I finally belong here!

me0231

I'm so happy to be officially in maintenance. I hit my goal of 155lbs at 5'11 earlier this week. I'm only really half way to my true goal of being a fit ****, but it's such a nice feeling to finally be here.

Quick history: I started last April when I finally decided enough is enough. I turned 38 last August and set myself a goal of being in the best shape of my life by the time I hit the big 4-0. I've lost 46.7 pounds as of today and I'm in a good weight range. I still carry too much fat in my lower half, so now starts the slow process of recomp, getting fitter, stronger and hopefully lean out some more. I started lifting last August for the first time in my life and I've been able to steadily increase weights despite the deficit, thanks to noob gains I assume, but I'm really excited to see what lifting is like while eating enough calories. I had a dexa scan at 170 pounds that came out at a depressingly 39%, so I still have a long way to go even if the 15 pounds I lost since were pure fat. I had spent a few years before starting my journey extremely sedentary and I guess that is the result of that. Either way, it is what it is and my plan going forward is to slowly bring up my calories over the next month or so to eat at maintenance and lift 4x a week and keeping up with my 10k steps a day. Once the snow melts I want to start hiking and maybe even mountain biking. I think I may need to go back into a deficit at some point to bring the fat down, but I want to give recomp a shot for now.

tl;dr
Lost weight, starting recomp, happy to move to this forum.

SummerSkier

Congrats!! Welcome to our zoo.

LivingtheLeanDream

Congrats on reaching maintenance
The buck doesn't stop here, we just get extra calories and we focus on new goals. It sounds like you have it figured out, so wishing you all the best

nowine4me

Welcome.

pkweier

Congratulations

me0231

Thanks guys!

me0231

So far so good. Closing in on two months now and weight is holding stable (+/-4ish pounds), clothes still fit, and I can definitely see some muscle definition that I didn't have before. I'm taking regular pictures to keep an eye on progress and I'm super happy to be able to see the changes already.

Maintenance has been kinda funny though, the first week of maintenance I was over the moon with all the calories I suddenly got to eat and the second week I was depressed how few calories I get to eat for the rest of my life. And no, the number didn't change. I had about three weeks of feeling like I was starving despite eating more calories daily and it took a ton of willpower not to go nuts every day. It's really only this week that I feel this might be sustainable after all. I'd still easily pack in another 1000 calories a day but I suppose that's why I needed mfp in the first place. In any case, I feel like I'm actually full when I eat my calories now, so hopefully that means my body is getting used to what I should be eating a day and doesn't feel like it has to replace the lost fat asap. Here's to the next two months and more gainz.