How do you maintain?

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Replies

  • LostButNotSad
    LostButNotSad Posts: 1
    I am on the same boat too..nearing maintenance phase...

    I plan to log for ever...I know logging in MFP helped me lose weight...I am pretty sure it will help me maintain it too...It gives the control to you...

    As I am nearing the maintenance phase...

    I plan to

    continue to eat healthy...
    add one exercise and
    loosen up in the weekend with an occasional feast or a treat...but I want to
    check my weight every Wednesday...

    Interesting to read others' view points too...

    Congrats on the loss :) and good luck...
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    CHEESE
  • iechick
    iechick Posts: 352 Member
    I've been at this for around 4 months and refuse to count one more darn calorie :grumble: :laugh: So I've created a maintenance 'plan' that's working great, if not a bit too well (hit another new low last week :blushing: ).

    1. weigh myself daily and keep Friday's weigh-ins on a graph (free app on my phone).
    2. IF with an 8 hour eating window
    3. measure out portions of higher calorie foods (nuts, seeds, olives etc etc)
    4. over the past few months I've been transitioning to a mostly whole foods, plant based diet (around 90%/10%), and that's kept a lot of higher calorie food at a minimum (dairy, baked goods and things like all you can eat pizza buffets lol)
    5. just started a food diary blog where I'm journaling my food, but not the calories/macros. This is more of a way to see what I'm eating, in relation to step 4.
    6. Walking and a bit of running 4-6 days a week. Some days I'll walk a mile and others like today I ran 1.5 miles and walked .5-I just go with what I feel like doing at the time.

    So far it's working brilliantly and I haven't counted a calorie in months. Just need to get the weight stabilized now and I'm set for maintaining for the next 50 or so years :drinker:
  • Marylisssy
    Marylisssy Posts: 25
    Look up how many calories you can eat to maintain a weight of 140 pounds!!!! They have calculators on weight maintenance!!!!! It will ask for your gender, height, and put in the weight of 140!!!! It will calculate how many calories you can eat each day to keep that weight!!!! I'm cutting back many calories a day right now, but once I lose 40 pounds, I can then up my calories a bit, but just remember to eat only the amount of calories I can have for my weight amount!!!! A little help? Two or three times a week, cut back on calories some where to enjoy some small fatty snacks!!!! That's what I do and I'm still losing!!!!!
  • nafiatjohn
    nafiatjohn Posts: 9 Member
    I sympathize.
    Maintaining is the hardest part of all this for me. I got to a weight I liked, but kept losing. Then I adjusted and started gaining.
    It's a process with flows and ebbs, I've figured, and MFP continues to help keeping me in line.
  • sklebar
    sklebar Posts: 117 Member
    Figured it out through trial and error to get my sweet spot. I went on these boards to figure it out and it helped. Now solid at my weight and don't fluctuate wildly. I plan on logging forever because I just so enjoy looking really lovely and feeling so healthy, so it's now like sending a text message on my iphone. I think it forces me to have even better healthier choices, so that's why I stick with it. I also don't go by what everyone says when it comes to meals and snacks, especially during the day at work, so I stick to a decent breakfast of 400 calories, a decent lunch of 400 calories and another snack at 200 calories mid-afternoon. That helps because a pot of yogurt doesn't do anything for me.
  • mlogantra76
    mlogantra76 Posts: 334 Member
    Right now what is working for me is weighing daily and plotting it on a line graph. I don't freak out when my weight goes up a few lbs because it usually goes down in the next few days. I was eating my losing amount of calories and then spending who knows how many calories on grazing. That was making me anxious even though I was maintaining. So I upped my daily calories and count everything. I don't mind counting calories for now. I try to stick with healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, protein, etc... I do eat full fat dairy and walnuts, cashews, almonds, etc... I don't eat a lot of processed food regularly or sugar, flour, and potatoes. I do have a treat meal once a week. I do a lot of running as well as strength/weight training. Right now, I'm maintaining at 2100 calories a day(including exercise calories) and one day a week I probably eat closer to 3500 calories. That is an estimate as I don't count that day.

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