I've heard maintaining is harder

Francl27

For me it's harder to maintain because I'm hungrier so being able to 'eat more' really doesn't mean anything... I'm hungrier so I can afford less treats than when I was losing!

But the main issue is when you look in the mirror and like what you see so you tell yourself that one little extra won't hurt... and when it starts to happen more often.

victoria_1024

I like maintenance better because I'm skinny now.

Christine_72

I find maintaining much easier. I'm lucky that my natural appetite lines up almost perfectly with my maintenance calories, therefore maintaining my weight doesn't require much effort.
Eating at a deficit requires much more vigilance and willpower for me.

Plus I'm exercising ALOT more now than i was when i first started losing weight.

jimshine

I think I see a few problems that can be overcome, but will take time.

For one, in losing mode we can just sort of shotgun blast the problem by reducing to any number below what we need. In maintenance, we need to actually figure out with time how much our particular bodies and lifestyles require each day. So that means you will likely be tweaking the calories week to week manually until you stabilize.

The other thing is cheat days. In the deficit mode, we can cheat and just delay results for an extra couple days. In maintenance, you have to temporarily go back in to some sort of deficit to get rid of it. If you decide by, it will add up in time.

Dove0804

jimshine wrote: »

The other thing is cheat days. In the deficit mode, we can cheat and just delay results for an extra couple days. In maintenance, you have to temporarily go back in to some sort of deficit to get rid of it. If you decide by, it will add up in time.

Lots of great insight so far but this one in particular was what I was going to mention. I'm not in maintenance yet, but I spend probably more time thinking about maintenance than I do weight loss (or at least as much time). Reading a lot of posts on the message boards- weight creeping up is a super common thing. If you overeat one day, you can't really just shrug it off and move on- you have to accommodate for it and eat less on other days. Over the course of a year, it can add up easily to 10 lbs or much more.

I think a lot of people get into a more lax mindset when they're at their goal weight. I fully intend on weighing myself every day once I reach my goal weight. I kind of look at it as a chronic disease. It may be under control but it's always there in the background ready to rear its ugly head if I get negligent.

feisty_bucket

Dove0804 wrote: »

jimshine wrote: »

The other thing is cheat days. In the deficit mode, we can cheat and just delay results for an extra couple days. In maintenance, you have to temporarily go back in to some sort of deficit to get rid of it.

If you overeat one day, you can't really just shrug it off and move on- you have to accommodate for it and eat less on other days. Over the course of a year, it can add up easily to 10 lbs or much more.

Yes yes! I'm in for the triple-mention. Here's where I advocate the calorie-banking method again: you manually carry over your excess calories eaten from one day into the next, which handles this problem nicely.

For example: let's say you've used 2500 calories on Tuesday, but eaten 3000. Instead of posting a freaked-out message on MFP and questioning all your life choices to date, you calmly add that extra 500 calories into Wednesday's food list. On Wednesday, you can a) eat 2000 calories and solve the problem in one day, or b) drag it out a bit longer. It's up to you! No biggie. You know what to do. Hooray! So empowered.

girlgroves

feisty_bucket wrote: »

Yes yes! I'm in for the triple-mention. Here's where I advocate the calorie-banking method again: you manually carry over your excess calories eaten from one day into the next, which handles this problem nicely.

For example: let's say you've used 2500 calories on Tuesday, but eaten 3000. Instead of posting a freaked-out message on MFP and questioning all your life choices to date, you calmly add that extra 500 calories into Wednesday's food list. On Wednesday, you can a) eat 2000 calories and solve the problem in one day, or b) drag it out a bit longer. It's up to you! No biggie. You know what to do. Hooray! So empowered.

Cracking way of doing it - thank you! I've been successfully maintaining since the beginning of the summer, but I've had to be careful to accommodate my higher calorie intakes on the weekends, and variable workouts/exercise calorie burn day-to-day to make sure that they even out over the course of a week. I've been inadvertently 'calorie-banking', but your method of manually carrying over the excess calories from one day to the next will, I think, make this much easier to keep track of!

vingogly

Here's what I believe has gotten me in trouble with maintenance in the past:

• Not weighing myself regularly (at least once a week)
• Not paying attention to what and how much I was eating
• Returning to bad habits when I was "done with my diet"

I think seeing what you're doing when you're in weight loss mode as qualitatively different than maintenance is dangerous. You start to think you're done with all that, and now can eat eat the same way the "normals" around you eat.

I've come to believe that those who struggle with weight are wired differently in some way than those who do not; whether it's genetic or behavioral (or a combination of the two), I have no idea. But what I've learned from my experiences is: I'm probably going to have to weigh myself and log food for as long as I live. "Normals" don't have to do this -- but I do.

UpEarly

I've been on maintenance for going on 5 years, after losing about 60 pounds from 2011 through early 2012. Losing was easy and maintaining has been easy. BUT... I took a very slow rate of weight loss. It took me around a year to lose the weight. I didn't diet, I made significant changes to my eating habits and activity level -- and made sure they were ones I could live with permanently and easily.

I'm 45 now and probably in the best shape of my life.

cheryldumais

johunt615 wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

Whenever you read/hear anything coming from Biggest Loser - change the channel, flip the page. Disregard.

There was a legit study that came from following some of the contestants 6 years after their weight loss. All but one gained most if not all of their weight back. They were burning fewer cal at rest than before they started the show even though they gained their weight back.

At any rate I agree about the show itself.

I don't watch the show but one thing the odd time I have caught part of it said to me was that most of them are "crash dieting". In other words they are losing as much as they can as quickly as they can and that makes maintenance almost impossible. What can you learn in that time and from some studies it sounds like your metabolism can be compromised by dropping to drastically low calorie counts. I agree I would disregard this show as it does not encourage healthy eating.

ericatoday

Its way easier i love it. I dont log my food 99% of the time. I know what i can and cannot eat this app has taught me so much about my eating habits. I know what to do and i havent logged a full day in awhile you can check my diary to see how many days i actually log. And im actually .5lbs under my goal weight so im keeping it off no problem

srecupid

For me it is. When losing weight I had a mission. When I have something to aim for I'm laser focussed and obsessive. Now the goal is "don"t duck u

Christine_72

cheryldumais wrote: »

johunt615 wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

Whenever you read/hear anything coming from Biggest Loser - change the channel, flip the page. Disregard.

There was a legit study that came from following some of the contestants 6 years after their weight loss. All but one gained most if not all of their weight back. They were burning fewer cal at rest than before they started the show even though they gained their weight back.

At any rate I agree about the show itself.

I don't watch the show but one thing the odd time I have caught part of it said to me was that most of them are "crash dieting". In other words they are losing as much as they can as quickly as they can and that makes maintenance almost impossible. What can you learn in that time and from some studies it sounds like your metabolism can be compromised by dropping to drastically low calorie counts. I agree I would disregard this show as it does not encourage healthy eating.

Plus they are under constant supervision and told when to eat, what to eat and when to exercise. When they're dumped back into the real world, that safety net is no longer there.

llbrixon

I really think I will be logging for a good while. I have been in my 5 pound weigbt range for 4 months. I have tried trials of not logging... I miss not logging in. Plus I love to read posts while I am here. Logging foods is so easy for me. I eat out for lunch at least 1--2x week. I eat correctly during my lunch outs. I eat my snacks everyday.

For the next 3 months I want to pretty much lose a few pounds to compensate for a little weight gain during the holidays.

Yup....I will be logging in for a good while. This is the first time I have done maintenance with MFP.

redladybug69

I'm struggling with maintaining now. My problem is I stopped tracking. Eyeballing calories instead of measuring. Of course, it's because I'm invincible...Not!

Happy Tracking!