How do you want to eat after you reach maintenance?

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    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: 25,611 Member
    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
    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: 8,486 Member
    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
    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
    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
    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: 403 Member
    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
    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
    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.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I decided early on in my weight loss process to eat, think and move like a normal weight person. And to find foods and combinations that satisfy me in the correct portions for my calorie need. I kept my calorie deficit deliberately small. That made losing weight quite effortless. But it has the "downside" that in maintenance, I don't have much more to "play" with. I was a bit disappointed at first, the increase is almost an illusion. I still need to watch my portions. And it's not temporarily, either, like during weight loss. But that's the way it's going to be, and it's the same for everybody. I wont suffer, I'm getting what I need.

    The difference is marginal, it just means that I don't weigh everything, just certain items. I don't use the food diary anymore, just the spreadsheet. I don't put the milk carton back in the fridge if there's a tablespoon left in it, I empty it into my glass. I use the same amount of rice, grains and pasta, because they can be weighed easily and accurately. I look for 4-packs of pork chops that come close to 1 kilo, but I don't weigh them separately, and I don't subtract the weight of the bones anymore. I can eat apples that are larger than "medium", without reducing on something else. I can have an occasional off-plan treat, but not every day.
  • LyiannaTameka
    LyiannaTameka Posts: 34 Member
    I definitely do not believe this. I have eating issues/disordered eating & I eat anything from 300-800 calories daily (usually 500). Yes, I binge sometimes & purge (I'm tryna get better), but in general it's not very hard to maintain. The trick is to gradually increase calories maybe by 200 calories a week until you get to a healthy maintainance intake like 1400 maybe. Mind you, I don't really know what healthy is anymore.
  • cb2bslim
    cb2bslim Posts: 153 Member
    I'll plan on eating the same. I started doing a high protein/low carb diet in the first month and decided it was wrong for me. So for the last 11 months for the most part, I have been aiming for healthier foods but still eat the delicious foods made of goodness.
  • youngmomtaz
    youngmomtaz Posts: 1,075 Member
    I don't plan on reducing my activity because it makes me feel awesome and I have some muscle goals. Food will be similar just somewhat bigger portions. A bit more wine, a little ice cream through the summer. I maintained within 5lbs up or down for a full year and a half before deciding to get rid of the last 20lbs so it shouldn't be too hard.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    LyiannaTameka wrote: »
    I definitely do not believe this. I have eating issues/disordered eating & I eat anything from 300-800 calories daily (usually 500). Yes, I binge sometimes & purge (I'm tryna get better), but in general it's not very hard to maintain. The trick is to gradually increase calories maybe by 200 calories a week until you get to a healthy maintainance intake like 1400 maybe. Mind you, I don't really know what healthy is anymore.

    You really need help.
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
    Very carefully

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