Starting by Maintaining

maibutterfly

Wow, I just started logging food again. I am listening to an amazing podcast called, half-size me. She lost over 150 lbs and is in year 10 of maintenance. She's inspired me. The plan: track normal eating (wow I was way overeating) Then, you find out what your maintenance is on average over a few weeks. Then as you find things you can always do with your diet and exercises you reduce the maintenance amount by that, then on days you want to eat more you plan for your maintenance calorie amount. I LOVE this. It feels impowering and something I can do forever. I am on day 3 of tracking my maintenance caloric intake. Not a diet, not fast, just using maintenance caloric knowledge to make this long term (of course when my weight changes I will have to recalculate what maintenance is). Here's to starting, by maintaining!

cmriverside

Do you want to lose weight? I'm confused because you've tagged your post with, "100+ LBS to lose," but you're posting in the "Maintaining Weight" subforum...
I have to say the obvious...if I had 100 pounds to lose, I would not waste time playing with Maintenance calories.
Just go to "Goals" here, set your weight loss to "Lose 1 pound per week," like it suggests. Log THAT food. See how your weight loss goes over the next 6-8 weeks. You may as well aim to lose some - a pound a week would be giving you a 500 calorie-per-day deficit, so it's easy enough to back-calculate your maintenance calories and it's not a huge deficit. I would think if you just continue to eat the way you have been, you'll be gaining more while figuring this out, and really the whole process involves tweaking - all the way through it.
Here is how Myfitnesspal calculates FOR you:
https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

p.s., I lost 80+ pounds 14 years ago on this site and I've kept it off. I just jumped in!

mirianyusm

Since you are not in a hurry to lose weight, it's great that you are trying it. I never heard of this podcast/method, but you might even find that you lose weight while at maintenance. Good luck to you and keep us posted.

maibutterfly

Thanks all! I am excited, I will jump off the maintenance posts, cmriverside is right, I do have a lot to lose, but I am going to go the slow, slow way. Now that I know I was eating 3500 calories a day + and since tracking maintenance for the last two weeks, my maintenance is at 2350 sustained for 2 weeks, I am going to start changing small habits that I can change forever and put myself at a caloric deficit, off of the 2350 and go to 2350 on days like today (holiday party at work, pizza night with fam). and, I'm off... mirianyusm, thanks for the encouragement! I will check back in in about 6 months.

LorieJCall

maibutterfly wrote: »

Now that I know I was eating 3500 calories a day + and since tracking maintenance for the last two weeks, my maintenance is at 2350 sustained for 2 weeks, I am going to start changing small habits that I can change forever and put myself at a caloric deficit, off of the 2350 and go to 2350 on days like today (holiday party at work, pizza night with fam).

@maibutterfly: I think it's great that you learned something new about yourself by logging for a while before making changes! I did something similar, but for different reasons: I didn't want to change too many things at the same time, so I learned how to measure and log while using up food I wasn't going to buy again. It took me a couple weeks to "clean out" my kitchen, and when I saw the data over that timeframe, I honestly wished I had started logging sooner. Good luck with your small, forever changes!

maibutterfly

Okay, So this is day two of the first 8 weeks learning to change my habits and put myself in a caloric deficit. I took some advice from others on their habits, plus looked at what I did, and am adapting slowly. (note: slowly. I missed by breakfast so I went to BK; a common occurrence, but I made myself buy one sandwich instead of two). Yesterday I ended up eating over maintenance. Today, I am making a plan so that I don't get hungry by having healthier options here available at work and at home.

MadisonMolly2017

@maibutterfly
I used your approach 2016-2018 to lose 70 lbs. Have maintained since.
I spent the first 6 months working with portion sizes, eliminating or reducing eating out, figuring out grocery shopping, completely going through kitchen & pantry- making it easier to cook.
The 2nd 6 months I limited some macros due to a medical condition & began walking daily.
Etc.
The major loss occurred Dec 2017-June 2018, but all those other months of habit formation paid off!

You might enjoy two groups on here:
Building Healthy Habits
Ultimate Accountability Group

I credit them (along with NOOM, half size me, this group, and my Apple Watch) with my success so far.

SW 228.3
CW 160.3
BMI 24.7

Cheesy567

Way to go, @maibutterfly! I agree with you, this is definitely the way to go. I’ve been following Heather’s method for several years now and I’m down over 80 pounds, despite some serious health issues and life curveballs. I take maintenance breaks as needed and can truly maintain, no more rapid regains of 30+ pounds like in the past.

Don’t let people who are rude and quick to judge what they don’t know slow your roll, you’re free to post where you wish, people can (and ought to) scroll on by if they don’t wish to contribute constructively. High-weight maintenance is a useful tool that is under-utilized and under-discussed. I’m so glad you brought it up, and happy it’s working for you too!

Luannelizabeth

It just goes to show you that there's no one way that's right for everyone. I too need the accountability of logging my food. I've had a 35 lb weight loss and would like to maintain it for a while to see how it feels to do that. Then I might decide I want to lose more, IF my body agrees. But yeah, I'm in it for the long haul.

maibutterfly

@MadisonMolly2017 This is great! She's so inspiring and so are all of these successes! Well done. I'm still going strong and FEEL empowered and amazing, not hungry or restricting, even though now I am eating an average of over 1500 calories less a day! This like no other method before has had me feel.

Lerayima

Luannelizabeth wrote: »

It just goes to show you that there's no one way that's right for everyone. I too need the accountability of logging my food. I've had a 35 lb weight loss and would like to maintain it for a while to see how it feels to do that. Then I might decide I want to lose more, IF my body agrees. But yeah, I'm in it for the long haul.

I've been doing the same since last year. I went for 10% of my weight, which is recommended by the NHS before reassessing it a few months later. I had lost some initial weight without trying prior to that by having long Covid, so I am currently 31lb lower than I was a year ago. I always told myself that I'd decide whether to go further in the New Year so decision time comes very soon! I also think that I need to track long term. I think different methods work for different people. I yoyo'ed by 50lb twice in the past so decided to try going in stages this time.

makethistimedifferent

Your mindset is spot on. Make the changes to and stick with for the rest of your life! This is what I tell people all the time because I talk to many people who only make changes to get to their goal weight, but don't plan for what they are going to do once they are at their goal weight.

Xellercin

I lost 80lbs by eating for maintenance for the size I wanted to be. I knew what that looked like because I had maintained that weight for years before gaining in grad school. So once I graduated and had more control over my life, I went back to eating the way I had before, which was comfortable and sustainable, and eventually ended up the same size that I was before.

I aimed for my ideal lifestyle, not a weight loss goal.