Maintenance pitfalls

I've been maintaining for a few years now, and do get challenged from time to time. I think a few techniques that helped me were:

1. While losing, I changed my habits. I didn't look at my weight loss as a temporary thing, I figured out a very general (and one poster said it above) food/eating regime that works for me that I stick to about 80% (probably closer to 85%) of the time. I've realized that a 2-week vacation, or a daily slip-up (if it's not too often), are not things to get too concerned about AS LONG AS I get right back to the habits I've built into my life. That being said, having a couple benchmarks that you use to check in on regularly (i.e. I weigh myself every week at least; occasionally track food just to check macros) would be a good idea.
2. Build some sort of activity into your regular life. Whether it be the gym, walking, whatever. I am pretty darn faithful about taking a long (between 3 and 5 miles) hike or walk every morning with my dog, husband, and neighbor-friends. Unless it's raining, we walk. Period. I work full-time too, and I do this early before going into work. That means, sometimes, I'm out the door at 6 a.m., already showered; back by 7:30; eat something and dash to office.

I also do other exercises, but shake things up on a regular basis. I took up mountain biking a few years ago, and bike in the summer. I also play pickleball (OMG, that game is addicting) in the summer. In the winter, I focus more on weight-lifting and bulking (adding weight!!!) to build more muscle; in summer, I continue lifting, but focus on losing the few pounds I gained while "bulking" by adding in the above cardio, and mostly lift to maintain my strength and muscle mass. Anyway, bottom line is that I shake things up and don't do the same thing all the time.

3. I also figure out a few strategies for those "challenging" times we all face; it's individual for everyone. For me, it's social situations; a particular time during an office day that I want to eat everything that is in front of me including my desk; and traveling, especially long drives, when I want to be popping food in my mouth all the time. If I can manage those "Big 3" situations that are my weak points, if there are others that I also fall for--well, so be it. I pick my battles. I may also not always win at the Big 3 challenges, but I've developed enough mettle to win MOST of the time.

Plus, all of us here who are maintaining--we KNOW how to lose weight, right? If you see yourself trending, it's up to you to stop it. But having built up habits that you can live with 80-90% of the time is probably one of the more effective ways to go, in my opinion.

Old thread but one bad habit which I notice in maintenance is that over time I start to eat faster and faster instead of savoring. Just reminding myself to take smaller bites and enjoy the food helps.

I'm in year 6+ of maintaining (including a period where I super-slowly lost a few vanity pounds that hadn't taken me out of a healthy weight/BMI for my body, nor made me buy bigger jeans)

Most of the time, things are fine. I know myself, know I need to keep counting, at least the majority of the days; and I know I need to watch my weight trend. (I weigh daily, use Libra.)

To me, that routine's non-intrusive, takes maybe 10 minutes a day. Like some above, I've found ways of eating and being active that are pretty easy, keep me happy overall. No way I could stay "disciplined", "motivated" for this long, to do hard/unpleasant things. I also calorie bank - eat a little under calories most days (just 100-150-ish) to eat more indulgently occasionally, though I don't precisely track the banked amounts; I just set goal a little low, and eat to it most days, splurge occasionally, watch the scale. Staying active in the MFP Community also seems to help me keep my head in the game.

A few things are challenges:

1. Traveling, especially traveling with others who are snack-y people, but even on my own there's some FOMO when there are interesting restaurants in new places, and that sort of thing.

2. Potluck meals, which I'll define because MFP is international: Many people, everyone brings a tempting dish to share. My rowing club has them occasionally, for example.

3. Fall. I don't know whether it's some shorter days/SAD (seasonal affective disorder), or my mostly-Scandinavian genes being wired to fatten up as the cold season comes, but I get crave-y and less well-controlled in Fall.

4. Drinks with tempting food, the obvious issue that alcohol reduces inhibitions, makes it easier to give in to extra calories if yummy stuff is present. I don't feel like I have "an alcohol problem" in a general sense, like wine and craft beer, so don't want to go cold turkey.

Counter strategies:

1. Identify better road snacks, still things I like and can get at convenience stores/service centers on the road (for some reason, that's important to me, bringing things from home doesn't work). I appreciate it when they have V-8 juice, which I really like; I get unsweetened cold tea (don't like sweet drinks); look for snacks that fit into my nutrition needs (HB eggs, Greek yogurt, sometimes nuts) or are relatively lower cal (flavored popcorn in small bags, pickles). For special restaurant meals, I indulge a bit. For not-special restaurants, I focus on nutrition #1 (I'm vegetarian, travel protein is hard), calorie efficiency #2.

2. I've pretty much given up on handling potlucks well. They don't happen often. I eat the things, take withdrawals from the calorie bank. Usually, I try to take something nutritious and tasty, but it's not always calorie-efficient, honestly. I don't avoid them, I enjoy them. (I think jacking around with my social life Because Calories would be a Really Bad Plan. That may not be true for all, but it is for me: Screws up my overally life balance.)

3. Since I've become aware of Fall cravings, I simply try to push back on it, calorie bank a bit more when it's easy during Fall, recognize trigger situations/foods and think twice about my plan, try to be a little more disciplined about transitioning to my (non-preferred) Winter indoor exercise activities more quickly. Not perfected.

4. Drinks/food risks, I just try to plan ahead, set intentions, space out the particular trigger situations if I can while keeping good overall life balance (social connections & what-not), plan out things to balance over time.

I mentioned the re-loss of vanity pounds, which also is I guess an answer to the OP question: Back around October 2019, My size 6 jeans still fit, but were getting a little snug when I added my extra-thick Winter long underwear. I super, super hate to clothes shop - I know, weird - so that was very motivating to me to lose those few pounds, to be comfy in the thicker long underwear not just the everyday thin ones.

That loss was completely intentional, but I really didn't feel any enthusiasm for a meaningful-sized deficit: I just saved the banked calories relatively more often - which was made easier by less indoor socializing later, during the pandemic, frankly - and ended up losing around a pound a month on average, for something a bit over a year. It was pretty painless, honestly.

Looking backwards, the gain of those few pounds (over roughly 4 years) was mostly from more-frequent travel for a while, and the Fall cravings thing. That insight has been helpful in making me feel more intentional about managing those things better. FWIW, Libra helped me see that pattern, noticing where the peaks (in themselves mostly water weight) were gradually leading the typical trend to be a tiny bit higher, after trip season, after Fall, etc., in patterns over multiple years.

Apologies: Another bleepin' essay. 🙄