Maintenance Approach: Oversimplified or brilliant?

beckyhoo

In light of some recent posts about maintenance obsession and continued tracking and weigh-ins and whatnot, I keep thinking about a notion that has stuck with me after reading it several months ago in a similar thread, but I haven't had the guts to put it into practice. I'd love to hear opinions from fellow maintainers. Here's the basic idea:

When in maintenance, weigh yourself each morning. If your weight is below your goal, eat what you want that day. If your weight is above your goal, restrict your intake that day. Repeat daily.

Literally taking it day by day. Too easy? Recipe for disaster? Perhaps slightly genius? Would it be successful? Has anyone tried a similar approach? I welcome your thoughts.

nuttyfamily

The # on the scale can vary for so many reasons so I wouldn't trust that thought.

I can over eat and not see a gain for a few days so then I'd be over eating a few days and may see a bigger gain?

Maybe go by how your clothes feel?

TR0berts

I'd say recipe for mental disaster. You don't know if your weight is up on any particular day because of water weight fluctuations, because you need to poop, or if you really put on fat (or muscle, for that matter). As such, I can see you (not necessarily you, but someone trying this) getting frazzled every time you're over what you want to weigh.

Maintain at a range of some chosen number of pounds - say +/- 5 lbs. Weigh yourself once a week. If you're the nominal weight, but less than your allowed (range) weight - maybe be a little more mindful next week, but don't stress over it. If you see a trend of weight gain (probably no more than a lb of real weight per week, so you have a month or so to see), then you know you need to be careful. If you see a trend of weight loss, then eat a little more.

Don't overcomplicate it.

sijomial

Sounds silly to me I'm afraid - you will be constantly reacting to minute changes in weight that are rarely anything to do with fat gain.

You will never have peace of mind until you accept that your body weight fluctuates from day to day.

I weigh every day so that I can see trends developing but as long as I'm in my acceptable range then there's absolutely no need to take action. I've had a weekend where I gained 8lbs - pure temporary bloat and didn't have to do anything to lose it again.

susannamarie

I think day-by-day would be the wrong approach, but I could see it working on a week-by-week or month-by-month approach.

RobsGirl_lds

If you want to weigh daily I would suggest a weight range of 5-10 lbs to account for normal fluctuations. If you are under that range eat more if you are over eat less.

I don't understand how this saves you from cal counting though. How will you guadge more or less with out counting, unless you ate the same things every day and just ate more or less quantity. But if you are going to do that why not just eat the amount to maintain every day?

nxd10

It's too hard for me. My weight goes up and down a pound or two every day. I don't want to adjust. Often the days I'm a little heavy I'm also a little hungry.

Lonestar5775

I think it's unique in theory but from a practical standpoint too reactionary. I've maintained for 10 months now just logging calories and exercise in MFP. To me this is easily sustained and I enjoy the social aspect of my MFP friends. I do know someone who logs M-F and then skips logging on the weekends. She says it helps her relax on the weekend and not logging those two days has not hurt her maintaining her weight. There's lots of variations out there and I'm sure some work for some folks. Thanks for posting,

dont_tap_my_aces

When in maintenance, weigh yourself each morning. If your weight is below your goal, eat what you want that day. If your weight is above your goal, restrict your intake that day. Repeat daily.

if you want to weigh yourself daily, its a better idea to take your average of 7 days and compare to last weeks. The daily fluctuations due to hydration can really mess you up.

for instance... ever weigh yourself when you are hung over from a ton of drinking?

FitFunLosAngeles

One suggestion to "fine-tuning" this would be to change the "rule" to:
"If the scale is above my predetermined maximum of my weight range for three days in a row, THEN I go back to tracking / calorie counting until I reach the minimum of my weight range."
That way you would eliminate any little spikes or bloating issues.
e.g., let's say the maintenance weight range you have set for yourself is 151-155. Let's say you have a day or two here and there weighing-in at 155.1 and 155.3 but then you drop back down again the following day below 155.0. So you don't do anything. But then you have three days in a row in which you weigh-in at 155.3, 155.5, and then the third day 155.1.
So the idea would be that on the third day, when you weighed-in at 155.1, that would "trigger" calorie-counting and tracking until you reach 151 pounds again.

lillilanda

I followed basically this exact plan for nearly five years, and kept my weight between 115 and 120. My AM weights generally have almost no variations, half pound at the MOST so I am sure that any weight gain is fat. On that plan I tracked food on average half to to thirds of days - I'd often track and keep a small deficit during the week, then have free weekends. Of course then I stopped and the weight drifted up-up-up.
Daily weighing is different for everyone. For me, the AM weigh in has many functions - it's an encouraging reminder of how far I've come and it sets the "streak" for the day by reminding me that I DO need to be careful, every day. Small weight gains are not discouraging to me personally, so if I weigh often, I never see a big depressing gain. Other people respond to the scale differently. You just have to try different strategies and see what motivates you.

amusedmonkey

I maintained for about 6 months before resuming with weight loss. I did something kind of similar but a bit different. I downloaded the spredsheet from here: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator-calibration/

I logged my weight daily, if at the end of the month the line looked straight, it means I was successful. If it was skewed upwards, I just took a note how much the end of the line was different from the starting point and fixed that by counting again for a little while. Repeat.

RUNNING_AMOK_1958

The best maintenance advice I got was from a personal trainer. Weigh yourself Monday and see where you are after the weekend. If things need adjusting, start adjusting them. Wednesday weigh yourself and see how you're doing. On Friday weigh yourself to see how you did for the week. Do you need to cut back through the weekend, or are can you splurge a little?

I personally need to keep tabs on my weight so it doesn't get out of control. I weigh myself daily, but understand why my weight goes up and down. If you can handle the minor fluctuations without freaking out, I think it's okay. I wouldn't use only the scale to determine what I eat daily. For instance, if my weight has gone up and overindulgence isn't the cause, I would not eat less that day.

SezxyStef

I don't weigh daily now why would I start at goal.

I am allowing for a 5-10lb flucuation...I wont go higher than 158 and no lower than 148 in any given week.

Weight fluctuates for too many reasons and daily weigh in's is imho what stats the obsession...causes mood shifts etc.

I watch friends/family do this to themselves irl so I refuse to do it to myself.

I will continue to track my food here as that is the only way to know for sure that I am staying in maitenance...that's not obsessive...otherwise tracking to lose would be as well.

Sabine_Stroehm

I think that could be tough, psychologically. It makes you very dependent on the scale, and would force you to function in a very "day by day" way, which could be challenging.

I've been in maintenance for about 12 years, give or take.

I weigh. Often. Sometimes daily.
I eat what I ate while losing. I aim to eat roughly as much as I ate while losing. I exercise as much or more than I did while losing. I just know that because I'm in maintenance,I'm more relaxed, a little less vigilant, and therefore probably eating a bit more than I was. Because I'm eating the WAY I was eating to lose, I find that I don't go too far astray. But yes, when I weigh, if the scale goes up, say, 5LBS, then I do a few days of more vigilant eating until things are back to normal for me. It works for me. I didn't log and weigh food while losing, and I'm not really doing it now. But, if I go to a brand new restaurant, or add in very new or different foods (for me), then I'll use the database to help me make smart decisions.
Good luck! Finding what works for YOU is the key. It's great that you're thinking about it now.

msf74

There's only one way to know really. Give it a go and see how you get on.

Sounds like a PITA to me.

Personally I go by the fit of my clothes. If they start feeling a little tight I make more mindful choices, reconsider portion sizes and do a bit more sexercise. The rest of the time I do as I please. Apart from a period of a few years in my mid 30s where things went pear shaped (actually something went literally pear shaped - me) this is the method (or a variation on the theme) I used for most of my adult life to stay reasonably in shape.

Nedra19455

I have an app on my phone called "Weight Trend." I enter my weight each day at the same time and it calculates a "moving average" of the last 7 days. This might help you balance out those fluctuations. so If you ever enter a weight and it says that you've had an overall gain for the last 7 days, then you'd want to restrict your caloric intake for the next week, let's say.


I don't know -- I'm not trying to maintain weight, I'm trying to lose. But it seems like this app would help with the daily fluctuations problem.

w2bab

It works for us. My husband has been maintaining since June, and I have been maintaining since September.

Mischievous_Rascal

I maintained for about 6 months before resuming with weight loss. I did something kind of similar but a bit different. I downloaded the spredsheet from here: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator-calibration/

I logged my weight daily, if at the end of the month the line looked straight, it means I was successful. If it was skewed upwards, I just took a note how much the end of the line was different from the starting point and fixed that by counting again for a little while. Repeat.

That's the spreadsheet I use, too. It's perfect for knowing your true TDDE.

Beckilovespizza

U know what, this seems a bit genius to me!! Love it and might give it a bash myself am a bit on the nervous side about my numbers going in the red but for a trial why the heck not?!

canadjineh

I think day-by-day would be the wrong approach, but I could see it working on a week-by-week or month-by-month approach.

YES< yes, yes, ^^this^^ week by week - too much can happen in a month or 'off-track eating.' In maintenance without difficulty for a couple months now and I'm sure, continuing in that vein.

paperpudding

A daily approach line that is too pedantic for me - and doesn't take into account natural fluctuations or changes in life from day to day - for example, if I am going out to dinner that day, I won't be changing my plan on account of a daily scale variation.

I will stick to weighing myself weekly - and allowing myself a range of 1.5 kg (aprox 3lb) either side of my goal weight.
I decided that if my weight gets outside this range for 2 consecutive weeks, I will adjust my daily calorie allowance.
Hasn't happened yet in 5 months.

alpine1994

I kind of do it by a group of days. I weigh myself every 3 or 4 days. If it's right where I want it, I keep eating how I've been eating. If it's a little high, I usually know why (helloooo excessive amounts of Thai food followed by ice cream!) and I'll back off a bit and see where I'm at on the next weigh-in. Like someone else said, there are too many normal fluctuations for day-by-day, at least for me.

ndj1979

terrible idea as you can fluctuate +/- 5 pounds a day just based on water weight alone.

I would say weigh in once a week at same time ..if you see a trend of up, then cut back on intake; if trend is down, then increase intake ..

beamer0821

I eat what I ate while losing.

im no where near maintenance. (I'm working on 10% loss goal at at time) but this is my mentality as well. I'm eating how i want to eat for life. because I'm eating well low calorie and some spikes here and there for parties and events (which is a normal part of life) I'm losing weight. this is my plan. and if it stops working ill evaluate it at that time and change my plan. but this is my set-up for maintenance is to eat like I'm already there. maybe I'm wrong, but there is so much conflicting info out there I'm just doing what i think works for me.

PJPrimrose

I weigh daily as I'm starting maintenance. I'm not cutting back or adding but charting trends, everyday, for the next 6 months. I KNOW I will gain around my period. I do not freak out, as it is expected, but I do chart it so I can see exactly what I have going on. I also chart any weight gain from exceeding my calories on holidays so I can chart what my weight does then, too. I'm not reacting to the scale I'm just seeing what I'm doing weight wise for a base-line. I think I've found my base calorie count so it should remain stable.

If the numbers on the scale cause distress I wouldn't recommend this approach!

Springfield1970

I weigh daily/2/3 days and average it once a week.

To be honest it's so easy to eat over.

It's soooo difficult to eat under.

Personally I know what camp I'd be in.

I like being utterly without a doubt sure of my calorie needs! I don't just like it, it takes massive amounts of stress out of my life.

MFP is the part of the brain that I have missing when it comes to food!

I've maintained with the skinny jeans concept. I know exactly where I am with them.

Yet magically, when I gain weight, they seem to get lost in my cupboard....

lilawolf

One suggestion to "fine-tuning" this would be to change the "rule" to:
"If the scale is above my predetermined maximum of my weight range for three days in a row, THEN I go back to tracking / calorie counting until I reach the minimum of my weight range."
That way you would eliminate any little spikes or bloating issues.
e.g., let's say the maintenance weight range you have set for yourself is 151-155. Let's say you have a day or two here and there weighing-in at 155.1 and 155.3 but then you drop back down again the following day below 155.0. So you don't do anything. But then you have three days in a row in which you weigh-in at 155.3, 155.5, and then the third day 155.1.
So the idea would be that on the third day, when you weighed-in at 155.1, that would "trigger" calorie-counting and tracking until you reach 151 pounds again.

This sounds like a great plan. I would adopt this if I went to maintenance (I plan on doing bulk/cut cycles though.)

runny111

I have been maintaining 50lbs loss for a year now.
I keep a weight range 112-115. I go over the range, I pair back until I get back to the bottom of that range. Really its a 1-1.5lbs range as it accounts for 1-2lbs hormonal fluctuations mid-month and PMS. I weigh daily.
So in my view going by the day could work but might cause people to get frustrated. Twice a month, for 5-7days, I am up a pound because factors out of my control.
Getting rid of your fat clothes is key.

Sabine_Stroehm

I eat what I ate while losing.

im no where near maintenance. (I'm working on 10% loss goal at at time) but this is my mentality as well. I'm eating how i want to eat for life. because I'm eating well low calorie and some spikes here and there for parties and events (which is a normal part of life) I'm losing weight. this is my plan. and if it stops working ill evaluate it at that time and change my plan. but this is my set-up for maintenance is to eat like I'm already there. maybe I'm wrong, but there is so much conflicting info out there I'm just doing what i think works for me.

Good for you. Keep doing it.