Maintenance Survey

beckyhoo

Hello maintainers! I hit my goal weight a couple weeks ago and am in the process of adjusting my calories each week to transition to maintenance. I thought it might be helpful to put out a general questionnaire to get a feel for how everybody handles this phase of the journey in their own way. Feel free to answer only what you want or add questions I forgot.

1. How long have you been maintaining?
2. Did you adjust your initial goal?
3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal?
4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once?
5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals?
6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake?
7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day?
8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP?
9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories?
10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level?
11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc?
12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share?

Thanks for your time! Congrats on your past and continued success!

BlueBombers

Good post! I'm close to maintenance so I look forward to see what others say on this!

sijomial

1. How long have you been maintaining?
10 weeks this time round (I've reduced my goal downwards a couple of times)

2. Did you adjust your initial goal?
Yes - 175 down to 170 and then down again to current 168. Really happy at 168!!

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal?
Not really - I lost weight slowly.

4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once?
Gradually the first spell of maintenance, last time I was only at a very small deficit so didn't have much of an adjustment.

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals?
Really easy. I seem to have found quite a "natural" level where I can enjoy treats and not feel restricted.

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake?
None - I didn't exclude anything when losing.

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day?
Yes and yes.

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP?
Every day - always have for as long as I can remember, it's just part of my morning routine. I don't record the normal weight fluctuations.

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories?
+ or - 2lbs

10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level?
Got more intense with increased energy.

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc?
To carry on with a recomp, reducing body fat percentage and increasing muscle mass.
Improve VO2 max score.
Bench press over 200lbs
20 pull-ups
Cycle 20 miles in an hour on my hybrid.
(I'm sure others will come along as I love goals!!)

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share?
Maintenance isn't the end, it's just the start of a new phase!
You are never too old to push your limits or try new things.
Weight should be only one of your targets.

lporter229

1. How long have you been maintaining?
About a year

2. Did you adjust your initial goal?
Yes, initially was 114. I gradually upped my calories after that, but continued to lose to 105, which is probably my ideal weight (I am 5'0", BTW).

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal?
See above.

4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once?
Gradual

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals?
At first it was hard, but mostly due to underlying health issues that made it hard for me to eat. Now I am used to it and am doing ok.

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake?
Mostly just bigger portions and more snacks

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day?
Yes.

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP?
I weigh almost everyday, just to be able to see trends rather than focus on one number which can be skewed. i do not record it on MFP.

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories?
I will decrease my calories if I reach 5 lbs over my current weight.

10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level?
They did not. My workout routine is focused on overall health and fitness and not weight loss.

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc?
Keep doing what I am doing and focus on gaining strength.

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share?
I think the key is not obsessing, but paying attention. I always say that your weight may fluctuate by a few pounds here or there, but the key is to not let it get out of control.

splashblob

1. How long have you been maintaining?
Almost a year.

2. Did you adjust your initial goal?
Yes

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal?
No

4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once?
I did it slowly.

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals?
It is hard because I am in Asia so there is no way I can tell how many calories most of the food here is.

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake?
The same food I had while I am trying to lose weight, I just eat them more than a serving of them. They are usually milk, yoghurt, legumes, banana, apple and if my macro is good, I will have chips, cracker, bakery or ice cream for that.

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day?
Yes and yes.

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP?
Everyday

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories?
If it's more than 2kg of my goal weight, I'd be worry and watch what I am eat and try to eat right again.
10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level?

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc?
My goal so far is to maintain and try not to let me gain all the weight back.

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share?
Weight fluctuation happens all the time, usually from water weight so as long as you don't slowly gain weight in weeks, don't sweat it.

Montarosa456

1. How long have you been maintaining?
Around 6 weeks..

2. Did you adjust your initial goal?
Yes..My BF was at a percentage I was happy with so I worried less about the weight

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal?
No.

4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once?
All at once, they where only about 200 calories more a day so I didn't notice a huge difference

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals?
Very easy, I love food

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake?
Just a little more chocolate when required, and bigger breakfasts. But I'm training for a race and a very active person so I was already eating back some/most of my calories but I don't always eat back everything on a daily basis

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day?
Every day - Apart from last Friday when I felt ill so I left logging everything..

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP?
I'm not a fan of the scales so once a month - If I lose I'll only log once it's stayed consistent for a few weeks.

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories?
Absolutely - I had one week I felt awful, bloated and uncomfortable - I would allow myself no more than a 2lb gain.

10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level?
I'm more about quality than quantity.

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc?
Run faster/lift heavier, climb harder..I really want to take my fitness to a new level over the next 6 months and I need more calories/energy for that.

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share?
Don't use it as a excuse to go crazy, honestly my eating habits have hardly changed, don't stop exercising and moving the goal posts forwards. Keep a VERY tight hold on your weight..I went from 13st 11lbs in 2008 to 9st 7lbs then for for 3 years I stayed under 10st and then after a stressful move of house, change of job etc I ended up maintaining around 10st 5 (I'm 5'7 by the way) which I hated so I changed it..so you could say I've been in maintenance a long time with a small defect time when I first joined MFP..It is possible to stay slim but it's a lifestyle change on the long term... Aim for healthy, attainable long term changes, enjoy good food and love your body.

The_Enginerd

1. How long have you been maintaining?
About 2 year

2. Did you adjust your initial goal?
Weight or calorie goal? Weight, no. Calorie, yes. I had to eat a bit more than MFP suggested or I slowly lost. 2200 vs. 2150.

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal?
Sort of, see 4.

4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once?
I went from 1 lb/week loss goal to a 1/2 lb/week goal when I was within 5 lbs of my goal, than straight to maintenance when I reached goal. A 250 cal/day jump each time.

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals?
Super easy.

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake?
Ice cream... well, more of it. Heavier lunches with more enjoyable food. Pretty similar, just more food.

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day?
Yes, every day. Nope, completing it doesn't do anything except post it to my feed, and I don't need to clog my friend's feeds with my 900th diary completion. My diary is fully open if they want to look. I sometimes complete it just for fun when I've an LOL day.

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP?
Once a month, although moved to once every week or two now that I'm in a bulk. I was doing daily to figure out my weight range and normal fluctuations when I first hit maintenance.

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories?
Nope, because I never gained in the long run and was comfortable with where I fluctuated the whole time.

10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level?
Not at all at first. Now, I'm more focused on fitness goals than any specific weight goal.

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc?
I have some weight lifting/running pace goals. I train to try to meet those and push myself and be as bad *kitten* as I can be.

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share?
Making fitness goals really helped me keep the fire going. Also, have fun. Do stuff you like. I'm having a blast doing mud runs and 5k/10k running events.

melissaka7

bump. 2 lbs away from maitenance

iechick

1. How long have you been maintaining? Technically since March, but my weight is still moving on a downward trend

2. Did you adjust your initial goal? No, however my body decided to on its own and I've since lost a little more than 15lbs since calling goal

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal? No

4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once? I did a calorie restricted version of IF for weight loss and after I hit goal I cut back on my fasting days and then eventually switched to a different version of IF that does not restrict calories (8/16).

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals? I don't count calories for maintenance

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake? Since transitioning to maintenance I've changed my diet to a mostly whole foods, plant based one for health reasons.

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day? I do not track my food on mfp, but have recently started a food diary on a personal blog.

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP? I weigh myself every day, with Fridays being the weight that I track.

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories? My current maintenance range is 120-123lbs. Currently I'm at 119.5lbs and if I get down to 118 then I'll adjust some things.

10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level? I did'nt exercise while activley losing weight. When I transitioned to maintenance I started walking, then added some running in. Now I'm adding some body strength exercises into my walks/runs

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc? Continue adding strength training, work towards a 90/10 diet format (90% whole plant foods and 10% for meat, dairy and non-whole foods), and continue working towards being part of the small 5% that maintain successfully

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share? Maintenance is all about trial and error, learning to listen to your body's cues and figuring out what works best for you.

sfbaumgarten

1. How long have you been maintaining? About 3.5 weeks.

2. Did you adjust your initial goal? I never could figure out what I wanted my goal weight to be so I declared weight on my 1 year weight loss anniversary. My healthy weight range @ 5'5" is 111-150 and my mystical goal ended up being 132.4.

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal? Yes. I'm on WeightWatchers and I started increasing my PointsPlus over the last few months in preparation. I continued losing during that transition.

4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once? When I hit maintenance, I went from a gradual increase to a good bump.

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals? I joined MFP after goal and my calorie goal is 1700 to maintain my weight. It's been really comfortable and very much in line with WW.

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake? I basically eat just a little more of what I already did. Examples- I will eat frozen meals, salads, sandwiches that have a little more oomph than before. I'll also have an extra piece of cheese with some fruit as a snack. Sometimes I want to spend those extra calories on a beer or a lower calorie sweet that was harder to incorporate before.

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day? Yes. I'm currently logging all my food and activity on WW and MFP.

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP? Everyday and everyday. WW won't allow me to log more than once a week so MFP gives me a closer look at the day to day.

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories? Haven't figured this out yet.

10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level? I got serious about incorporating exercise. I'm doing moderate-high intensity cardio 3+ times a week with a HRM.

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc? Short term, my goal is to survive the holidays at maintenance. Long term, I want to stay in my healthy weight range and continue a sensible workout regimen.

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share? I'm still trying to get a handle on maintenance so I don't have much to share other than my own personal experience thus far. You asked some really good questions!

SharonCMach

Almost to maintenance, love reading these. Thanks for posting this.

JenRunTriHappyGirl

1. How long have you been maintaining?
6 months

2. Did you adjust your initial goal?
yes, I went down 10 more pounds

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal?
no, I waited until I hit it and stayed there for a week or two before I adjusted
4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once?
I have done it gradually..... 100 calories a month or so.... I went up 200 then went on vacation and went back down 100.

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals?
fairly easy.... since I have gone up small incraments, it has not been hard

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake?
I haven't really added foods, just a little more of the healthy foods that I love.

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day?
yes except for most weekends. I am not as strict about what I eat on the weekends.

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP?
I weigh myself at least once a week. Sometimes every other day just to catch any up trends. I usually only log the
significant low weights.

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories?
yes! My goal was 140... and I fluctuate between 137 and 141 usually. If I go above 141.5 or 142, I cute a little for a bit.

10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level?
they haven't really. I want to be fit so I have made fitness goals for myself now as opposed to weight loss goals. I would
probably say that I workout more often and harder now because of my fitness goals.

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc?
obviously to maintain. I am signed up for my first half marathon in February and I just completed my first triathlon.

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share?
expect flucuation, especially at first. I would say to gradually increase calories so your body does not go into
shock (or your mind). Making fitness goals has really helped me stay on track too. I might not have as much
motivation to work out if I had nothing to work out for.

NovemberJune

Hello maintainers! I hit my goal weight a couple weeks ago and am in the process of adjusting my calories each week to transition to maintenance. I thought it might be helpful to put out a general questionnaire to get a feel for how everybody handles this phase of the journey in their own way. Feel free to answer only what you want or add questions I forgot.

1. How long have you been maintaining? About 9 months
2. Did you adjust your initial goal? My goal was always 130s
3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal? Yes, I started moving toward maintenance in my 140s
4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once? gradual
5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals? relatively easy
6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake? I eat the same kind of stuff. Just a little more.
7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day? Yes
8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP? I weigh daily and log daily (but I have mfp settings so it never pops up in my feed)
9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories? Not really, but my lowest was 131, but I'm usually around 133-135. If I got to 140 without intending to gain, I'd have to think about it
10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level? No change
11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc? I want to increase strength! I'd love to gain muscle but I am not at a place where I'm interested in gaining fat
12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share? It took me a while to get used to not looking for a loss on the scale, to expect the scale to go up half the time and down half the time instead of down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, etc like I was used to . I also was too concerned with losing this bit of fat here and that bit of fat there at first. Now I'm a lot more realistic with my body composition goals imo. Fitness goals are great for motivation

Thanks for your time! Congrats on your past and continued success!

ETA now I'm looking forward to reading the other replies :bigsmile:

rybo

1. How long have you been maintaining?
~2.5-3 years

2. Did you adjust your initial goal?
not really

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal?
No

4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once?
quick ramp up, 2-3 weeks

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals?
Easy

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake?
None-just ate more of what I was already eating

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day?
No, after a few months @ maintenance I sotpped logging altogether.

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP?
Once a month maybe

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories?
Nothing concrete, but I keep a general eye on the mirror

10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level?
They didnt

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc?
Just to be lean strong and fit

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share?
Don't over complicate it

JulieAnn72

1. How long have you been maintaining?
About 7 weeks

2. Did you adjust your initial goal?
My initial goal was to get under 140. When I got there, I decided 135 sounded better.

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal?
I didn't think so but then I answered #4 and realized I guess I did!

4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once?
I bumped up to TDEE -20% then increased to TDEE -15% and then -10%. At that point I was at 135 so I just switched to TDEE. I gained weight last week, so changed to TDEE sedentary because I realized I was eating back my exercise calories.

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals?
Easy

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake?
I really didn't add in any new foods. I just eat bigger portions. For example, I can now eat 4oz of pasta instead of 2oz. Yay!

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day?
Yes, I log every day. I'm not as strict about every single bite anymore now.

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP?
I weigh in every day. I log my weight once a week as I always have. I set it so it doesn't tell people when I lose, though, because I do fluctuate a bit each week.

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories?
I have a cap. If I hit 135, I make a change. That's why I reduced my calories a bit this week as mentioned above. I'm down 3.5lbs since making that change. :-)

10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level?
They didn't. I still do the same workouts I was doing over the past few months leading up to maintenance.

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc?
My goal is to keep doing what I'm doing because it's working.

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share?
Keep counting and weighing food. Keep eating portions. That's been one of the things that I think helped me all along - eating the right portion sizes. Now, I can sometimes eating more than one portion, but I still pay attention to the right portion sizes.

Legs_McGee

1. How long have you been maintaining?
I lost 18 pounds and hit my goal weight 2 1/2 years ago, put a few pounds back on and then lost it again (and a few pounds more). I've been maintaining at this weight for 5 months.

2. Did you adjust your initial goal?
Not on purpose - it just happened and I liked it.

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal?
No

4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once?
Over a few weeks

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals?
Easy

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake?
None-just ate more of what I was already eating

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day?
I stopped logging a while back. I generally have a good idea of where I'm at calorie-wise during the day.

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP?
I weigh myself a few times a week

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories?
Not really

10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level?
They didn't

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc?
Same goals I've always had: Run faster. Be healthy. And like what I see in the mirror.

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share?
Nope

UpEarly

1. How long have you been maintaining?
Almost two years.

2. Did you adjust your initial goal?
Yes - my initial goal was 152 lbs (I'm 5'9") but I ended up at 135. I like it there.

3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal?
Yes - I technically started maintaining when I hit 150, but it took me a while to figure out my TDEE. Over a few months time, I lost 15 more pounds.

4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once?
Gradually

5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals?
Very easy

6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake?
I never cut any foods to start with, so basically I just ate more in general.

7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day?
Yes - most of the time. I don't log on vacations and occasionally I skip logging on weekends.

8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP?
Once a month - and I only add it to MFP if I've changed up or down by more than a few pounds.

9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories?
+/- 5 lbs

10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level?
They stayed the same

11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc?
More of the same. I would like to maintain my current weight & fitness level.

12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share?
I'm so glad I didn't go on a diet or start a new, demanding exercise program. I just made lifestyle changes that I knew I could stick with long-term.

alpine1994

Hey!

1. How long have you been maintaining? 7 months
2. Did you adjust your initial goal? Not at first. I kept my calories the same (at .5lb loss per week) and just ate more on the weekends to even it out over the week. It got a little out of control so I just recently adjusted my calories up and try to stick to that daily.
3. Did you begin the transition to maintenance before you actually hit your goal? Yeah, the last few months I upped my calories so that it was a .5lb loss per week.
4. Did you gradually increase your calories or bump up to maintenance level all at once? Like I said above, I kept my cals at .5lb loss per week and ate that during the week, and let myself eat more on the weekends.
5. How hard or easy has it been to meet your new daily calorie goals? Some days are easy, some days are hard! Sometimes I'm too relaxed, but then the scale starts to creep up and I know I need to reel it in a little.
6. What foods did you add back into your diet to help increase your caloric intake? I NEVER cut anything out during my weight loss. I honestly believe that's why I was successful. I just watched portion sizes.
7. Have you continued to log all of your food? If so, do you complete your diary each day? During the week, yes. During the weekend, sometimes.
8. How often do you weigh yourself now and how often do you log your weight in MFP? Still daily. I don't log my weight.
9. Do you have a "cushion" or "cap" for weight fluctuation that, when met, spurs you to cut or increase calories? Yes, -3 to +3.
10. How did your workout habits change at maintenance level? I slacked on working out, especially when I first moved to TX. I worked out maybe twice a week for about a month. I felt myself getting "soft" so I started ChaLEAN Extreme and feel a lot better already. Exercise is something you shouldn't slack on ever.
11. What are your future goals for maintenance/fitness/health/etc? My health is excellent now (according to the doc) so I will continue to do what I'm doing and try some new workouts and stuff. I don't have any desire to run a tri or marathon or anything like that.
12. Any other tips, experiences, surprises or general comments regarding maintenance you'd like to share? Sometimes maintainence is a lot harder than losing, because it's so easy to let yourself relax a little too much. I have changed a lot in the 10 months it took to lose the weight and reach maintenance, but I can see that my old tendencies are still there. I have to work on them every day (meaning, I have to resist the urge to order a donut every morning, etc.). It's a slippery slope when you let yourself slide day after day.

FitFabStar

Bump, great questions

j580

1. About 8 months.

2. Yes. My initial goal was 135 but I am pretty satisfied at 143-145.

3. No. One I reached 145 I upped my calories. I fluctuate between 141 and 145 now.

4. All at once.

5. Pretty easy for the most part. Still have rough days like when I was trying to lose though.

6. I eat pretty much eat anything I want just as long as I'm smart about it

7. Yes I log and complete every day.

8. I weigh myself every morning (always prepared for fluctuations) and log weight like every month or so.

9. Yes 5 lbs.

10. About the same. Cut down just a bit but not by much.

11. I now want to focus on muscle tone as overall fitness capabilities.

12. When I first switched to maintenance my weight steadily increased till I hit 149. I stuck with it not lowering my calories again and kept working out an making healthy choices though. Soon enough the weight started dropping again and I've been about 143 for a good 8 months or so eating at 500-700 more cals a day than when I was restricting.

11.

CJ_Holmes

Bump!