Afraid to go into Maintenance

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  • MadisonMolly2017
    MadisonMolly2017 Posts: 11,003 Member
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    @cwolfman13 Totally agree - even with weight loss...at the beginning when I was very sedentary I limited calories to 1200 to lose. Now, almost 50lbs later, after 18 mos of 2-3 Pilates sessions a week (easy at beginning, higher level now) and walking (infrequent & slow at beginning, now faster, longer, and often in the hills) I can eat 1700-2000 and still lose a pound a week. It’s much easier to keep moving throughout the day when lighter/stronger and the bottoms of your feet don’t hurt when you stand. Your comments make me less worried about moving to Maintenance soon. Thank you.
  • maqqie
    maqqie Posts: 3 Member
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    So glad about this thread ..I’m struggling getting my head round maintainance..losing weight was relatively easy worrying about how to stay here is torture!..see to have to stick to “losing level “ having to keep way down on calories not to gain with moderate exercise on 1600 calories ..seems bit deprivation level!
  • bee_bee8
    bee_bee8 Posts: 96 Member
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    I was about to post here expressing almost exactly those feelings! I actually just hit my goal weight (which btw is about 5 lbs higher than I thought it would be when I started out - I feel good and I think I look good, so why push it?) but I have never actively maintained my weight in my whole 30 years of life. I've always been aggressively losing or semi-aggressively gaining. I've worked a lot on my relationship with food, but I still have some tendency to either overeat or undereat which makes maintenance a little scary.

    I think there's a lot of great advice here, and I'm definitely going to follow some of it. I think setting your MFP goal at .5 lb loss per week is a good way to start out - that's what I'm doing. I also generally never eat back my exercise calories (even though I burn a good amount every day), but I'm gonna try your method of eating back half and seeing what happens. Personally, I'm gonna really work on hitting my calorie goal every day and being consistent, I feel like that's probably the best way to gauge how my body responds to maintenance.

    Thank you for your post, and thanks to everyone else for all the helpful replies. Who knew that maintenance could be more stressful than losing? :D
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
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    I share your anxiety and your height, so I am in the same range. I am down in the low 160s now and slowing the loss by moving the calories up but I am more than a little nervous about trying to keep it steady. While at a deficit, estimates of stuff I couldn't weigh and.or can't find a listing for (often home made by someone else) are usually just going to make it less of a deficit with not much loss for that day. At maintenance, missteps could start edging the scale up. I will just be vigilant, I guess.
  • maqqie
    maqqie Posts: 3 Member
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    Glad I’m not alone! I’m on holiday this week and my routine eating and drinking is not as usual,also have no scales , my usual is daily weighing..don’t want to become obsessed but have a fear of getting home and putting on weight..I know intellectually that if I put on a few pounds I can just cut down again to 1200 cal to take off ..but my feelings tend to get in the way..’start of slippery slope..or well no point doing this .. ..feel better even writing this down .. maybe just need to support each other and have somewhere to be accountable !
  • bee_bee8
    bee_bee8 Posts: 96 Member
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    maqqie wrote: »
    Glad I’m not alone! I’m on holiday this week and my routine eating and drinking is not as usual,also have no scales , my usual is daily weighing..don’t want to become obsessed but have a fear of getting home and putting on weight..I know intellectually that if I put on a few pounds I can just cut down again to 1200 cal to take off ..but my feelings tend to get in the way..’start of slippery slope..or well no point doing this .. ..feel better even writing this down .. maybe just need to support each other and have somewhere to be accountable !

    That's something I love about these forums... Sometimes it helps just to share how you're feeling. I know that "slippery slope" problem well and the anxiety of not being able to weigh yourself daily. If it makes you feel better, I took a little break in December where I wasn't diligently logging and wasn't even really working out; I just ate when I was hungry and tried not to overindulge. I only weighed myself a few times over the course of that month and didn't gain a single pound.
  • ITUSGirl51
    ITUSGirl51 Posts: 192 Member
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    maqqie wrote: »
    Glad I’m not alone! I’m on holiday this week and my routine eating and drinking is not as usual,also have no scales , my usual is daily weighing..don’t want to become obsessed but have a fear of getting home and putting on weight..I know intellectually that if I put on a few pounds I can just cut down again to 1200 cal to take off ..but my feelings tend to get in the way..’start of slippery slope..or well no point doing this .. ..feel better even writing this down .. maybe just need to support each other and have somewhere to be accountable !

    I understand the anxiety about vacation. There is a fine lime between enjoying yourself and pigging out. I try to stay active and just eat what I really want, not everything. I don’t log my food and I know I go over my maintenance calories. I start back the day I return to really watch the calories I don’t wait until Monday. This practice makes home a place I no longer overeat.

    I came back from my fourth vacation last week while on my weight loss journey this past year (down 64 lbs). I left for vacation 5 lbs from my final goal and I gained 3.8 lbs. After 1 week of my normal diet and activity I’ve lost all the extra plus an extra .5 lb! I made some mistakes on vacation by not go going to the gym and eating more desserts than I actually wanted. I felt weak and bloated when I returned. Next vacation break I will do better and remember how crappy I felt when I returned.
  • DamienAngelica
    DamienAngelica Posts: 281 Member
    edited March 2018
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    I'm at a size and weight I'm happy with, so I'm ready to ease into maintenance. I'm scared of slipping back into bad habits, of gaining weight, of undoing everything I've done, but I love being thin and fit more than that fear. I love how my body moves, how it feels. And I'm so much smarter now about mindful eating, portion sizes, and calories.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,345 Member
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    DamienAngelica wrote: »
    I'm at a size and weight I'm happy with, so I'm ready to ease into maintenance. I'm scared of slipping back into bad habits, of gaining weight, of undoing everything I've done, but I love being thin and fit more than that fear. I love how my body moves, how it feels. And I'm so much smarter now about mindful eating, portion sizes, and calories.

    It's up to you to keep your current weight/size - frequent weigh ins will help you with that. Have faith in yourself that you can do it :smile:
  • DamienAngelica
    DamienAngelica Posts: 281 Member
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    LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »
    DamienAngelica wrote: »
    I'm at a size and weight I'm happy with, so I'm ready to ease into maintenance. I'm scared of slipping back into bad habits, of gaining weight, of undoing everything I've done, but I love being thin and fit more than that fear. I love how my body moves, how it feels. And I'm so much smarter now about mindful eating, portion sizes, and calories.

    It's up to you to keep your current weight/size - frequent weigh ins will help you with that. Have faith in yourself that you can do it :smile:

    I weigh myself daily, so no worries there. The fear is definitely irrational (as long as I stick to my new habits) and I know it.
  • mulecanter
    mulecanter Posts: 1,792 Member
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    The best advice I've seen has already been mentioned. Establish your control boundaries like a house thermostat. If you get to the upper set point temp the AC kicks on to lower you back into range. If your weight hits the upper limit, go back into your successful weight-loss mode and get back into range (before it gets away from you). I hope some day to practice what I preach ;-)
  • briscogun
    briscogun Posts: 1,135 Member
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    kristinecapua wrote: »
    Hi all-

    Some stats...
    Age: 29
    Height: 5'8"
    SW: 203lbs
    CW: 169lbs
    GW: 165lbs, maybe 155lbs

    I've been (mostly) steadily losing since July of 2017. I'm down 34lbs with 4 more lbs to go to my first "goal", which would put me at the high end of the "normal" BMI range. I do Crossfit 3-4x a week and run every single day, typically anywhere between 1 and 5 miles (although I do one long-run a week).

    As I've come closer to reaching my "goal", I'm finding myself getting anxious. Although I'm excited by the prospect of reaching it (for as long as I've been weighing myself, I have been over 172lbs, so this is a whole new world for me), I'm afraid that transitioning into maintenance will not go well. I plan to continue tracking and everything, so I'm not sure where this is coming from, but I'm a bit fearful about not continuing to work toward a goal that I can see so clearly mapped out on a screen every day, if that makes sense.

    So here is my plan:

    Once I reach 165lbs, I want to change my MFP goals to lose only .5lbs per week. Currently, I avoid eating my exercise calories unless I do a longer run or if I'm hungry. I plan to transition into eating 1/2 of my exercise calories, as I don't want to consume all of them because I am unsure of how accurately they are calculated. I'd like to see how I do on that "plan", and make changes as necessary.

    Does this sound reasonable? Does anyone have recommendations for how to make the transition into maintenance more seamless/comfortable?

    You kinda hit the nail on the head and answered your own question without realizing it. The first time I went into maintenance I failed because I didn't have a goal other than not gain. I had been SO goal oriented and focused on losing, and rewarded for my efforts by seeing the scale move down, that when I started to maintain I felt lost. So guess what? It all came back...

    The second time around, I started to focus on fitness goals instead of weight loss goals. So I transitioned my focus to using my new slimmer body to achieve new levels of fitness. Made it SO much easier. Run a 5K (or a 10K), lift more weight, do a challenge like a Tough Mudder, whatever.

    Just change your focus and you will do great! Give yourself a new goal/challenge and enjoy that new body you worked so hard for!
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
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    What I am hoping makes a difference this time is that my goal was a BMI below 25, which I have. I am not that far under. If I want a bigger range, then I have to lose more, not give myself permission to gain more by extending the range up.
  • Pastaprincess1978
    Pastaprincess1978 Posts: 371 Member
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    MadisonMolly2017 wrote: »
    @cwolfman13 Totally agree - even with weight loss...at the beginning when I was very sedentary I limited calories to 1200 to lose. Now, almost 50lbs later, after 18 mos of 2-3 Pilates sessions a week (easy at beginning, higher level now) and walking (infrequent & slow at beginning, now faster, longer, and often in the hills) I can eat 1700-2000 and still lose a pound a week. It’s much easier to keep moving throughout the day when lighter/stronger and the bottoms of your feet don’t hurt when you stand. Your comments make me less worried about moving to Maintenance soon. Thank you.

    Could I ask your age and height - just to compare to me and my intake? Thanks?
  • jillstreett
    jillstreett Posts: 69 Member
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    bee_bee8 wrote: »
    I was about to post here expressing almost exactly those feelings! I actually just hit my goal weight (which btw is about 5 lbs higher than I thought it would be when I started out - I feel good and I think I look good, so why push it?) :D

    I like this because I really like that you listened to your body on when to transition into maintenance and not "push it" since you as an individual decided you are happy with your weight and your overall feeling. How did you know that you were ready to transition into this? How has it been the past few weeks? I ask because I feel like a million dollars, my work outs are great and I never feel deprived and don't live my life telling myself "no" to all indulgent foods but I keep my eye on calories and have lost 25 pounds, with the original goal being 30 pounds. I debating lightly transitioning to maintenance and see what my personal perimeters will be now at the -25 pound mark and then if I feel great, cool, if I decide that 30 pounds lost total should be kept as the goal, then I'll do that. This is in NO way me settling or saying I don't feel like dieting anymore, its about how I feel and how my clothes fit and about taking the 25 pounds loss, celebrating it, feeling strong and great, and letting the other 5 pounds come off if they want to and more naturally then "pushing it."

    Thanks!

  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
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    I set mine in stone this time because I rationalized myself back to bigness the last time I lost a lot of weight. This time, it is below a BMI of 25. It's not a number I came up with; it's inflexible. I just didn't have the discipline to use a number I came up with and could modify.

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