It's hard

melsouth1972
melsouth1972 Posts: 198 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Doesn't anyone else find Maintenance harder than weight loss? I find it's a daily struggle, currently I'm out injured from running so have reduced my calorie intake. I find everyday a battle but maintain, I feel so much better slim, I'm never going back to that big girl! I'm healthier than I've every been in my life, healthy is definitely better than any yummy food. So if you fancy a maintenance friend, I'm your girl, add me and we can support one another.

Replies

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    For me, thinking about weight management as a struggle, means that it's not going to work for very long. I have done that in the past. This time, I haven't found mainenance harder than losing weight, but it's a new set of challenges and takes time to get used to and confident with. I don't exercise, and I eat yummy food every day, but I move every day and don't overeat.
  • melsouth1972
    melsouth1972 Posts: 198 Member
    Yeah me too
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    I only find it harder to get from the deficit to the maintain weight number because the fluctuations on the scale can be a huge bugger. I had to make peace with water weight, hormones and all the things that make me 1 -5 pounds heavier or lighter or any given week or day. Staying at a spot on weight is impossible.

    I started trending (using a weight trending app) it finally and see all this as just noise and stopped letting the scale laugh at me! LOL

    You will get the hang of it in due time. :):)
  • STEVE142142
    STEVE142142 Posts: 867 Member
    To me maintenance seems more of a psychological thing. To lose the weight was easy just go into simple calorie deficit. The trick to maintenance is taking everything you learned from the weight loss and applying it to maintaining that weight. It's a learning process.

    I started maintenance at 220. I was happy with myself at that weight. I totally screwed it up and now my current weight is 208 and I like where I am better.

    As far as the scale I think too many people get fixated on the number. I have access to scales at work and as part of the learning process once I went into maintenance I weighed myself various times of the day and under various conditions. What I found is that my weight could vary anywhere from 1 to 5 pounds in a day or over the weekend. What I'm basically saying is I don't have a target number because your body is constantly in a state of flux but you should have arranged that you're comfortable with.

    As far as your comments about the yummy food once you go into maintenance you can eat anything you want. Even during my weight loss process I ate pizza had beers on the beach and Wendy's hamburgers. It's just a matter of fitting into your calorie goal. My new weakness is Luigi's Italian ices. I'm the ultimate decider if I'm going to succeed and fail and I've chosen to succeed. Good luck to all and enjoy the
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    I've begun the steps of raising my calories slightly as I approach maintenance with the hope that I won't notice the difference. Maybe, in your case, you can go back to the calories you were losing with in the last weeks before you reached maintenance for one week, then increase by 50 or 100 calories for each day of the next week, and so on until you are confident that you've stopped losing. Then stay at that level of calories for a month to see if you lose or gain. With this carefully managed dance you will find your maintenance level of calories.

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