How do you want to eat when you reach maintanance?

skinnyone2012
skinnyone2012 Posts: 88 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How many of us drink the shakes, go low carb. starve it off, exercise it off, etc to lose the weight we have to lose and then gain it all back?

It doesnt take a rocket scientist to tell us that we have not been doing the right thing to gain all of our weight? How do you want to eat when you get to your goal?
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Replies

  • LoraF83
    LoraF83 Posts: 15,694 Member
    I'm going to eat exactly as I do now: nothing is off limits, everything in moderation. I will still count calories so I can stay in maintenance. I won't stress over the occasional splurge. Nothing will change, except that my calorie goal will go up by a few hundred!
  • AmIhealthyyet
    AmIhealthyyet Posts: 361 Member
    I'm going to eat exactly as I do now: nothing is off limits, everything in moderation. I will still count calories so I can stay in maintenance. I won't stress over the occasional splurge. Nothing will change, except that my calorie goal will go up by a few hundred!


    GREAT!!!L that is my plan! I hope to end my yo-yo eating/ dieting once and for all!
  • beachlover317
    beachlover317 Posts: 2,848 Member
    I'm going to eat exactly as I do now: nothing is off limits, everything in moderation. I will still count calories so I can stay in maintenance. I won't stress over the occasional splurge. Nothing will change, except that my calorie goal will go up by a few hundred!

    This as well. It's why I'm eating healthy and not starving now. I can do this FOREVER!
  • kjw1031
    kjw1031 Posts: 300 Member
    I agree with everyone above.

    I'm not going to do anything to LOSE the weight that I'm not willing to do in order to MAINTAIN it for the rest of my life.

    Soooo, I eat carbs and I don't drink shakes. He he.
  • Irish_eyes75
    Irish_eyes75 Posts: 475
    Exactly the same as I am now.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    I plan to carry on eating just as I am doing now, but with an additional couple of hundred calories a day. I haven't cut out any particular food or food group, and I don't have meal replacement shakes.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,976 Member
    I'm going to eat exactly as I do now: nothing is off limits, everything in moderation. I will still count calories so I can stay in maintenance. I won't stress over the occasional splurge. Nothing will change, except that my calorie goal will go up by a few hundred!
    THIS. People DIET, do FAD DIETS, use DIET PRODUCTS to lose weight only to regain, then go back on the DIET they lost weight with and do it again, and again, and again, etc.

    Calorie control should be the focus. Eating foods you like lowers stress and makes you happy. Just don't go overboard and it will be fine. You want to eat hoards food, then counter it with exercise. Burn a 1000 calories in a day to eat 1000 calories of food extra.
    You DON'T have to diet to lose weight for the general population. For most calorie deficit will work just fine.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
    Listen to ninerbuff! With an hour a day of exercise Im able to maintain @ 3350 daily. 5'10" 183ish
  • llkilgore
    llkilgore Posts: 1,169 Member
    I've been in maintenance for 11 months and eat the same sized servings of the same foods I ate to lose most of the weight, just with a higher calorie budget.

    I started out with a couple of weeks of low carbing, then ate "diet food" for a couple of months - big salads, egg white omelets, protein shakes, etc., etc. Then I realized my diet was too restrictive and too "special" to be sustainable. I needed to learn how to manage standard, full sized servings of a full range of "real food" if I was to have a fighting chance of keeping the weight off. So I switched to a 3 point strategy to lose the remaining weight : 1) The adoption of healthier cooking methods. For example, more olive oil, less butter, less fat over all. 2) Strict portion control of all calorie dense foods. And 3) calorie counting. The only thing that changed when I reached maintenance was my calorie budget.

    I eat whatever I want and don't worry about portion control on low cal fruits and veggies. I just eat what I want of them and log what I eat. But I never EVER eat more than a single standard serving of any calorie dense food, and rarely eat less than a standard serving. Standard servings start to look completely normal and perfectly adequate after a while and it's a lot easier to stay on budget when you aren't mindlessly super-sizing everything. I think of it as a "start as you mean to continue" strategy, except that I didn't quite start that way.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    Same as I eat now, though I'm hoping I can be cleared to not worry so much about sodium. I'd like to eat 2k cals as well. I don't want to go lower than that.
  • happypath101
    happypath101 Posts: 534
    I've been maintaining for about seven years now. What I find is that it's not about staying the same weight. It's about being self-aware and having the skills and the motivation to lose that same 2, 5, 8 pounds (whatever it is for you) that goes on every Christmas, vacation, tough deadline, life crisis. If you're truly changing your lifestyle than your day-to-day won't be that different. But, you'll go back into weight loss mode a few times a year to drop those pounds that creep on here and there. At least that's been my experience.

    Also, you may find that your weight means less and less to you. You may want to use a measure tape or a pair of skinny jeans as your guide. As you get more fit and build more muscle, you might gain GOOD weight in maintenance mode. So, you don't want to be married to a number you set for yourself a long time ago.

    You can do it!
  • tvanhooser
    tvanhooser Posts: 326 Member
    What's the point of going to all this work if you aren't going to maintain the lifestyle when you get to where you want to be so you can stay there ad infinitum??? :o) I've run my goal weight through several calculators and come up with 1500 calories as being my maintenance level when I get there. So I'll do that unless I find it isn't working for me, eat healthy, the way we all SHOULD eat anyway, not be afraid of an occasional treat or splurge for special occasions and cut back the whole exercise thing to 2-3 times a week instead of every single sweatin' day which I hate and only stick to because I am "on a mission from God" as the Blues Brothers would say to get to the bottom of my knee pain issues and convince my doctor that last year's surgery did not fix everything like he evidently thinks. So I plan on exceeding everyone's expectations by leaps and bounds as to how much weight I will lose (more like completely BLOW them OUT OF THE WATER since most people in my life now--including the doctors-- have never known me when I was at the place I am going!! :o) ), planting my flag and building a homestead there until the day I die!! :o)
  • chubbygirl253
    chubbygirl253 Posts: 1,309 Member
    I learned from my mistake the first time. In 2007 I lost 68 pounds on weight watchers only to slowly put it back on over 5 yrs plus an additional 18pounds. No, no. Not this time.

    Changes I'm making:
    1. Now I'm using lowfat and calorie counting to lose the weight and I have tripled the exercise I did back then. Much stricter plan than before.
    2. When I reach goal weight, THEN I'll follow a less-strict plan (probably weight watchers) but never again will I go "off diet"
    3. Last time when I stopped the diet I also stopped the exercise. This time when I complete my goal I will maintain a workout schedule, probably an hour a day/5 days a wk (right now I do 2-3 hrs/6days a wk)
    4. This isn't a "diet" I get to quit when I'm done. It's my new life. I'll occasionally get to go out for a really yummy treat because it has to be something I can live with for the long haul. Sustainability. But I can't allow myself to ever gain more than 10 pounds past my goal weight or I'll be right back on the strict diet/exercise plan.
  • MissFuchsia
    MissFuchsia Posts: 523 Member
    I'm going to eat exactly as I do now: nothing is off limits, everything in moderation. I will still count calories so I can stay in maintenance. I won't stress over the occasional splurge. Nothing will change, except that my calorie goal will go up by a few hundred!


    I've been maintaining my goal weight about 6 months and this is what I do. I think if someone struggling with their weight loss plan (too restrictive etc) then there's no way they'll keep it off.
  • banshishi
    banshishi Posts: 197
    same as I do now...I dropped a load of weight and maintained for a while by eating the same as when I dieted, just a slightly bigger portions...then I got complacent and started eating processed easy convenience food, utter laziness.. and I got less and less active.....so this time around I get to where I want and I pay attention and keep working out and eating properly.
  • zaph0d
    zaph0d Posts: 1,172 Member
    same as now. just a little more quantity.
  • bulbadoof
    bulbadoof Posts: 1,058 Member
    About the same as I do now, except no more mashed cauliflower when what I really want is mashed potatoes and if I want to bake on Sundays, I'll do it without a second thought.
  • LeotaD
    LeotaD Posts: 25 Member
    I want to eat the same as I do now. I don't feel hungry or deprived, I just live and all those foods that used to appeal to me aren't that great anymore.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    I'm eating pretty much the same as I did while losing. Not even in that different of amounts, since I burned more calories when I was a little heavier.
  • XXXMinnieXXX
    XXXMinnieXXX Posts: 3,459 Member
    exactly as I do now, figure if I don't need to change it when I get to goal the transition should be fine! x
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,329 Member
    I'm going to eat exactly as I do now: nothing is off limits, everything in moderation. I will still count calories so I can stay in maintenance. I won't stress over the occasional splurge. Nothing will change, except that my calorie goal will go up by a few hundred!

    that's exactly how i'm doing it.

    i'm not on a diet and i still eat the same stuff as a did before. no foods are 100% off limits until i reach my goal weight. this week i had popeyes chicken (WITH the skin tyvm) and thai take out :laugh: . the only difference is my portion sizes.

    also i follow the fat2ft formula where you eat the calories you need to maintain your goal weight so that once you reach goal there's no need to adjust calories. the only thing i've done - since i want to lose 80 pounds total - is to set little mini goal weights. so right now i'm eating to maintain 175 pounds once i plateau at that weight, i'll drop my calories to maintain 150 pounds
  • AlabasterVerve
    AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
    Exactly as I do now, LCHF.
  • serentity78
    serentity78 Posts: 89 Member
    thats why I dont do that crazy crap and why its taking me time to lose weight because I always wanted to do this the right way!
  • Enigmatica
    Enigmatica Posts: 879 Member
    I just keep an eye on calorie balance and eat good nutritious food. I like to eat a lot, so I've learned to like to exercise a lot to keep a healthy balance.
  • sazzyp1973
    sazzyp1973 Posts: 517 Member
    i expect to continue eating pretty much the same as I am now.
  • sgv0918
    sgv0918 Posts: 851 Member
    I'm going to eat exactly as I do now: nothing is off limits, everything in moderation. I will still count calories so I can stay in maintenance. I won't stress over the occasional splurge. Nothing will change, except that my calorie goal will go up by a few hundred!

    This. I hit my goal and set a new one instead of going total maintanence but my lifestyle is totally different now. So when I do gorge as I have done the last few days. I get that reinforcement of not feeling good. I am not the type of eater I used to be. That being said I can feel the old eater me lingering. So I still need to be vigilant
  • Yasmine91
    Yasmine91 Posts: 599 Member
    I'm going to eat exactly as I do now: nothing is off limits, everything in moderation. I will still count calories so I can stay in maintenance. I won't stress over the occasional splurge. Nothing will change, except that my calorie goal will go up by a few hundred!

    This ^^^
  • Lipstickcherry
    Lipstickcherry Posts: 122 Member
    Like many have said on here, more of what I am already doing now. Since I have PCOS and am insulin resistant, I find eating unprocessed, low density in calories foods (fruits/veggies) in great quantities, nuts in moderation and not making a habit of high density calories food, makes weight loss much, much easier for me. I am not even working out right now due to getting over my painful skin allergy. I go over my calories many days which kind of freaks me out but my weight loss keeps on happening. I used to use another weight loss program and stay UNDER my points...and hardly ever lose. So I can't say that all calories are the same for me personally.

    I am following this:
    http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/gombbs.aspx

    PS: just wanted to add, I do go off my eating plan now and then. I have learned just to get back to what I am doing and not concentrate on those mishaps. When I get to my goal weight, I plan on continuing to eat this way for the rest of my life. I like feeling better and not having migraines, which has happened for me since I have been following this. Plus I don't get hungry so much anymore.
  • Nerdy_Rose
    Nerdy_Rose Posts: 1,277 Member
    Like a horse.

    And I do.

    And damn, it feels good.
  • Rubie81
    Rubie81 Posts: 720 Member
    I'm going to eat exactly as I do now: nothing is off limits, everything in moderation. I will still count calories so I can stay in maintenance. I won't stress over the occasional splurge. Nothing will change, except that my calorie goal will go up by a few hundred!

    ^^^^This. For me, the most important, is bring aware of my portion sizes.

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