Transition from Weight Loss to Maintenance

xhecate

I've been in weight loss mode for so long I've neglected to do any research on Maintenance Mode. What's that transition like? Is there anything I should be aware of right now while I'm still in weight loss mode that will be important in maintenance?

MeganAnne89

For me it's just that I have to keep reinforcing that just because the number on the scale is no longer going downward, that doesn't mean that I suddenly look awful. I achieved my goal and that's great, so any day I'm the weight that I set out to be is a victory.

cwolfman13

As a trend, how many pounds have you been losing on average? Let's say you've been losing about 1 Lb per week as an overall trend...that would mean the only difference between your losing and maintaining would be about 500 calories per day...nothing else really changes. You still have to mind your nutrition and rock your fitness.

Hopefully you've adopted a new "normal" in RE to your diet (noun). You really can't go back to old ways or to the SAD and expect to maintain your health and weight. A lot of people also get lazy in their fitness in maintenance...this is largely due to the fact that their perceptions are that exercise is for people trying to lose weight...when in reality, exercise is far more important to maintaining a healthy weight than it is for losing the weight in the first place.

I'm going on 15 months of maintenance. I don't log; however, I am mindful and aware of generally how many calories I'm consuming and I watch my diet (noun) in RE to overall nutritional quality as well as quantity and I exercise regularly (pretty much 6 days per week).

I would also add that understanding natural weight fluctuations and being comfortable with those is going to be essential. You aren't going to weigh exactly XXX Lbs all of the time...you will have a range due to varying levels of waste in your system, water retention/release, etc. Most people can fluctuate a good 3-5 Lbs day to day. As an example, yesterday I was 184.9 and this morning I was 181.6. I was a bit bloated on Monday morning from a weekend of beer and BBQ with friends...I didn't gain fat over the weekend, just a lot of water retention and more waste than normal in my system.

Further, be aware that you are likely to put on a few pounds as you initially go into maintenance. This is due to the fact that when you're in a deficit of energy, your glycogen stores are in a constant state of depletion..not necessarily fully depleted, but they are rarely filled. When you transition to maintenance, the first thing your body will do is rectify that discrepancy and glycogen has weight.

defauIt

The two modes are exactly the same, you're just able to eat s few hundred calories more in maintenance.

The same rules apply, macros are still important, you should still regularly exercise, you should still count calories accurately, you should still monitor your weight and be prepared to go back into weight loss mode if you find you start to put on a few pounds.

sijomial

In addition to what wolfman & default have said I would say you need to replace your weight loss goal with something else, fitness, strength, an event - whatever floats your boat.

There's a mental adjustment required to accept that your weight will fluctuate normally so you need to be able to be happy to be within a range of weight and not try and keep exactly the same weight.

As for the transition itself many people add 100 calories a week to their daily allowance until they find the sweet spot. You may get a bounce in weight out of all proportion to your increased calorie intake (glycogen/water) so don't freak out if it happens to you.