for those on maintenance

momofJandA
momofJandA Posts: 1,035 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How did you know it was time to switch to maintenance? Did you hit some magic scale number, or bf%, or jean size? Did you look in the mirror and say, "That's it! This is where I want to be?" . . . .
I am 35, 5'3" and 121lbs, bf% of 22%, size 2 jeans . . . . all those numbers make me think maybe its time for maintenance, but when I look in the mirror I see lots of work to do . . . I honestly don't think I will ever look in the mirror and say "That's IT!" . . . so what was your trigger that told you it was time?

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    You can maintain but still work on your appearance.

    i ahve been maintaining for over a year, but my body is still changing. i have gone back to a slight deficit at the moment as i am working on reducing my bodyfat further. a lot of 'toning' and strength work can be done at maintenance and you will still change your body.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    It sounds like maybe you should go on maintenance and start toning and shaping your body by exercise. It will definitely improve how you look and probably get rid of those problems you see in the mirror.

    If, after a few months of maintenance, you feel a little more weight loss would help, go to half a pound a week. This isn't a final decision.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    when my body fat % hit 11 I decided it was time to stop trying to lose weight.

    Mind you I NEVER stopped trying to lose fat, I just do it now without a deficit. And I am satisfied with my weight.

    For the record, weight is arbitrary. While I normally hate using observation as evidence, I'll show you what I mean with my own example.

    Right now (and for the last 3 plus years) I've hovered between about 11 and 14 percent body fat, depending on what I'm trying to do (if I'm training to gain mass, I don't worry so much about body fat, as it will happen usually). I could probably get down to about 10 or even 9 if I worked really hard and was extremely strict with my nutrients, but I see no need to do so usually (of course we all want to look like the supreme being, but when is enough enough?)

    When I first got down to 11% BF I was down to 172 lbs, now today, after 3 years of being meticulous about my nutrients without letting food dominate my life, I'm at about 190, with approximately the same amount of body fat (about 1% more which comes to about 1.8 lbs more of body fat, which is acceptable to me) which means I've added about 16 lbs or so of lean muscle onto my body.

    So while I don't particularly like seeing the scale go up, I do like that I gained lean mass. Thus even though I'm 16 lbs heavier than I was, it's good weight, so I like the overall results.

    In other words, once you get into the vicinity of maintenance, all measurements should be body fat or size measurements, weight should have no bearing on your nutrition at this point other than as a holistic marker of where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow (lean mass wise).

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