Scared of maintenance!!
ShayCarver89
Posts: 239 Member
I am 1.2 pounds from my goal weight, so any time now I’ll be there.
I am scared to death of maintenance. So much so that I don’t want to do it. I’m scared of gaining weight.
Anyways, what should I expect and how often should I weigh myself to keep myself from freaking out?
I am scared to death of maintenance. So much so that I don’t want to do it. I’m scared of gaining weight.
Anyways, what should I expect and how often should I weigh myself to keep myself from freaking out?
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Replies
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how large is your deficit currently?
weigh yourself as often as you do now would be my advice.2 -
Currently I’m at 1250. I checked my maintenance calories and they’re 2250 - that’s what scares me!1
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ShayCarver89 wrote: »Currently I’m at 1250. I checked my maintenance calories and they’re 2250 - that’s what scares me!
so you need to start increasing them. start by adding 500 cals for a week, and then add 100 cals for 5 weeks after that.
expect a small fluctuation the first week, it'll even out after that.
more food is a good thing, not bad!14 -
'Scared to death' - strong words.
why scared? maintenance is no different than when we were losing, we just get some more calories to work with. If you're worried about regain you needn't - not as long as you continue to be mindful of your calories in/out, just like you have been when losing.
How often do you currently weigh yourself? alot of us weigh daily and use weigh trending apps, that helps us see the general trend of our weight and that is where it should be. It also helps you get used to the normal weight fluctuations, we are never one consistent number.4 -
LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »'Scared to death' - strong words.
why scared? maintenance is no different than when we were losing, we just get some more calories to work with. If you're worried about regain you needn't - not as long as you continue to be mindful of your calories in/out, just like you have been when losing.
How often do you currently weigh yourself? alot of us weigh daily and use weigh trending apps, that helps us see the general trend of our weight and that is where it should be. It also helps you get used to the normal weight fluctuations, we are never one consistent number.
I love being taken literally it’s the highlight of my life.
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ShayCarver89 wrote: »Currently I’m at 1250. I checked my maintenance calories and they’re 2250 - that’s what scares me!
only noticed that reply now! 2250 is a realistic number, I'm petite and maintain on around 2000. As @TavistockToad suggested, increase your calories slowly, ease in to maintenance.
Congrats on being so close to goal, well done
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Don't be scared of maintenance - @TavistockToad is totally right in how to approach it. Find a maintainers thread for support in easing into it and enjoy that journey too.
Maintaining is not that hard but like loosing weight does ask for focus.
Personally I weigh myself once or twice a week for monitoring. Whenever I reach there higher end of my maintenance range I tighten my diet up a little and I move down again.2 -
This is what maintenance looks like for me (I weigh myself almost every day). I think the general expectation
is a flat line, but variance within a reasonable range is more realistic!
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First, realize that you'll have a maintenance range not a set number. Many people chose a 3lb-5lb range. Your weight fluctuates daily for all sorts of reasons, not fat gains related, and it's very normal to see upticks and whooshes on the scale while in maintenance.
Over time you'll start to learn your body's patterns and will recognize the difference between normal fluctuations and actual gains. If you don't already use a trending app I'd recommend getting one-it's been very helpful for me in maintenance to learn about my body's natural fluctuations (for example I'm always at my highest weight on Monday mornings etc). Libra for android or Happy Scale for iphone.
Secondly, you might find it helpful to create new goals for yourself. One thing I've realized about maintenance is that it can get boring quickly, which leads to sloppiness. A new fitness goal, or maybe a new nutrition focus will help keep you focused.
Congrats OP for getting to this point in the process 4 -
If you haven't yet, start reading the "Goal: Maintaining Weight" part of the forum, starting with the "Most Helpful Posts".3
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I think it's common to be worried about maintenance. You put a lot of time and hard work into losing the weight, and now you don't want to undo it.
It helps me to remember that I'm not going to gain the weight back unless I just stop my normal routine. I still log calories as accurately as possible, though not everyone in maintenance does. I weigh every day, but that's also what I did while I was losing. My weight fluctuates within my maintenance range, and that's normal. Knowing your typical range of weight fluctuation is really important to keep yourself from worrying about every change on the scale. However, unless I either really overate or have let the scale creep up gradually, I know those fluctuations aren't fat gain.
If I do happen to go outside my maintenance range, I look for explanations first and give it a few days. It's probably not fat. But if I stay outside my range for more than a few days, then it might be fat and all I need to do is go back into a deficit temporarily.
Once you understand your normal weight fluctuation and trust your routine, I think maintenance becomes less scary.3 -
I probably seem a little ridiculous being so worried about it. I remember seeing someone post not that long ago that maintenance was harder than losing and from that moment on I've been scared.
I don't plan on stopping logging everything. I'm a daily weigher (sp) I think I might take it down to twice a week if I can help myself.
I have absolutely no plan to stop tracking and I'm getting a gym membership Friday when I get paid, so I plan on keeping it..actually doing more than I did to lose in the first place.
I think I'll be ok. I'm still nervous. And I feel a little silly for it. Most people would be very happy right now. I'm terrified.
But its just another chapter. I absolutely refuse to let myself go and regain the weight now that I'm here!3 -
ShayCarver89 wrote: »I probably seem a little ridiculous being so worried about it. I remember seeing someone post not that long ago that maintenance was harder than losing and from that moment on I've been scared.
I don't plan on stopping logging everything. I'm a daily weigher (sp) I think I might take it down to twice a week if I can help myself.
I have absolutely no plan to stop tracking and I'm getting a gym membership Friday when I get paid, so I plan on keeping it..actually doing more than I did to lose in the first place.
I think I'll be ok. I'm still nervous. And I feel a little silly for it. Most people would be very happy right now. I'm terrified.
But its just another chapter. I absolutely refuse to let myself go and regain the weight now that I'm here!
It's a normal fear I think for people who have lost a lot of weight.
If you weigh every day then you'll have a good understanding of normal fluctuations so you have nothing to worry about.0 -
I was nervous about maintenance too! I did good for a while (several months) maintaining between 124-127lb, keeping at the lower end at 124lb which is what I preferred. Then the holidays came and I bounced up a bit higher, ranging between 126-129lb. But after the holidays I got back into the groove and am slowly making my way back to the lower end of maintenance. Like everyone said, it's just like losing, but with more calories allotted for the day. So I still logged everything, weighed everything and kept up with my workouts. Best of luck! I also weighed in weekly when I was in maintenance, now that I'm trying to lose a bit to get back into 124-127lb range I'm weighing daily again.1
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ShayCarver89 wrote: »I probably seem a little ridiculous being so worried about it. I remember seeing someone post not that long ago that maintenance was harder than losing and from that moment on I've been scared.
I don't plan on stopping logging everything. I'm a daily weigher (sp) I think I might take it down to twice a week if I can help myself.
I have absolutely no plan to stop tracking and I'm getting a gym membership Friday when I get paid, so I plan on keeping it..actually doing more than I did to lose in the first place.
I think I'll be ok. I'm still nervous. And I feel a little silly for it. Most people would be very happy right now. I'm terrified.
But its just another chapter. I absolutely refuse to let myself go and regain the weight now that I'm here!
It's not ridiculous. Maintenance is a new experience for most people and it's normal to be scared of the unknown.
I think that claims of maintenance being more difficult than weight loss need some qualification. I don't think it's more difficult. Some people say that because there's no longer a goal weight number, maintenance gets monotonous and they find it harder to stick to it. If that's true for you, then you can set other fitness goals that aren't related to the number on the scale.
You don't have to stop weighing every day unless you want to. I would actually recommend continuing to weigh every day, at least for a while, so you understand what your normal fluctuation looks like as @TavistockToad said. Many people use a trend weight app like Libra or Happy Scale.
Keep in mind that if you increase your exercise, you may gain temporary water weight, and you will need to increase your maintenance calories to eat back what you burned.0 -
You're not being ridiculous; you're being normal. :flowerforyou:
Your determination is strong, and you have a good plan. That's half the battle.
Kind of echoing what apullum said, it's not so much hard as boring . . . which, perversely, can make it hard, psychologically.
During weight loss, we've set some goals and achieved them. There's that recurring little "whoo hoo" in our heads on a regular basis, seeing the weight trend heading steadily downward. Our hard work of self-remodeling is paying off: We're rewarded! (It lights up the same brain regions as sugar! It's addictive! <= That's a joke. But seeing the weight drop does activate pleasure circuitry in the brain, just like bunches of other happy-making stuff, including puppies and sugar.)
At goal weight, that horizontal weight trend just doesn't have the same power to delight, day in and day out. If we feel like we deserve something for continuing to manage our eating effectively, that can create a bit of a slippery slope. "I've been maintaining for weeks, I can afford to indulge by eating a bit more than usual of this XXXX (pizza and beer, or whatever), followed by "Gosh, that really didn't have much impact!", then beginning to let similar things happen more often . . . then weight creep. But it doesn't need to be that way. (To be clear, you can of course, do the occasional indulgence, and manage it, just as during weight loss. It's the "letting it happen more often" part that starts to incubate problems.)
Some people think it helps to set some new goals, and keep getting the (internal, psychological) rewards as you progress with those. Since you're joining a gym, fitness or body composition goals might be on your horizon. Or, if you think just having goals to work toward is motivating, they can be entirely unrelated ones, as you simultaneously continue working to ingrain healthy eating and movement into your routine habits, so it requires less active mental investment. Learn a new skill or hobby, for example.
You have the determination, and a good plan. Add some thinking about how to use your personal strengths, and avoid any personal weaknesses, to keep goodness going permanently.
You're gonna be fine! 6 -
I had the same fears and ask basically the same question. You might want to read through this thread: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10707239/how-do-you-conquer-the-fear-of-gaining/p10
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You are not alone.
I am also fearful of maintenance. Fear of failing I guess, of not having the "reward" of having lost weight to keep me going.
I don't think i am ready to go there now though should at least read up on recomp and maybe try that.3 -
Be afraid, be very afraid. lol. It is tricky. It is actually good that you're freaked out. Better than being over confident. My goal this year is to tackle maintenance. I did great at losing ..and maintained pretty good all summer into the fall...until the holidays. I'm just now almost done losing the weight I gained, I think I'll have it all off by Valentine's Day. But, I've been so friggin mad at myself.
All I can say.. is maintenance is like losing weight.. in that it is a journey..but its own journey. So if you approach like a new chapter with things to learn... you'll be fine.
The way I see it, you have to under eat to lose weight.. you have to overeat to gain it. But, you have to eat just exactly right to maintain..2 -
I've been in maintenance going on 6 years...there's nothing to be scared of if you maintain the healthy habits that you hopefully have formed while you were losing weight. I do the same things now as when I was losing weight...I eat healthy for the most part and exercise regularly. I weigh myself one or two times per week just when I was losing. The only difference between losing and maintaining is a handful of calories4
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Maintenance is the ultimate goal. Unless you're competing, actually even if you were, to maintain a level of health and fitness for life is what we all want, making educated adjustments accordingly. No one wants to successfully lose/gain weight just to gain/lose it all over again and restart the cycle.0
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Here is what my past year in maintenance has looked like. It may look like dramatic fluctuations, but check the y axis; the trend line stays in my maintenance range of 110-115. This is why I think it’s important to understand and be okay with normal everyday weight variation. (The huge drop recently is because I was sick and not able to exercise; I lost water weight that came back when I started working out again.)
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I absolutely understand your fears. I hit my goal weight and then skipped right over maintenance and gained the 12 lbs back guickly. 🙁🙁 I just now hit my maintenance weight again this week and I plan to go under it by 2 lbs, just to give myself some mental wiggle room. ( my goal weight was 149, and the mental difference of 149 and 150 is tremendous for me, so I’m going down to 147 just for buffer.
After I lose the additional 2 lbs, I intend to add on calories very slowly. Only upping them by 100 calories a day for the first few weeks. I’m afraid of awakening the beast of an appetite I can get from nerves. My deficit was only about 350 calories a day, so it’s quite easy to eat over that, even though it didn’t seem easy to regularly get that 350 calorie deficit.
Please don’t let your worries ruin this accomplishment for you. You’ve got this!!!
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I just wanted to update everyone. Everything is going well. I'm down half a pound all while getting to enjoy a cannoli with dinner last night. I'm slowly becoming less afraid. Tho the people around me have noticed that I've been able to have 1 extra piece of pizza and made comments about it. "You slipping back into your old ways?" No I am VERY MUCH still counting calories. I've had to explain to at least 4 people that I can't live on 1200 calories a day an expect to NOT lose weight. My goal is to stay where I am, not keep going down. Anyways, so far so good!8
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I get panned for saying this, but it’s true. Maintaining is the same as dieting, but with a handful more calories. Like an Apple and a serving of peanut butter. Ramp up your calories slowly and you’ll know when you get there. I’m 5-7” and active and maintain at 2100.2
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I get panned for saying this, but it’s true. Maintaining is the same as dieting, but with a handful more calories. Like an Apple and a serving of peanut butter. Ramp up your calories slowly and you’ll know when you get there. I’m 5-7” and active and maintain at 2100.
This is so true for a lot of us. I only get 200 calories more in maintenance than I did while I was losing. (I’m really short.). Those 200 calories make a difference, though.2 -
I lost 30 lbs 2 years ago and was scared of maintenance. I read all the maintenance threads and obsessed about how I was going to handle it. Then I did gain it all back. Of course, I didn’t gain it all back while continuing to strictly count my calories, keeping up the same exercise routine, etc.
What went wrong? First, I noticed that adding back a couple hundred calories made me more hungry (I was not hungry while losing, I really hit a good balance in the foods I enjoyed that kept me full at a deficit). I think I was also seriously motivated by seeing the scale drop. I should have set new goals, perhaps, non-scale ones. And then when life got really busy, I didn’t muster the motivation to make all the efforts I needed to keep on track. Old habits came back, and then self-sabotage.
Anyway, there’s a lot of good advice on this thread, and I’m already trying to think about how I’ll do it differently (once I lose these last 25 lbs!). Good luck OP.1 -
I get panned for saying this, but it’s true. Maintaining is the same as dieting, but with a handful more calories. Like an Apple and a serving of peanut butter. Ramp up your calories slowly and you’ll know when you get there. I’m 5-7” and active and maintain at 2100.
This is so true for a lot of us. I only get 200 calories more in maintenance than I did while I was losing. (I’m really short.). Those 200 calories make a difference, though.
Yeah 200 cals is the edge I balance on, also. I had a hard time adjusting to maintenance - dieting was mentally simple by comparison as goals and benchmarks are motivating and guiding. Making new, other goals intermittently (fitness, nutrition) seems to be helpful.1
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