Gaining back the weight after reaching goal?

weight control is about calorie balance, not what types of food you are eating necessarily. It's just math...you require XXXX calories to maintain your weight per your stats and activity level...you eat less than that and you lose...you eat more than that and you gain.

I've been maintaining for a year and overall my diet is much more nutritious than it used to be, but I still eat pizza and go out for hotdogs and what not. With my stats and activity I maintain on around 2700 - 2800 calories per day...most of that requirement is just my energy requisites for basic functions and living...so I lose about 1 Lb per week with a 500 calorie per day cut from that...I gain if I consistently eat over that....regardless of what my diet (noun) consists of.

Rather than cutting foods out entirely, you would likely be better served to learn how to enjoy those things in proper portions and in moderation unless you intend to cut them out forever.

Short answer: Yes, you will have to continue to watch what you eat to keep your weight down.

I have over 10 years of experience on this one. See ticker or view my profile for the back story, if interested.

Hopefully throughout your weight loss journey, you will adopt many healthy, life-long eating and exercise habits. Once you reach your goal weight, I encourage folks to not call it "dieting" anymore (because we often associate that unpleasant word with deprivation and short-term effort). Instead, recognize all the positive lifestyle changes that you have been making all that time and try to make them a lasting part of your daily habits.

I think it's safe to ease up a little once you are in maintenance mode, but nobody can just go back to the same behaviors that made them overweight - not unless that's where they want to return. And you will if you revert back to your old eating and exercise habits (or lack thereof). The behaviors that made you unhealthy before will make you unhealthy again, so always be mindful of your choices and how they will build upon each other over time. Just remember, the healthy behaviors you adopt now will continue to serve you throughout your life. So, choose actions to lose and then manage your weight that are sustainable and healthy.

For me, the answer is .. Yes AND No. Once I got to my goal weight, I was able to eat things I hadn't eaten while getting to my goal weight, and found that I didn't gain weight right away (like I'd feared). I actually went along for about 7 months basically just eating what I wanted and still maintaining. But then, Christmas came along and I OVER indulged. Everyone knows what I mean. Not just having a cookie if I felt like it. I was having 12 cookies when I felt like it. Then, I hit a real rough patch in my life, and I continued to turn to food. I knew that i was overeating. I was waiting until people were gone and then wolfing down handfuls of candy. I was ordering the extra large sizes of food and stuffing them in, even when I was too full. Subsequently, I gained back 15 lbs. I knew that my eating habits had gone beyond returning to a "normal" diet and had crossed the line into over-eating. I knew it, but just didn't care.

Soo... that's the bad news.

The good news is that I've gotten myself back on track. I took control of myself and my eating before I packed on 80 lbs again. I've got 9 lbs to get back to goal and really, I'm hoping to lose at least 10 beyond that.

Bottom line is, you do have to be ever vigilant. However, after months and months of dieting, I knew when I'd crossed the line. Granted, it took me a while to care, but at least there was all those previous months of calorie counting before hand that helped me realize how much trouble I was in before it got too out of control. For maintiance, you don't have to be as strict. You can have cookies and pasta and the like. But you also cant go right back to eating huge plates of pasta and fries and cookies and expect not to gain a lb.

Great post. People think they cant have pizza, drink beer, have a cookie, etc, its just math, like you said. Eat light all day (like i have today) and then have a french dip and a couple of beers for dinner (like i plan on doing)

I eat ALL THE FOODS in maintenance. Just not all at once. :drinker:

Hi!
So I've been starting to lose weight and I was just thinking, when I reach my goal weight, do I have to keep dieting? There are food I really like that I cut out of my diet for the time that I lose weight but when I'm done, can I start eating these foods again while sti being careful or will it make me gain the weight back? Thanks for your answers!

The secret is once you get to the weight you are happy with pick a upper and lower range, for instance if you are happy at 150 lbs then weigh yourself once a week if you hit 155 cut back on your treats if you hit 145 lbs enjoy those treats, i have been around 168 - 174 for six months or so now and am finding it quite easy, i am in diet mode mon to fri and enjoy myself over the weekend

I never cut any food while I was trying to lose weight. Never.

Maintaining, the only thing I do differently is eat more. I still watch my calories but I get to watch more of them.

Yes. There are foods I eat less often though, because they didn't taste that good and had a lot of calories - mediocre bread for example. But ice cream? Every night.

I personally still log everthing every day. But it's not a diet. It just keeps me in line.

Hi!
So I've been starting to lose weight and I was just thinking, when I reach my goal weight, do I have to keep dieting? There are food I really like that I cut out of my diet for the time that I lose weight but when I'm done, can I start eating these foods again while sti being careful or will it make me gain the weight back? Thanks for your answers!

The secret is once you get to the weight you are happy with pick a upper and lower range, for instance if you are happy at 150 lbs then weigh yourself once a week if you hit 155 cut back on your treats if you hit 145 lbs enjoy those treats, i have been around 168 - 174 for six months or so now and am finding it quite easy, i am in diet mode mon to fri and enjoy myself over the weekend

This is so sane. (Smack forehead.) When I reach my goal weight, this is exactly what I'm going to do. Thank you!

Yes you can, but in moderation. I lost 40 lbs five years ago and had a 5lb rule on maintenance. I tried to be good but if I hit the 5lb gain mark I went back on deficit mode. It worked fairly well, but the truth is I ended up yo yo'ing 5 lbs, sometimes 10 lbs several times a year. This year after taking off my holiday yo yo I'm trying something new. Logging every day 100 below my maintenance calories till Sunday. Sunday is a "free" day, whatever I want. Been at it a little over a month and so far its working great.