I can't imagine maintenance, ever.

You're 18. This post and your profile make me very sad. Is there someone you can talk to, like a professional? It just seems like a sad view of food/weight to start your entire life with.

seska422 wrote: »

Maintenance will be what I'm doing now but with more calories available.

If I want to keep the weight off, I'm going to need to keep logging.

Basically, I also had reservations about maintenance. For me its less cardio, more calories, and different goals. You don't have x lbs/kgs urging you on anymore. You might not to keep logging but you have to keep monitoring something (food, scale, mirror, ...)

I was fat as a kid and lost most of my weight by the end of high school. I lost even more in college then fluctuated back to high school weight (23 BMI) until I was pregnant and gained a lot. I finally got back down within a year and have maintained around there for 8 years. I cannot imagine maintenance. I've been losing and gaining the same 10lbs (within a "normal" range) all this time. I know exactly what you're saying.

I understand what you mean. I have been on this journey for a really long time and I still can imagine myself at maintenance...and tbh the idea of maintenance freaks me out.

For me, maintenance has been no different than losing weight. You have a set limit on your calories and adjust your habits to meet them. When I first started maintaining, there was at once a feeling of "freedom" but also a feeling of uncertainty. I was happy to have more calories to eat but I worried (and sometimes still do worry) that I might end up on a runaway train back to obesity. Those are natural fears and it happens often enough to many people that one can't just outright say "it won't happen to me".

But I also know that I've changed my mentality so fundamentally that NOT doing what I'm doing today would be as daunting to me as when I first started my journey and thinking that losing any weight was akin to asking me to fly to the moon. Eating within my limits is just ingrained in me now.

Seeing the numbers on the scale go down is gratifying and keeps you motivated to keep on keeping on but maintaining is all about making sure the numbers don't go up too much. It's about achieving a balance. By the time I hit maintenance, I felt ready because I knew how to eat in a healthy, sustainable manner. If my goal had simply been to lose weight, I'm not sure how successful I would have been in keeping it off. Instead, my goal was to become healthy, to become more active and focus on fitness. I've done well in those three areas and maintenance is just a natural byproduct of that lifestyle.

It is an adjustment, but it's not that hard, if you a) like and are satisfied by the food you're eating and b) like the activities you're doing. Your body levels off, between the given inputs (food) and outputs (exercise). And the things you're learning now will stick with you, and will become habitual. And that's going to last for a while. At some point you'll have to change and adapt again, when circumstances change.

When I started, I had a fair bit to lose. My initial goal was very conservative. I easily met it, and kept losing - because I hit a good balance of habits. I knew that if I worked out 4-5 times a week, at my preferred (high) intensity, and if I ate the way I'd been eating, I could just rely on that. I used the TDEE method, so I didn't log my workouts. I was just consistent. (I am 5'7, so I have a decent margin of error. I'd have to have been more precise if I were shorter, I think.)

There was a learning curve before then, when I was learning new recipes, reading about nutrition, getting used to the feel and look of different portions, learning about fitness, trying to design the perfect workout (ha). Definitely a fair bit of investment in this, lots of headspace and time given to it. But at some point, I started just knowing things and having those habits, and it was effortless.

So for me it went like:
198-->178 - that weight loss just happened because I moved to a walkable city and stopped driving, no effort with food.
178-->150 (150 was my initial goal).
150->124. <-- I stayed at that weight, within 2 lbs, for four years. Which freaked me out, because high school was the last time I weighed that little for longer than a little bit. But it was easy because my habits carried me through, I didn't have to think about it. I stopped logging for the last two years.

But it's a lifelong process, you always have to tweak it. A pregnancy, a new job with different non-exercise requirements, a move with a different commute, illness, something like that will happen to everyone and change the inputs and outputs.

My easy calorie balance changed when I got some injuries - activity was reduced but I kept eating the same amount. So I regained a bit - got to ~145. Once I got over the emotional fallout from the injuries, I got back on track again.

But I couldn't count on those high intensity workouts anymore, so I had to figure something else out. That's a work in progress, because every time I try to push exercise as the main mechanism again, I get injured, and I like the food I like. I.e. with a year here on MFP, I'm down to 139, and that is where my body likes to be with this calorie balance. It's fine - middle of the healthy BMI range [21.8], and I like myself here, too. I wouldn't mind dropping another 5 lbs, but because I'd have to make more dramatic changes to my diet to push it much further than that, I consider myself to be in maintenance.

Maintenance is just having extra calories but basically doing what you did when you were losing....the reality is that we always will have to keep an eye on CICO as otherwise we would gain back what we lost...

I've been in maintenance for over a year. My suggestion is to NOT consider your maintenance (when you get there) to be a fixed # on the scale. Instead have a range that is reasonable for you. The body weight naturally fluctuates so this is a key to sanity I think! Still pay attention to what & how much you eat, though you may choose to log less or estimate more. Depending on where your weight is in that range, act accordingly. Such as if your range is 140-145 and you're on the upper end, pay more attention to detail/accuracy or even aim for a 200-250 deficit. If you're closer to 140, estimate more or even splurge if you want.

allbandrelatednamesaretaken wrote: »

I stopped to think about life for a bit today and i scared the hell out of myself. I can't even remember a time i was not preoccupied with my weight. I'm always gaining/losing weight, so for a moment i decided to think about what it was like to maintain, to stop losing weight for a moment, not to binge, anything. I wondered about what my maintenance calories would be and it scared the crap out of me; completely new terrain.

Anyone else that feels this anxious about it? Even if it is a handful of kilograms away?

I used to be the same way! If I was eating more than 1200 calories in a day, I felt like I was overeating. So I was either restricting or figuring I'd ruined it and binging. I've been eating at maintenance for maybe five or six months now, and it is the most amazing thing in the world! Ok, maybe not in the world, but it's pretty awesome. I think the key for me was seeing that it really works! That I can eat 2000 calories every day and not gain weight! I can feel satisfied because I've eaten enough, and I can feel happy with my weight at the same time! I can eat a big meal now and feel full without feeling fat! Ok, I'm rambling. Anyway, what worked for me, I think, was just forcing myself to do it. Once I did and didn't gain weight or binge, I couldn't argue with the evidence. Let me tell you, if you can get yourself there, it's a great place to be. And on the off chance that you're interested in more of my story, here's a link. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10292983/i-binged-my-way-into-obesity-starved-my-way-back-out-and-then-i-finally-saw-the-light It just talks more about my struggle with food and where I am now. That's so great that you're going to see a therapist! Just remember that you shouldn't give up or stick with someone if you don't like him/her. It may take a couple tries before you find a good fit.

CalorieCountChocula wrote: »

BruceHedtke wrote: »

For me, maintenance has been no different than losing weight. You have a set limit on your calories and adjust your habits to meet them.

This is the part for me that makes me not be able to imagine a life in maintenance. For me, maintenance means your "work" is done. As in I can stop over analyzing every single piece of food I come in contact with. It's just depressing to imagine living this way my entire life. I already can't even lick a spoon while cooking without wondering, "Oh no. How many calories was that. Is that the reason I'm going to randomly plateau again?" I imagine it will be 100 times worse when I'm eating "normally" and have to stress out about having a piece of birthday cake. There goes another 5lb random overnight weight gain. Yay.

During weight loss I never licked spoons. I get to lick spoons in maintenance and I don't say no to birthday cake. Maintenance means that you just have to give a little push to keep the ball rolling (but you don't have to push at the same level to get the ball started in the first place)