What has been your biggest struggle at maintenance?
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My boyrfriend! He eats everything and anything and does not gain a pound! He is the true definition of a junk food junkie. I don't allow junk food in the house but he somehow always has some to eat and he does it right infront of me !
It is also finding quick low cal meals. My life is a "rush". I don't always have time to cook. I have found lean cuisnes to be easy and work well in my calorie goal but I also have 2 kids to feed that can not just live off lean cuisines. Mama Mia!0 -
Maintenance shouldn't be that hard. I'll be happy with my desired body even if my weight go over my healthy BMI range (or other indicators). Weigh scale's reading will be irrelevant.
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My biggest struggle has been not falling back to old habits of overeating during times of stress and often simply because food tastes good, and I'm still working on moderation. I overate most of my life (beginning in childhood), and was obese until age 50. So those habits are difficult to change, and it's a daily struggle to stay on track.
I agree - I'm almost at maintenance and this is what I fear!0 -
My problem is that I don't keep that feeling of satiety after eating a meal for long. Within 30min-2hours I'm hungry again. I'm probably just not getting enough fats or something.0
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rtp_slg52181 wrote: »So your lowest weight was 131.5 which means till you hit and keep at least 135 you haven't filled your glycogen storage. Instead of dieting after your vacation you should have just ate to maintain and watched. I am willing to bet you can eat the 2200 cals daily and have your period binges for 2 days and it will all even out with the days you happen to eat less the rest of the month.
You keep teasing your body with enough food to "turn on all the power" and it revs up to be a fuel burning machine, but then you knock it back into energy saving mode when you drop back to ~1800 a week. This is when it kicks and screams that it is soo hungry.
This is solid gold right here. I think this just explained my life the past few weeks. I don't want to maintain at 160, I want to maintain around 155. So that means I need to go down to 150, and allow the bounce back from there, correct?
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rtp_slg52181 wrote: »So your lowest weight was 131.5 which means till you hit and keep at least 135 you haven't filled your glycogen storage. Instead of dieting after your vacation you should have just ate to maintain and watched. I am willing to bet you can eat the 2200 cals daily and have your period binges for 2 days and it will all even out with the days you happen to eat less the rest of the month.
You keep teasing your body with enough food to "turn on all the power" and it revs up to be a fuel burning machine, but then you knock it back into energy saving mode when you drop back to ~1800 a week. This is when it kicks and screams that it is soo hungry.
This is solid gold right here. I think this just explained my life the past few weeks. I don't want to maintain at 160, I want to maintain around 155. So that means I need to go down to 150, and allow the bounce back from there, correct?
Yeah it's how it works. I guess in my case I've still been trying to lose for 1.5 year, I'm not ready to gain those 5 pounds of water weight, which might be why I've been so hungry...0 -
RunRutheeRun wrote: »
Not for everyone.0 -
RunRutheeRun wrote: »
Not for everyone.
All I got from that is - don't eat carbs.
And I',m just here like
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They certainly help but sadly they do not guarantee satiety.RunRutheeRun wrote: »
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They certainly help but sadly they do not guarantee satiety.RunRutheeRun wrote: »
ok ...its maybe just for me they do.. I hardly ever feel hunger, certainly never feel true hunger anyway.0 -
oh I missed this post... oh I Love my carbsRunRutheeRun wrote: »
Not for everyone.
All I got from that is - don't eat carbs.
And I',m just here like
I'm just saying if you fill up on the the fats and proteins alongside carbs that helps...its having a good balance of them all 
I need carbs for all the activities/workouts I do, they give me loads of energy
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totaldetermination wrote: »I really enjoy regularly eating large quantities of certain high calorie foods - far more than I could fit into my calorie / macro goals.
I had to accept that if I am going to maintain my weight loss then I can't eat like that any more.
I didn't mind watching what I ate whilst I was losing weight, because it was a temporary change - I thought once I had more calories I would be able to eat more. But its not enough calories for what i want.
It was a big step for me to accept that I cannot eat the foods that I want to eat, in the quantities that I want, as regularly as I want to, ever again.
It is a constant effort to control what I eat because what I would like to eat is way above my maintenance calories (not from hunger or because I miss any particular foods, just because I want to eat a lot).
I didn't expect maintaining to require so much effort. Or at least I found it hard to realistically see myself putting in that much effort for the rest of my life. It took me a while to deeply accept that this is what I will have to do in order to maintain my weight loss.
Controlling myself is still really hard. I am hoping it will get easier.
My determination not to gain the weight back is very strong, though.
You said exactly how it has been for me since I reached maintenance on May 31 of this year. I just do not get to eat what I would really love in the quantities I would like. But I do feel much better, have more energy and don't get a stomach ache anymore. It is worth the trade off to keep in control of my eating.0 -
Most of us who have had to lose weight, have to eat less than we'd prefer to eat, to maintain. How is that not obvious?0
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kommodevaran wrote: »Most of us who have had to lose weight, have to eat less than we'd prefer to eat, to maintain. How is that not obvious?
Not that obvious, when you see all the 'I eat 1200 calories and I'm full' or 'I've been maintaining without feeling deprived for 2 years' posts.0 -
I haven't had struggles, but what has been frustrating for me is that my body composition continues to change.
- I need to get my ring re-sized for the third time soon!
- My favorite winter coat needs to get taken in at the waist/hip area for the 2nd time. I bought it 3 winters ago at the end of my weight loss mode, had to get it re-sized last year and again this year.
- I tried on some of my knee-high winter boots I have bought since hitting maintenance (I lost 2 shoe sizes and went from wide to normal) and more than half of them are now too big in the calves so I can no longer wear them. I have real some cute ones too! Grrrrrr!
- Clothes are getting too big in certain areas etc.
All of this has happened in the in maintenance, but I have remained the same weight range. I know most people would love for all of this to happen, but it is costly!
I feel great though and very happy with my eating (I eat a lot!) and my moderate workout routine. Hopefully my body composition will stabilize soon as I don't want to get smaller.0 -
My biggest struggle has been to find out what my maintenance calories are. I was losing weight on 1500 cal/day... and I have been reverse dieting over the past 5 months. Currently I'm at 2150 cal/day and still maintaining. I guess this isn't really a struggle per se, but I'm curious to find out how high I can go without gaining.
Actually, now that I think about it... it's been great reverse dieting, because I'm basically doing the same thing that I was when losing... only I get to eat more. 0 -
xKoalaBearx wrote: »My biggest struggle has been to find out what my maintenance calories are. I was losing weight on 1500 cal/day... and I have been reverse dieting over the past 5 months. Currently I'm at 2150 cal/day and still maintaining. I guess this isn't really a struggle per se, but I'm curious to find out how high I can go without gaining.
Actually, now that I think about it... it's been great reverse dieting, because I'm basically doing the same thing that I was when losing... only I get to eat more.
I wonder that too ☺️0 -
kommodevaran wrote: »Most of us who have had to lose weight, have to eat less than we'd prefer to eat, to maintain. How is that not obvious?
Not that obvious, when you see all the 'I eat 1200 calories and I'm full' or 'I've been maintaining without feeling deprived for 2 years' posts.
Confirmation bias can play a role. I've seen lots of "I'm too stuffed"s, "I'm happy"s and "I'm starving"s.
Actually, I've gone through at least one cycle of them myself even in my short period of maintenance. What I'm eating makes a big difference, and I'm not sure if I should follow or ignore my cravings for grains.0 -
kommodevaran wrote: »Most of us who have had to lose weight, have to eat less than we'd prefer to eat, to maintain. How is that not obvious?
Not that obvious, when you see all the 'I eat 1200 calories and I'm full' or 'I've been maintaining without feeling deprived for 2 years' posts.
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