Too scared for maintenance...looking for some support.

Cathleenr

This time, I used help from a nutritionist at work to make a more reasonable goal for myself and have been working on getting in shape and eating right for the past eight months. Because I can be obsessive, I have only been weighing myself once a month and that seems to be going really well. Three weeks ago I weighed in only two pounds away from my goal weight. A lot of people have told me that I should start to transition into maintenance and by the time things level out, I should have lost those last two pounds.

Why would you suddenly stop listening to the professional who guided you to this point and start listening to "a lot of people"?
You have made significant progress and a nutritionist would surely have a transition program for you.
Weight does not just creep up and jump on you: its a cumulative effect of what you do every day. Calories in, calories out.
If you want to have some solid numbers behind you, go get a DeXA scan and that will give you your body fat percentage and your BMR and from there, you can determine your BMR. With that number, you will know what it takes to run your engine at various activity levels and pretty closely what 'maintenence' is. If you pull back on the exercise and are still eating 1600 calories a day and the clothes still fit without progressively becoming looser, you are at maintenence. If they become more tight-fitting, you can either up the exercise or back off the calories gradually. It's a process, not a one-week thing. I've been the same size (relatively speaking) for about 2 years now after losing about 90 pounds...I have a LOT more muscle and a LOT less fat and I continually tweak my macros to be stronger and leaner.

kaybeau

hello,

try exactly what you did to loose the weight have a nutrionist check in now and then, so you know that although you don't need to loose weight you also need to keep it from creeping back on. many congrats on getting to the end of the diet and welcome to the rest of your life. The local slimming club has a free class if you tip up once a month and are within 3 ILbs of your goal weight, If you go over you pay and get back to the diet!

kimad

I can totally appreciate where you are coming from and I have posted a similiar topic awhile back.
I think my fear is that I have either always been overweight or losing weight, I don't know how to maintain weight
I do realize that I will need to watch what I eat, log my food, and exercise for the rest of my life if I want to remain thin.
It is a scary slope, I have started slowing upping my calories which has been ok, but then I allow myself to bend the rules WAY more than I used to and that is what scares me. I am trying to change my mindset, becuase I know I don't want to go back to the way I once was....I like it here too much.

So like alot of other posters said, which I will take away to help me, is maintenance really is no different you just get to eat a little bit more.

Good luck and great job!!!

mexiconona

I would up your calories not more than 200 per day. I recommend that you stay on the myfitness every day and stay within your new goal. If you gain, reduce the calories. If you lose more than you want, increase by 100 only at a time. I also recommend that you weigh at least every three days. I weigh every day and it is amazing what the scale lets me know. If I have too much salt, it will reflect weight gain, If I have too many calories, I will not lose. The fluctation does not discourage me as I am so happy to see the weight loss from the beginning and I expect it. I do not record any slight gains, only losses and each time I lose, I go to reports and look at the weight loss for 90 days and I am so very encouraged. I recommend you stay on my fitness .com always. It will help you control yourself and keep your health and weight loss a priority.

heatherloveslifting

Last time I lost weight I managed to pretty much maintain for 10 years (until I had a baby). I still exercised and kept track of what I ate most of the time. Don't be scared- it is MUCH easier to maintain than it is to lose! :flowerforyou:

fittiephd

I think you can be just as easily obsessed with maintenance as you can be with weight loss! If you have an obsessive personality (which I kind of do too, so I understand what you mean), then maybe that's what will work for you for a little while. Being obsessed with maintenance for a year or 6 months might make you feel more secure about loosening the reigns once you get to that point. I personally have been maintaining for the past 6 months but I'm just as obsessed with MFP and with logging my food and I still love having the support to remember to be healthy and workout every week when things get tough. I also like to set new goals for myself, like yes I'm not trying to lose lbs, but now I"m trying to get more muscle definition, lose body fat, gain strength and eat more PROTEIN. I can pretty much figure out how many calories to eat in a day without logging but I definitely always struggle (even after 6 months!) to get the protein I need everyday. So I still utilize MFP for that and for the community

Some things in life deserve to be obsessed about ... I think a hobby, your health, your family and your job are good things to obsess about

mexiconona

I already added my two cents here but I forgot to recommend that you exercise no less than5 days a week. This is as important as our calorie intake.

marthathebear

I have 5 more pounds then I will be on maintenance and it worries me as well. I don't currently eat all my exercise calories so I plan on adding those back and seeing how that goes then added back some more if all goes well. I wish you all the best of luck because this is the real challenge, the life change. Add me if you would like and we can support each other.

pwittek10

I totally know what you are talking about!
I too am terrified of putting weight back on.
My goal was 127, I am now trying to stay at
115, it gos up and back down.
Why can it not just stay at 115
I pretty much eat the same calories, I know if I eat breads it goes up, I know if I do not go on my walks it goes up.
BUT it is very hard to stay the line. My weight this morning was 117.8. I was truely bumbed. ( we were out late last night and ate
late but it was a ETI meeting and we are on the board, we have to go to the meeting!)
I did try on my new size 2 dress and it still fits. But I must get those 2 pounds off.!!!!!

d3nise

First congrats on all your hard work! I can also relate, it does become an obession and when I fall off, I usually fall off hard. There is some great advice in this thread, thanks for posting your concern. I bet there are a few people that got something from here. I sure did. Feel free to add me as a friend if you wish. I am looking forward to reaching maintenance...someday:-)

Flixie00

I am 1 lb from goal, so in the same boat as you. An MFP pal suggested that I up my calories and drop my weekly target weight loss target the nearer I got to goal so that maintenance would be easy to adjust too. I followed that advise, and am still losing. I currently eat a net 1640 calories a day (I eat back my exercise calories), so I eat plenty. I intend to just change my MFP profile to maintence once I hit goal, and monitor how that goes.

didge83

Hey girl! You know I'm always here for you when you need anything! Anywho... I think you've gotten some really great advice from so many wonderful people on this board! I think you should try to focus on a new, realistic goal to help your mind stay focused on something! Maybe you can train for an event? Maybe you can try to walk x number of miles for the next 3 months. Get the idea? I think that'll help you focus on a goal while maintaining. As for your food intake, maybe you can change 1 thing for a week or 2 and gauge what happens. If you have been eating very similar each day, maybe try adding a different breakfast to your day with increased calories in it. For instance, if you eat cereal with almond milk every morning, try having whole oats with peanut butter and a banana. You're increasing your calories with healthy calories, and you are only changing 1 variable so you can gauge the results. Don't think of maintenance any different - log and track, but just track more calories in your day (healthy calories)

You are going to do great, and I'm so proud of you!!

lacurandera1

Someone said to me "As we reach our weight loss goals we have to focus instead on increasing our performance as ATHLETES. And it is sort of a scary change, but as a previous poster said, Now it's time for you to start setting fitness goals.

AuntieKT

Wow! Thank you so much to everyone who responded. When I didn't hear anything for a while I thought my post was a did and didn't check it again until just now. Thank you for the support, kind words, and ideas of what to do. There were a lot of good ideas to consider. I especially liked the ones that suggested I get obsessed with something else like fitness. I felt that those posters really got where I was coming from. I have actually already started to make fitness a new obsession, but it's good to know that others think its a good idea too. When I talked to the nutritionist at my work, she said that two key things to keeping the weight off are to exercise regularly and to weigh myself every day. I'm cool with the exercise, but I worry about weighing so often. Even once a week seems like too much. On one hand I fear that if I get a bad weigh in when I'm doing it all the time it will discourage me, but on the other hand, I don't want to do a whole months worth of damage before I realize I'm on the wrong track. I guess I have to get used to the idea that I don't want the scale to go down any more. That staying the same is not only ok, but what I'm supposed to be doing. I have myself a month long fitness challenge that will be ending next Thursday with a weigh in and measurements. I think after that, I will try upping my calories slowly and starting to work on maintenance more. I also need to set a new fitness goal to keep me motivated. I have been trying to do a Body Rock workout almost every day, so maybe I should check out some of the challenges they have posted in the past and give it a try. Keep the great posts coming. I love reading them and I was especially touched by those people who are in the same boat as me. It really makes me feel good because I am not the only one who feels this way. Thanks everyone. I really appreciate everything you guys posted! Have a great night!