Maintenance findings...4 months on :)

RunRutheeRun wrote: »

lauraripson wrote: »

Thanks so much for posting!! I've been wondering if I should just switch to maintenance. I've been working out daily, eating healthy, logging most days, for a few years now. I can tell definite differences in my body, like strength, endurance, etc, nothing else has ever really changed. My weigh has stayed a constant all this time. Around 145 and I'm 5'5. I'm starting to think that this is just how I'm supposed to be. As long as I'm living a healthy lifestyle, nothing else matters right? At least that's what I have to keep telling myself!!

@lauraripson‌ ‌ your body is at its happy weight go with it, that's what I did

I don't think she sounds happy about it though!

Thank you for posting these updates; they have been really helpful in my own journey of trying to maintain my weight. I've been maintaining my weight (between 60.5 and 61.5) for a little more than a month now and have made many findings.

I found that I became obsessed with numbers and making sure I was eating enough calories. Recently, I began wondering when I began to obsess because before I wasn't like this. Before, I would just keep to small portions but eat whatever I wanted. Reflecting on the good habits I took on as I lost weight, I realized that in order to maintain I was throwing away those good habits I worked so hard to keep.

Because of this, I've just decided to go back to those old habits:
1. Drink a cold cup of water every morning and every hour.
2. No afternoon snaking. (I find that just eating 3 meals in good for me)
3. No fruit after lunch.
4. Low-carb dinners as recommended by my doctor. I'll eat carbs, just less that I would normally eat during lunch.
5. If offered a dessert or snack, only eat a small portion.
6. No need to log every gram. Just eat intuitively and go for small portions in general.
7. Get lots of sleep.
8. Try to move your body whenever possible.

I still think that writing what I eat is very important, so I will continue logging. However, I don't think I will measure everything as precisely as I have been doing these past two months because doing so made me feel like I was restricting myself so much. So what I'll do now is buy a journal and write what I ate and how I felt (as recommended by the Blogilates channel).

I'm aware this might not work for some, but it's the least stressful and realistic way for me to maintain my weight in the long term. Hope this helps others!

Thank you so much. I just reached my goal and am going on maintenance. You are so inspiring!

Good! My eating over Tdee experiment didn't work! Then I had an emo time and comfort ate! Back at netting 1500 for a while. Haven't jumped on the scales for 3 weeks. It's a fine line!

I'll join in this group now that I'm maintaining. I like to call it rocomping though as maintenance to me is a dirty word lol (that I've struggled with in the past)

I've decided to eat 2200 calories for 6 months of the year and for the other 6 months of the year eat at a 10-15 % defecit which is around the 1900-2000 calorie mark.

My scale range is 59 - 60.5 kg. 25 % body fat. I'm a 5 foot 2 female.

At present im recomping. My goal is to average 2200 weekly calories which is eating at TDEE or just slightly below. I lift very heavy weights and I am seeing nice changes in body composition! I also include 2-3 intense cardio pw and I keep pretty active during the day.

I'm measuring my progress taking my body fat %, monthly photos, and measurements.

Goal is to get to 20 % body fat

RunRutheeRun wrote: »

@Kim55555 RMR isn't that same as BMR? how would I calculate that? My BMR according to online calculators is 1380...I think! It'd been a while since I calculated that so will go do that now.

Kim you're at a great weight, I totally agree with the body re comp

Hi BMR is taken when you just wake up in a laboratory and haven't done any activity or anything. Resting is not as controlled ie, you get up shower, drive your car walk into laboratory to get tested. BMR is slightly more accurate.

The online calculators or weight scale calcs are a good guide for what your RMR could be but then again it needs to take in other factors ie I drove my RMR into the ground doing 3 months of eating at something like 30% deficit, not fueling myself enough for my activity. My result came back at 850 RMR. The calculator would have told me 1300. 5 weeks of eating in surplus sparked my metabolism up to an amazing 1500.

Yeah I'm at a good weight, body recomp is the way to go for now until spring. I just want to tone and lose more fat off my tummy.

@RunRutheeRun You are doing awesome on maintenance. This thread was a great idea because it shows others that they are not alone in their quest to maintain a healthy weight. I've been doing it successfully for 3 years now and the hardest part for me has been trying to balance my daily exercise routine with the amount of calories that I'm eating. Unfortunately I have a tendency to over exercise and not take in the right amount of calories which causes my weight to sometimes drop below what it should be. I'm a lifetime member at Weight watchers and do find that the monthly weigh ins and keeping a log of what I eat and how much I exercise helps because it shows me that I need to either eat more calories or stop the amount of exercising that I'm doing so that I'm not in a caloric deficit... Best wishes for your continued success in maintaining and also to others in this thread as well.

Well I went on a comfort eating jag after a heart break (minor) which surprised me at its force! So I've gone back to cutting most days at about 1/200 under Tdee. I'm just going to do this forever lol with the odd blow out day. I can't do maintenance! It just creeps up so quickly and stealthily!

Bump. Eleven pounds to go before maintenance.