How to do this thing how to do maintenance

Egotrapped

I have been logging my meals, my food, exercise for so long that when I hit maintenance a few months ago I kept logging and adding calories but still, I keep losing.
Today I was 9 pounds below my low goal weight and realize that have become borderline crazy about this.
I decided to not count today. So I eyeballed everything and ate a little more. I don’t want be heavy ever again, but I don’t want to have an eating disorder and be too thin either. Trying to find a balance - not sure how to do that.
I would appreciate any tips you could give me on how to maintain my way without being fanatical about every single calorie and every single step I take.

AnnPT77

Congratulations on reaching goal, @Egotrapped: That's huge and wonderful. I can totally relate that making maintenance work is a new and somewhat different challenge. It took me some time to get there, too.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like you would like to stop counting, or at least do it in a more relaxed, approximate kind of way. I get that. Still, the best suggestion I can think of involves counting for a while more, so I hope you'll bear with me for a long post. I'll get there. So:

Have you estimated your own calorie needs based on your rate of loss?

If not, I'd suggest starting there, using your most recent 4-6 weeks of calorie and scale weight data. There are instructions about how to do that in this thread, so I won't go on at length here about the "how":

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level/p1

I'm guessing that part of the problem is the MFP (or some other calculator or fitness tracker) inaccurately estimates your calorie needs. For sure, that is true for me: MFP thinks I'd maintain around 1500 + exercise. Reality, it's more like 2000 + exercise. (That's based on 8+ years now of logging, since I chose to continue logging in maintenance.)

Even with personalized estimate like that, some people find that as they add calories to estimated maintenance, their body up-regulates energy level, they move more (plus some subtle stuff like faster hair growth), so their calorie needs go up more than expected.

That may be true for you, but there would be a ceiling on that eventually. If you keep counting, and keep looking at your loss rate in terms of what it's mathematically telling you about your calorie needs (as a multi-week average), you will eventually stabilize in weight. (I'm sure you know that "weight stable" means staying in a range of weight, maybe +/- 3 pounds or so. It's not just a single number.)

While you're working on reaching that stable range and getting close, and if you haven't already, start thinking about your habitual patterns, the patterns in how you eat and move, your routine habits. Stopping counting, and relying more on the scale, will depend on having generally repeatable patterns in your habits.

This doesn't mean eating in the exact same way every day or doing the exact same exact movement/exercise, let alone never having treats/indulgence! It just means recognizing that the majority of your days will determine the majority of your outcomes, so understanding the patterns that work for you is useful. Your patterns might involve a bigger dinner each Saturday night, or variations in exercise depending on weather or whatever, but they'll tend to average out when you look at your needs/experience over a period of 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual cycles, if you have those).

When you have a good handle on your life patterns, and on the scale results that come from a certain set of eating and activity patterns, you should be able to stay weight stable without counting religiously, maybe not counting at all.

It would still involve watching the scale, not necessarily daily, but also as a multi-week trend. With somewhat consistent eating/activity patterns, weight gain or loss tends to be a slow, creeping kind of thing. Some people use a rule of thumb like "when I'm above my maintenance range for 3 days in a row, I cut back on treats or snacks until I'm at the bottom of my maintenance range" or variations on that theme.

Like I said, I've chosen to keep calorie counting in maintenance (7+ years so far), because that is stress-free and generally ideal for me. I do do it in a more relaxed way, skip logging some days now, rely on the scale more. But if I wanted to stop logging, the above is how I'd approach it.

I hope you get some personal experience suggestions for others, and I wish you good outcomes!

Have you read the "Most Helpful Posts" in this Maintaining Weight section? There are some threads there, and in this section in general, about how other people make it work.

Best wishes!

spiriteagle99

When I reached my goal weight, I also continued to lose, in part because I was increasing my exercise (marathon training), and partly because the goal MFP gave me was too low. I added 200 calories to my goal, and then another 200 later. I continued to log my food and exercise. I eat back all my exercise calories. Over time I figured out the calories I need to stay at a steady weight, more or less. I have a 5 pound range that I have maintained for about 10 years.

I do not weigh or measure my food. I am pretty good at estimating amounts (or overestimating). I do log what I eat and drink every day. Not because I need to be absolutely accurate about my total calories, but because I have found that logging everything I eat keeps me accountable and makes me more careful. I don't have an extra beer or cookie. I don't buy the donut at the mini-mart, etc. because I know I'll log it later and have a hard time justifying the extra unnecessary calories. Many successful maintainers don't even do that much, because they have found a way of eating that they can maintain without thinking about it. I, OTOH, know myself. I like sweets, a lot. If I am not careful, they go from occasional treats to daily treats to constant snacks and desserts. It is easy to ignore the extra servings or extra drinks, but they do add up. Which is why I continue to log, even though I've been doing it for a very long time.

momlongerwalk

I'm in favor of continuing to log as AnnPT says above so you can figure out what real maintenance levels are to you, but if you aren't comfortable with that and choose to go off logging, then I suggest paying close attention to servings of calorie-dense or food you don't have a good feel for. That is, if you like to have ice cream a few times a week, and you have noted that 100 gms has been a satifying serving, weigh that when dishing to keep it real. Or, if you tend to skimp on protein, weigh that to keep it up.
If it were me, I'd add 200 calories a day for a month and see what that brought me.

mtaratoot

momlongerwalk wrote: »

I'm in favor of continuing to log as AnnPT says above so you can figure out what real maintenance levels are to you, but if you aren't comfortable with that and choose to go off logging, then I suggest paying close attention to servings of calorie-dense or food you don't have a good feel for. That is, if you like to have ice cream a few times a week, and you have noted that 100 gms has been a satifying serving, weigh that when dishing to keep it real. Or, if you tend to skimp on protein, weigh that to keep it up.
If it were me, I'd add 200 calories a day for a month and see what that brought me.

If you stop logging, pay close attention to your scale. It will give you feedback on whether you need to log or not. Don't stress it if it goes up a little. Keep an eye on it, because it will for sure fluctuate. If it only goes up and never fluctuates back down over a couple weeks, get the food scale out. When you do it long enough, it just becomes routine, and it really isn't a great burden. Plus, the more you do weigh what you eat in order to log accurately, the better you stay at estimating when you're away from the scale.

xbowhunter

I'm new to maintenance as well. Actually, not new to this because I have lost the weight 2 other times but failed to maintain. uggg!!

I mainly failed because I got complacent and didn't watch what I was consuming.

I think I have a better positive attitude this time and will stay on top of things.

elisa123gal

Since you've done so well counting calories and sticking to your plan. Simply adjust the number and continue doing what you've been doing. Put in the weight you want to maintain..and eat those calories.. just as if you are in the losing phase. Weigh yourself once a week and realize you may want to gain a few pounds.....and if yoiu creep above the number of your goal weight.. cut back.