Experience in "maintenance mode"

STrooper

Greetings.

I have been working towards my ultimate weight goal since 2008. There were some ups and downs in the first couple of years but I did make progress. My biggest drop was in 2010 and as we close in on 2013, I have reached my initial goal (179) and am close to my ultimate goal of 175 pounds (actually I have a target range of 173-175).

I am anticipating changing my program over to maintence mode towrds the end of the month. I know it will change some of the settings.

I am curious about people's experience once they reached their goals...how diligent are they in logging, etc.

I don't foresee changing my walking/ exercise habits simply because I have found a way to integrate that into my daily life. I also realize I won't be able to mindlessly eat whatever.

But what have you experienced? How are you "treated" once you are no longer working towards a lower weight goal?

Gordie580

I have been in mantience mode for about 2 months. It's a stuggle, i keep logging but not as much as I did before. I fluecuate weight regularily now. I was down to 190, and now it bounces around. I'm going back to logging everything and restarted working out.

Robin1117

Hi! Congratulations on doing so well! Don't change a thing! keep doing what's working.....
Then after awhile when you are comfortable you can maintain, you can see where you can slack off...I call what I do now "lazy logging" but it's really just being mindful w/out still obsessively measuring everything. Am still super-charged with exercise though.

I wrote this a few months ago about my 2 years of maintaining...maybe you'll find it helpful?

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Robin1117/view/maintenance-is-a-choice-my-2-years-of-maintaining-263772

wild_wild_life

I have been maintaining for about 4 months. It's harder than losing in some ways becaue you don't have that goal to work towards or the reward of seeing the scale move. I have found that I need to keep logging to stay on track, so everything is pretty much the same for me except the calorie allowance.

Because having a goal is so helpful, I have tried to make fitness goals, although that is more subjective than a number in the scale.

It also took me about a month to find my true maintenance, during which time I lost another 5 pounds beyond what I had intended, which I think is pretty common, so you might start transitioning early.

Congrats on your slow and steady loss! That is the way to do it and keep it off, IMO.

a_new_dawn

I've been maintaining for about a month now, and can honestly say I think it's harder than expected. I don't mean harder as in weight coming back on, in fact I mean the exact opposite!

Firstly, after being in weight loss mode for so long, it's hard to switch that mindset off. It feels kinda strange and quite sad to not have that aim anymore, that goal that you work so very hard to achieve. Its great to get to goal, but for a little while I did ask myself "well what do I now?!" that's when it's time for a new goal that's not about what's on the scales.

when it came to upping my calories, I just thought it would be a case of sticking another couple of hundred on. It wasn't as easy as that. I was eating more (and id reduced working out from 6x to 4x per week) but I was still losing! I didn't expect that, but I guess there's proof it is possible to eat more and weigh less!

I am still working on finding out the correct amount of calories I need to properly maintain. I have gone about 2lbs below my goal weight since being in maintenance, so I will continue to gradually increase my calories until I no longer lose. I think being at 1800 now is near to where I need to be because for the last week or so I have only had fluctuation of around a lb up then back down again. I guess it's all about trial and error, a continued learning experience. I'm also still actively logging, every day. This is something I want to eventually wean myself off, I don't want to log everything I eat for the rest of my life!

flechero

Maintenance is tough at first... keep logging and act as if you were still losing. (just up the cals to your particular needs)

it will take a couple months to get comfortable in MM, at least that has been my experience. I do allow myself to eat whatever is served at outings or when visiting family, etc. and just keep to my routine when at home. That seems to be working for me.

Best of luck and congratulations on getting to MM!!

STrooper

Robin:

Thank you for your blog link.

STrooper

Thanks to all who replied. I had thought of the tapering approach but my weight has tapered pretty much by itself.

My current goal is 22,000 steps /day but I thought about winding it back to 20,000 (last year's target that I acheieved).

Any other thoughts observations welcome.

Robin1117

Thanks to all who replied. I had thought of the tapering approach but my weight has tapered pretty much by itself.

My current goal is 22,000 steps /day but I thought about winding it back to 20,000 (last year's target that I acheieved).

Any other thoughts observations welcome.

having goals helps a ton--and of course making sure you acknowledge all the good thing that are happening and give yourself cudos for it. with no scale to acknowlege success, it gets a little unmotivating sometimes....and glad you liked the blog....