Why is it so hard to get in the maintenance mindset?

When I reach my goal weight I am planning to still log my food everyday.I will take a break occassion when I am way from home or on special days like birthday when I go out and eat whatever I want without worrying about calories. Other than that I will still track my food and exercise to keep me accountable.It would be easy for me to lose track on my eating habits and start consuming too much calories if I am not forced to fit it into a my your ccalorie goal.I can see this happen since my potion size increases when I am away from home and I am unable to weigh my food. I would also go for that extra cookie since I can't log it in.

So do what works for you.For me this it a lifestyle change or I would go back where I started

I'm just transitioning to "maintenance" but I'm not calling it that. "Maintenance" suggests that nothing about your body changes, and I don't want that. There's still work for me to do.

Weight loss was just one part of my plan to get healthy, and I'm not calling my target weight my "goal" as much as a "milestone".

I want to increase the amount of higher intensity cardio I do. I currently walk, but I'm finding I have too much excess energy these days, so I really need to run or do something else or I'll find I won't be able to sleep. And I want to focus on building muscle to protect my joints and my bones. I have had various issues with knees and back, and osteoporosis runs in the family.

In order to achieve some of my other health goals, I recognize I need to keep tracking my protein, fat and fiber and make sure my calories are appropriate for what I'm asking my body to do.

Maybe having other goals to focus on will keep you motivated and stop you from thinking that this is The End?

I completely understand what you're saying and feeling, I was just there myself. I switched to "maintenance" back in February and for a while was fine then I started questioning if I'd have to log my food and exercise forever in order to keep the weight off. I was seeing other people losing weight and was like I'm still doing what I was doing so why am I not losing? Well because silly girl you added a few calories in there otherwise nothing changed. I do still log my food daily, on the weekends when I'm busy enjoying life I may or may not keep track but it took me a long time to see that was ok that it wasn't a rule to log everything all the time.

I have been trying to look at maintenance as more of a balance of life, I can celebrate a birthday without cake because I really am not a big fan of cake anyway. I can go out for a night with the girls and enjoy water, coffee or a spritzer and be just as happy as if I had a glass of wine or tropical mixed drink. I'd rather meet a friend for a walk to catch up than over dinner or dessert and coffee and I've learned to express that. I'm not rigid though, if I want a muffin I have it however I make it work in my day even if that means a bit of extra movement. I think this is where many people go wrong, they restrict themselves to lose the weight and then start eating those forbidden items again.

Basically my thought process is this, I like my body, I like myself and I want to continue to enjoy all the things I've discovered in the process so I keep on doing what makes me happy. I don't pay much attention to the scale now but it took a few months of constantly weighing myself to finally come to terms with this is what I weigh. I've taken measurements along the way too and this was what helped me more than the scale for maintenance. I still have goals for myself too, but they are fitness goals that have absolutely nothing to do with weight, I weigh in once a week just to see where I am, and measure once a month. It does take a while to settle in though so take it slow, switch your activity level to sedendary, add about 100 calories a day to each week and monitor yourself. I took this step in 3 week sections, added 100 calories and stayed at that for 3 weeks, if you gain drop a few calories, if you lose add more. It's going to be different for everyone as each of us is unique. Another big thing is don't concern yourself with others weight loss, they're probably envious of you being at maintenance so own your own journey, encourage them in theirs but don't get envious or jealous, each journey is unique.

Good luck!

I hope to be going in to maintenance in the next couple of months and found your notes above very encouraging and helpful. I too have lost weight in the past and put it back on over time, and believe it really is a long-term mindset change that will make me successful in maintenance.

In the past, I've been like you, stopping when near my goal. Maybe I get afraid to succeed, I'm not sure.

This time, it's totally different. I have a complete plan for getting to my goal, with milestones, a timeline, and a sustainable set of behaviors that will make it happen. And I know what I want to do AFTER I reach my weight goal, which is to start setting (currently unimagineable) fitness goals that aren't scale-related. I already know my first one. The last few years I've walked our local 10k, with a time just under 2 hrs. By next summer I plan to be ready to walk/run/jog, and to come in at under an hour. Not possible at my current size, very possible by this time next year.

And the final piece of the puzzle is: daily weigh-ins forever, with a "warning" weight at which I'll start logging again (Target Weight + 5) if I'm not, and a "crisis intervention" weight (Target Weight + 10) at which I will set my calories low and take the weight off right away rather than letting it spiral out of control.

I can't actually see what could go wrong

I am approaching maintenance...and I have fears over it. Not only am I getting that horrible "this is the end" mindset (which I am well aware that I can not focus on their ever being an end) I am setting fitness goals. I figure after I do hit my goal weight, and I am physically happy - I will log for a full 365 days afterwards. Then, begin to move away from relying on MFP, but always staying in touch!

I think the reason it is so hard for people is because while they are losing weight and operating at a caloric deficit, they aren't doing the other necessary work to create a healthy relationship with food. They're leaning on the calorie counter so hard they aren't doing anything else to develop the skills they need to deal with food once the cutting is over.

When you reach your goal weight, you should be able to stop logging calories. Because by then, you should have developed the necessary habits to continue forward with a healthy relationship with food and exercise. Exercise should be a daily part of your routine now. Food should be simple: you should know what a portion looks like, you should know how to listen to your body and its needs, to know when you're full, etc.

But I think people lean on the calorie counter so much that they don't develop these habits. They don't learn these things. So when it's over, and they've reached their goal weight, they still require the calorie counter, and there's a lot of paranoia and fear about overeating and gaining weight back.



The time spent cutting should be time spent developing habits. I just don't think many people do that.

The good news is, we're all capable of developing new habits, even after the cutting phase.

A good exercise for you might be to use the calorie counter in a different way now. Instead of entering everything into it and immediately seeing the caloric intake, you might just want to write down what you write on a piece of paper, or input it into a note on your phone. Try and go through the day just experiencing what it is like to not have the calorie counter at your immediate disposal. Focus on eating normal portions, quitting when full, drinking appropriate water, etc.

Then, at the end of the day, enter your calories and see how close your intuition is to reality. See if you can develop the skills to eat without counting.

The calorie counter is a great and necessary tool for weight loss. But it shouldn't be a lifetime crutch. Our ancestors knew how to listen to their bodies. You can re-learn that skill.

This is what I hope is true… smart stuff.

Maybe it might help if you set a new goal? One other than lose more weight. If you exercise maybe set goals there and use nutrition to support those goals. For me that is what have kept me motivated, wanting to build muscle slowly, I have to count calories to make sure I am getting enough and the right macros.

Good luck.

Your maintenance mindset is wrong is why!
Also
Weight is bunk Blackcloud13 and ultimately your panic weight will ruin any chance of making muscle gains...

I started out at 16 stone 8lbs and have fluctuated down and back up to 15 stone recently though my attitude has changed for the long term and I am finally fed up of my diet and my overall attitude toward food for the past 20 weeks I have been hitting myself hard with a gym diet, logging once a month or so with a scale set at my gym for the past 3 months popping a quid in and checking my progress, If I ate **** food I felt miserable I felt cheated and scolded myself it was hell.

This was my current progress since June:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/s960x960/10572058_10154449762295471_5451980515187092795_o.jpg

As you can see at the last weigh in my weight loss had reversed???
As a result I got depressed, I like you I had a target weight to get down to and maintain and seeing a complete gain of weight over a month while eating under my calorie goals got me down...
But then I placed my past readings side to side...

If you notice the trend that I noticed then you too will change the way you look at weight loss.

My weight had increased, but check my Body fat!
+0.3Kg -1.1% Body Fat

This to me is a breakthrough, my attitude has changed completely about scales, not only that but my ability to moderate my Body fat has me targeting my diet better.

I know I, like many of you started out saying, "I am Fat" not saying "I am heavy"
So
1) Why did my weight matter so much?
2) Why am I correlating weight with fat loss?

Those are 2 questions I think, worth asking before starting a diet!
Here are my answers:
1)Weight doesn't matter you can have so much muscle under your existing fat and be trying so hard to shift weight you detriment the muscle you grew.
2) I don't know why we correlate weight=/=fat because Body fat=/= fat loss, it's in the name!

I think people like me look at the scales see that slow down of weight loss or a bit of weight gain and panic, get put off, give up, or get depressed... Heaven knows I felt depressed at that last reading!

Every gym has scales even Myfitnesspal measures "WEIGHT LOSS", and that is a killer in the late stages of a diet,
Personally I was lifting and exercising, initially of course the weight loss was rapid but actually the fat loss was steady at about 1-3% body fat per month depending on how religious I was with my eating regime.

To start with weight loss is fast but eventually as the fat loss percentage equalled the muscle growth percentage weight loss slows to a halt, and over 1 month seeing an increase in weight on a strict diet... man that makes you want to quit and eat a big mac. But the whole time we ignore the steady loss of fat!

Since checking my body fat I have been re-motivated, the fat loss percentage has been stable and steady, if any thing it shows me calorie intake doesn't correlate to weight but directly to body fat!
I know the fat measurement machine isn't the most accurate but it was enough to show my faulty logic.

I have re-researched and found better ways of maintaining my "Body fat Percentage" while gaining weight and now if I gain weight I won't be scared of getting fat, because if I eat the right AMOUNT of food TYPES, at the right times I can target my body fat at a certain percent, and still gain muscle.

Ever heard the BS about good calories and bad calories, I did and I have thrown it out the window, it's a myth.
A "Calorie" is just a unit of energy that is it, it has a set amount of Joules!
There are no good Joules and bad Joules.
When you turn on a light bulb it doesn't matter if coal, wind, uranium or hydrogen was the fuel it burns the same amount of watts per Hour!

I reintroduced the McDonalds, the Crisps and Chocolate and all the junk I loved and set new macros and targets.
50% Protein to aid the muscle growth at low calories, 35% carbs 15% fats. at 1850Kcals (calculated at my lean mass (- fat) to prevent starvation mode and aid muscle growth) before I was at 1400 (which is 200 above what myfitness pal reccomended) which actually was a massive detriment to muscle growth!

Every time I wanted that big mac or 20 chicken nuggets, I had to check the calories and burn them off before eating them.

I made my body into an experiment and the test showed massive results.
I have been lifting more, finding more energy throughout the day, Been cheerful I also made a prediction about my body fat based on my new outlook and tried it, check my diet logs if you like there are crisps, chicken nuggets, chocolate.
On any day I had pigged out and every time I go to the gym either the day before, on or after.
Some days my total calories hit 3000-4000 a day!

This was my latest weigh in I broke through that "Weight wall" I lost 1% body fat in 2 weeks!
Something that took the whole month last weigh in!
Having the junk as well as the clean foods. Has made dieting so easy if I crave a take out or junk, I just hit the gym burn the calories and then have that Mars bar, or kebab or what ever, it doesn't matter because it's been burned off.

https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/t1.0-9/1901304_10154497731280471_6616085898266331210_n.jpg
I am now at 11% I have 4% to go each time I weigh in I retool the amount of calories I eat to my lean body weight! this is important as it is your real target to grow muscle and lose fat.

So next time you go to measure yourself get a body fat reading and start checking the Fat Loss!

(Also height fluctuates throughout the day so measure in the mornings xD)