1st week of maintenance

MargueriteMuguet

Hi everyone, wherever in the world you may be,

Stats: female, 25, 1m69, 63.3kg, active: stronglifts 2x/week and running 3x/week rest is yoga.

So I know it's a bit early to take notes on how I'm doing on maintenance, because I still have to find the 'magic number'. But I wanted to share my findings on those first days and maybe get some people to chime in on their own experience.

Well first and foremost, I NEVER thought I would be so stressed to eat more.
I upped my cals by 250 and was very pleased the first 3 days, then I reconsidered everything I did.

After even more reading on this forum I calmed down, I refocussed and realised I didn't have a goal (except from upping cals but not being really sure of the results it would give and how to react).
And I was constantly asking myself if I did not need to lose a bit more... (Well no!)

Secondly: I am training for a 10k at the end of april and i kind of used this as an excuse to 'balance' the upping of cals. But obviously it was unconsciously to still lose weight and create a bigger deficit.
So I reassessed my goal again and now I am genuinely training for something that is challenging to me and brings me joy. Appreciating every run more and more.

Thirdly: i also realised I was striving to reach a number on the scale. So that is something I am working on with a therapist right now. But I am getting more confident by the day and being in maintenance is helping a lot.
And understanding that our weight is a measure of everything inside us at that point in time is sobering.
Remembering that is always bringing me back to my senses.

Fourthly: after eating at 1500 for a week, I have not gained a pound. I know it's too little for my activity and that is also something I did not want to admit because I was scared. But I am upping it to 1750 this week and see where it takes me.

All in all, this happened over the course of 7 days, it's a lot to take in but i am over the moon to be making such progress mentally and physically. To not think about losing anymore. I am much more relaxed now that I am giving myself a range of weight to be in, and also to enjoy the journey. Learning more about myself every day.

Hopefully it is clear and not too long.
I hope to get your stories on how your first week went and how you dealt with the new changes.

sijomial

Congratulations!

Lovely post.
Can't remember much of my first weeks of maintenance apart from the pleasure of being able to eat more of the food I enjoy and the sense of achievement in managing to achieve something I had previously failed at for twenty years.

Like you I replaced the goal of weight loss with pushing myself to new fitness targets.
Two years on I'm still happy - fitter than ever and chasing new goals.

LivingtheLeanDream

Congrats! It's wonderful being able to eat more and glad you're already seeing that you can maintain on more
It took me a few months rather than weeks to figure out how much I could eat, 6 months on I'm doing ok but I've had to cut back a little again as gain was starting to trend.
I thought I could eat 2200 a day but it's looking more like 2000! Bah humbug lol

deevah62

I haven't quite figured this out yet so I've left my calories at a slight deficit knowing I can go over a little bit!

whitebalance

Congrats on your loss!! Remember how it took some figuring out and some plateaus to make it through that phase; maintenance is no different. A week's worth of data doesn't tell you much. I'd suggest taking it slow, making small adjustments and seeing what happens over time. And setting new fitness goals is awesome -- performance-based ones work especially well in maintenance, because they give you something to focus on other than the boring-ness of the scale not moving (or the panic over daily fluctuations).

MargueriteMuguet

Thank you all for the replies :-) i enjoy this forum soooo much and I get a lot of good information. I am having a better second week than the first one, taking things slow, learning more everyday and enjoying the process, running and challenging myself on small things. (I have a new PR too !)
After all we are in maintenance for the long haul!

dopeysmelly

Congratulations! Doesn't it feel great to have achieved this?

My head was spinning for the first 3 weeks of maintenance. Moving away from deficit was mentally tough, but it settled down.

StaciMarie1974

It is an adjustment, going from losing to maintaining. Its a habit to want a drop on the scale and you have to remind yourself that staying the same (approximately) is good.

MargueriteMuguet

Yep! Very true. It a transition and i am just getting the hang of it :-) and also being more flexible with food choices (i know i should have done that too in the losing phase but oh! you learn).