Maintenance

TheUnhealthyDad
TheUnhealthyDad Posts: 15 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I think maintenance mode is pretty easy unless you want to stay super lean or you have little LBM and can only eat <2k calories. IMO, it is also pretty boring. You don't see many changes and that might be why it is hard to stick with for some people.

Replies

  • momlongerwalk
    momlongerwalk Posts: 30 Member
    It's only boring (menu-wise) if you let it be. I have to stay below a net of 1400 calories as a small woman. There are many foods that can be eaten in moderation that are bursting with flavor--for example, I decided I would keep trying raw tomatoes, since I grow them for my spouse. Oh-la-la, I am queen of the chopped tomato salad now. Vine ripened tomato, fresh basil, a slosh of balsamic vinegar & good olive oil, dusting of salt & freshly ground pepper and some shreds of mozzarella. When overweight, I never thought to eat like this--I would just turn my nose up. And I agree whole-heartedly with the responders that indicate that living life means dealing with a fair amount of boring things. But I totally live my life in all the richness it deserves. Food is fun, but not the only thing.
  • TheUnhealthyDad
    TheUnhealthyDad Posts: 15 Member
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    How long have you been in maintenance? How much did you lose before you started maintenance?

    Maintenance takes vigilance. It's the exact same as weight loss, except you can eat a little bit more and have to be satisfied seeing a small fluctuation up and down rather than a nonlinear reduction in mass.

    My maintenance calories are less than 1800 before I add exercise. I'm usually closer to 2100-2200 and sometimes a lot more depending on activity or hunger.

    After several years, it can become routine, but I wouldn't call it "easy." It would be EASY to allow my mass to go back up. It's already happened twice after I got to maintenance.

    Boring? Well, brushing and flossing my teeth is pretty damn boring too. I still do it. Paying my bills is really boring. I still do it. Waiting in line to ride a ski lift is boring, but it's the only way you can get a ride to the top. Flying in a wingsuit is probably as far from boring as anything I can think of, and I'm not planning to do that. I paddle kayaks and canoes and row rafts. I love whitewater. I also love flatwater. Some people think that's boring. I think it's beautiful to be out on a river.

    Easy? I don't agree with you.

    Boring? Well, even if it is, it provides a lot of benefits, so it's worth doing. I find going to the gym is often extremely boring, but it also has benefits. I feel good after I move my body. I don't go to the gym in the summer months because of my outdoor activities. In the winter, I have to go get bored if I want to stay fit.

    So; are you going to do maintenance?

    Yes, I've been in "maintenance" for a bit. It's really due to failing a bulk. I just got tired of eating so much. I've been the same weight for a few months eating 4k calories. I gave up on eating 4500+. I just didn't like to eat after forcing so much each day.
  • TheUnhealthyDad
    TheUnhealthyDad Posts: 15 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Honestly, I feel like many parts of adulthood are pretty boring, even though necessary. I mean, mortgage amortization schedules? Income tax prep? Laundry all the flippin' time? WTH?

    Eating isn't the only form of entertainment, but I've found that I can eat some quite entertaining (enjoyable) things within my calorie allowance, while getting good overall nutrition on average.

    Being at a healthy weight and having good health markers (blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.) is . . . I guess kind of boring? But it feels so much better than the reverse situation did (class 1 obese, bad markers). To me, it's worth investing some modest amount of time and effort in keeping the better situation, even though the tasks involved may be sort of boring.

    Besides, when at a healthy weight and reasonably fit, I can easily do all kinds of fun things that were difficult or impossible when I was obese and out of shape. That's definitely non-boring.

    Is maintenance easy? Not every second, honestly. But doable, overall. Easier than expected, because I would have thought it would take white-knuckled vigilance every second, which it doesn't IME.

    (I'm in year 7+ at a healthy weight, FWIW, but have been at least somewhat fit for more like 20+ years. Yes, reasonably fit while still obese, believe it or not.)

    BTW, there are lots of women who need to eat less than 2000 calories in order to maintain a healthy weight. I'm luckier: With exercise, it's more like 2300-ish on average. Goal is 1850+exercise, which creates a calorie bank around maybe 150 calories daily, to fit in some indulgences occasionally. That works for me . . . so far.

    Haha, I guess being an adult can be boring. I wasn't referring to food. I just think it is boring compared to losing/gaining and how much change is seen. I like to see my body changing. It keeps me interested.
  • Sett2023
    Sett2023 Posts: 158 Member
    edited December 2023
    It's me, perhaps, but I really don't understand: maintenance is never a fixed thing, in my experience (nine years with 7 chilos lost for good).
    I mean:

    1) I have no fixed exercise routine (it changes depending on the season, but also on the spur of the moment, desire etc. Edit: I only walk, but walking by the river, or sightseeing, or lake or mountain is very different, funny and "variegated"), so some weeks I have a bigger amount of calories than others;

    2) I go for week balance, so some days I eat less and others more, and obviously it's a question of balancing (stimulating, not boring), and it also "spices up" the week;

    3) but, also assuming you have fixed exercise/number of calories and you go for day calories and not week, you can change foods/recipes etc all time, studying new ideas, experimenting, discarding or keeping new entries and so on, and this mere fact in itself is already stimulating/not boring.
    I have a lot of foods/meals I adore, and *these* are omnipresent in my alimentation but because I want them in this way, but I never eat the same thing two times in a row.

    Now I've lost other 10 kilos and I'm trying to stop losing, and it's a continuous experiment. Oh, yeah, if I would fix numbers (of exercises, for instance) or if I would eat always the same things/in the same order it could be boring, but it's up to you play with these things.
  • Sett2023
    Sett2023 Posts: 158 Member
    TheUnhealthyDad wrote: »
    I wasn't referring to food. I just think it is boring compared to losing/gaining and how much change is seen. I like to see my body changing. It keeps me interested.

    Sorry, I've seen this only now and okay, about it I don't know (my goals are all about health, so I find interesting and satisfying don't have to take medications, and, in general, having higher immune defenses: sincerely, I hope it will keep so boring :smile: )

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