How do you want to eat after you reach maintenance?

Options
2

Replies

  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
    Options
    I plan to eat a balanced healthy diet.
  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
    Options
    500 more calories of just like I do now.
  • mkakids
    mkakids Posts: 1,913 Member
    Options
    How do i want to eat? I WANT to eat whatever i want, whenever i want.

    How will i actually eat? I'll continue to log and eat whatever i want as long as it fits into my calorie goals.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited January 2016
    Options
    I've been maintaining over most of the last year, and I'm eating like I was before, just adjusting the calories. Or more precisely I did initially adjust the calories, but I've only been logging off and on for the past several months, while continuing to pay attention to what I eat and portion size.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Options
    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?

    Your first sentence is the crux of the problem. If people follow a specific named diet, give up their favorite foods, try to cut calories too aggressively, and try to rush the weight loss - it can make transitioning into maintenance difficult and usually results in gaining the weight back.

    By making small changes that can be sustained forever (smaller portions, more nutrient dense foods, leaving treats as a smaller portion of the total consumption, more exercise, etc) then people have far fewer challenges keeping the weight off.

    I didn't give up any of the foods/drinks I love when I was losing, and am successfully maintaining now. In fact, I probably eat more food now than I did BEFORE I lost weight because I am far more active than my previous sedentary lifestyle.

  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    Options
    I gained weight on a healthy diet: lots of home-cooked foods made from scratch, plenty of vegetables, moderate amounts of red meat, eating out just a couple times a month. I was just eating more of it than my activity level justified. When I decided I needed to lose weight, I just ate less at breakfast and lunch, and made time to be more active.

    Now that I'm at maintenance, I'm eating just what I was while losing, except a bit more. I intend to keep eating this way the rest of my life, and go back to a deficit if my weight (more precisely, exponentially smoothed moving average weight) gets more than 2 pounds over my goal. I continue to be more active than I was when gaining, which means that like @WinoGelato, I might be eating more than I was then!
  • KBmoments
    KBmoments Posts: 193 Member
    Options
    Francl27 wrote: »
    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...

    Great point! My maintenance is really only around 300 cals extra...That's like a nice bowl of icecream extra. Damn! Didn't learn that the 1st time around...This time when I hit maintenance, I have to realize i can' t go hog wild on food.
  • 100df
    100df Posts: 668 Member
    Options
    Francl27 wrote: »
    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.

    Very glad I know that. Maintenance is not going to be that much different than I eat now. A few more calories to play with is the only difference. When I say a few, I mean 200-250 more. I doubt very much that I will have more than that. Especially if I get as small as I want to be.
  • cthakkar1985
    cthakkar1985 Posts: 137 Member
    Options
    On the day I hit my goal weight, I'll visit an all-you-can-eat buffet to celebrate, probably a pizza joint. The next day, I'll go back to normal tracking my calories/macros and eating at maintenance.
  • KateTii
    KateTii Posts: 886 Member
    edited January 2016
    Options
    Eat exactly how I am right now, but adding more food back in until I am eating at maintenance. I am a firm believer in picking a "diet" that you can stick to and just eat more/less depending if you are trying to lose weight, trying to gain weight or trying to maintain.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
    Options
    I go on maintenance for a few days every month when my appetite spikes due to being premenstrual. I just eat the same as I normally do, just 500 calories more of it.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,840 Member
    Options
    Right now, I'm simply eating fewer calories than I burn by consuming a wide variety of delicious food.

    When I reach maintenance (soon), I'll aim to eat the same number of calories that I burn by consuming a wide variety of delicious food.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    Options
    Machka9 wrote: »
    Right now, I'm simply eating fewer calories than I burn by consuming a wide variety of delicious food.

    When I reach maintenance (soon), I'll aim to eat the same number of calories that I burn by consuming a wide variety of delicious food.

    This.

    Mind you, I burn a lot. Around 3-4000 kj a day according to my Fitbit which is proving very accurate.

    So add a 2000 kj deficit on top, and I might have to cut back on exercise because I can barely eat enough as it is.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,483 Member
    Options
    I hit goal 6 years ago.
    Being petite my maintenance was the same as my losing goal. The dreaded 1200.
    While losing I ate and drank what I had always ate and drank just in slightly smaller portions and moved more.
    For the past 6 years I have continued eating slightly smaller portions ( don't count food calories or weigh myself often) and moving more. I have moved 3 times out of my goal in that time, twice under and once over.

    I do eat to my content.

    Cheers, h.
  • bendyourkneekatie
    bendyourkneekatie Posts: 696 Member
    Options
    all the food. I want to eat all the food.

    No, honestly, gonna get my brag on here and say the beauty of dieting while breastfeeding is that I AM eating at maintenance now. I'm so close to goal that when little miss decides to be done with my boobs I'll just keep eating as I am.

    Or alternatively..... All the food.
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
    Options
    I'm at maintenance, and I tend to go over or under maintenance by maybe 200ish calories more days than I hit it. But it's really natural and nice, because the higher days are tasty, and the low days come naturally afterwards because I'm less hungry.

    But I do track my calories and notice whether it averages out right over about a week. If it doesn't, I make sure to cut back a bit right away. Most of the time it does feel like I get to eat a lot more than when losing weight.

    I do eat more butter than when losing (where I completely restricted it on most days). That's the big food group I added back in, lol. But it is so nice to have the calories to enjoy it, so I do like maintenance waaaay better :)

    It's been over a year that I've been maintaining, but I continued to lose weight after going to maintenance for a few months, too (which was fine with me!).
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Options
    I plan to stay on a mini yo-yo. Have a certain goal range, and as soon as my trend weight strays outside the boundaries I would take action to diet back down or diet back up. The kinds of foods I will be eating would be the same foods I eat now and have always eaten, only in amounts that won't inflate me back into obesity.
  • duddysdad
    duddysdad Posts: 402 Member
    Options
    I've tried maintenance for a couple months and always had a hard time eating enough calories. I get 2400 for sedentary. I recently gained a couple holiday pounds so I have to lose that again, but I am dreading going back to maintenance. I feel like maintenance gives me an excuse to eat bad things, since I can budget the calories for it. When I am in weight loss mode I feel more happy, I guess because I feel like I am improving myself.

    I guess my plan for maintenance is to eat more calorie dense foods instead of eating more food. Things like adding butter, or peanut butter, mayo, oils.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Options
    I've been in maintenance almost a year

    I eat pretty much the way I did when I was losing but with a few hundred more calories and continue to log which is an eye on a rounded healthy diet, lots of vegetables, protein minimum and fat minimums, ice cream, cookies, crisps and wine and the rule that all food must be worth it not just mindless noshing

    I workout and move pretty much the same way as when losing

    I made a life change to avoid ever having to diet again - any kind of restriction (other than calorific) or fad or rules would make me 'revert to normal'

    this is my normal now
  • samchez0
    samchez0 Posts: 364 Member
    Options
    Well I'm trying to set up healthy lifelong habits and not really diet so hopefully I'll continue to eat the same. If I go back to how I was eating, I'll just gain it all back and all this work will have been pointless.

Categories