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bonnie_b_1960

Hello everyone! -126.0 pounds. Trying to figure how how to do maintenance. Have used My Fitness Pal for over a year and a half. Have worked up to walking 4 miles now. Just added weights over a week ago. Any suggestions on how to do maintenance would be great. Have been trying to clean up diet even more....trying to find my way....

springlering62

Hi Bonnie. Check out the maintenance board.

I’ve found that maintenance is as hard, or harder than losing the actual weight.

What works for me is being flexible but keeping a tight rein on a weight range.

Since I’ve been in maintenance, I’ve built a fair amount of muscle, and have to constantly remind myself “muscle weighs more than fat. I’m not getting fat again” and accept that I actually need to gain a few pounds as a result.

The best and simplest way I’ve found to judge this is clothes. If the itty bitty “new” clothes get tight, it’s time to cut a pound or two til they’re not.

When I’m at a comfortable weight, I try not to go more than two or three pounds above it. I weigh several times a week to make sure.

In maintenance I’ve found an interesting trend and don’t know why. Saturday is my lowest weight, it goes up two or three til Thursday when it starts trending down. Consistently. Week after week. But as long as it returns, I’m good. Discovering this trend helps me understand the gain is normal and not freak out.

I still weigh and log religiously- the good the bad and the ugly.

I give myself far more grace in the ugly in maintenance, because I know it’s just once in a while and I’m confident that it will go back down again. If not, I have the tools to correct, which is a different kind of confidence.

Sometimes it’s frustrating. My body continues to change, nearly three years into maintenance. Two or three months ago, all my shoes got crazy loose overnight. That was a weird one. My ribs have “come in” from the old A-frame shape that they developed to accommodate the fat.

Right now I’m going through a strange puffy period, clothes are trending looser, and I’m looking lanky again, even though I’ve upped my maintenance weight yet again. Anytime I get puffy or saggy, something has been fixing to happen. This has been an extended period of puff/sag and I’m trés curious to see where the heck this is leading to.

So continuing to workout and exercise is still paying off even this late into the game.

Someone here (and I’m sorry honey, I keep forgetting who you are!) said something that has really stuck with and has worked for me:

Treat maintenance like you still have ten pounds to lose