When did you decide on maintenance, and how did you start?

emily120699

I'm down 45 pounds and I'm in a healthy weight range, however I'm not 100% happy where I am. I'm about 5 pounds from my goal so I'm getting close to maintaining my weight. When did you decide you were at a healthy place to maintain? How did you start this new way of diet and excersize? Thanks for the help!

richardgavel

I think I started maintenance before I hit my target weight because I was slowly increasing my calorie count before that point. I'm actually still losing, but slower, even though I'm below target weight range.

modestguineapig

I slowly moved into maintenance. My original goal weight was 130, and I hit that in January 2016. I was only losing .5lb/week then. I started eating my meals by intuition and counting my calories only at the end of the day to see how I estimated. Then I started only counting calories every couple days or for foods I was really unsure about. I still lost weight, but very slowly...maybe about .25lb/week. Once I hit 125lb in May 2016, I kept eating and exercising the same and my weight stabilized. So, I think I found my ideal weight/calories for my lifestyle.

BritannieWilliams1979

My dietitian helped me adjust and reduced exercise and eating habits. and I was stable. I stumble every once and
awhile.... but the lifestyle changes and a bit of meditation, the maintenance all seemed to just get there, change of habits just stuck in my head and it works........ like the other member said just intuition.

jenilla1

richardgavel wrote: »

I think I started maintenance before I hit my target weight because I was slowly increasing my calorie count before that point. I'm actually still losing, but slower, even though I'm below target weight range.

This is similar to my experience. When I got close to goal I started gradually increasing calories until I stopped losing and stayed steady. It was funny at first because I kept losing and actually went a couple of pounds under goal until I figured out where I needed to be to maintain. It ended up being about 100 calories more than MFP recommended for my maintenance. Coming up on year 5 in maintenance!

ETA: If you are close to goal and still not happy, maybe you should consider working on your body composition rather than continued weight loss. You might already be at a good weight but just need to drop some body fat and gain more lean mass. Try strength training. It does amazing things to your curves!

sijomial

When did you decide you were at a healthy place to maintain?

When I got to my goal weight. Maintained a while, dropped a bit, maintained a while, dropped a bit, maintained a bit, dropped a bit - a series a steps over a long period. I'd never been fit and in my 50's before so my original goal based on favourite adult weight was still a bit porky!
Eventual weight did turn out to be in my healthy BMI range so not a bad guide, like many I previously used the excuse "I've got some muscle so BMI doesn't apply to me."

How did you start this new way of diet and exercise?

I didn't change what I ate, just how much I ate. My diet was the same but smaller to lose weight, my exercise was always for fitness/strength/health not weight loss.
Did change my eating pattern though, I did IF for easier adherence to a calorie deficit.

Give yourself some time to find maintenance and have a real logical (not emotional) think about yourself and your body. If there's still something to fix the answer may not be weight loss!
Depending on your personal preferences for physique think of people who look or perform like you want to and then think how to get there.