Why is so little attention given to maintenance?

elisa123gal

Two things.. when you start losing weight no one wants to realize that maintaining is just dieting for frickin' ever.
This board seems active enough for me.. but I also have been around here for years and sometimes step away to just live life norma and I bet a lot of people who successfully maintain like moving on with life and not live on the boards.
However, I come back here to be around like minded people to make sure I stay on track.

rlfrausto

Just eat normal and exercise the way you started and lost weight, no biggy!!

CrazyMermaid1

I wish it was as easy for me as it is for you. I have to be very vigilant

SarahAnne3958

dashagrr wrote: »

Over the years, I have found it easy to lose weight when I set out to do so, but I eventually regain it. I don't want to do this cycle anymore. I know if I could keep the motivation going, I can do this. I think I (and the other maintainers) could use more social support for long term success. This community is great, but even here, the "Goal: Maintaining Weight" is one of the least active boards. I am in several support groups on FB, I tried finding a support group for people that have reached their weight and maintaining, but no avail (maybe I am not using the right keywords? Is anyone aware of one?) There are tons of weight loss groups. Anyway, why there is so little social attention given to the maintenance stage, given how hard it is? Isn't the long term success rate only 5 to 20 %?

In my years of maintenance I've also discovered that there is a significant lack of support available, both in-person and then online. It's why I keep coming back to MFP, even though I get burned out from the drama stuff, because there's at least a small presence of maintainers here.

MadisonMolly2017

nowine4me wrote: »

Hey @MadisonMolly2017 I know this is the ULTIMATE back to basics, but are you drinking a ton of water? Getting plenty of sleep? Chug a glass of water when the “gnawing” starts and see if that doesn’t take the edge off.

@nowine4me & @psychod787
Just thanking you both again for taking the time to help me❣️
⬆️water & protein is working really well!
🍀

kcmcbee

Yes it seems Permanent healthy changes are harder than “temporary”, even long term dieting to hit a goal weight. So I’m working on making my changes become more of a lifestyle change in my habits to keep off what I’ve lost. Hope you can too! I understand how hard it is to keep it off. Portions and what I do and don’t eat and keeping track and being honest with myself is the best way for me.

seltzermint555

I'm on my sixth year of maintaining a loss of more than 130 lb total. But I still operate like I'm trying to lose weight, track daily and my MFP is set to lose 0.5 lb per week. I know that I don't normally eat a deficit because I've gotten lazy over the past 4+ years, don't log every bite and don't weigh or measure most things. That's why I'm not consistently losing weight and fluctuate up and down within a 7-10 lb range over each year. To be honest though, for me personally I feel if I ate "at maintenance calories" I would gain weight. But part of that is me getting a little older (42) and being fairly inactive especially through the work week.

riffraff2112

Maintaining hasn't been easy for me. It takes the same dedication and effort as losing and I have seen myself slip many times in the last five years. I am lucky that I tend to reach a certain weight (or my fave pants or shirt doesn't fit anymore) and I am able to real it back in.
I kind of agree, I think someone who has maintained their loss for a few years has done something very special as diet success rates are not very encouraging. The maintainers thread is awesome, but you are correct there should be more attention given to it because it is not easy for the vast majority of people.

pjwrt

"Diet." That word should be banned in the Maintenance thread because we no longer "diet." We've graduated from the diet phase into the "eating normally phase."

TheChristianSimone

Its not as glamorous or attention grabbing as losing or gaining weight for that matter. People like the constant push pull of losing and maintenance takes accountability and self awareness which from a look through the boards most prefer entertaining/surface vs the deeper things of self mastery.

rainbow198

Like seltzermint555, I'm also maintaining a big loss for over 6 years and I'm continuing on with the commitment, intensity and dedication just like I did while I was losing.

When I think about it, other then this forum, for the most part I don't run into many people that are actually maintaining their weight. Both online or offline.

Most are trying to lose, others are looking to intentionally gain and the rest have been at a healthy weight or athletic all of their lives - they don't have to think about their weight at all.

I do agree that there such be more focus on how to maintain weight loss. There are a handful of books I've read and websites (blogs and message boards) I have visited over the years, but that's about it. I just had to learn how to be my own cheerleader and keep going strong with maintenance.

CrazyMermaid1

Rainbow 198 what books did you read?

katsheare

New Year *bump*

LivingtheLeanDream

@rainbow198 I like your comment 'I just had to learn how to be my own cheerleader...' thats exactly what I've found.

TarryTaffy

No way to track it on MFP, but I wonder how many reach their goals, remain around for a few months longer while beginning maintenance, then leave once it's habit? So, there could be a very high maintenance %, but we'll never know on the forum.

bourbon_n_barbells

^ that's me pretty much. I just came back for the community. I've been in maintenance for about 8 years.

NovusDies

I am pretty obsessed with maintenance at the moment. I am studying habit change and working on what else I need to do to get ready. I also plan to practice maintenance and do recomp before worrying about getting to some sort of goal weight.

I lost a lot by being so heavy. Now I have gained a lot by losing a lot. I now consider preparing for maintenance as preparing to defend my freedom. Is that enough attention?

cmriverside

So...@dashagrr (the OP) - Howsit?

You said in your original post back in September that you were looking for ongoing discussions and/or support?

How's Maintenance?

steveko89

TarryTaffy wrote: »

No way to track it on MFP, but I wonder how many reach their goals, remain around for a few months longer while beginning maintenance, then leave once it's habit? So, there could be a very high maintenance %, but we'll never know on the forum.

I don't necessarily understand the drive people have to leave, to cross a mythical finish line and be done.

kenyonhaff

Honestly, losing the weight and succeeding is not something most people do in the first place.

Maintaining? That's usually not given a lot of thought because it's not dramatic. Humans aren't very good at paying attention to long-term things that aren't exciting or gives a lot of instant feedback naturally.

And humans are very good at going back to old habits. And our bodies were "developed" to seek out fatty/sugary foods, and conserve energy when given the opportunity.

(That's not the whole story, of course. We can develop new habits. Human bodies are meant to move, and feel good when they do. We can get used to healthy eating habits too.)

AnnPT77

TarryTaffy wrote: »

No way to track it on MFP, but I wonder how many reach their goals, remain around for a few months longer while beginning maintenance, then leave once it's habit? So, there could be a very high maintenance %, but we'll never know on the forum.

Theoretically, sure.

But research - lots of it, and decent quality - suggests that the overwhelming long-term result (from any/all weight loss methods) is regain.

And there are consistently enough "back again" type posts in MFP's "Getting Started" forums to suggest that calorie counting with MFP isn't dramatically different. Even in the maintenance part of the forum, people talk about various challenges, including beating back regain.

Complacency is an enemy. Stopping MFP or stopping calorie counting isn't a sure sign of complacency . . . but it makes complacency just that small bit easier.

Signed,

Heading into year 5 of maintenance, still hanging around, logging

P.S. Not trying to say maintenance is all that hard, either. But your question sounds soooo sanguine about it.

steveko89

I agree with Ann, it's not that hard if properly attempted. Personally, I think there are too many people (MFP users and others) who enter weight loss as a temporary condition and go back to the status quo (which led them to be overweight in the first place) without any meaningful changes to their default habits and lifestyle, despite their best intentions.

AnnPT77

I’m going to risk speculating a little bit, going back closer to the OP question.

I think there are lots of paths to weight loss that can work. Some will work better for some people, others better for others . . . but “motivation” can power people through things that aren’t a perfect fit, sometimes, during weight loss: You know it's temporarily, there are those motivating scale drops, and so forth.

Maintenance? I suspect most of us can’t permanently “will power” our way through a routine that isn’t pleasant, practical, fitted to our individual life habits and preferences, and so forth.

This puts a premium on honest self-assessment and self-understanding. Maintenance, I’d speculate, becomes easier when we honestly consider our strengths and limitations, preferences and needs, and fit the strategy to them. Sometimes I call this “gaming my personality”.

I’ll put myself up as a case study, in year 4+ of maintenance.

In the last 3ish months, a period that includes my birthday and the holidays, I’ve weighed everything from 132.4 to 141.5, and points mostly between. I’ve exercised from zero to 654 calories in a day. I’ve walked from 1,079 to 10,249 steps per day (not exercise, just steps), with no central tendency to my average: I don’t generally try to get steps, I just walk when I want/need to, doing other stuff.

On Thanksgiving and Christmas, I ate all the foods and drank all the drinks, didn’t log them. On some other days in there, I had super-indulgences, such as a meal that included a grownup-girl-sized craft IPA, a full order of deep-fried mushrooms with boatloads of catsup (and a little ranch), black-bean tacos plus chips, guac, sour cream . . . not the only thing I ate that day, either. (That isn’t the only big indulgence, BTW, just one example.) Calories per day (gross) probably ranged from 1500-ish (rare) to 5000 or more (also rare).

I’m seriously all over the map with eating, activity, sleep, and more. Am I saying this is a good thing? No.

No sane person would suggest another person approach maintaining a healthy weight in this way. Even I wouldn’t suggest it.

What I’m saying is that at age 64, I know myself pretty well.

I’m hedonistic, and bad at self-denial or self-discipline. I wallow happily in self-indulgence. Overall health is (belatedly, perhaps) important to me. Habits are not my strong suit. I’m logical and analytical; I like science; I’m a data geek, with a pretty good understanding of basic statistics. I’m not very anxious or emotional. I have self confidence (to a fault), and don’t like following other people’s rules. I’m stimulated and energized by variety. I have kind of a short attention span, and poor attention to detail. I have lots of discretionary time (retired).

How some of this applies to how I do maintenance, so far:

* I want the yummy foods, and some indulgent meals, so I calorie bank, and eat them. (hedonism, indulgence, variety)

* I more often choose “the good stuff”, more select items, now that I eat lower quantities, and it keeps me at about the same $$ budget. There’s a small Camembert with truffles in the fridge, where fat Ann might’ve had a big chunk of grocery-store swiss, for example. (hedonism, indulgence)

* I weigh myself every morning when I’m at home, and log in Libra (with smoothing and projection days set much longer than default). (data geek, analytical) Sudden big numbers on the scale don’t distress me at all. (unemotional)

* I stay active in the forums (stimulating, engages attention span)

* I log most days (data geek, analytical), but lose interest on difficult (unusual) ones (lack self discipline). As long as that’s occasional, it works out, and I usually have a rough idea of my calorie “bank balance”. If I don’t, my Libra data will point it out soon enough, even before the trend line bends (more data geek).

* I mostly do exercise that I almost hate to call “exercise”, because it’s fun: I’d do most of it even if it weren’t good for me. (The rest is done mostly to get better at the thing I love, or to beat back unpleasant physical stress effects.) (hedonistic)

I could go on, but I’ll spare you. You get the idea.

Should anyone else do what I do?

In terms of those specific practices, almost certainly not. For some, they’d cause a near nervous breakdown (had someone say something close to that when I posted a Libra chart with wild daily weight swings, but a pretty reasonable trend).

In terms of “know yourself, and tailor your strategies to your idiosyncrasies”? Maybe.

I’d add that IMO the weight loss process is a perfect time to try out different strategies, and see which feel most natural, easy, and sustainable permanently.

---
P.S. BTW: Over the 3-month period I talked about, my overall weight trend is slowly, slowly down, by about 2 pounds overall, just as I intend it – despite the holidays and erratic behavior - because I’d like to be just a little bit lighter.