maintenance

karen90631

Hi.

I've been at my goal weight for a while now, and I've figured out that the best way so far for me to maintain my weight is to place a "goal weight" that is 5lbs less than my actual goal (which would put me at 18.5 BMI), and then I make sure I eat all my exercise calories in the day. This seems to be a natural plateau that works for me.

Though I was wondering how others deal with maintenance. It is the hardest part of dieting since all the razzle dazzle is gone and now the only peer pressure is to gain back.

How do you handle it? And if you are not at your goal weight, how are you planning to maintain your weight loss?

dls06

I go up and down in weight since I started maintaining. Its hard not to go back to old habits. It's a life long journey.

Espressocycle

I heard on NPR this morning that a 200 lbs person who used to weigh 250 needs to eat fewer calories to maintain than a 200 lbs person who was never heavier. Not sure how that figures in.

sjcply

I eat my usual diet, (when I was trying to lose weight) during the week....then on the weekends I tend to have what I want with in reason.....it seems to even out and I am staying with a few lbs of my goal weight!

lts42uk

I am struggling to keep to my calorie limits at weekends - I've gone horrendously over this weekend! I am then really good during the week and am somehow maintaining an average weight of my goal! As dls06 says - it's a life long journey!

karen90631

One thing I know for certain is to always log. Last year there were times I would go over again and again; I couldn't help myself. But I forced myself to log. I kept it up even with my being in the red (using Loseit! at the time) for weeks and the weight kept gaining.

But that spell broke and I started losing again. Had I stopped logging - I'd have been a lost cause.

mkaluzny

Okay, I have been at maintenance for about a month. My question is when is the baggy skin gone. I was doing leg raises today and when I looked down, my stomach was hanging lower than other parts of my female anatomy (you get the picture). Do the extra skin ever shrink?

karen90631

Hi!

I think it depends on how much extra skin you have, and how young you are.

I have some flabby skin around my tummy that I'm going to try some skin needling with boost the collagen to see if that will tone things up.

I'm 42, and am down about 40lbs.

mkaluzny

Hi!

I think it depends on how much extra skin you have, and how young you are.

I have some flabby skin around my tummy that I'm going to try some skin needling with boost the collagen to see if that will tone things up.

I'm 42, and am down about 40lbs.

I am 55 and down about 20 pounds. It looks like I have about a quart size bag of flap hanging down.