Is maintaining weight, just as hard as losing weight?

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  • gsgitu
    gsgitu Posts: 118 Member
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    it is only as hard as you want to make it. all the trial and error and learning i have done over the past year has made it easy. i know what i need to do. still eat the same as when losing, just a few hundred more cals. wanna cut a few lb's, cut a few hundred cals. if i am going to eat big for a holiday or b-day i just throw in a couple 24 hr fast/500 cal days. boom, deficit. if you didn't learn anything during your weight loss that you can apply to your weight maintenance to make life easier, dare i ask, why? learn something about what your body needs and when during your weight loss to make life easier when maintaining.
    Maybe read some of the other posts and learn about why some people find it more difficult than others? :flowerforyou:
    maybe stop thinking every post is about YOU. just because the word "you" is in it doesn't mean it is about you. i did read every post. some have issues, noted. if i was directing this at someone other than OP i would have quoted them. the OP asked, Share your story. i obliged. only in the hopes of being helpful. i don't ever want to be that guy going around all negative nancy posting how everyone is doing wrong and just being plain dumb. so if my post is offensive and plain dumb, i apologize, to everyone, not just you. i would share flowers but i don't want to make my wife jealous, have a smile instead :happy:
  • Trixsterfan
    Trixsterfan Posts: 54 Member
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    Don`t know yet but I actually enjoy loosing my weight I`m enjoying the reflection from the mirror
  • shrinkingbrian
    shrinkingbrian Posts: 171 Member
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    Now that I hit my goal weight, my main goal is maintenance but I have also set new fitness goals.
  • lbarbosa87
    lbarbosa87 Posts: 6 Member
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    Yes! I completely agree that setting new goals is always a great way to aim for something even after you have reached your ideal weight. Maybe also to add on top here are other new goals to aim for to maintain weight and also keep up the motivation.

    1.) Sign up for local races: 5k's, half marathons, marathons, triatholons and try to keep working on improving your times.
    2.) Try a new workout series DVD (i.e. Insanity, P90x, T25) any dvd that involves you being dedicated to it for over 30 days.
    3.)Aim to become an overall stronger person (increasing weights, learning new weight lifting workouts, incorporating Tabata training and plyometrics)
    4.) With food it would also be fun to learn new healthy recipes so you never get bored of eating the same amount of calories everyday.
  • rosenkrantzz
    rosenkrantzz Posts: 12
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    I find maintaining much much easier, but it's not without its own challenges. When I was actively losing weight, I was on a roll. I was doing less than 1200 calories a day, exercising 5-6 days a week. Sometimes twice a day even! I was a fairly consistent loser (ha!) on that path.

    When I stopped trying to lose weight, I upped my calories slowly and slowed the exercise to 3-4 times a week. But I kept losing weight. I lost about 15lbs I didn't plan on losing (glad I did tho really). But it was frustrating not knowing how many calories I should eat versus how much I should exercise.

    I think I have a handle on it now, I have been stable for a few months.
  • stephenryan758
    stephenryan758 Posts: 72 Member
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    Maintaining your weight means maintaining your lifestyle changes when it comes to diet and exercise.

    If you think for a second that once you reach your goal weight you can switch your diet to a poor one, you are in for a rude awakening. Keep the habits that allowed you to lose the weight you wanted. Stick to the foods that you were eating during that time. Workout 3 - 4 days per week for atleast 30 minutes per day. Maintaining your weight doesn't mean you have to stay at the same number. For example, weight flunctuates. Say you reached your goal weight of 140 pounds depending who you were. If you stay within 5 pounds for the rest of your life of that number for example, that is an excellent accomplishment. It means you will fit into the clothes you want to fit into and look your best.

    Stay within a healthy range, not a number. Trying to maintain a certain number to the exact amount is going to drive you crazy. Like I said before weight flunctuates. If you gain a couple pounds (2-3) don't feel bad. Just put an extra workout or two in that week and you will lose it in no time. Stay away from sodium based foods, alcohol, and most importantly continue to keep a food journal.
  • paulawatkins1974
    paulawatkins1974 Posts: 720 Member
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    I have found it's a lot harder. I have lost 50 plus Lbs several times and each time I gain back more. Now I have a whopping 118 to lose. Don't let this discourage you though It hasn't discouraged me. I'll know what not to do this time round and by getting a heads up ahead of time will hopefully help you. I always mistakenly had the mind set I was "finished" after losing it all. I know better this time
  • MsCookies587
    MsCookies587 Posts: 2
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    I don't think so. Once you lose quite a bit you need to re adjust your eating habits to "maintain" your goal. I went from eating about 1400 calories a day after losing 43 lbs, to now eating about 1700 per day and I maintain just fine. I see saw back and forth 5-6 lbs losing/gaining which is normal, because it's water weight and I allow myself a few more cheat days. I actually just took two weeks off from the gym and ate mostly whatever I wanted and I was able to maintain my weight while even bloating up before my monthly cycle. I think it all depends on how much you understand your body and what you can and cannot do. I am not a big drinker, I have typically 1 -2 cups of coffee per day and I drink half my body weight in water daily. I also watch my sodium intake, count calories on here every couple of days (esp if I am out somewhere and unfamiliar with the menu or get stuck in a rut and don't want to eat salads every day and want a change!) and keep exercising. Seems to work well. Also, don't focus on the number focus on how you feel, look and your overall fitness level. If you are healthy then that number doesn't mean anything. My ideal weight is 147 lbs for my height but I am 136 and I do not look emaciated or too thin. I have muscle and am lean. Its all about health! Good luck!
  • ShannonMpls
    ShannonMpls Posts: 1,936 Member
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    Glad you asked this OP. I've been a little bummed about facing a constant struggle with weight for the rest of my life.:frown:

    It doesn't have to be a struggle!


    At first, maintenance was hard simply because I had to adjust to life without The Big Goal. It was weird not weighing in every day, and I missed the "you look great!" compliments, buying smaller clothes, the affirmation of the scale that I was heading somewhere.

    Then I adjusted. Goals changed: run a half marathon. Bench press 135. Squat more than I did last week.

    Now I find maintenance so much more enjoyable and easier by far. This is why:

    1) I weigh myself maybe once a month. My day is never ruined by a number on the scale.
    2) I can eat more! For me, that means more "untracked" days.
    3) I run better now that I don't focus on a deficit during race-training season.
    4) I can buy quality clothing, because I know I will be in it for awhile.
    5) I know my body. I know that it's a losing battle to stay at one precise weight forever. I have a maintenance range, not maintenance weight, and I understand when I might be high in that range and why.

    Generally, I do what I did while losing but with a lot less stress and a lot more leeway. For me, that means I still eat at a deficit M-F and track weekdays religiously. On weekends I seldom track and eat at a surplus. It's worked for me for 18 months of happy, sane weight maintenance.

    I don't get the thrill of seeing a new low on the scale and recording it to accolades, but damn...today when I was deadlifting and squatting, looking at myself in the mirror, this formerly morbidly obese woman is an athlete. That's better than any weight goal I met.

    So - long story short - I love maintenance. The biggest motivator for continuing to stay in my maintenance range is knowing that if I do I'll never have to go back to weight loss mode again :)
  • MsCookies587
    MsCookies587 Posts: 2
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    Great job! I am training for a half now. :)
  • oceanbreeze27
    oceanbreeze27 Posts: 66 Member
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    Great question and even better responses. Thanks so much for all your insight and congratulations to all those at the maintenance stage! I look forward to the day when I reach the "ho hum" of maintaining my target weight. :o)
  • manhn1
    manhn1 Posts: 137 Member
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    I think maintaining your weight the first time may be harder than losing weight. After you go up and down the scale over the years, when you are in "maintenance" mode again, it's easier to find the motivation because you can remember what happened the last time you "failed" to maintain.

    I think the hardest part is gaining a little bit of weight and then trying to lose the weight right away. You get impatient. It's not like when you are at your heaviest the first few pounds just slide off.
  • chelstakencharge
    chelstakencharge Posts: 1,021 Member
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    They both have pros and cons. If you fix your relationship with food while losing (not just a quick fix) then maintaining will not be that difficult.
  • missigus
    missigus Posts: 207 Member
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    It's been tough for me to figure out how to maintain because as some said, the old habits creep in. I have gained some back, then lost it again, usually staying within 7 to 10 lbs of my original goal. But it's not really something that you can just relax on once your there-it's still a lot of watching things. After losing the same few lbs over and over I have decided to try to take things on with a different outlook. I decided to eat a very natural diet so that hopefully I can get away form the yoyo-ing. So yep, it just as hard but in a different way. I think it really takes a while to "get" what's going to work at your new weight and be satisfactory to living with the rest of your life.
  • sunnyeuphoria
    sunnyeuphoria Posts: 85 Member
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    The important thing to remember is this- you absolutely cannot hit a weight that you feel comfortable at and then think you can go back to eating how you used to before you started eating healthy. You will end up gaining weight and get back to the weight that you were at when you first started. You must eat to maintain the new weight.... not the old. I learned this the hard way... I worked really hard for over a year to lose 130 lbs.... got happy and comfortable with how I looked... and figured I would take a break from the regime I was on and enjoy the holidays... that was end of September... by Jan 10 I had gained 1/3 of my weight back. So much for thinking I could eat a bunch of crap and maintain. So back to the old drawing board... and this time... I learned that consistency is key. A treat is only a treat if you get it on rare occasion... not a treat every day. My downfall was really just getting lazy about cooking and eating out all the time. I didn't eat more food- just different food- unhealthy fat laden food. And of course I would eat Christmas candy and thanksgiving pie. Its all in the food choices you make. So yea... I would say for me maintaining is harder than losing... It took experiencing it to see how small of a calorie amount means the difference between maintaining and gaining.
  • Laura3BB
    Laura3BB Posts: 250 Member
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    I find maintaining easier -(get to eat normally) but less exciting - (no specific target)
  • MissLeelooDallas
    MissLeelooDallas Posts: 145 Member
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    For me, maintaining is currently harder. Switching over left me confused as to the exact amount of calories to be consuming. I continued to lose weight beyond my goal weight. Now I'm trying to: A) Find my exact calorie intake to maintain, and, B) Then trying to slowly gain back the extra weight that I lost beyond my goal weight. Losing weight was fairly easy for me, but this is a challenge.
  • trophywife24
    trophywife24 Posts: 1,472 Member
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    It isn't been for me but... but..

    but...

    I changed my relationship with food. I've been working on losing and maintaining for almost three years. I healed my binging problem, developed a healthy relationship with food and am no longer an over eater. I don't think maintaining is so complicated if you take it slow, do it right, and figure out what got you where you were in the first place AND heal that.

    I also think that if your goal weight is too low, you'll struggle to maintain. I think there's a magic weight that everyone has that their body will hold pretty easily.
  • sunshinelively
    sunshinelively Posts: 249 Member
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    Guys, I have maintained a seventy pound loss for *ten* years so I feel I have some authority here: losing weight and maintenance are very similar. These are lifestyle changes. It will be sustainable only if you change habits. Get into fitness and get into healthy eating. Make sports and cooking your hobbies. It's so much easier when you are focused on fun things (like getting faster, stronger, better at a particular sport, figuring out new recipes,etc) than deprivation. You have to find new loves in life other than tv and treats.

    awesome. hoping it goes this way for me. i keep thinking i'll be able to run faster after i lose the last 20 lb. been stuck at the 5.5 mph - 5.8 mph for awhile. these thoughts have been what's keeping me going. took a break from losing weight last summer so i could focus on running and noticed that running really does help to maintain the weight loss.
  • wijody
    wijody Posts: 26 Member
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    In some ways it's harder... Without a goal to work for and the constant feedback of the scale going down, blowing off a day/week/month can be tempting. A successful day in weight maintenance is a day when you do everything you're supposed to, and... and?... AND!!! ......... and NOTHING CHANGES. :grumble:

    What a lot of us do is find new goals... Lifting more weight... Running faster or longer... Taking up a new sport... Doing push-ups, pull-ups, or whatever we couldn't do before. That helps to keep a focus on fitness.

    Figuring out your maintenance calories is trickier than finding a deficit, but it's not really THAT hard: If you see the scale trending down over time, you eat a bit more; if you see the scale trending up over time (aside from the immediate glycogen bump or the expected TOM bloat), you eat a bit less. My weight has been pretty stable (i.e., always within a couple pounds of goal weight in either direction) through 8-9 months of maintenance with little adjustments when I felt I needed a change.

    The harder part is staying the course, not letting the demands of daily life derail you and the pounds creep back on over time. For that part, I really recommend MOAR GOALZ.

    True, all of this - and I love the idea of finding NEW goals - like a pushup goal or something to work toward. Almost all of us can improve *something* ... whether it's honing the diet or a new fitness goal.

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