Those who have lost a lot of weight - maintenance phases

natajane

Those of you on here who have lost a lot of weight and kept it off - did you build in regular maintenance phases? So did you lose your weight in one go, or did you occasionally have a break from the restriction?

I ask as my boyfriend showed me a youtube video by a PHD body builder and he said, that it makes sense to lose 5-15% of body weight, have a break for a couple of months where you eat at maintenance calories, and then when you're refreshed you set off to lose another 10% - and repeat until you're at goal.

As a person who always diets for 2 months and then falls off it for no real reason, it just seems to make perfect sense to do that. I've dieted for so long on and off, and I've never considered that I could break the journey up by building in some planned rest. Blown my silly mind a little!

Just interested to see if anyone has done that, how did it go.

justanotherloser007

I definitely did it in phases. This works well for me for many reasons, one of which is so important to me: Maintenance is a skill that I will need for the rest of my life. I started MFP in 6/2013 5'3" female 277 pounds ((current weight is 147 and I have a few lbs to go)) I am often very sick with autoimmune type diseases, with hives, and lots of prednisone courses (while my diseases are not weight related, they affected my weight due to being sick a lot). I had one goal at the time: Do not gain weight! I did that for one year. I hoped to lose weight, but the reality is that I had so much to learn about nutrition, weight, etc.

The next year I lost 40 pounds, mostly by stopping weekend buffet binges and walking. I kept that off until Lent 2021. Almost 7 years. Yes I was still obese, but I just wasn't ready for the changes I REALLY needed to make to live in the goal weight maintenance. I made some beautiful nutritional changes by really changing my attitude re: vegetables and protein in Lent. I lost 60 pounds over time. I took a couple months break, lost 30 more pounds. Last I checked I am in deficit for two weeks, then maintenance at two weeks. I am within 6 pounds of what is the top range of my permanent maintenance weight goal.

The closer I got to my permanent maintenance weight, I have taken my time to practice maintenance and get a feel for my permanent life choice. The best help I got is from others on MFP who have successfully went into maintenance for years. I recommend reading their advice, it is all very good. Look up in community maintenance. My favorite tips:

1) Do a weekly count of calories.

This means, when I am in maintenance I still count all my calories in/calories out and in a week I sometimes have high energy days where I am really burning some energy up. I have some low calorie days cuz sometimes I don't have time to eat all the calories esp on high energy days. By the time Sunday rolls around, that is my favorite day! I save Sundays as my special treat and rest days. They are very special! I might have ice cream, cake, chips, candy or depending on my careful planning, sometimes all of it!

Monday through Saturday I try to be diligent in protein (before I tracked nutrition I barely got ANY and never ate the recommended amount) and I try to get in a 3 or more servings of my favorite vegetables every day (except Sunday). Sunday, my macros are just whatever it is. I usually don't get my protein on Sundays lols. I get some, just not like the rest of the week. I might be hungrier on Sundays even though I eat more calories than the rest of the week, but that is my trade for macro vs. food I want. Food I "want" or maybe "crave" has a tendency to make me a little more hungry and is higher calorie. Too much of food I want vs. what my body needs and I will get fat, and still be HUNGRY. I know that now. I can work around it, and I am certainly happy with my daily food and I am just more knowledgeable, thoughtful, and plan better. Before I was really haphazard and kind of ate like an infant. Just put it in my mouth, I was hungry, it was food, whatever. I don't eat like that anymore. Thoughtful planning is what got me here. 130 pounds down over time. With a real confidence in my nutrition and daily/weekly diet plan.

2) Separate the idea of "deficit" vs. "maintenance"

When I was really in a decent deficit at my higher weight and losing, I still reserved Sundays to be special days that I had any treats that were just too high calorie for more frequency. I called them "maintenance days" So it would be a Mon-Sat deficit and Sunday math was: my goal weight at age calories. This means that in 2013, I knew how many calories I needed to eat at my goal weight. So really the rest of the time was really figuring out how to eat and have activity that matched my goal weight. My plan for success.

So the way this went mentally was: deficit, deficit, deficit etc. Sunday: maintenance at goal weight calories = super exciting!! I can't wait to eat like this all the time!! lols. True story. For me maintenance is around 1500 calories for sedentary, and any activity bumps that up.

Hope this gives you an idea of what I did. And I hope you happy planning for YOU! Knowing yourself will help so much. The best advice to be successful is do what YOU can do. How best can YOU fit fitness in your lifestyle? This was how I did it, but I don't know if this plan would work for others. Learn what your weaknesses are and make a plan for YOUR success! I wish you all the best!

cwolfman13

I lost a total of 40 Lbs back in 2012/2013. I didn't really do phases necessarily...I was really consistent for the first couple of months with my nutrition and keeping my calorie target everyday. I wanted to do that to get the ball rolling and get into the process and better understand the process, so I was pretty strict with things. After a couple of months I decided that I would stay in a calorie deficit 5 days per week and up to maintenance 2 days per week...usually on the weekend.

This just gave me a little more wiggle room and freedom a couple of days per week and made it easier to fit in a Sunday brunch or Friday night pizza night or something like that. My rate of loss slowed a bit, but I was more concerned with sustainability and hitting my target more than I was concerned with hitting that target by some date or in some specific time frame.

I maintained my weight for about 7 years until COVID and put on about 20 Lbs through 2020 and 2021 and have maintained that for 2022. I'm just now getting serious again about getting down to my previous maintenance weight and I'm basically following the same process I did the first go.

One issue for me personally with taking prolonged maintenance breaks would be getting back into the groove after a month or how many ever weeks I was taking a diet break for...I think for myself it would just be harder to keep my head in the game...kinda like when I take a really long vacation it's much harder for me to get back into the groove at work than it does after just having a couple of days off for the weekend. After a weekend it's pretty easy for me to just jump right back in and start where I left off...not so much when I've taken a 2-3 week vacation. But everyone has to go about their own process in their own way that best suites their personality and preferences.

BartBVanBockstaele

I lost a little over 60 kg. I took no breaks, although my spreadsheet shows I did. I just refused to face reality and to continue lowering my energy intake to the level necessary to continue the losing streak. I finally did that a few months ago and am, predictably, losing weight again. Since I am approaching the end goal (my personal "ideal weight", I don't know yet what that actually is), I have a small number of tiny additions in mind to stop the loss and maintain. The changes are genuinely tiny. For example, one would be to add my favourite vegetable blend that I had to stop in order to restart the losing streak. Another one would be to add red beets and leeks, both of which I stopped for the same reason. In short, my forever diet will largely be the diet I followed to lose weight. I currently expect to reach that goal sometime in February.

Other people may differ, but breaks make no sense to me. It is far easier to create a genuine habit instead of having to restart again and again.

I should perhaps add that there are no known physiological reasons to have breaks. All that matters is an energy deficit. How we do that might have a minor effect (for which there is only very scant and controversial evidence), so the only potentially defensible reason for breaks would be psychological. Those reasons could be very valid, or not, but that is essentially a matter of personal trial and error.

justanotherloser007

You might also want to search "diet breaks" in the community. This thread has been going on a while.. maybe start at page 200 instead of 1.. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

I am trying to find the article where they put a group of people on a deficit for 10 weeks and showed the results, and the second group that if I recall they did a week of deficit a week of maintenance. The second group did better in losing fat. BUT it took longer, lols. Therefore the trade off. People don't usually want to take time to lose weight.

But since I had around 140 lbs to lose, that seemed daunting. I took my time, because I have it and, again, this is for life - not really lose the weight and gain it back kind of girl. I don't think I have what it takes to lose this amount of weight again. So it was easier for me to take my time instead of rushing it, maybe not learning enough about the process, then having to do it again. ((My Mom was an incredible yo-yo dieter)) I learned from the mistakes of many of my family members: Learn how to maintain a lower weight!

Xellercin

I started with maintenance.

Meaning, I ate the kind of diet that would sustain a leaner body and eventually I got that leaner body.

I didn't change anything, I just eventually stopped losing and just kept eating the same way and maintained the loss.

I did, however, regain a small amount due to prednisone and other meds that cause weight gain and slow metabolism, and re-losing was much more difficult and I had to periodically eat more to rev my metabolism back up, because it was totally destroyed. But that was a much more metabolically complex situation.

I solved that with intermittent fasting in the end, but even that is something that I started with maintenance and have just stuck with it.

I always start with the end in mind and only do what is sustainable. My goal is ALWAYS to find a sustainable, healthy lifestyle and I just accept whatever weight comes from that.

If my healthiest lifestyle produced a weight 20lbs heavier than I am now, I would be cool with that.

So no, I never take "breaks" but I do occasionally go through phases of intentionally eating more.

cwolfman13

BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »

I lost a little over 60 kg. I took no breaks, although my spreadsheet shows I did. I just refused to face reality and to continue lowering my energy intake to the level necessary to continue the losing streak. I finally did that a few months ago and am, predictably, losing weight again. Since I am approaching the end goal (my personal "ideal weight", I don't know yet what that actually is), I have a small number of tiny additions in mind to stop the loss and maintain. The changes are genuinely tiny. For example, one would be to add my favourite vegetable blend that I had to stop in order to restart the losing streak. Another one would be to add red beets and leeks, both of which I stopped for the same reason. In short, my forever diet will largely be the diet I followed to lose weight. I currently expect to reach that goal sometime in February.

Other people may differ, but breaks make no sense to me. It is far easier to create a genuine habit instead of having to restart again and again.

I should perhaps add that there are no known physiological reasons to have breaks. All that matters is an energy deficit. How we do that might have a minor effect (for which there is only very scant and controversial evidence), so the only potentially defensible reason for breaks would be psychological. Those reasons could be very valid, or not, but that is essentially a matter of personal trial and error.

There is quite a bit of evidence and support for some kind of diet break from prolonged dieting, either taking periodic prolonged breaks (1 or 2 weeks), calorie cycling, or otherwise raising calories at points during dieting for hormone regulation (particularly leptin, peptide YY, and ghrelin) and combating adaptive thermogenesis. Constant, prolonged dieting can really jack with hormone regulation.

BartBVanBockstaele

cwolfman13 wrote: »

BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »

I lost a little over 60 kg. I took no breaks, although my spreadsheet shows I did. I just refused to face reality and to continue lowering my energy intake to the level necessary to continue the losing streak. I finally did that a few months ago and am, predictably, losing weight again. Since I am approaching the end goal (my personal "ideal weight", I don't know yet what that actually is), I have a small number of tiny additions in mind to stop the loss and maintain. The changes are genuinely tiny. For example, one would be to add my favourite vegetable blend that I had to stop in order to restart the losing streak. Another one would be to add red beets and leeks, both of which I stopped for the same reason. In short, my forever diet will largely be the diet I followed to lose weight. I currently expect to reach that goal sometime in February.

Other people may differ, but breaks make no sense to me. It is far easier to create a genuine habit instead of having to restart again and again.

I should perhaps add that there are no known physiological reasons to have breaks. All that matters is an energy deficit. How we do that might have a minor effect (for which there is only very scant and controversial evidence), so the only potentially defensible reason for breaks would be psychological. Those reasons could be very valid, or not, but that is essentially a matter of personal trial and error.

There is quite a bit of evidence and support for some kind of diet break from prolonged dieting, either taking periodic prolonged breaks (1 or 2 weeks), calorie cycling, or otherwise raising calories at points during dieting for hormone regulation (particularly leptin, peptide YY, and ghrelin) and combating adaptive thermogenesis. Constant, prolonged dieting can really jack with hormone regulation.

In that case: how do people who are being fed an energy deficient diet gain weight? Do they turn themselves into nuclear reactors, are they absorbing energy from the air (the only breatharians I know of are swindlers or dead) and why is it that people in ICUs who are being fed parenterally don't need breaks to lose weight?

justanotherloser007

@BartBVanBockstaele "how do people who are being fed an energy deficient diet gain weight?" For me, when I was in an energy deficit and took prednisone I gained weight. It took about a month, but I am almost certain that at least 7 lbs of that was water. When time was factored in, it did come off. But to the disinterested observer it would appear that I gained weight in a deficit.

Since that is just one medicine, and I am not in an ICU with whatever serious random parameters can happen there. I am sure people are generally referring to not being in a medical emergency, and there are still some mitigating factors in general.

I think one of those factors, for the general population not in a medical crisis, is muscle loss. We all know it happens when you are in deficit. So when you add back calories, and your body starts making that muscle you will have some random gains, and then general losses since muscle takes up more energy. That is one factor, but since it is time and hormone related, I have certainly noticed it.

BartBVanBockstaele

justanotherloser007 wrote: »

@BartBVanBockstaele "how do people who are being fed an energy deficient diet gain weight?" For me, when I was in an energy deficit and took prednisone I gained weight. It took about a month, but I am almost certain that at least 7 lbs of that was water. When time was factored in, it did come off. But to the disinterested observer it would appear that I gained weight in a deficit.

Since that is just one medicine, and I am not in an ICU with whatever serious random parameters can happen there. I am sure people are generally referring to not being in a medical emergency, and there are still some mitigating factors in general.

I think one of those factors, for the general population not in a medical crisis, is muscle loss. We all know it happens when you are in deficit. So when you add back calories, and your body starts making that muscle you will have some random gains, and then general losses since muscle takes up more energy. That is one factor, but since it is time and hormone related, I have certainly noticed it.

You may be quite right. That said, when we talk about weight loss, we normally talk about fat weight loss (there are sometimes very good medical reasons for wanting to achieve water weight loss as well, but that is usally a process that is better controlled because it has (next to) nothing to do with food).

*IF* you had a genuine energy deficit, you *WILL* have lost weight, even if your scale showed an increase. This puzzles a lot of people. You have understood it, so it should not be a problem for you. I am currently actually creating a chart to show that the problem of water fluctuation is just a confounding factor that has nothing to do with fat weight in an attempt to explain that to people who are discouraged by the phenomenon. It may be helpful, it may not be. I just felt I had to try it. I only have recorded about two weeks right now, but I intend to continue recording it until I have enough data to credibly illustrate the issue. Not prove obviously, a trial of 1 person is called an anecdote, not proof, but still. I am also not trying to convince anyone of anything, only trying to make some people understand what is going on, before they give up.

mjglantz

I did it slowly and with some long plateaus guess it was sort of in phases. I set out to lose about 40 lbs even though I needed to lose at least 60. took it very slow with small sustainable changes realizing and accepting that this was for life. When I hit my first goal I didn't do much differently although had reduced my calorie goal a bit and kept losing weight.
I did have a surprise.....heart attack after losing about 45 lbs. that was a life saver because it got me to exercise regularly and I ended up losing another 35 lbs and have kept it off for 9 1/2 years.
Now I eat a pretty heart healthy diet with lots of plants and I exercise every day.

BigMech

From 2010-2012 I lost 260 lbs., going from 490lbs to 230lbs at 6'6". I stayed consistently in a calorie deficit the whole time, while also working out 5-6 days a week, cardio and weightlifting. I shot for maintaining a 1000 calorie deficit each day, with an intake of 2500-3000 calories depending on how much exercise I did.

The weight loss was pretty consistent until I got down to about 250lbs, but even then I still lost weight, just at a slower rate. As I approached my goal weight, I brought the calories up slowly until I reached a balance. There would days when my weight would plateau or go up a little, but if I looked at the trend over say a week, maybe 2, it was always in the downward direction while I was in a calorie deficit.

I never took any reset breaks during this 2 year period, just stayed in a consistent calorie deficit.

I maintained at around 250lbs for the next 7 years by trying to match my intake with calorie expenditure and would fluctuate 5-10 lbs in either direction, and make tweaks accordingly.

I only gained weight back when I stopped watching what I was eating and stopped exercising. Bad habits came back and good one's I had developed got dropped. I'm getting back into now finally and am down 20lbs. so far.