Heading toward maintenance . . .

Keiras_Mom

A quick intro: I am 40 years old and have lost 108 pounds so far. I'm 5'9" tall and currently at 169 pounds. My original goal was 175, but I still have a little bit of tummy pudge that I'd like to get rid of. I'm thinking I want to stop losing at 160 and that's rapidly approaching. My face, neck, arms, and lower legs are actually a little thinner than I'd like right now, but I understand after a significant weight loss, it takes a while for the body to redistribute the weight to the appropriate places. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! :laugh: I will also be doing some weight training to help move that process along.

The plan I follow is The Alternate Day Diet, or JUDDD, a form of intermittent fasting. I have had great, steady results, and maintenance is built right into the plan. I just need to adjust either my high calorie days higher, or my low calorie days higher, or a mixture of the two. That's not really what I'm concerned about.

What I'd really like to know from anyone who's maintained successfully is this: When did you start your maintenance plan? Was it after you reached goal? Did you ease into it gradually? Did you give yourself a maintenance "range" -- a couple pounds either way of goal for instance?

I have dieted off and on for the last 15 years and never managed to lose more than 30 pounds, so I've never had to consider what will happen in maintenance. Now, I have no doubt I'll reach my goal, and probably within the next month or so if my losses continue as they have been. It's exciting but also sort of nerve-wracking at the same time.

Any advice is welcome. TIA!

Keiras_Mom

Nobody else in or approaching maintenance? :ohwell:

waldenfam2

I'd like to know too. I'm very close to maintenance and would love some tips

jasonp_ritzert

Well, I orginally set my goal at 42 lbs, but found that around 25-30 lbs, I seemed to feel good and losing more weight caused me to feel tired, weak, and having no energy. I give myself a range of 2-5 lbs that I like to stay in and have been for about 3 months now. I'm no dietician, doctor, or have any health degree, but I think that no one can stay the exact same weight all the time with no fluctuation. I use the scale about once a month and use how my clothes fit and how I feel as my better gauge of my health and fitness. I also use new exercises, weights, cardio equipment as a gauge on how well I'm doing and seing progress. I'm not sure of the intermittent fasting, I just know that I am extremely suseptable to binging after long periods without food, so that is no good for me.

The biggest thing I have noticed with myself and from talking with others is that when someone switches to maintenance mode, they feel like they no longer have a 'goal' and slipping back into old habits becomes easier since they don't have a goal (i.e., number on the scale) to use as a gauge of success. If you find yourself in this boat, I suggest finding new 'goals' such as a time/speed on the treadmill elliptical to shoot for, training for a 5 or 10K, etc. Good luck with the maintenance and just remember, this is the time you worked so hard for, so enjoy it.

jacksonpt

Nobody else in or approaching maintenance? :ohwell:

I'm always close, but my goals continue to change, so there is always something to improve on.

BCSMama

Congratulations on such a successful weight loss! I am also in maintenance and find it nerve wracking at times too, lol. I don't do the intermittent fasting, but I did slowly increase my calories by about 100 per week until I found my maintenance level. Actually, I'm still tweaking, but getting there. When I was 10 lbs away from my goal, I set MFP to slow my weight loss to .5 lbs per week so I could ease into it that way too. I also have a weight range that is acceptable to me (138-142) because I know the scale fluctuates. My goals now are to tone up and get stronger and have more endurance. I also plan on taking measurements as another tool to keep myself on track as I know the scale is not always the best tool. My goals now are more fitness related, like to increase the number of miles I can run in a go, or the amount of weight I can lift, etc.

acogg

Last Friday I reset my goal to Maintenance, which I plan to stay on until January 2nd., so I wouldn't consider myself successful. One thing I notice is that I am learning foods and portions all over again. I was pretty good at eating at a deficit, now I am learning to eat healthy, but in correct portions. I tweak my menu quite a bit trying to not eat at a deficit, which for me, got to be habit.

bathsheba_c

I'd love to hear people's ideas, since I'm approaching that point as well. Right now, I'm deciding on what an acceptable range of fluctuation is and aiming for only 0.5 lb a week. The big challenge for me is going to be deciding what is a reasonable goal in terms of strength training, although I guess maybe at that point I should switch to measurements instead of scale weight.

bokodasu

I can tell you what I *did*, which was to say, "hooray, now I'm a skinny person and I can eat whatever I want whenever I want!"

Don't do that. (Even if you really, really miss MFP, you can still hang out here without regaining all the weight first.)

I think the "lifestyle change" is going to have to include continuing to weigh and track daily, at least for me. I've got other fitness goals, weight loss isn't the main one, so at least there's always that - being in a certain weight range is a precondition of doing what I want, and I'm going to keep doing that, so there's always that accountability.

melsinct

I lost 30 pounds and have been maintaining since February 2012 (nearing one year!). My goal weight was 145 and I generally fall within 144-146. I still weigh in once a week to keep myself on track. I started setting MFP for a 0.5 lb/loss for the last 10 pounds. That way, when it was time to stop losing I only had to up my calories by 250 to maintain.

I don't follow any diet or plan or anything like that. I try and eat a vegetable heavy diet (generally am "vegetarian till dinner") of mostly home cooked foods, minimal boxed/processed stuff. Eat whole grains as opposed to white refined stuff but have no fear of carbs or bread. I don't log weekends anymore but still eat mindfully when not logging. I don't have cheat days but I do the occasional cheat meal. I don't eat until I am stuffed, I eat until I am full. It has actually been pretty easy for me to keep this up, however maintaining is harder than losing weight- losing weight has an end goal. Maintaining is for life.

FredDoyle

I put myself on maintenance after losing about 35 lbs and at my first goal weight. What I do is eat at TDEE to see if I go up or down at all. I'm sure I'll have to tweak my intake as I'm still exercising and could stand to lose a bit more body fat.
Basically, I'm eating at maintenance for the weight and BF % I would like to maintain.

BigMech

I've been maintaining for a little over a year now. I did it by raising my calories slowly until I stopped losing. Now I try and keep myself within a 5 lb range of my target weight, and when I start to drift to either side, I will raise/lower my calories as need to get myself back into my range.

Not much else changed when I hit maintenance. I still track calories, and watch what I eat. I still go to the gym and lift and do cardio. I started out making changes that I thought I could stick with, and have stuck with the through the loss and through this first year of maintenance as well.

FredDoyle

I've been maintaining for a little over a year now. I did it by raising my calories slowly until I stopped losing. Now I try and keep myself within a 5 lb range of my target weight, and when I start to drift to either side, I will raise/lower my calories as need to get myself back into my range.

Not much else changed when I hit maintenance. I still track calories, and watch what I eat. I still go to the gym and lift and do cardio. I started out making changes that I thought I could stick with, and have stuck with the through the loss and through this first year of maintenance as well.

Excellent. Congratulations BTW! This is/was my plan as well.

Keiras_Mom

Thank you all for your answers and tips. I'm happy to see several of you who have been able to maintain for some time without too much struggle. I'm hoping for a smooth transition, and have no illusions that I can stop logging or holding myself accountable. I've backslid before and don't want to do so this time.