Not sure how to 'maintain'

I am close to maintenance and have also been considering how to handle it. I do plan to continue to log in MFP daily; it is so easy to do so and I know that I'm the type of person who, once she starts cutting corners she'll soon be back to all the old (bad) habits. As so many of the posts have suggested, I'll try adding calories back in but at a low, progressively higher, rate until I get a better sense of what it takes to maintain my weight. Ten pounds or so ago, I began weighing every day (instead of every week) so as to form the habit of doing so. This way, I'll get a handle on it quicker if the numbers are trending up. If you have trouble eating larger amounts or volumes of food, you can also try adding a scoop of protein powder to your oatmeal or yogurt (or whatever) so as to ingest better nutrients that you might get in cheesecake or ice cream...

Thank you, MFP administrators for having this new strand! You guys think of everything!! xoxo

I completely agree about it being tough and scary to maintain my new weight. I have lost 24 lbs. on MFP. I am lighter than I have been since high school. (I am far removed....:) I am so so grateful to this website for helping me attain a dream I never ever thought possible. So the last thing I want is to gain my weight back.

I weigh myself every day. I have done that for years so it's what I do.

I still log every day on MFP, but not everything I eat and always my exercise. I figure I need to start eating and living and not worrying about every calorie. I need to learn what amount of food I can eat without gaining. So far that is going well. As others have said, if I go up a bit, like when we travel and eat more, exercise less, I just get back to normal eating when we return. I try not to sweat it too much because life is about fun and new experiences, not just self-discipline.

I love putting in my exercise and seeing the calories I have "earned." That is what kept me motivated on my weight loss journey. I could eat more because I exercised! I still exercise most days. I feel so much better when I do. Again, something I have done for years.

My hubby and I are both retired and we have a beer or two (or wine) almost daily. At first I was terrified that I would start gaining. But it has not happened! I know the healthy amount for a woman is one glass a day but sometimes I have two. Again, there's that self-discipline vs. a buzz is nice......

My biggest problem is winter. Since I started exercising outside, it is tough to hit the treadmill again. So boring! I check-out exercise DVDs from our library and that is a nice change. (I don't belong to a gym, again the whole indoors thing.) But I still gain weight during the winter months. I always have. I believe it is because we are mammals and our bodies think we should be hibernating all winter, like bears, and we put on an extra layer of fat and weight to keep warm. Okay, I know you think I'm nuts:) I am hoping to combat that this winter by being in FLA! We will take our bikes and ride or run or walk or swim every day! I am anxious to see if that breaks my winter-gain cycle.

I wrote too much, sorry. But it's been kind of cathartic! I so appreciate this website! All of you who post help in ways you will never know! (This is my first post.) When I was discouraged, someone always cheered me. Thank you!
Elaine

you can throw away all the tricks you used to eat at a deficit.

when i get to goal weight, for me, that is going to be going back to regular eggs rather than beaters, 2 slices of bread instead of 1, 2 cups of ice cream instead of 1, normal size cereal servings rather than 8 oz milk and 1 serving of cereal, more avocado on my omelets and sandwiches, the list just goes on and on and on

In my opinion - I could be wrong and you could be right - that's how I would regain the weight I've lost. Most people regain because they go back to old habits. I know I would - I ate healthy but too much. I also didn't have a good enough idea of which foods were very calorie dense and which weren't.

I NEED to keep the habits I've learned. What I'm doing to maintain is adding back a little cheese, splurging on some whipped cream, or slowly starting to bake bread again. How to add in my new 200 calories a day? A slice of home-made ciabatta and some brie while relaxing in the evening.

i upped my cals for maintenance, however, i still eat at a defecit during the week, and then eat whatever i want on the weekends (still log) and i seem to break even on my averege weekly maintenance amount of cals!

I too am finding maintaince hard and scary after losing 115 lbs I am scared of gaining the weight back, I have my life back and fo not want to go back