Terrified

neveragain84

Hello all! I've really been working hard at eating healthier, portion control, and staying more active. I really feel like (as cheesy as it sounds) that MFP and my friends have saved my life. I was pre-diabetic and knew I had to change. Some of my highlights:

- losing over 60 lbs

- wearing jeans I hadn't worn since high school

- waking up with no back/ knee pain

- not as irritable

- just an overall sense of accomplishment and the desire to push myself. I have recently started (what I call lol) running and I love it and have decided to run my first ever 5k in September!

However, I'm terrified about going into maintenance. Not to make anyone's effort feel cheapened, but losing wasn't as difficult as I had thought, but I'm just worried about slipping up and getting into old habits and feel like maintenance will be "the battle" for me. I've been the old 260 lb version of me and I never want to be that again.

How did you stay on track? Did you/ do you fluctuate a little in weight?

SezxyStef

you do exactly what you did to lose weight minus the deficet.

You log accurately and hit your desired calories each day or weekly.

I am 2lbs from maintenance and have started upping my calories to maitenance...will take another 6-7 weeks to hit maintenance, might take 2-4 weeks for goal...depends on how my weekends go.

I plan to have a 5lb cushion...150-155...as long as I stay in that range I am good...if I go over that...I will cut calories..if I go below it I will up calories...

I have set new goals...bf%, having my lifts increase and if I so choose this winter I might even do a bulk...that's a head game I hear...who knows.

neveragain84

That makes sense. I'm starting to make some NSV goals right now with running and just trying to stay fit. I'll give myself a little wiggle room. The difference this time will be that I won't let my weight creep on like before.

rsclause

Hello all! I've really been working hard at eating healthier, portion control, and staying more active. I really feel like (as cheesy as it sounds) that MFP and my friends have saved my life. I was pre-diabetic and knew I had to change. Some of my highlights:

- losing over 60 lbs

- wearing jeans I hadn't worn since high school

- waking up with no back/ knee pain

- not as irritable

- just an overall sense of accomplishment and the desire to push myself. I have recently started (what I call lol) running and I love it and have decided to run my first ever 5k in September!

However, I'm terrified about going into maintenance. Not to make anyone's effort feel cheapened, but losing wasn't as difficult as I had thought, but I'm just worried about slipping up and getting into old habits and feel like maintenance will be "the battle" for me. I've been the old 260 lb version of me and I never want to be that again.

How did you stay on track? Did you/ do you fluctuate a little in weight?

This is so where I am at now and I have the same "what now" fear. I am playing with the calorie numbers and adding some fat and protein with cheese and tree nuts to see what happens. I know I can figure it out but I find my current phase of going from loss mode to maintain odd to say the least. Like you running has been so good for me, I am doing 35 miles a week now and it has made the weight loss seem easy.

nxd10

One of things someone said a few weeks ago was that many people who had good habits to fall back on had an easy time losing weight (they were going back to something they knew) and they slid right into maintenance.

You just keep doing the same thing. Add some exercise to get yourself in better shape. It will buy you more calories and get your now slimmer body in better shape.

Congratulations!

neveragain84

That's my thing! If I see that I've burned over 1,000 calories running a few miles, then it'll feel overwhelming when I see that these 2,300 calories have turned into 3,300 calories and I'm like "wait, I have to eat another 1,000 calories?!"

Maybe I'm just scared because eating that much is what got me to my low point to begin with.

My friend just told me to "not overthink it" and just test it out for a few weeks and see how it goes. Hopefully I can mess with the numbers accordingly if I end up gaining or losing.

neveragain84

One of things someone said a few weeks ago was that many people who had good habits to fall back on had an easy time losing weight (they were going back to something they knew) and they slid right into maintenance.

You just keep doing the same thing. Add some exercise to get yourself in better shape. It will buy you more calories and get your now slimmer body in better shape.

Congratulations!

Thank you! :-) That makes sense.

enoliaa

Well the difference between the 260 lb you and the new you is that you have MFP, friends and more control over what you are eating. Play with the amount of exercise and food to what suits your needs best, it will take a few weeks but no worries you will adjust nicely and like someone said, keep a 5lb room as safety

LyubomiraZ

If you take a good 45 mins. to an hour to work out for 5 days out of the week, you will be completely fine (You can try swimming, it's so much fun!). After you have lost such a big amount of weight, trust yourself. YOU know when it is time to stop eating. And only YOU have the power to lose more or to maintain. Believe in yourself and keep your chin up! If you over-think it, it will come crashing down on you. All it really takes is the strength to say "stop" to yourself. Even if you make a few poor choices during the week in food (and still eat healthy the rest of the week), you will maintain. Even if one day you have the urge to overeat and you give in, that's just one day. But don't let that day turn into a week and so on. You can do this Believe in yourself!

jenilla1

I've been on maintenance for 3 years now. I find it's super easy. Don't be terrified. In my experience, the only difference between weight loss mode and maintenance is that you get more calories to eat on maintenance. I take a day off here and there for holidays and special occasions, but I basically just still use MFP the way I always have. Since I never treated it like a diet and restricted myself in crazy ways during the weight loss phase, it's been no challenge to keep up my lifestyle ever since. It's easy and already a habit, like brushing my teeth, so I just keep doing it and it just keeps working. Good luck, OP! :flowerforyou:

einzweidrei

To be honest, I did nothing but walk when I was trying to lose weight and I still do nothing but walk (in terms of exercise) and it's not as scary as it seems. I think the biggest mental thing I had to get over was that semi-disappointment I still felt when I didn't see the number going down. The number SHOULDN'T have been going down anymore but it still took me a couple of months to shake that.

Aside from these past few days in which I've been a total pig, I have found that as long as you stay at your maintenance calories (I go by weekly numbers more than daily) that everything works out in the end, even without exercise. Mentally, it's better for me because I know when I have calories leftover that I can splurge when the weekend rolls around. I actually set it up that way---I shift calories around and eat less during the week so I can enjoy myself because I LOVE to eat. Any bit of exercise that I do, I log it in and eat it back. (Hence why my husband and I essentially did a 9-10 mile walking tour---we wanted to eat everything that day so we decided we'd have to walk to every location we went to. LOL!)

So, keep doing what you're doing. Except eat more. Keep exercising. Keep tracking. Because that's what works for you now and that's what will continue to work for you. Good luck!