How do you want to eat after you reach maintenance?

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lakshva
lakshva Posts: 44 Member
edited January 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
With people following different diets, giving up fav food, starving and doing everything just to hurry up to the ideal weight, how do you plan to eat after you hit the goal?
Plan of 'I can eat to my content after losing these pounds' is just the vicious cycle?
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Replies

  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    lakshva wrote: »
    With people following different diets, giving up fav food, starving and doing everything just to hurry up to the ideal weight, how do you plan to eat after you hit the goal?
    Plan of 'I can eat to my content after losing these pounds' is just the vicious cycle?

    thats why fads don't work. people don't learn how much to eat to maintain their weight.

    me? i will be eating this way for the rest of my life (everything in moderation and exercise)
  • HutchA12
    HutchA12 Posts: 279 Member
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    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    lakshva wrote: »
    With people following different diets, giving up fav food, starving and doing everything just to hurry up to the ideal weight, how do you plan to eat after you hit the goal?
    Plan of 'I can eat to my content after losing these pounds' is just the vicious cycle?

    thats why fads don't work. people don't learn how much to eat to maintain their weight.

    me? i will be eating this way for the rest of my life (everything in moderation and exercise)

    This is it.
  • erinc5
    erinc5 Posts: 329 Member
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    I plan on eating pretty much the exact same, just a few tweaks. Adding in more beer and wine. Replacing my froyo with actual ice cream (I like normal sized portions, so I switched to froyo for now). Having 2 slices of pizza instead of just one.

    I've tried all the fad diets, giving things up, etc... Just doesn't work for me. I recently switched to eating whatever I want as long as it fits my calories, and I'm gonna continue that for as long as I live. Once I hit maintenance I will just have more calories to play with!
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    lakshva wrote: »
    Plan of 'I can eat to my content after losing these pounds' is just the vicious cycle?

    Exactly.

    Which is why many of us suggest that finding a moderate and balanced approach to weight loss works for so many - it tends to be easier to make it a long-term lifestyle change, instead of just one iteration in a gain/lose/gain yo-yo cycle.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    Haha yeah. People don't really realize that they won't be able to eat that much more once they switch to maintenance, unless they increase their activity by quite a lot.

    Of course now I'm way hungrier than I was when losing too, so I actually have to make better choices as a whole than when I was losing too...
  • Mexicanbigfoot
    Mexicanbigfoot Posts: 520 Member
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    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    lakshva wrote: »
    With people following different diets, giving up fav food, starving and doing everything just to hurry up to the ideal weight, how do you plan to eat after you hit the goal?
    Plan of 'I can eat to my content after losing these pounds' is just the vicious cycle?

    thats why fads don't work. people don't learn how much to eat to maintain their weight.

    me? i will be eating this way for the rest of my life (everything in moderation and exercise)

    +1
  • AriaRoylance
    AriaRoylance Posts: 3 Member
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    Coming from a yo-yo dieter the thing I changed in my life when losing weight recently was that instead of huge amounts of nothing but vegetable matter and not learning moderation, I did smaller, more well balanced meals. I believed that when I got to my goal I would have "made the change" to eating that way. It just doesn't come naturally for me. I didn't work out or exercise losing so I lost a lot of muscle which I am not trying to rebuild. What I have found that has is working so far is still measuring/weighing/watching what I eat BUT I am using MFP to monitor that I am don't over eat and (believe it or not) that I don't under eat. I am very new to MFP, I didn't use it losing the weight but I find I need it to learn to maintain! So, I guess I am saying that I still have the "be careful, measure, think before I eat" mentality but I am eating a bit more and adding the exercise and watching to be sure there is no real change in my weight either up or down.

    For all I know I will have to measure and weigh the rest of my life! I am 56 and have done the yo-yo thing a few times in my life. I don't ever want to have to do that again. I can't swear I'll have learn to eat without the help of really watching and it may always be a learning process, but that is my goal now after reaching that number goal. I am hoping that goal of building back muscle and eating enough w/out overdoing will be the thing to help me.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    I personally intend to eat more of the things I miss, but I also intend to keep logging and exercising at maintenance. I will keep my macros in order and try to stay on track. Once I hit my goal weight I want to gain a bit of muscle (not too much) so for a while I'll get to add back some calories or more protein but will eventually settle into maintenance, I just don't know what that amount will be yet.
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
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    Eating at maintenance will just mean I can eat 500 extra calories of food every day. Maybe that is a bowl of ice cream, maybe that is a few smaller snacks throughout the day, maybe eating just slightly larger portions for lunch/dinner, who knows.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    lakshva wrote: »
    With people following different diets, giving up fav food, starving and doing everything just to hurry up to the ideal weight, how do you plan to eat after you hit the goal?
    Plan of 'I can eat to my content after losing these pounds' is just the vicious cycle?

    thats why fads don't work. people don't learn how much to eat to maintain their weight.

    me? i will be eating this way for the rest of my life (everything in moderation and exercise)

    Same
  • QueenofHearts023
    QueenofHearts023 Posts: 421 Member
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    I'm already eating like the thinner me. And losing fine without feeling deprived of anything. So, same way as I'm eating now.

    I don't have a specific amount of weight i want to lose... I thought I'd just eat like the thinner me and eventually I'll get there and my body will settle on its own. If I notice I'm losing too much I'll just add in 2 snacks or something.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    I've been in maintenance going on three years and I eat the same as when I was losing weight...primarily a lot of whole, nutrient dense foods that are packed with nutrition and meals prepared from scratch, whole ingredients...and pizza night every now and then or out to my favorite New Mexican place now and then, etc.
  • cnbbnc
    cnbbnc Posts: 1,267 Member
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    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    lakshva wrote: »
    With people following different diets, giving up fav food, starving and doing everything just to hurry up to the ideal weight, how do you plan to eat after you hit the goal?
    Plan of 'I can eat to my content after losing these pounds' is just the vicious cycle?

    thats why fads don't work. people don't learn how much to eat to maintain their weight.

    me? i will be eating this way for the rest of my life (everything in moderation and exercise)

    Yup. The downfall of taking drastic measures to drop weight is that sooner or later you will inevitably run out of steam and be left scrambling and wondering what to do next.

    I started maintenance two weeks ago, and I'm pretty much eating just the same (I enjoyed what I was eating so no biggie) but just adding on an extra couple snacks or slightly larger portion of something at mealtimes. If I go out to eat I have more wiggle room with calories which is nice. Food still has to fit my daily goal though, so....maintenance is just the same as you're doing now, only with a higher daily allotment.



  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    I have maintained (on purpose) for various periods throughout my weight loss. When I do that, I eat very similarly to how I eat when I am trying to lose weight. There are pretty small differences, such as eating toast with my eggs in the morning, which gives me another 220 calories or so, and maybe one extra dessert per week.
  • Meganthedogmom
    Meganthedogmom Posts: 1,639 Member
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    If I want to keep the weight off, I need to eat this way forever.
  • spzjlb
    spzjlb Posts: 599 Member
    edited January 2016
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    I consider myself to be maintaining and I still have my goal set to lose 0.5 lbs per week...I am just much lazier about logging. I watch my scale like a hawk and adjust rapidly when it creeps up. On the other hand, I never ate poorly, I just ate too much. There was never anything that I didn't eat while losing.
  • williams969
    williams969 Posts: 2,528 Member
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    I eat pretty much the same types of things now as I do in maintenance. Just a little less, with a few low calorie tweaks. I'll probably eat a little more cheese or an extra egg, plus an extra tortilla or slice of bread or two daily, and that should about bring my intake to maintenance.
  • ilex70
    ilex70 Posts: 727 Member
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    Hoping to find something like an 80/20 balance, 80% the same as now and 20% eating just what I want. IOW adding in some so called cheat meals or cheat days.
  • melonaulait
    melonaulait Posts: 769 Member
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    I eat whatever I want and I never would've imagined how much I've enjoyed tracking the kinds of foods I eat. It's an exciting aspect in itself.

    Maybe some things that I have had to cut out are too much ice cream and big bags of potato chips. Not that I had those on the regular anyway, but they are something that I can't always give in to. But anything else I'll let myself have anytime!
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    I didn't change my diet to lose weight so I'll eat whatever I want that fits my maintenance calories I guess.

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