Is it normal to plan for weight gains while trying to maintain current body weight?

DupreeTheTRex

I recently hit my long term goal of losing 100lbs. It took me almost two years to lose the weight and well over 10 years to figure out a lifestyle that works for me.

Throughout my weight loss journey, I realized there are moments in life where counting calories are just not possible or extremely difficult to do accurately. Vacations, family events and other social events make it more challenging to accurately count your calories in and I find it often takes away from the fun of the event. The methodology I adapted during my weight loss journey was to bank calories leading up to the event and to just enjoy myself guilt free during the lifetime of the event. This has been working for me so far and I find it’s much easier to cut back a few calories over a short period of time rather than having to do it long term.

I’m going on my honeymoon in two weeks and have increased my deficit with the goal of shedding a few pounds before the vacation. My wife and I are foodies, so all of the events planned involve food to some degree. We plan on eating out and some of the most highly recommended restaurants of the places we’re touring. I fully expect to gain weight on this three week trip, so as always I’m “banking” calories for the event.

My goal weight was 180lbs but when I hit 185lbs I basically realized I had plateaued and so I continued eating at maintenance for a couple of months. Leading up to my vacation I slowly cut back 100 calories per day and increased the deficit to 200, then 300 (etc.). I’ve settled on a weight range that I would like to maintain which I feel comfortable at (175-185lbs). Would this still be considered maintaining weight? Is my approach to maintenance correct?

sijomial

DupreeTheTRex wrote: »

I’ve settled on a weight range that I would like to maintain which I feel comfortable at (175-185lbs). Would this still be considered maintaining weight? Is my approach to maintenance correct?

Yes, gaining and losing within a desired weight range is very much maintenance.
Perhaps a 10lb range is wider than many people but fitting your diet into your lifestyle rather than trying to force your lifestyle to conform to an overly restrictive diet / weight range must surely make maintenance happier and easier long term.

Personally, I've maintained within a 7lb range for years with a seasonal trend towards the top end in Winter and a drift back down in Spring as that works well for me. I've sometimes adjusted that maintenance range (up and down) over the years too - primarily for sports performance but also out of curiosity. All-inclusive vacations also tend to bump me to the top of my range......

I think of my upper limit as an intervention point, I start to ease back on the discretionary (fun!) calories and start to have odd days where I choose to have a deficit. I don't calorie count anymore but did for the first year or so of maintenance,

Congrats on reaching maintenance and your forthcoming honeymoon.

DupreeTheTRex

sijomial wrote: »

DupreeTheTRex wrote: »

I’ve settled on a weight range that I would like to maintain which I feel comfortable at (175-185lbs). Would this still be considered maintaining weight? Is my approach to maintenance correct?

Yes, gaining and losing within a desired weight range is very much maintenance.
Perhaps a 10lb range is wider than many people but fitting your diet into your lifestyle rather than trying to force your lifestyle to conform to an overly restrictive diet / weight range must surely make maintenance happier and easier long term.

Personally, I've maintained within a 7lb range for years with a seasonal trend towards the top end in Winter and a drift back down in Spring as that works well for me. I've sometimes adjusted that maintenance range (up and down) over the years too - primarily for sports performance but also out of curiosity. All-inclusive vacations also tend to bump me to the top of my range......

I think of my upper limit as an intervention point, I start to ease back on the discretionary (fun!) calories and start to have odd days where I choose to have a deficit. I don't calorie count anymore but did for the first year or so of maintenance,

Congrats on reaching maintenance and your forthcoming honeymoon.

Thank you, very insightful!

Im glad to hear that it’s not weird to maintain a range. 175lbs is 5 lbs under where I want to be long term (which is 180lbs) but I'm comfortable being 5lbs heavier. I actually gave up on losing the last five pounds and was maintaining 185lbs for a couple of months before I started prepping for vacation. I will happy to lose as much as I can before the vacation. I still have a solid 20lbs I could lose since I’m still on the heavier side of healthy weight for my height.

I don’t think I will ever be able to cut counting calories entirely. A lot of it already comes second nature to me. When I cook a staple I know how many calories are going into the recipe. I still use a scale to measure out ingredients and portion sizes. It takes me a few seconds to pop a recipe I’ve saved into my diary and my snacks are usually the same throughout the week. I very rarely eat anything else for snacks because I have no desire to eat other snacks at the moment.

I just have a fear of yo-yoing again for the umpteenth time. This is the longest I’ve maintained weight loss. Prior to this I think my longest was 3 months. 2 years is much longer than 3 months and I feel I’ve finally found balance in my life.

AnnPT77

I've been up and down over the past 6+ years since losing from obese to a healthy weight in 2015-16. I've probably even gone a bit wider than your 10 pound range (maybe as much as 12-15? and I'm only 5'5"), but part of that was that I accidentally overshot goal on the low end while trying to dial in maintenance calories at the end of loss. As long as I'm in the healthy BMI range, and not needing to buy new clothes (especially jeans, as a specific size metric) I'm not too freaked out about it. I consider that all maintenance. My priority is health, not so much cuteness, but I look OK in that range, too, IMO.

(I know that the normal BMI range isn't the best set of boundary conditions for every single individual, but it works OK for my body, though I don't like to go below about BMI 19. I think boundary conditions are important, but they can be individualized.)

As far as fear of true yo-yos: You have control. That's what the boundary conditions are about. Whatever you decide your boundaries are, you will need to act on them.

For me, I slowly re-lost a few vanity pounds (10-12 pounds-ish or so over more than a year) during 2019-20, that had crept on super-slowly over the several years since initial loss. My trigger to say "enough is enough" was that my jeans were getting a little snug when I put on my Winter long undies. I hate to shop, and I was not going to buy a whole new wardrobe again. NoNoNO.

You're well into maintenance now, at 2 years in. You've already managed a bit of up and down. You know what tactics to use, if you need to lose. I think you're on solid ground - congratulations on finding that balance in your life. It's a powerful thing!

mtaratoot

I try to maintain within a range. I actually have two different ranges. One is an "ideal" range that is five pounds and an "absolute" range that's ten pounds. I haven't really been in my "ideal" range for a while, but I've maintained in my "absolute" range for about four years with a couple side trips outside. I also continue to re-evaluate my goals, because I'm really not sure that they are the "right" goals. It's a continuous journey and an opportunity to discover new things about ourselves.

I have a hunch that if I stopped tracking, I'd slowly gain a bunch of weight back. It would probably be faster than the 25 or 30 years it took me to gain it the first time because I might have been more active when I was younger.

spiriteagle99

I also have a 5 lb. range that I have been maintaining for several years. Like you, when I go on vacation, I tend to gain a few pounds because I am not as consistent in my exercise and I eat out more often. I don't worry about it. I do try not to have a mindset where I completely ignore the calories in what I am eating because YOLO, but I am a bit less careful. As soon as I get home, though, I go back to logging everything and exercising daily. I don't try to quickly lose the weight I've gained, if I've gained, but I do cut back on my normal food a bit. I'm not out to punish myself, just get back on track. Often the weight I seem to have gained goes away quickly because a lot of it was just water weight, which has taught me that there is no need to panic or skip the scale when I get home. I just start over as soon as I can.