Switching to maintenance and feeling guilty.
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Domicinator wrote: »I've been eating 1900 a day for the last several months. When I go over, it's usually by only about 20 or 30 calories at the most. For me, MFP translates that to .5 lbs of weight loss a week. When I switch it to maintenance, I now have 2150 a day to eat. It feels a little better to know that I have a little more to work with if I do that, and I think it will motivate me to exercise more.
I have a question about the bolded part. Just curious, do you mean that your MFP settings are set up for a loss of 0.5 pounds per week, or do you mean that your actual most recent loss rate is 0.5 pounds per week? Those can be two very different things.
MFP estimates it at that. Sometimes I lose it faster than that, sometimes slower. I tend to go in spurts.0 -
Congrats for hitting your goal! ^_^
Yeah, it does feel weird to switch to maintenance after a long time (three years for me!). I keep thinking that I'm still eating too much because I'm used to a smaller calorie goal! However, if you've hit your goal, work on making adjustments to keep you calories in steady, and like you said, add some extra exercise. Even if it's just walking, that adds calories out as well as helping your body to get into better shape.
You might consider talking to a physical therapist about exercises you can do that won't hurt your back. I had to go to one a few years ago for something else, but she was able to show me some stretches and exercises I could do that didn't strain my back, which was very helpful!
Yeah, I just finished a round of PT over the summer and she gave me a whole folder of stuff to do and a list of things to stay away from. It helped, but I may go and see her again for some more specific advice.0 -
Congratulations on your loss.
Moving to maintainance by working out your personal TDEE from MFP logs works very well. I recommend doing that rather than taking an estimated general population number and having to adjust it numerous times. It has worked well for me for 6 years.
Maintaining is just a different goal. Watching the scale not move, instead of move. Give yourself a weight range to stay within instead of just one number.
Some pause for thought;
There are more people who have been successful at weight loss than there are at maintaining the loss.
Cheers, h.0 -
First of all, I want to send you congratulations like the others. I'm one those that lost the weight and regained it (have lost it again). I'm male, 5'10", 58 years old, and weighed 250 in March 2010. I got down to 157 (actually more than I wanted) by January 2011. A job relocation and life in general got in the way and over the next 3 years and I gained some weight. It was then that I slipped on some ice with my hands full and fell on on my right arm (dominant side) really hard. I didn't break anything, but I really couldn't use that arm/hand for about 3 days. I couldn't even zip up my pants. Anyway, when I went in to the doctor's office (new doctor), they took my BP. The top number was over 200 and the weight was back at 250 lbs. That motivated me back onto MFP. Since then, I have lost over 80 lbs. and am again in maintenance (a/o February 2015). I still use the NEAT method as opposed to TDEE method since my exercise is inconsistent. I mainly walk (pretty fast) and my step count can vary (anywhere for 10K to as high as 40K). I use a FitBit Charge HR to track steps and that normally gives me at least 1,000 exercise calories on top of 2,000 calories I get from MFP. 3,000 calories is a lot of food if you watch what you eat consciously. The point is now that I'm where I want to be, fitness is now what I focus on. I'm still tracking what I eat. It does allow me to eat more. Now, onto weightlifting and a recomp. Just realize it never really ends.0
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I've been in maintenance for going on three years...moving to maintenance was nothing I ever felt guilty about...in fact, I was very excited because while dieting I had basically hit a wall in terms of my fitness gains, just not enough energy (calories) to do more...moving to maintenance allowed me break that wall into pieces of rubble and then grind that rubble into dust. My fitness gains exploded moving to maintenance.0
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Congrats on your weight loss. I have been on maintenance for 10 months now. But have not eaten all my allotted cals per day. I decided I wanted to lose another 10 lbs and have lost 12 extra in the last 10 months. But it was comforting to know if I was on vacation or during the holidays I could have small treats within my maintenance cal goals. Some days I am stricter than others and it has worked quite well.
Also, I cannot go to sleep with my stomach rumbling do I save 100-200 cals for a bedtime snack. I know everyone says not to eat after whatever o'clock but it has worked out fine for me. And I don't stay awake because of an empty stomach.
Good luck on your maintenance journey.0 -
vicky1947mfp wrote: »Congrats on your weight loss. I have been on maintenance for 10 months now. But have not eaten all my allotted cals per day. I decided I wanted to lose another 10 lbs and have lost 12 extra in the last 10 months. But it was comforting to know if I was on vacation or during the holidays I could have small treats within my maintenance cal goals. Some days I am stricter than others and it has worked quite well.
Also, I cannot go to sleep with my stomach rumbling do I save 100-200 cals for a bedtime snack. I know everyone says not to eat after whatever o'clock but it has worked out fine for me. And I don't stay awake because of an empty stomach.
Good luck on your maintenance journey.
Thank you!
I've been on maintenance for just a couple of days now, and the biggest difference has just been that I can have either two bigger snacks during the day or three smaller snacks. I like the little bit of extra freedom I have. At the same time, I feel like I'm being even more rigid with what I eat because I am not interested in gaining that weight back, and I have zero self control when it comes to portions. I think I'm going to do just fine with maintenance. The mindset is still intact. No going back to old habits.0 -
I'm finding that maintenance suits me. The guilt and worry I feel about eating more calories per day--completely unfounded. First of all I'm finding that just having the OPTION to eat those extra couple hundred calories a day is really nice, even if I don't necessarily eat all of them. I think my diet fatigue wasn't so much about being hungry, but more about psychologically being tired of feeling restricted. I'm usually not hungry enough to eat all the way up to the maintenance line, even after lots of exercise.
My weight is going up and down between 175 and 177. I know it's just been a few days, and that's not enough to spot any consistent trends, but it's remaining stable for now. What also helped my mental state was going shopping for new warm weather clothes over the weekend and finding that I am now a size 32 waist and a medium for shirts. At this time last year, I was anywhere from 38 to 40 for pants, and a 2XL for most shirts.0 -
Domicinator wrote: »I'm finding that maintenance suits me. The guilt and worry I feel about eating more calories per day--completely unfounded. First of all I'm finding that just having the OPTION to eat those extra couple hundred calories a day is really nice, even if I don't necessarily eat all of them. I think my diet fatigue wasn't so much about being hungry, but more about psychologically being tired of feeling restricted. I'm usually not hungry enough to eat all the way up to the maintenance line, even after lots of exercise.
My weight is going up and down between 175 and 177. I know it's just been a few days, and that's not enough to spot any consistent trends, but it's remaining stable for now. What also helped my mental state was going shopping for new warm weather clothes over the weekend and finding that I am now a size 32 waist and a medium for shirts. At this time last year, I was anywhere from 38 to 40 for pants, and a 2XL for most shirts.
I'm glad you're coming to peace with this; I'm struggling with this, too. As it turns out, it's actually easy (logistically speaking) to lose weight when you have a method and time. But holding what you got? Trying to find that sweet spot, which is going to fluctuate depending on what your body's doing and what you're asking it to do? It does scare me a little.
I reduced my losing weight goal a few weeks ago from 1 lb. a week to 0.5, which gained me 50 cal./day (A half a hard pretzel! Hope I don't spend it all in one place...), but it took the edge off of the maintenance anxiety. I also recognize that I'm going to have to weight myself regularly for the long haul. I wish you well!
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So proud of the wonderful job you have done!!! Congrats to you. I started on maintenance in October because I felt the same exact way you do now. I still wanted 10 more pounds at that time but i just could not eat at deficit anymore. Sometimes I really do think it is all in our heads. When I upped the calories to maintenance, I did great. I always stay under that calorie amount fairly easily unless we go out to dinner with friends and are drinking alcohol as well as enjoying the food. I lost weight anyway during these past few months. I now just have 5 more pounds to go to get to that ultimate goal weight. I am hoping by the end of September this year I will be there. I am trying very much to just enjoy the ride at this point. By nature, I am just too impatient.0
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Domicinator wrote: »I'm finding that maintenance suits me. The guilt and worry I feel about eating more calories per day--completely unfounded. First of all I'm finding that just having the OPTION to eat those extra couple hundred calories a day is really nice, even if I don't necessarily eat all of them. I think my diet fatigue wasn't so much about being hungry, but more about psychologically being tired of feeling restricted. I'm usually not hungry enough to eat all the way up to the maintenance line, even after lots of exercise.
My weight is going up and down between 175 and 177. I know it's just been a few days, and that's not enough to spot any consistent trends, but it's remaining stable for now. What also helped my mental state was going shopping for new warm weather clothes over the weekend and finding that I am now a size 32 waist and a medium for shirts. At this time last year, I was anywhere from 38 to 40 for pants, and a 2XL for most shirts.
I'm glad you're coming to peace with this; I'm struggling with this, too. As it turns out, it's actually easy (logistically speaking) to lose weight when you have a method and time. But holding what you got? Trying to find that sweet spot, which is going to fluctuate depending on what your body's doing and what you're asking it to do? It does scare me a little.
I reduced my losing weight goal a few weeks ago from 1 lb. a week to 0.5, which gained me 50 cal./day (A half a hard pretzel! Hope I don't spend it all in one place...), but it took the edge off of the maintenance anxiety. I also recognize that I'm going to have to weight myself regularly for the long haul. I wish you well!
I know that feeling for sure. I've been at the .5 lb per week mark for several months now. It's like a last stepping stone toward maintenance, but it does still work for weight loss. I actually lost faster than what MFP said I would. I think it was in February where I lost 4 lbs during the month when I really should have only lost 2.0 -
hollen_carol wrote: »So proud of the wonderful job you have done!!! Congrats to you. I started on maintenance in October because I felt the same exact way you do now. I still wanted 10 more pounds at that time but i just could not eat at deficit anymore. Sometimes I really do think it is all in our heads. When I upped the calories to maintenance, I did great. I always stay under that calorie amount fairly easily unless we go out to dinner with friends and are drinking alcohol as well as enjoying the food. I lost weight anyway during these past few months. I now just have 5 more pounds to go to get to that ultimate goal weight. I am hoping by the end of September this year I will be there. I am trying very much to just enjoy the ride at this point. By nature, I am just too impatient.
Thank you!
Your story is very encouraging. I envision that's probably about the way it's going to go for me too. With some of the pressure off to stay at or under 1900 calories a day, I feel a lot more relaxed and less neurotic about what I eat during the day. I'm still sticking very strictly to my food log in MFP, but I think that's going to be a part of my life for the long haul. I have absolutely no concept of portion control if I'm not logging.0 -
Congrats on reaching goal
don't feel guilty! enjoy the extra calories and enjoy maintenance...its sweeeeeet! 
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I know how you feel - I've reached maintenance and I'm finding it really hard to eat more because of the guilt. Feel free to add me I could do with friends on maintenance for support and motivation0
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I got to 123, but was 3# short of goal. After a month I decided that my body really didn't want to get to 120 (can we say major mind games?). I declared myself in maintenance 3 months ago and am very happy to not have yo-yo'd back up. Every day I log and every week I maintain, is an accomplishment. It's also getting easier for me. I do plan on sneaking down to 120, but will wait for summer. I go up and down about 2# depending on weekends usually.0
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I am in your shoes!! I got to my goal of 128 after losing 85 lbs. I definitely have more body fat I could lose and I keep thinking I should lose another ten. But I'm kinda exhausted from it all. I keep going back and forth so some days I'll eat at a deficit and then I'll have a day like today where I end up eating above maintenance because i just don't care. I think maybe I'd have better luck just switching to maintenance. My motivation to lose weight is pretty low. I am happy with how I look and in a healthy weight range so it really doesn't matter that I still have more body fat than I'd like. I can always start again in a few months. It's hard for me to shut off diet mode though.0
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victoria_1024 wrote: »I am in your shoes!! I got to my goal of 128 after losing 85 lbs. I definitely have more body fat I could lose and I keep thinking I should lose another ten. But I'm kinda exhausted from it all. I keep going back and forth so some days I'll eat at a deficit and then I'll have a day like today where I end up eating above maintenance because i just don't care. I think maybe I'd have better luck just switching to maintenance. My motivation to lose weight is pretty low. I am happy with how I look and in a healthy weight range so it really doesn't matter that I still have more body fat than I'd like. I can always start again in a few months. It's hard for me to shut off diet mode though.
I have been eating at or below maintenance for about a week and my weight is fluctuating up and down between 175 and 177, which I'm totally ok with. I'm trying to get more regular exercise in too, now that I have a better chance of building up some muscle. I use an AirDyne AD-6 exercise bike, which works the upper AND lower body, so I'm hoping to get some tone in my puny arms.
Now, I just need the weather to get its act together so I can get my REAL bike out and start riding every day!0 -
I have lost 85 lbs over the course of 2 years and have just recently booked myself a date for a tummy tuck due to a bunch of loose skin. My surgery is in about a month and a half and I have put my calorie goal to maintain. I am exhausted from being in a constant deficit for 2 years and I am giving myself the mental rest that I so desperately need. It feels great to not be so hungry all the time and my strength training has definitely gotten less difficult. I will be at maintenance until about 6 weeks after my surgery when I am able to get back into the gym. Then I will begin my first ever bulk (or maybe cut a bit more).0
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I also recognize that I'm going to have to weight myself regularly for the long haul. I wish you well!
I weigh about every 2 weeks, or, when I feel particularly thin, or when I feel bloated and worried i may have gained! Sometimes i go a month between weigh ins. I've been maintaining for well over a year now and haven't "gained" more than 7 lbs in that time, which always bounced back down anyway. good luck!
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