Its tough!

Options
2

Replies

  • WinwillLose
    WinwillLose Posts: 101
    Options
    15 more lbs to go, I'm afraid of maintenance.
  • A_Fit_Mom
    A_Fit_Mom Posts: 602 Member
    Options
    I found losing the majority of my weight very easy for me. These last pesky "vanity" pounds for me are the hardest. Since I am happy where I am, I am preparing for maintaining now.

    I know when I lost weight a long time ago before my two pregnancies...I was able to maintain in the 145 range for a couple years. It was when I stopped being active all together and never exercised..is when I then slacked on food and gained all the weight.


    So in order for me to not gain, I know I will need to still log most days and exercise at least 3 times a week. Which to me isn't hard, I don't mind logging forever. It only takes a second to log my food.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    Options
    I've always been contrary and it looks like I am on this subject too :smile:

    I find maintenance so much easier than losing. I love my food and those extra few hundred calories make such a difference in the choices I can make.

    Having lost weight successfully just gives me confidence that if it starts to creep up again I know exactly what to do to get back on track.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,287 Member
    Options
    I've always been contrary and it looks like I am on this subject too :smile:

    I find maintenance so much easier than losing. I love my food and those extra few hundred calories make such a difference in the choices I can make.

    Having lost weight successfully just gives me confidence that if it starts to creep up again I know exactly what to do to get back on track.

    Now..this is the good news I was looking for. lol Thanks.
  • dorothytd
    dorothytd Posts: 1,138 Member
    Options
    After being a yo-yoer for YEARS, I'm celebrating almost 7 years of maintenance after a 50 pound loss. Yeah, It IS hard, because you can never just eat like crazy and sit around... But like a couple of posters have said, you find your rhythm; you creep, you catch it. For me, keeping track is really important. And finding new ways to get strong, burn calories. Just like your marriage, don't let it get too routine. There's always fun in trying new things.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Options
    After being a yo-yoer for YEARS, I'm celebrating almost 7 years of maintenance after a 50 pound loss. Yeah, It IS hard, because you can never just eat like crazy and sit around... But like a couple of posters have said, you find your rhythm; you creep, you catch it. For me, keeping track is really important. And finding new ways to get strong, burn calories. Just like your marriage, don't let it get too routine. There's always fun in trying new things.
    That's exactly it. You periodically re-calibrate.
  • LittleMsEva
    LittleMsEva Posts: 76 Member
    Options
    Losing weight IS hard, but I don't think I'll ever be worrying about maintaining, i just want to go lower and lower
  • supermumincanada
    supermumincanada Posts: 59 Member
    Options
    Yes, I find it hard too, have been at maintenance for a year, and I find I put on a few pounds and then lose few pounds, never stay the same exactly, am terrified of putting weight on.
  • marblecake22
    marblecake22 Posts: 1 Member
    Options
    It's heartening to hear that others struggle with maintainance too. It does get tiresome. I lost about 3 stones 10 years ago and it seems a constant battle to stay where I want to be. Now 43 I think the beginnings of the menopause are kicking in making it even harder. If I 'take my eye off the ball' even for a couple of days the scales shoot up but try and loses a couple of pounds it takes forever.
  • Romey5
    Romey5 Posts: 157 Member
    Options
    Maintenance is not easy, but i find it easier than weight loss. I do my best to keep up with the good choices I learned during weight loss (no soda pop, no bread with meals, small dinners, lots of water, etc), and have not found the weight to creep on too fast even if I quit paying attention for a bit. Nevertheless, I weight in at least once a week and start logging again if I get over 124-125lb range.
  • Flowers4Julia
    Flowers4Julia Posts: 521 Member
    Options
    I have a small ideal weight range that is where I'm happy and I tend to continue to eat at my TDEE minus 5% as a calorie goal. I did recently go on a week vacation and decided not to log or mentally count calories and just make good choices while enjoying a few treats along the way. I was up at the top of my range when I returned home and weighed. Within a week, I lost it. So, i figured it was water weight......That gave me confidence.
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
    Options
    If I 'take my eye off the ball' even for a couple of days the scales shoot up but try and loses a couple of pounds it takes forever.
    I wanted so badly to reduce body fat and I did, but that means my body can no longer support the rapid weight loss I did when I started losing. It hardly seems fair; I could go to fancy buffets on vacation and get thousands of extra calories per day but I can only have a deficit of a few hundred per day at most to get rid of it.
  • AnitraSoto
    AnitraSoto Posts: 725 Member
    Options
    I also find maintenance to be harder than losing, not so much physically, but mentally. When you are losing, you have goals that you meet that encourage you to push forward. In maintenance, you have to work just as hard, but there are no more "prizes"... I have had to create my own set of new goals, but now they are strength-related instead of scale-related.
  • She_Hulk
    She_Hulk Posts: 277
    Options
    I'm struggling with this, as well. I don't want to lose any more weight, BUT I am still trying to lose my last 2% or so of body fat and gain some lean muscle. That's kind of the next step, right? So... I haven't gained/lost weight while maintaining (which is great, believe me) but my bf is still the same also. I'm not sure how to go about it. Up my calories? Lower them? I really don't know. But what I'm doing is obviously not working.
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
    Options
    I'm struggling with this, as well. I don't want to lose any more weight, BUT I am still trying to lose my last 2% or so of body fat and gain some lean muscle. That's kind of the next step, right? So... I haven't gained/lost weight while maintaining (which is great, believe me) but my bf is still the same also. I'm not sure how to go about it. Up my calories? Lower them? I really don't know. But what I'm doing is obviously not working.
    I think the answer is both, unfortunately. To lower BF% and stay the same weight, you can't convert fat to muscle. I think you have to lose the fat and gain the muscle as two separate activities. There are long running threads over in Fitness about whether it is possible to gain muscle while eating at a deficit and the overwhelming opinion is that you can't. The worry I have about the bulk/cut cycle is eating over TDEE while working out for a few days and then finding out I didn't work out hard enough. Anyway, it may mean a month of gaining followed by a month of losing or visa versa.
  • She_Hulk
    She_Hulk Posts: 277
    Options
    I was afraid of that! LOL! Thanks for the info. I think you may be right though. It's just (like you said) a very slippery slope!
  • tomcornhole
    tomcornhole Posts: 1,084 Member
    Options
    I'm doing the gain muscle and lose fat thing right now. Since starting this three months ago, I have successfully maintained my weight while reducing BF% 1% to 2%. That equates to a LBM gain of around 3 lbs while losing 3 lbs of fat. I am happy with that.

    I could end the story there and declare victory, but that would be less than honest. It is a slow and very inefficient process. Very, very inefficient. And somewhat frustrating. I would like my strength to be progressing faster. I would like to be losing fat faster. Basically, I am doing neither very well. Jack of both trades, master of neither. I will continue this until Oct/Nov when I will start a traditional bulk/cut cycle which I think is a much better approach. I've never done a bulk, so that will be weird to control weight gain vs. weight loss.

    Good luck and keep us updated on your progress.

    Tom
  • theycallyoumister
    theycallyoumister Posts: 222 Member
    Options
    Yes! I'm not kidding when I say it is tougher than losing for me. I'm still trying to figure out why but I suspect it's due to several contributing factors. Time will tell... :)
  • JeanneTops
    JeanneTops Posts: 2,594 Member
    Options
    Maintenance is not only harder than losing, it's different.

    Maintenance is about a lot more than counting calories. It's about how you deal with what life is going to throw at you. Many, many people will tell you that they started gaining the weight back because of a life change - marriage, divorce, lose a job, start a new job, accidents, illness, injury, have a baby, death of a loved one, just plain get older. Add to that, if you lost a significant amount of weight, your metabolism has changed - you gain weight more easily and you lose weight more slowly.

    So maintenance is really about working on your mindspace. How do you react to stress? How well do you accommodate drastic and sudden change or slow and gradual change? What kind of person do you envision yourself as? Are you happy being who you are, do you feel your making progress towards becoming the person you want to be? If what was happening in your life ever affected how you ate, then it still will. You have to work on changing how life affects how you eat. And that's really hard.

    Jeanne
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    Options
    I found losing the weight easy. Maintaining . . . I'm still at a deficit although losing very, very slowly. I'm comfortable at these calories though and got a fitbit to help me know exactly where I am in terms of activity. I'm exercising a lot more and really like how that feels.

Categories