In a Maintenance Funk (and fighting weight creep)
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Yup, I'm at the maintenance point right now--have been since probably May 2012(?). I'm in the same boat as you, weight is creeping up on me too and I know partly it's because I give myself too many "cheats". I eat well & track my food in the morning and lunch time. Dinner comes and I'm all like, "EH, I ate well earlier in the day, I'm good for this 800 calorie (dinner or even dessert)." Really, it's more like I put it all at the back of my head and don't know or care about calories by dinner. I REALLY need to quit doing that.
I'm now at about 10-12 lbs more than I was sustaining a little over a year ago. I've been slowly creeping into the mid 140s when I was originally maintaining 133-135 lbs. It's frustrating because my clothes fit differently when I gain little weight and I REFUSE to go out and buy temporary "fat" clothes. It would be too tempting to throw in the towel and give myself leeway in the direction I don't want to go if I did that.
It's good to know I'm not the only one who struggles with maintenance. Feel free to friend me ReaderGirl3. I'm *trying* to keep up accurate tracking and it was only until recently that I've started to get tired of my terrible bloating that comes along with a binge on sweets. I'm kind of thinking of cutting down on sugar in general. I swear, it's a addiction for me, the sugar. Once I have it, stopping is difficult.0 -
It's very frustrating. I always log everything, and I weigh my food, I go out maybe 3x a month, but it shouldn't make such a huge difference because I don't go for high calorie dishes... I've had months with a 5000 deficit when I didn't lose anything, and months when I was 4000 over and I didn't gain anything. Actually every time I hit 133 pounds (which is 3 pounds over my goal) I stopped losing altogether. But with the Holidays (and a wedding, and bad PMS) it crept to 136 and I've been there for 4 months.
Your point about being more active is a good one though, because it's when I started being more active that my weight loss stopped. I used to just walk every day for about 3.5 miles, with some weights 2x a week. That's it. Reached my lowest (132), then I went in vacations (we had to eat out all the time, so I started running to make up for it). Gained 2 pounds... then I started doing more intense workouts (running, then HIITs, then walking at an incline), and I haven't lost a pound since. That was July 2014.
Now I'm stuck - I'm too hungry so I have to exercise more, but I'm at the point where my exercise is making my legs really sore on a pretty constant basis, and I actually end up needing rest days after a while (I often still go for a walk though), and I'm starting to wonder if my increased hunger is due to exercise too (in average I exercise 10 hours a week, rowing, biking, walking at an incline - 6 to 10% - and weights). But either way, it means that exercising more is pretty much impossible at this point. It really sucks already to have sore legs pretty much all the time.
So I don't really know how to deal with it. I still want to lose weight (6-10 pounds now), but it seems totally unreachable at this point and I admit that I'm so jealous of people who seem to be able to cut easily. For me it would mean cutting all treats for a few months (and even then, I'm often struggling WITHOUT treats, and I'm putting bread and rice in that basket too), but it just leads me to binging so it's not a long term solution either.
I just wish I wasn't so **** hungry all the time. So depressing when you have to constantly ask yourself if you REALLY want that piece of homemade bread because you know that you will end up hungry later if you have it. I was much less hungry on 300 less calories when I was losing, which is why it's infuriating.
I'm really glad I'm not alone with feeling more hungry on maintenance. I've only been doing this coming up on a month however when I was regularly in a large deficit I ate little meals and was barely hungry at all in between, Or if I was I would be satisfied with a tea or coffee instead of another snack. But now if I under-eat by even 200 calories I'm STARVING(Hungry, dizzy, weak feeling) by night time and my body absolutely has to have food.
I'm honestly not anymore active now then I was. It is really frustrating, It's like my body would rather have 1000 a day then 1500-1700
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I have been in maintenance for over a year now and sometimes, I almost resent having to log my food and exercise. I feel like a kid throwing a tantrum and having to be stuck in a corner. I get hungry sometimes, even though technically I have had plenty to eat. Some of that is psychological I know and it is frustrating to get around it! Some weeks I feel like I am on a hamster wheel going round and round with no destination!
How I often get around it is this: I look at old photos of me overweight ... I walk into my closet and see all those new clothes that fit me perfectly that are a size 4 (a size I have never been before in my "adult" life). It is my version of a pep talk. I did all that hard work to get where I am now. I am in control. And there is no way I want to outgrow those new clothes!
A year later, I am still sort of finding my balance, constantly tweaking my calories and macros. I try and find new exercises and activities to burn calories instead of just the gym. I hike more at a nearby state park. I find opportunities to go kayaking. I started indulging in my love of browsing antique stores, flea markets and craft fairs. I will willingly walk for hours just browsing and enjoying myself. I went to a fair a few weeks ago and walked almost 20,000 steps without realizing!2 -
rhtexasgal wrote: »I have been in maintenance for over a year now and sometimes, I almost resent having to log my food and exercise. I feel like a kid throwing a tantrum and having to be stuck in a corner. I get hungry sometimes, even though technically I have had plenty to eat. Some of that is psychological I know and it is frustrating to get around it! Some weeks I feel like I am on a hamster wheel going round and round with no destination!
How I often get around it is this: I look at old photos of me overweight ... I walk into my closet and see all those new clothes that fit me perfectly that are a size 4 (a size I have never been before in my "adult" life). It is my version of a pep talk. I did all that hard work to get where I am now. I am in control. And there is no way I want to outgrow those new clothes!
A year later, I am still sort of finding my balance, constantly tweaking my calories and macros. I try and find new exercises and activities to burn calories instead of just the gym. I hike more at a nearby state park. I find opportunities to go kayaking. I started indulging in my love of browsing antique stores, flea markets and craft fairs. I will willingly walk for hours just browsing and enjoying myself. I went to a fair a few weeks ago and walked almost 20,000 steps without realizing!
See, that's the problem right there for me. I don't feel in control at all. I feel like my body is betraying me (legs sore all the time, hunger, etc) and that I have NO control over it.
I guess it doesn't help either that I have issues with hypoglycemia sometimes and that I often end up feeling the need to eat even if I'm not actually hungry (at least I can tell the difference, I guess, but in a way it's actually worse because I can shrug off hunger, but that, not so much, or it gets bad pretty quickly). But once again... it doesn't help with the feeling of being completely helpless sometimes.
I hear you about activity though. I've always loved walking around and visiting places... I just don't get to anymore because I have two kids who hate walking and make sure that everyone else is having a miserable time if we make them. I still walk a lot in my neighborhood but it gets pretty old.. there's isn't that much else in the area anyway (but of course I worked in Paris and lived there for a year so I might have been a bit spoiled in that area - I used to walk 4 hours a day or something when I lived there).1 -
Have you tried changing your foods to ones that might be a bit more filling to reduce your hunger, try to get some more volume?0
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Thanks for all the input everyone, looks like this is a pretty normal part of maintenance and is a part of the process! I'm back to tracking since I first posted and the weight creep is pretty much gone already yay! Tightening things back up did the trick and I'm now solidly back in my maintenance range! Feeling much better now and pretty geeked that I've passed my 3 year maintenance anniversary
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This is such a great forum! It is timely for me, too. I am at maintenance for about a year and a half. I have given myself a 2 lb. range, and am now at the top of that range for a few weeks. And very worried about it. I plan to cut maintenance by about 200 cals (will still eat back gym cals), and see if that works for a week or more. If not, I will go back to my weight loss cals. For me, exercise (cardio/strengthening) is 5x/week which has always been a life priority. I do not want the creep to get to be not a creep but a gain. It is disheartening because I don't seem to be doing anything much differently. But I log daily and religiously. One thing I have neglected and am now back to is this: I blog almost daily here on the MFP ... I keep it private so nobody sees it but me, but it seems to keep me on track. I set daily goals there and adjust them each day for what it will bring. I don't bank calories because that doesn't work for me, but am glad to see it's a possibility for others.
One question that I have is this: I tend to do more cardio than strengthening and I have read that strengthening does not grant you many cals, but it does work well for metabolism. I used to alternate an hour's worth of cardio one day, an hour's worth of weights, etc., the next. I notice that I have cut back to 30 minutes of weights and do more cardio, because I want to earn the cals!! (Of course!) Does anyone think that going back to the hour may help again or should that not make any difference?0 -
There are so many amazing answers here and I have just been through a regain of 10lbs never thought I would let slip! The best thing I have done is ask for help, mediate on my achievements & the achievements of others ~ then sit and watched all 3 programmes on U Tube "Weight of the Nation" boy did that get me moving! Focused head back on.1
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I'm wondering if those of you who are having trouble with feelings of hunger have tried manipulating your carbohydrate:protein ratio to see if it has an effect on your hunger levels?
Take a look at your food diaries to see if you can see patterns either on a meal by meal basis or for the day as a whole. (For example, a meal with 40g carbohydrate and 20g protein yields a 2:1 ratio, a meal with 36g carbohydrate and 12g protein yields a 3:1 ratio, a day with 240g carbohydrate and 60g protein yields a 4:1 ratio.)
When my carbohydrate:protein ratio is lower, I really do not experience hunger between meals or in the evening. However, on days when that ratio is higher than average, then I find that I feel hungry, or feel cravings.
I'm not saying that you have to go low carb.
The ratio at any particular point in time may not be as important as the comparative difference from your average ratio. You may find that on days when the ratio is lower than it would ordinarily be for you on average, you are less hungry, and on days when the ratio is higher than it would ordinarily be for you on average, you are more hungry.0 -
I'm wondering if those of you who are having trouble with feelings of hunger have tried manipulating your carbohydrate:protein ratio to see if it has an effect on your hunger levels?
Take a look at your food diaries to see if you can see patterns either on a meal by meal basis or for the day as a whole. (For example, a meal with 40g carbohydrate and 20g protein yields a 2:1 ratio, a meal with 36g carbohydrate and 12g protein yields a 3:1 ratio, a day with 240g carbohydrate and 60g protein yields a 4:1 ratio.)
When my carbohydrate:protein ratio is lower, I really do not experience hunger between meals or in the evening. However, on days when that ratio is higher than average, then I find that I feel hungry, or feel cravings.
I'm not saying that you have to go low carb.
The ratio at any particular point in time may not be as important as the comparative difference from your average ratio. You may find that on days when the ratio is lower than it would ordinarily be for you on average, you are less hungry, and on days when the ratio is higher than it would ordinarily be for you on average, you are more hungry.
Definitely, but for me it 100% depends on my hormones, which is a major pain because it's just not consistent, and something what might work one day will not work the next. But it depends on the type of carb too - refined flour or sugar vs whole grains or beans/veggies. Obviously, I'll be hungrier if I eat too much of the first type... and that's why it's frustrating. It wasn't an issue at all when I was losing on 1650 calories. But now I can eat more and even at 1900, I know that most days if I have even 250 calories of bread, I'll regret it later.
Maintenance just sucks!2 -
I'm glad I read this, its good to read the truth about maintenance. Its answered some big questions I had avout the problems I encountered maintaining my weight loss for 5 years.
First, like Franci wrote, I also found eating at a deficit easier, less hunger, than trying to maintain. I also found extensive excersize became just too much for my body, began to get a lot of aching going on as I tried to keep my tdee higher with excersize to offset the creeping hunger pain as the years of maintenance rolled on.
There was one point where I gained 10 pounds, freaked out and reatricted down to less than 1200 until I re-lost those pounds. But I kept being unable to stick to the maint nance calories every day because the hunger was ratcheting up. So I'd get in these cycles of eating less than 1200 then eating over maintenance because the hunger was worse than anything i had during the time when I originally lost the weight.
It finally got to where I was trying desperately to keep calorie intake to 1200 1300 a day, I was doing a lot of walking on hills. xigong, yoga etc. and my wieght was still creeping up! I'm a little over 5'6.5", I just knew, even though I was eating great wonderful healthy nutritionally balanced meals that I was becoming weak. Iwas tired, hair falling out. I was in the lower normal bmi range then and really living a healthy life, great mediterranean diet in the Mediterranean hills.
I gave up after 5 years of that. Now I'm back taking off the 40 pounds I gained. I read the maintenance threads all the time, trying to get some idea of what I can do this time to stick with it. I still haven't found answers I think I could stick woth. It was literally as if th longer I maintained the more my hunger increased and the weaker I felt and the less calories I could eat if I had to lose the creeping weight. In the end it was such a battle just to maintain at 10 pounds over what I had been because I was eating so much less just to maintain. Losing became impossible when the pounds crept on unless I went down to eating around 1000 cals a day! Plus a lot of excersize. I still don't understand it.
Perhaps I should have tried more protien, but its not like my diet lacked protien then either.
I wasn't eating sugar or white flour at that time, so seems it wasn't carb instigated hunger.
I apologize for being negative, I post it in hopes of finding more experienced and successful maintenance advice.1 -
We are in similar places. I'm 45, same height, really really love my food. Yet I've busted the starve binge cycle and have been cutting fat at a pound a month. Hungry a lot, accepting the hunger, training, training, training, aching.
Plus a negative mind set that tells me constantly that I'm destined to be overweight and can't lose weight, and my metabolism is slowing. It's like my body cannot bear being under 20% fat, it's a psychological nightmare.
Yet here I am, believing in science and logging, at 128lb. It's brutal. I am so envious of people that aren't interested in food. I cannot BEAR the feeling of hunger yet I battle through.
Just so you know, I cut at 1600-1650 NET. I worked out my calorie burns to be 400-600 per hour(run, swim,cycle) depending on what I'm doing. Weight training is 200-300 ph as I've no idea what it is so I underestimate but only do 90 mins a week heavy compound lifting.2 -
Springfield1970 wrote: »We are in similar places. I'm 45, same height, really really love my food. Yet I've busted the starve binge cycle and have been cutting fat at a pound a month. Hungry a lot, accepting the hunger, training, training, training, aching.
Plus a negative mind set that tells me constantly that I'm destined to be overweight and can't lose weight, and my metabolism is slowing. It's like my body cannot bear being under 20% fat, it's a psychological nightmare.
Yet here I am, believing in science and logging, at 128lb. It's brutal. I am so envious of people that aren't interested in food. I cannot BEAR the feeling of hunger yet I battle through.
For me it's under 25% fat. My period even stopped when I went under that (I'm estimating my BF though, never got a test done, it's just hard as most of my fat is in my midsection and there's a lot of loose skin too).
I don't really mind being a bit hungry though, it's that I often end up dizzy and weak at the same time, which is a problem. Sigh.
Anyway, glad to see I'm not alone.1 -
Springfield1970 wrote: »We are in similar places. I'm 45, same height, really really love my food. Yet I've busted the starve binge cycle and have been cutting fat at a pound a month. Hungry a lot, accepting the hunger, training, training, training, aching.
Plus a negative mind set that tells me constantly that I'm destined to be overweight and can't lose weight, and my metabolism is slowing. It's like my body cannot bear being under 20% fat, it's a psychological nightmare.
Yet here I am, believing in science and logging, at 128lb. It's brutal. I am so envious of people that aren't interested in food. I cannot BEAR the feeling of hunger yet I battle through.
For me it's under 25% fat. My period even stopped when I went under that (I'm estimating my BF though, never got a test done, it's just hard as most of my fat is in my midsection and there's a lot of loose skin too).
I don't really mind being a bit hungry though, it's that I often end up dizzy and weak at the same time, which is a problem. Sigh.
Anyway, glad to see I'm not alone.
You should get a bodpod done. You're probably lower fat than you think. I was less than 15% at one time and had NO IDEA. My competitive brain had taken over. I saw my back in the mirror trying on bras in M&S and panicked. The fat had just melted off me when I got under a certain weight. It was scary. I couldn't work out why my periods had gone crazy. Such a weird place to be mentally.
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Maintenance just sucks!
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lol. I haven't been in maintenance a long time, but I'm finding that I swing wildly between compliance and rebellion. Making myself log is like holding my feet to the fire - when, while losing, I was happy as a clam to log and see the nice green numbers at the end of the day. Now it's just a giant PIA and I have to force myself to care.
The upshot being I am up 5 lbs. since hitting goal. Not a tremendous amount but it needs to stop.
I have the unfortunate outlook that maintenance is just going to be losing and gaining the same 5 lbs...
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Springfield, you said "accepting the hunger". Thats it right there.
Another thing, when I got down to where I looked like I had no body fat, I was less hungry. Then the 10 pounds I gained quickly and it went to fat around my tum. When I lost that 10 pounds it seemed some of that fat never left.
Maybe its the skinny fat that increases the hunger hormones.
Oh well, it matters little. I don't believe the metabolism myths so its cico and its what we got.
Darned difficult. I thought after 5 years it would have gotten easier to maintain. So this time at least I know exactly what to expect.
I'll be glued to this maintenance section though, reading how everyone else is doing it!0 -
ReaderGirl3 wrote: »My 3 year maintenance anniversary is in a couple weeks, and instead of celebrating this milestone, I'm feeling very down about the whole weight/maintenance thing. I've lost over 50lbs and had been successfully maintaining within my maintenance range, but this past winter I totally lost focus and my weight-in this morning put me at the highest number I've seen sine 2013. It's still not a huge gain (my bmi is currently 21.5), but the weight creep is happening and if I don't get my head out of my bum now, I know where I'm going to end up (flirting again with T2). Sooo, having a bit of a pity party for myself right now
On a positive note, I've set my MFP account back up and this morning I'm starting a short weight loss phase again, to lose the creep. But, this experience has really hit me hard and I'm beginning to realize how difficult long term maintenance really is!
Any others out there who are/have struggled with long term maintenance? Any words of wisdom for how to keep focused?
I did this too. I'm coming up on year 4. The good news - I am creeping back down into that zone (I gained 5 pounds this winter - I had lost 40 4 years ago).
What helped me was just exercising. Not EXERCISING but getting back to walking every day. Even though I was hitting my calorie goals, when I walked a lot more I would be way under every day. This winter I was just hitting it. Obviously my true maintenance is under that.
Just like when I lost, it's not rocket science, it's just hitting the numbers.1 -
I had the dizzy and weak thing real bad. I fainted a couple of times cutting bread. I'd nick my finger, looked at the blood and whoosh. My husband fortunatley was around. Now I know that when I get a dizzy feeling to get down on the ground and put my knees up immedately. My heart rate was below 60 for all those years. Now its around 60 - 61 and I rarely feel faint.
I can see how the walking could bethe answer for me, helps with blood sugar also.0 -
vivmom2014 wrote: »Maintenance just sucks!
/thread
lol. I haven't been in maintenance a long time, but I'm finding that I swing wildly between compliance and rebellion. Making myself log is like holding my feet to the fire - when, while losing, I was happy as a clam to log and see the nice green numbers at the end of the day. Now it's just a giant PIA and I have to force myself to care.
The upshot being I am up 5 lbs. since hitting goal. Not a tremendous amount but it needs to stop.
I have the unfortunate outlook that maintenance is just going to be losing and gaining the same 5 lbs...
I third the suckiness of maintenance lol.
I'm having an internal dialogue with myself right now because it really does seem that I (most of us?) do better during the weight loss phase vs maintenance. Now that I'm back at it I'm excited because I'm focusing on losing those few pounds of weight creep. My attitude towards myself and my weight has improved over the past few weeks seeing the scale change, clothes are fitting better etc.
So (just thinking out loud here), would it be a bad thing to be intentional about taking time off from maintenance? Like during the winter months ease off and eat as you please, up to a certain point (which is pre-determined and still doing weekly weigh-ins to monitor), and then after the designated time is up, go back into weight loss mode which carries you through the next few months?
I guess this could be considered yo-yo dieting, but if it was controlled and your higher weight was still at a healthy level (for example-spring/summer my window is 123lbs-125lbs and fall winter my weight window is 126lbs-135lbs, still solidly a healthy bmi).
Would this be detrimental towards health? So kind of like seasonal calorie cycling to stave off maintenance burn out?
Am I making any sense at all here
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I don't see why not. Its just that the weight I gained tended to settle on my tum, which I had not experienced before in my life. And all those little 5 or 10 pound gains just seemed to settle in and resist dispersing properly when I lost the 5 or 10!0
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