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justamyagain
justamyagain Posts: 154 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
My profile pic is an update as of 5/27. I was planning on losing another 7-10 lbs, but I think I should probably start looking into maintenance. That scares the crap outta me.

Any advice on beginning maintenance? p6y498022eie.jpg

Replies

  • tomofnj
    tomofnj Posts: 88 Member
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    Maintenance is a scary thought. Good luck :)
  • Azurite27
    Azurite27 Posts: 554 Member
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    Yes, you look like you're ready. Since you still have a few pounds you could lose, you could transition slowly, adding 50-100 daily each week until you reach where your maintenance should be and then adjust every 3-4 weeks if you're still losing.
  • karensuegill
    karensuegill Posts: 67 Member
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    I am ready for maintenance also. It is scary. I have lost weight several times before, but have never maintained. What I have read from others is it's not drastically different from losing. You eat a few more calories and continue to exercise. If it isn't a trigger for you, you can add in a treat once a week or so. MFP tells me I can add about 450 calories to each day to maintain. I've read others that say sometimes it takes a little tweaking to find your exact calories where you will maintain.
  • karensuegill
    karensuegill Posts: 67 Member
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    BTW you look great!
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    You look amazing! I can see how maintenance would be scary. A lot of people recommend "reverse dieting," which just means slowly increasing your calories until you find your maintenance sweet spot.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    I disagree - nothing scary about it at all. Like anything new it gets easier over time and becomes a habit.

    Maintenance is great, I eat more of the food I like, have more energy and enjoy life more being fit and healthy. There's also the satisfaction of achieving something difficult.
    Unlike some people I get as much satisfaction from seeing my maintenance weight on the scales as I used to get from seeing weight loss progress. It's feels like a win every day.

    What I think are musts:
    Understand natural daily/weekly/monthly weight fluctuations and don't react to them.
    Have a goal range not a single weight.
    Think longer term than day to day to allow for fluctuations but also meals out, vacations, special events involving food.
    Stay vigilant without being obsessive. Set a weight point that triggers action if you start to drift but make it reasonable.

    Optional:
    Replace your weight loss goal with other goals (mine are fitness related).
    Continue to count calories (for me it's a must but not everyone is the same). I'm much more relaxed about estimating and take a weekly view to allow for high days and low days.
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    The scariest thing about maintenance for me was trying to figure how what I was going to do with all the extra calories I had to eat back to stop losing weight. I got over it 100 calories at a time per week.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited June 2015
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    You've done great :) I didn't find the transition to maintenance scary at all, I love getting extra calories :smile: up them a 100 at a time, add more calories every few weeks and before you know it you'll be wondering how you managed to eat less, I know thats what happened to me - I maintain easily on 2100 cals and I'm only a small fry :smiley:
  • justamyagain
    justamyagain Posts: 154 Member
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    Thank you for all of the great advice! I'm ready to try

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