Transition to Maintenance

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soniams
soniams Posts: 95 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
For those who have reached their weight loss goal and are currently in maintenance mode, what sorts of changes did you make as you transitioned from losing weight to maintenance. Did you increase your daily calories? Did your exercise activity level change?

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  • sarah307
    sarah307 Posts: 1,363 Member
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    *bump* for myself to look at later!
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
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    I'm in a temporary maintenance phase at this time. I am soon going to transition into a weight gain phase. I have kept exercise about the same and gradually increased calories. As you get closer and closer to goal, your daily calorie deficit should be getting smaller and smaller. Then just as you're reaching your goal, your deficit should be reaching 0, and then you will be in a perfectly balanced maintenance mode.
  • k2d4p
    k2d4p Posts: 441 Member
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    I am actually struggling to switch over to maintaining. I am still working out almost every day. It is just a habit now. I am eating a little bit more than I did, but not much. I am still losing a little, but it is a difficult transition for me.
  • soniams
    soniams Posts: 95 Member
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    bump
  • Elle408
    Elle408 Posts: 500 Member
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    I hit goal a few months ago and am currently struggling with maintenance... Firstly, I stuck at a deficit... I don't know why but I was finding it really hard to let go of the deficit in fears of gaining weight. But I found myself exhausted and starving hungry, and had quite a few bad binges, and wasn't losing weight at that level anyway! Since going up to my maintenance calories a few weeks ago I do feel better, less exhausted, less irritable, haven't had a true blow-out binge in a few weeks. (Binging was never a problem when I was losing.)

    I'm finding it much harder to keep the motivation and make the right food choices all the time, but seem to be striking a bit of a balance at the moment.

    I'm definitely sticking with the exercise, I prefer to have a toned look so plan on doing 4-5 workouts a week. I just fell in love with running and am doing about 10k 3x a week and then when I can get back to a gym i plan on strength training 3x a week and hope this is enough to keep me in my weight range.

    With eating back some of my exercise calories i'm averaging about 1600 - 2000 cals a day (netting 1000 or so) and this feels sustainable. It feels strange to be eating 2000 calories after surviving on 1200 for so long but it's also nice to be eating the governments recommended amount and not be gaining weight! It also means i'm choosing full fat foods again and less diet options.

    There's a lot less help out there I've found for people trying to maintain, I know how to lose weight, but sticking to my current one is hard going! I'm trying to go by clothes sizes, if my trousers feel tight then cut it back a bit on the calories.

    Umm... think that's about it! lol
  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
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    I have 11 pounds to go and am wondering if I should be slowly upping my calories as I draw nearer so as not to suddenly flip the switch from loss to maintenance. If I should slowly increase calories, then at what increment? It is all so confusing!

    I haven't found much information out there regarding maintenance...every website is based on the losing portion.
  • sarah307
    sarah307 Posts: 1,363 Member
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    this is what I have been doing -
    When I had 10 pounds to go, I switched to only losing 0.7 pounds a week... now I have 5-7 pounds to go and I switched to 0.5 pound loss per week. I did this so I wouldn't lose weight so fast and so it would be easier for me to transition to maintenance. I'm not quite sure what i'm going to do when I get to my goal weight but that has been working for me so far :)
  • mkaiserman
    mkaiserman Posts: 4
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    i am in maintenance for few weeks now. I find myself still wanting to have a deficit level in calories - habit. But on the scale this morning, I had lost 1.5 lbs. this week. So it is not the ideal.

    I am struggling to eat all those calories. I have done things I wouldn't do while losing - fast foods or a dessert for example. But most days, I am eating mostly healthy, eating a greater variety and with less stress about calories than when I was losing.

    But I still have trouble eating all those calories - especially on the days of a good cardio workout. I don't need as much food to be full. I am eating better food choices (with lower calorie counts).

    How do you eat all your calories for maintenance?
    (Written by a person who would not have understood that question 6 months ago)
  • muffintopminx
    muffintopminx Posts: 541 Member
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    bump
  • M_lifts
    M_lifts Posts: 2,224 Member
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    ive been in maintainance mode since april now. At first, it was difficult to switch over to eating maintainance as i was afraid of putting the weight back on. In the first few weeks i continued to lose weight. I started adding about 100-200 per week and now eat between 1700-2000+ cals per day.Its difficult to go from eating 1200 to 1700, however if you start cutting out all the 'diet' stuff from your daily intake and re-introduce proper food it works.For me it was cutting out ww bread and having normal bread etc. so little changes really.Also the self belief that i would never let myself get back to what i used to be.

    I am still quite active, and do zumba once a week, run once or twice a week and do the 30day shred dvd. I actually quite enjoy exercise now and its part of my everyday life. I take a break often when my body demands it and like the freedom of having what i want to eat within reason. I also calorie cycle occassionally, some days im over and some days im under. works for me. You have to try and find your own balance.

    i would say enjoy it, you have earnt it! there is a maintainance thread as well for those that are interested where u can chat to others in maintainance and how they cope :)
  • andrewz12
    andrewz12 Posts: 2 Member
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    After six months of ever-increasing intensity and commitment to healthy eating and working out, I reached my goal of weight loss. Interestingly, I got two kinds of feedback from family and friends: (1) Wow! The results are AMAZING! (in a good way); (2) I seem a little bony - it's been so long that people have seen me at a normal weight, they just got used to me with extra padding... except those how knew me decades ago.

    In looking at BMI charts, etc., I decided to stop my weight loss focus at the mid-point of my BMI Healthy range although I still have a little more fat to reduce around the waste, chest, and back area. In fact, the program that my personal trainer and I worked out involved 90% fat burning and 10% muscle building.

    The change we will implement, starting this week, is to continue my workouts because, like so many on this thread have acknowledged, I, too, love working out (always have), moving the ratio to 50/50 fat-burn-to-muscle-building, or thereabout. It's time to tone, not to be muscle-bound but continue to burn the remaining fat.

    As summer creeps in, I also intend to move from 100% gym workouts to 50% gym (muscle training), 50% outdoors (cardio) - swimming, cycling, and jogging, with the intent of adding the goal of endurance. Can I run three miles straight? Can I cycle 15 miles AND swim 300 meters? That kind of stuff. And, so, that will be my spring and summer transitioning from fat burning to maintenance, toning and endurance.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    Here's one of the maintenance threads someone mentioned.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/816542-let-s-hear-it-for-maintainenance
  • ShannonMpls
    ShannonMpls Posts: 1,936 Member
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    My transition was very easy. I generally ate 1700-2200 calories a day while losing weight with 2-3 "free" days a month with no logging.

    I am 6 months into maintaining my 135 pound + weight loss, and all I've really done is relax a bit on cardio. I continue to lift weights three days a week, but I don't consistently do an hour of cardio 2-3 times a week anymore...more like 30-45 minutes twice a week and I run when I want to.

    What's been working for me is a "clean week, dirty weekend" approach. I eat a nice, logged diet M-F, around 2000 calories a day. On weekends I eat what I please; this doesn't mean binging, but it does mean eating meals out, beers or cocktails when I want them, etc. It's been working really well for me, physically and emotionally.
  • AngelDog1
    AngelDog1 Posts: 89
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    Bump! Good info on here... thanks!
  • wffolkes
    wffolkes Posts: 186 Member
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    Saving this for when I hit my goal

    good thread!!
  • aliciab307
    aliciab307 Posts: 370 Member
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    Bump
  • shmoony
    shmoony Posts: 237 Member
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    It was easy for me becase my weight loss program was to set my calories at the maintanance of the person at the weight I wanted to be. It took along time to get there, but once I did, I was so used to eating that amount that there was literaly no transition. I just kept eating the same. I highly reccommend this to others for long term success.

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