Slow creepage

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I've seen a slow increase over the past 3 months. Analyzing my eating pattern, it looks like it's due to slight overcompensatiom for exercise calories. Yesterday is a case in point. I took a 4 mile jog while simmering a large crock of home made chicken soup, then came back and ate just a bit too much (although it's hard to log accurately).

Arg. Why does maintenance have to be such a battle?

LivingtheLeanDream

I don't think of it as a battle but more a matter of keeping our eyes on things, hence the frequent weigh ins for me. Unfortunately, if we don't keep a handle on things we would eventually gain. We just can't eat what we want. Its the same as when losing, if we eat more than we burn...we gain. I'm on my 4th year of maintenance, it gets easier but I still need to be aware of everything I eat and how much I move.

Derpy_Hooves

My biggest eye opener over the years was, that this will never be completely natural to me. It gets much much easier though.
I can fairly accurately eyeball portions/guestimate calories. Fluctuation is normal and I give myself a margin of about 2kg. If I go too far over this margin, I will re-analyse my eating patterns, just like you do. Just get the scales out again to weigh my food and log every morsel on MFP. Once I'm back to my normal maintenance weight, I go back to eyeballing.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

My bod wants that weight back! It clearly doesn't know what's good for it. Really hard to keep from eating 100-200kcals extra per day. Now, I need to eat at about that deficit for a few weeks.

spiriteagle99

Small amounts add up over time. You see one pound and don't worry as that's natural fluctuation. It gets to 3 pounds and you say, "okay, that's still within the 5 pound range." Then at 6 pounds, you think, "Maybe I'd better do something about this. I'll start tomorrow." Next thing you know you're up 10 pounds. Then the choice becomes: stop weighing yourself and pretend it's not happening, or get serious and start weighing, logging, and exercising more and watch the weight melt off.

cmriverside

Yeah, I don't get to eat nearly as much as I want to. As if.


I still log food (loosely) ten years in. I weigh myself a couple times a week. So far so good.

Maxxitt

I have found it a battle, too, OP. And small amounts adding up over time is the story of my life, as is the "next thing you know you're up 10 pounds." My maintenance calorie allotment seems sad. But it is what it is.

victoria_1024

I've experienced this lately too. I've been in maintenance for about a year and a half, but stopped counting calories back in April. I've gained about 4 lbs since then. I'm just outside of my maintenance range now so I'm trying to eat at a deficit but still am trying to avoid calorie counting. I reached a point after losing 90 lbs and being in maintenance for a while that I just didn't want to count calories anymore. It was feeling obsessive and I just wanted to figure out how to do something different. So we'll see how it goes, I figure it's sort of trial and error to figure out what works for me. Worst case scenario, I can start counting again and take those few pounds off.

Kimblesnbits13

victoria_1024 wrote: »

I've experienced this lately too. I've been in maintenance for about a year and a half, but stopped counting calories back in April. I've gained about 4 lbs since then. I'm just outside of my maintenance range now so I'm trying to eat at a deficit but still am trying to avoid calorie counting. I reached a point after losing 90 lbs and being in maintenance for a while that I just didn't want to count calories anymore. It was feeling obsessive and I just wanted to figure out how to do something different. So we'll see how it goes, I figure it's sort of trial and error to figure out what works for me. Worst case scenario, I can start counting again and take those few pounds off.

I'm exactly where you are. I'm up about 4 lbs and am contemplating eating intuitively because I think i've gotten too obsessive with counting.

girlgroves

victoria_1024 wrote: »

I've experienced this lately too. I've been in maintenance for about a year and a half, but stopped counting calories back in April. I've gained about 4 lbs since then. I'm just outside of my maintenance range now so I'm trying to eat at a deficit but still am trying to avoid calorie counting. I reached a point after losing 90 lbs and being in maintenance for a while that I just didn't want to count calories anymore. It was feeling obsessive and I just wanted to figure out how to do something different. So we'll see how it goes, I figure it's sort of trial and error to figure out what works for me. Worst case scenario, I can start counting again and take those few pounds off.

You could be my twin! I felt exactly the same way as you, victoria_1024 - I've been in maintenance the same amount of time, and also stopped counting calories back in April. I'm a lot less obsessive about logging now, but, I'm up a few pounds after eating whatever I wanted on summer hols - and temporarily back to logging again this week to get back on track.

OP - I've had to come to terms with the fact that maintenance for me will always involve long-term vigilance. It felt like more of a 'battle' when I first came to that realisation, mainly because mentally I didn't want to think that I'd have to work that hard at it for the rest of my life. Fortunately, it's becoming less of a battle the more I understand and accept that if I want to stay this weight, it will need my constant care and attention. I'm slowly learning to become more disciplined with myself (I'm not going to be 'eating whatever I want' quite so much next summer holiday for example!!) - but it's taking time and it's not easy! My advice though? Nip it in the bud now. 6lbs are going to be harder to lose than 3lbs!