Tips to maintain without daily tracking for the rest of my life, please?

ITUSGirl51 · October 2018

I think you either have eating “rules” like no snacks, no dairy, no desserts, no meat, low carb, run 5 miles a day, etc or you log to keep the calories in check. I prefer to log and eat the foods I like. It’s a lot more stressful to have rules about what I can and can’t eat than it is to log everyday. I also take vacation breaks where I eat what and how much I want for that week. I will gain a couple of real pounds during the vacation, cut calories for a week and then go back to maintainamce calories. I’ve only maintained a 74 lb loss for 6 months, but so far so good. A lot better than my past weight losses where I started gaining back as soon as the diet ended.

cwolfman13 · October 2018

I haven't logged in about 5.5 years of maintenance. I eat well for the most part from a nutritional standpoint and exercise regularly...that's about it. I keep an eye on the scale and if it starts to creep up as a trend, I know I just need to scale back a snack or something for a couple of weeks.

IHaveMyActTogether · October 2018

Why would someone flag this post? I found it informative and helpful...

vollkornbloedchen · October 2018

Thing is that you can't expect the "bad" automatisms that sneaked in for years can be changed in a short period of time.
Maintaining is, just like weight-loss, btw, a question of baby-steps.
Learn to eat according to the needs of your body
Learn to listen to your body again

Exchanging the "bad" automatisms that presented you with some additional lbs takes time, for some it takes longer other make it in a significantly shorter period.
I am maintaining for (almost) two years now and still track more or less accurately (for a given value of accurate).
It is still a long way, but I have time ... no need to hurry ... Haste made me fat

cheryldumais · October 2018

I would be very curious to know from those of you that don't log any more how much weight you lost. I'm curious if you lost smaller amounts and therefore already had better eating habits than those of us who lost large amounts. Personally I still log and have been in maintenance about a year. I'm scared to death to regain. Am I just paranoid or am I more likely to regain?

mom23mangos · October 2018

Well, I for one do fit into your hypothesis. I started mid-BMI, began maintenance at bottom of BMI range and gained back to mid-BMI with muscle. So I haven't really been able to maintain the same weight without logging.

icemom011 · October 2018

I don't track or log. I'm in maintenance for two years, lost almost 80 lbs. I haven't been logging while losing either. I do keep a close eye on portions, especially high calorie foods. I eat pretty much everything, but not too much bread or pasta, and step on the scale every day. This way i know what's going on. If the "fluctuation" doesn't want to go back down in a few days, i know to cut back on snacks. I don't alter my meals because of weight going up, just snacks. I also ride, so not refeeding 100% after a bike ride helps with managing all those extra snacks that i can't/ won't say no to. I'm happy with what i do. So just tracking weight works for me. And i also check portions of meat, cheeses, nuts and things that have high calorie value with the scale time to time, just to make sure I'm not overdoing it.

hesn92 · October 2018

I do too. I've only ever been overweight right after giving birth to my second child and I lost 25 lbs total.

Jruzer · October 2018

My wife lost a substantial amount of weight before I met her, and has more or less maintained her weight by following a loose set of self-imposed rules. At this point, decades later, these are mostly just natural behaviors for her:
- She usually has a salad at work for her lunch
- She doesn't snack much, and when she does she keeps her portions reasonable
- She doesn't eat at restaurants or get take-out often, and she carefully controls portions when she does
- She cooks a lot
- She allows herself a small dish of ice cream every night. She really looks forward to this, but she won't allow herself to have it if she's had some other treat during the day
- She weighs herself frequently, and has a certain weight limit where she forces herself to cut back on what she's eating

cwolfman13 · October 2018

I find that if I keep active, maintenance isn't particularly difficult so long as I'm not going off the rails food wise. It's when my activity level dips that I have issues...this frequently happens in the winter when my fitness as well as general activity tends to be substantially less...I usually put on about 8-10 Lbs. Fortunately, the high water mark usually hits right as spring is approaching and the cycling season kicks off.

This year I'm going to try to stay more active in the winter though...but that ultimately is going to mean spending a lot of time on my indoor trainer, which I don't particularly care for.

elisa123gal · October 2018

I have lost 40...but at other times in my younger life.. I often lost any weight I wanted never weighing myself or counting calories. When I joined MFP about 8 years ago is when I tried to count calories to control my weight. It has never worked for me.. I was overweight the entire time until this year when I went back to my old ways of just eating healthy..using food rules and exercise.

I just don't think I'm wired for logging.. but I do recognize it works very well for many of you.

middlehaitch · October 2018

Very insightful question, and it covers the reason I haven't replied in this thread, and other maintaining threads.

I have been maintaining easily for 9+ years without counting, but I only had 30 lbs to lose- from the top to the bottom of my 'normal' BMI range.

I gained weight when I bought a car and my NEAT dropped.

It took a year to lose the weight on 1200 a day plus exercise cals. My maintenance is also 1200 (yes the little old sedentary woman syndrome)

Once I had started exercising, an hour a day average to replace those NEAT calories that used to get spent walking and biking everywhere, and increasing my NEAT, my food intake ended up the same as it was pre car.

I estimate somewhere between 1500-1800 a day for 5'1, 102lbs, 65yo.

Because of the above I often find it hard to give any constructive advice in this kind of thread.
Though I think because I have been maintaining so long, I should have some nugget of wisdom, most times I don't.

.

Any one wondering why I hang around? It is because I am a sloth.
Although my hour a day is habit now, it doesn't come naturally and being around others with health and fitness goals keeps me focused.

I also learn a hellofalot from this forum.

Cheers, h.

sijomial · October 2018

@cheryldumais

Only 30lbs lost for me.

But really I've always considered maintenance (not always at the right weight unfortunately but in a fairly stable weight range) something I have to think about consciously but I'm able to achieve.

My weight gain was sudden following a major injury which not only made me inactive for months but also weakened my resolve through depression. Once I was back on my feet I maintained but roughly 30lbs overweight for two decades.

I have concerns that when/if I can't continue my active lifestyle and high exercise levels I will have to adapt my eating but I've done it in the past to accommodate life changes so should be able to adapt again in the future. Logging was useful for dieting as that's the thing I find hard - the data made me accountable and stripped away excuses, if I need that tool again in the future I would use it.

GaleHawkins · October 2018

Fat fingers on a phone, etc? Just keep in mind they are just subjective no verbal remarks and carry no objective scientific meaning but perhaps cuts down on stress causing remarks that can close threads which cost moderators time out of their busy lives.

Lillymoo01 · October 2018

I have been in maintenance for over a year and still weigh and log. Partly because there is fear of what would happen if I didn't but mainly because it is simply part of my daily routine that I don't find bothersome. Some find logging and weighing a hassle and restrictive and while I can understand that I find it to be the opposite. It means I am without rules on what I can eat. It gives me the freedom to eat foods I enjoy as long as they fit into my calorie allowance. It means I don't have the anxiety of wondering how far off my estimations on portion size are. I have no problems with this for the occasional meal out or vacation but I do like the certainty most of the time. It is such a minor inconvenience if it means I can maintain my 80-poundish weight loss for life.

reneew62 · October 2018

Not possible for me. I've lost and gained 100lb at least three times I'll be tracking my entire life.

wenrob · October 2018

I lost 89lbs total and am coming up on nine years in maintenance. But, it was the only time I was ever obese in my life. I’ve been overweight over the years but would usually snap myself to. A lot of reasons came into play creating the perfect storm to eat my way up to 235+ pounds and stuck around for a couple of years. Once those started to resolve I set my mind to losing the weight and just have never looked back. So my answer to your question is, I really don’t know.

I go through stages of logging diligently with few exceptions (birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Vacation) and stages where I just keep an eye on things. Right now I’m weighing my food but not logging. What I have been consistent with is being aware of how much I put in my mouth and stepping on the scales regularly. If I see a rising trend I get my crap together. Getting as heavy as I did spooked me enough to never want to go there again so I do what I feel I need to do based on what’s happening. Sometimes that’s logging for long periods of time. It’s pretty much second nature at this point.

FL_Hiker · October 2018

I fall in this boat, I log just for fun because it helps me with meal planning and I like hearing how all my friends on here are doing so i'm on anyways. I didn't have much weight to lose, and I was always in a normal BMI range. I have never in my life used a food scale, even when I was losing weight. How I eyeballed my portions was I fell back on my childhood, I remembered what a serving my mom would give me looked like. I gave myself servings based off of what my parents taught me a normal serving should look like, and I used other tips and tricks I picked up along the way...I remember in kindergarten I had a gym teacher who told me when it comes to pasta one serving for you should look like the palm of your hand. I've also always had a good grip on hunger cues, and I love veggies, fruits, and lean meats. Sweets have always been my weakness though I know how much is too much.

ExistingFish · October 2018

I tried logging in maintenance, but I found it very mind consuming (not time consuming), I was still frequently thinking about calories and how many calories I had already eaten and how many I was "allowed", basically I developed an unhealthy relationship with food for maintenance. I started eating to hunger, but like a PP keeping it to 3 meals and defined snack times. Eating serving size portions when I do eat something. I'm keeping an eye on my weight, I participate in two weekly log in threads and use a trending app (Libra) and weigh daily. If I start seeing a trend to the upper end of my goal range (which is 3lbs +/-, 7lb range) I'll reevaluate, but so far I'm holding steady in my range and keeping my trend dead where I want it.

I lead a very active lifestyle and lift weights at least twice a week. I'm 5'0" and when I was logging and trying maintenance, I was still losing at 2100+ calories. I estimate based on my results at 2100 that I need to eat closer to 2300-2500. That seems like a lot, but I'm also breastfeeding my 1 year old still. And I know I was actively losing at 2100 calories (I lose 5lbs in my first month of maintenance {logging 2100}).

ExistingFish · October 2018

I lost about 35lbs. From barely into the "obese" BMI range to the "healthy" BMI range, so the full range of "overweight" BMI.

I was happily maintaining my 156lb weight before I decided to lose it, I wasn't gaining and that was a weight I'd been at for years, sprinkle a few pregnancies in there. I had horrible eating habits, but I wasn't gaining. I did have the benefit of breastfeeding burning additional calories.

I'm also scared to regain. Using Libra and keeping an eye on my trend line helps. I was getting unhealthily obsessed with calories when I was first in maintenance, but still losing.

Tips to maintain without daily tracking for the rest of my life, please?

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