal to strive for, and I think all along I sort of thought when I hit my goal weight I would be done. I hit my goal weight 6 months ago, and I find I have to fight from slipping back into old habits of eating. It is getting easier, but it is a struggle. I hope as time goes by it will get easier and the new habits I have developed will become second nature.

dopeysmelly

I don't find it harder, just different. I'm eating more but also exercising more. I'm enjoying the flexibility exercising more gives me, since I can even cope with the odd binge or back-to-back business trips, but I know if I gain a couple of pounds I have to actively work to get rid of them immediately. Having said that, I know what to do to get rid of them, so although it needs constant vigilance (weighing myself daily is an important part of that), I am confident I can maintain this.

So, not harder. Different.

brenn24179

I think all of it is hard. I am greedy with food. I want to eat whatever I want whenever I want, I also want to spend money all the time. But guess what, discipline.

nicepurple

My mindset is keeping fit is a lifetime career! Yes, sometimes you do have to work hard to keep it. I started with a cardiovascular exercise (swimming) & determined to eat healthy and in smaller portions. It took me a year to reach my goal which was only 20ish lbs. as I learned more about food and exercise I was really enjoying the routine and didn't find it too difficult to maintain it. Now I can spare a day or two to try a new exercise or add a strength training. You would not find any junk food in my cabinets and I only have milk in my fridge. That's right, not even juice because it could have more sugar than you think. I just turned 44 & have been successfully keeping my weight off for over 3 years & counting. I strongly encourage to all of you if whatever the method you use to help loosing weight works for you, then just keep doing it & also find ways to enjoy it, don't give up! You could be the next successful story!

brendant1

my doctor told me fat has a memory of about three years so if you can keep it off for three years it should be easier to maintain your weight. I lost 16kg but have put it back on so I'm part of the 80%. My new goal :get the weight off again & keep the weight off for three years.

MickeyCastello

For me it is harder. Mainly because I know that my mind says I'm done, and I have to work hard to counter that. It's too easy for me to say "It won't hurt to do this or that", but one time leads to two, two times leads to four... Then the next thing you know it's 10 pounds or more. I worked too darned hard to let myself go back.

pjcfrancis

I'm getting close to my weight goal too, so I also have been thinking a lot about what maintenance really means. I like the advice about setting fitness goals. I'm almost able to run 5 k and I hope to push that to 10 k before long. Maybe I will add more goals as I go. I know that I can never sit down with a 2 liter tub of ice cream again, but that doesn't mean I can't ever enjoy a bowl or a cone. I really need to learn balance. Being aware of my calories, monitoring my weight, and staying fit are all part of my maintenance plan.

SKME2013

I think maintenance is different, not necessarily harder. I have new goals. Fitness and exercise are now a daily habit. What helped me tremendously is to think in weekly terms and not daily ones. If I go over my calorie goal on one day, I make up for it the next. So far it works for me and it is less stressful than stressing over daily goals. And yes...keep on using MFP.
Stef.

sfbaumgarten

It's not harder, it's just different. No idea how many calories I lost on (Weight Watchers), but I maintain on around 1800 net. Everyone is different and you have to find what works for you.

madrose0715

For me the strategy is 2-fold:

Tracking and
Continual Fitness/Exercise goals

jcim1ru

It's definitely different - but I still believe it's another mind over the matter situation. It's just that what matters now is a different set of goals.

It is a lifestyle change - it's not temporary. Anyone who thinks that when the diet ends they can let off the gas and start eating all the stuff they cut out is going to end up right back where they started.

I refuse to fall into that trap - so for me it's still a set of goals - they are just different

nxd10

My goal is to keep this off forever, and that's what I'm working for. I like that goal.

Francl27

Harder for me because I'm hungrier as a whole, even eating more calories. Go figure. And I have more 'cheat' days, I guess after 2 years you sometimes need a break from restricting yourself. So I pretty much still eat at a deficit with cheat days that wipe it off.

LivingtheLeanDream

brendant1 wrote: »

my doctor told me fat has a memory of about three years so if you can keep it off for three years it should be easier to maintain your weight. I lost 16kg but have put it back on so I'm part of the 80%. My new goal :get the weight off again & keep the weight off for three years.

It would be good if this was true I have kept my weight off for 2 years...another year to go and I'll be in the 20%...sweeet