How do you maintain?

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Replies

  • I summarized as follows:
         1, eat some breakfast, and I do not eat breakfast one, at noon hungry, eat always particularly high.
         2, eat some lunch, lunch eat well at night hungry faster and eat more than that.
         3, eat dinner, or eat an apple, OK.
         4, do not always eat snacks, watch TV or the Internet, a cup of boiled water drink ~
         5, after dinner to sit, not fat not work - I now regard the housework in the evening, one hour Guarantee will not have time to clean of flesh!
         6, leftovers are still reluctant to it ~ finally into his belly is still full, poor Oh, and finally had to spend money to lose weight, not worth!
         7, early to bed early, very important, the early time, then finally running exercise!
         8, buy a weight scale, no fixed time week weigh and effective weight control!
  • amwood89
    amwood89 Posts: 165 Member
    I track during the week & the week only, along with moderate exercise every day.

    I don't track at weekends & eat what I want to an extent.

    Probably not the preferred method, but it's worked for me.
  • i'm close to the end now so i've been feeling the same. reading these responses is really interesting.
  • I summarized as follows:
         1, eat some breakfast, and I do not eat breakfast one, at noon hungry, eat always particularly high.
         2, eat some lunch, lunch eat well at night hungry faster and eat more than that.
         3, eat dinner, or eat an apple, OK.
         4, do not always eat snacks, watch TV or the Internet, a cup of boiled water drink ~
         5, after dinner to sit, not fat not work - I now regard the housework in the evening, one hour Guarantee will not have time to clean of flesh!
         6, leftovers are still reluctant to it ~ finally into his belly is still full, poor Oh, and finally had to spend money to lose weight, not worth!
         7, early to bed early, very important, the early time, then finally running exercise!
         8, buy a weight scale, no fixed time week weigh and effective weight control!

    this is amazing
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    I summarized as follows:
         1, eat some breakfast, and I do not eat breakfast one, at noon hungry, eat always particularly high.
         2, eat some lunch, lunch eat well at night hungry faster and eat more than that.
         3, eat dinner, or eat an apple, OK.
         4, do not always eat snacks, watch TV or the Internet, a cup of boiled water drink ~
         5, after dinner to sit, not fat not work - I now regard the housework in the evening, one hour Guarantee will not have time to clean of flesh!
         6, leftovers are still reluctant to it ~ finally into his belly is still full, poor Oh, and finally had to spend money to lose weight, not worth!
         7, early to bed early, very important, the early time, then finally running exercise!
         8, buy a weight scale, no fixed time week weigh and effective weight control!

    this is amazing

    oh shoot then i will have quite a hard time maintaining since i don't understand a word of this *kitten*. woe is me. :wink:
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    anyway I just wing it.

    I dont' know if it's from my past "failures" at crash dieting where i could never eat at those crash levels and so never "broke" my metabolism but then only when doing diets that allowed actual food and so lost weight little by little (and cursed it while my friends lost fast and "succeeded" at dieting) but I am able to stop dieting and fly solo and maintain whatever weight I was at provided I don't go nutsbonkers and eat all teh foodz.
  • noctilumina
    noctilumina Posts: 65 Member
    Found this excellent link..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i_cmltmQ6A

    its 22 mins which explains how to maintain weight off, and why it is so hard to maintain.

    its brilliant.:happy:

    Just watched the program you linked. It was interesting and informative, but WOW is that depressing. My metabolism will never revert back to the metabolism of someone who hasn't been overweight? I will need to eat significantly less and/or exercise significantly more than my imaginary twin who never gained the weight in the first place? FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE? I don't know. I'm kind of horrified. It isn't that I'm not motivated to maintain my current weight. I am. It isn't that I want to return to eating the way I used to, or to stop walking everywhere. I don't. I haven't made any changes that I'm not happy to live with for the rest of my life. It's just the thought that I have permanently damaged my metabolism to the extent that it will never recover... wow, I'm speechless.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
    Apply the lessons you learned in the dieting phase of your weight loss: portion control, balanced diet, reasonable amounts of exercise, suitable measurements at periodic intervals and see how you go.

    You need to trust in the process and if your habits have become ingrained then you will maintain unconsciously as your calorie intake matches your calorie expenditure.

    If you feel the need to continue tracking as it forces accountability then do so for a while but always keep in mind what you want to achieve - which I presume is weight maintenance without tracking - and how you can do exactly that in the long term.

    Personally, a life time of counting calories sounds dire to me...
  • biggsterjackster
    biggsterjackster Posts: 419 Member
    Keep up working out.
    Eat everything, that you like. No restrictions!
    Only eat, when you are hungry!
    Stop eating, when you feel getting full, even if you have leftovers on your plate (important in restaurants)
    Watch the sugar (not to much candy).
  • rainbow198
    rainbow198 Posts: 2,245 Member
    Normally I eat at a slight deficit Sunday - Thursday. Friday and Saturday are my relaxed days so when I eat over maintenance it all balances out and i don't gain weight. If I go out to eat I usually gain temporary water weight but if I drink extra water for the next day or two it goes away.

    I continue to write down everything I eat and drink in my notebook and I pre-plan my meals the night before. The writing helps me to see trends and get food ideas and the pre-planing saves me lots of time.

    No restrictions! I find ways to substitute ingredients, make the food myself or work it into my calories.

    I have a +/- 5lb range I stick to and I try to stay closer to the - weight. If I start getting closer to the + weight I start working on getting back to the lower number so 5 lbs don't turn into 10 lbs, 10 lbs turn into 15 lbs etc.

    Working out is a high priority for me. It helps me feel good, I like what is does for my body aesthetically and it allows me to eat more.

    Also I have an eating window where I start eating and stop eating. No grazing all day, that can set me up to overeat. I eat all of my food then I close the kitchen until the next day.

    Doing all of this consistently has worked extremely well for me. I don't gain weight and I don't lose weight, although I am still losing inches, but that's more of a workout thing.
  • 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:
  • 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.