Long time maintainers how do you do it
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I lost 50 pounds and have maintained for close to 2 years. Yes, I still log in to MFP every day...I'm day 725 or something like that. I exercise 5-6 days a week. 3 of those days include weight training. I weigh myself every day. This keeps me centered and lets me know that it's okay for my weight to fluctuate because it will return to my maintenance weight in a few days. I'm not as structured on weighing my food and staying within my allotted calories per day as I was when I was losing weight but I am mindful of these things.
I don't know if you are still on MFP, but reading your post was inspiring. I've been back and forth a few times, my pic is to inspire me, I have over 100 pounds still to go to get to that.. And I'm just coming to see the self nourishment in sitting and completing my MFP details a couple of times a day, like being a way to love myself.8 -
I was a yo-yo dieter my entire life. Losing weight is never the problem, it is keeping it off that is difficult. I am the only heavy person is a household of skinnies who eat whatever they want, whenever. They don't understand how difficult it can be to maintain a healthy weight and are not always cooperative about eating what they call "diet food." My ah-ha moment was when we had a "biggest loser" contest at work and I was tired of wearing the same black pants every day. All the participants chipped in $20 each and the contest ran for six months. At the end I was down 40 pounds and I won the pot of $300! I continued to lose another 10 pounds for a total of 50 pounds!
Exercise is key. I shoot for 6 days a week of some sort of exercise for at least an hour- running, walking, horseback riding (I have 2 horses), even a day of heavy housecleaning.
I also try to eat responsibly. At my age, what I eat affects how I feel throughout the day and how well I sleep at night. I also figured that if they didn't like what I was cooking for dinner at night, they could make their own food. It wasn't some tasteless, dry dinners I was creating - just not loaded with carbs, fats, and cheese!
I had a run where I quit logging and weighing myself and found a few pounds crept back on so here I am again and this time it's for life - I have to be accountable to someone even if it is just myself!
Keep going, never quit. You deserve to be healthy. You are worth it.19 -
Agree with tomcornhole; it's a lifestyle, not a "diet" or "project" with an end date. It's about watching your portion sizes, eating whole "real" food 90% of the time and enjoying indulgences along the way. I eat cake, ice cream, pizza, etc. occasionally and enjoy it when I do. I also have about one TBSP of dark chocolate chips after dinner and haven't gained any weight back. If you mess up, forget about it and get back on the wagon. You fail when you quite or give up.11
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I found a helpful mindset is, keep thinking longterm and ask yourself will I be able to sustain my current eating and exercise habits for the rest of my functional life? If the answer is no, than well...you might find it hard to keep it off. If your answer is yes, than you should be fine. So the real trick is to find habits and lifestyles that keep you fit and healthy for you. If you have zero idea where to start, may I suggest joining a 45 HIT program 3-4 times a week and eating whole foods with as little sugar as possible.3
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No matter what exercise I did I found my weight creeping up in my fifties. Last Summer I lost the twelve lbs I was eager to lose with diet and exercise. MFP made me form good habits and recognize how many calories I was consuming. I minimize consumption of bread, use little oil, eat mostly vegetables and lentils, chicken and fish. Unfortunately love to have about 3 squares of chocolate a day. Love eating the dried bananas and apples and fruit leather I make in my dehydrator... Thought it was OK but they have a lot of sugar. I have Aldi almond milk.. Only 30 calories a cup. Limit to 1 Oz of cheese. Maintenance mode worked well until I had house guests for while and was forgetting to log my calories. Also began slipping behind with exercise . When I got on the scale after a period of about two months I noticed that I had put on four pounds and was extremely upset. I immediately went back on MFP and was very strict with myself. I lost the 4 lbs in 5 weeks. My method of maintaining is to weigh myself every 2 to 3 days. I take action as soon as I notice more than a two pound increase. I exercise 4 - 5 times a week right after brushing my teeth in the morning.. I always have 1/3 of granola bar before I start. . I do approximately half an hour of resistance bands attached to the door and focus on legs and butt which are my problem areas and a little bit for arms back chest and abs. I then do 15 to 30 minutes of elliptical depending on how hard I pushed myself with the resistance bands. Seems to be working for me. Sometimes I skip elliptical and dance to chubby checker songs. My family thinks I'm crazy or lying when I say that I love exercising.. I really do. I give it my all as I don't go to work. I also keep very busy cooking and cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry, sewing. I sit down only for meals and for about 2 hours before bed. I'm 54 years old.11
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Great thread!2
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6 years ago I lost 30 kilos (66 pounds). I have maintained this loss, except in December I gained 3 kilos (6.6 pounds) and decided I wanted to lose 11 kilos (24 pounds). I maintained this loss by doing lots of walking, using an exercise bike for an hour a day, and tracking my food everyday for the year after I lost weight. I read that for one year after you lose weight, your hunger levels are increased and your metabolism lowered. Also I weighed myself everyday, it really helped to keep me on track.4
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I agree that weighing yourself daily -- at the same time every day, preferably first thing in the morning -- is one of the keys to success.7
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Before anything else: Thank you for all the people who took the time to answer the OP's questions (no matter how long ago it was asked). Reading through this made me realize that I need to start working on some habits I've been neglecting. I've only been focusing on getting the weight off and not on what's going to happen after, which is where I've failed every single time (I just never realized that this is where I was failing).
I'm still working on losing. I have about 20kg to go (depends on where my doctor says 'you're good now', but from our discussions, I fear the 20kg is the upper range of where she wants me) of the total 50kg I started out at and know that at the rate I'm going, it'll take me another 1-2 years to get there.
I guess (from reading the above) the three points I need to work on in the coming months/year are:
1. get more movement into my day (I started at a 1K step average last year and I'm up to 8K, but I want to diversify as I tend to get bored with 'same ol' same ol''. Starting September my commute will include a 7km bike ride, so I guess that's a start I'll be unemployed for about 1month this summer, so biking to community pool one town over - they have an Olympic size pool that's nearly always empty - or to the beach in the other direction and swimming is probably going to make it onto my list of past times. )
2. Eat what I like but learn what an appropriate serving size looks like (tracking my food seems to be the way to go there . Slowly change eating habits to fit the necessary nutrients for my health. I'm working on getting a more varied and colorful way of eating without neglecting those lovely taste buds of mine. So far only the brussel sprouts were a bust. The other things I've tried are actually all yummy!).
3. Do something about that annoying snacking habit. Dinner time arrives far too often with no calories left in my day because I was mindlessly snacking.
Number 1 and 2 are on a good way. They're slowly entering the realm of 'habit' and are becoming second nature. I don't think about going on that lunch break walk anymore, I just do it (even if it's raining). I don't consciously have to think about logging my food anymore, I just do it. My serving sizes have become smaller without needing to double check on the kitchen scale (I do weigh out chips/peanuts and such because the serving sizes are just so pathetically small that it's easy to over do it. Even when I take far more than I should, I still weigh and log it.)
Number 3 is going to be much harder for me as I need to develop boredom strategies. Keeping my hands busy in front of the TV is already a start, but doesn't always work (I'll talk myself into a snack with the excuse of: "well, I'll just have to wash my hands before I get back to my knitting). Not having snacks in my drawer at work helped there, but it's still far too easy to talk myself into a trip to the vending machine. I don't snack because I'm hungry. I snack because it's habit. It's a hard habit to change. Now that points one and two are slowly slipping into the realm of habit, I feel I'm ready to work on this third point.
One last thing I learned from all the wonderful answers on this thread: Don't stop weighing myself. That's how a 20kg loss turned into 50kg to lose last time I managed to get any large amount of weight off.
So again... thank you for the enlightning reading! It was just what I needed at my current time and place9 -
ladyreva78 wrote: »Before anything else: Thank you for all the people who took the time to answer the OP's questions (no matter how long ago it was asked). Reading through this made me realize that I need to start working on some habits I've been neglecting. I've only been focusing on getting the weight off and not on what's going to happen after, which is where I've failed every single time (I just never realized that this is where I was failing).
I'm still working on losing. I have about 20kg to go (depends on where my doctor says 'you're good now', but from our discussions, I fear the 20kg is the upper range of where she wants me) of the total 50kg I started out at and know that at the rate I'm going, it'll take me another 1-2 years to get there.
I guess (from reading the above) the three points I need to work on in the coming months/year are:
1. get more movement into my day (I started at a 1K step average last year and I'm up to 8K, but I want to diversify as I tend to get bored with 'same ol' same ol''. Starting September my commute will include a 7km bike ride, so I guess that's a start I'll be unemployed for about 1month this summer, so biking to community pool one town over - they have an Olympic size pool that's nearly always empty - or to the beach in the other direction and swimming is probably going to make it onto my list of past times. )
2. Eat what I like but learn what an appropriate serving size looks like (tracking my food seems to be the way to go there . Slowly change eating habits to fit the necessary nutrients for my health. I'm working on getting a more varied and colorful way of eating without neglecting those lovely taste buds of mine. So far only the brussel sprouts were a bust. The other things I've tried are actually all yummy!).
3. Do something about that annoying snacking habit. Dinner time arrives far too often with no calories left in my day because I was mindlessly snacking.
Number 1 and 2 are on a good way. They're slowly entering the realm of 'habit' and are becoming second nature. I don't think about going on that lunch break walk anymore, I just do it (even if it's raining). I don't consciously have to think about logging my food anymore, I just do it. My serving sizes have become smaller without needing to double check on the kitchen scale (I do weigh out chips/peanuts and such because the serving sizes are just so pathetically small that it's easy to over do it. Even when I take far more than I should, I still weigh and log it.)
Number 3 is going to be much harder for me as I need to develop boredom strategies. Keeping my hands busy in front of the TV is already a start, but doesn't always work (I'll talk myself into a snack with the excuse of: "well, I'll just have to wash my hands before I get back to my knitting). Not having snacks in my drawer at work helped there, but it's still far too easy to talk myself into a trip to the vending machine. I don't snack because I'm hungry. I snack because it's habit. It's a hard habit to change. Now that points one and two are slowly slipping into the realm of habit, I feel I'm ready to work on this third point.
One last thing I learned from all the wonderful answers on this thread: Don't stop weighing myself. That's how a 20kg loss turned into 50kg to lose last time I managed to get any large amount of weight off.
So again... thank you for the enlightning reading! It was just what I needed at my current time and place
Great post! (I was the OP)4 -
I realize I am very late to this topic, but I have enjoyed reading the posts so much and want to thank all of you for sharing your advice and stories. I thought I would add mine to the thread…
On June 25, 2013 I underwent gastric bypass surgery. My top weight prior to surgery was 330 pounds. I have successfully lost a bit over 200 pounds (weight fluctuates between 225-230 pounds) and am currently working to successfully maintain my weight loss. I still see my bariatrician every year and, even now, 4 years post-surgery, still fear waking up weighing over 300 pounds again one day. That fear is what keeps me motivated to never lose sight of the importance of my maintenance goal.
The two greatest tools I have found to help with my maintenance are commitment to using MFP and my Fit Bit. I weigh myself EVERY morning – first thing I do after using the bathroom – and enter that weight in the ‘progress’ section of MFP. Seeing the patterns that form are important to knowing how my eating and activity immediately affect my weight. It also is a great reality check when my weight might start to climb a few pounds and lets me know when I need to get back on my program.
My Fit Bit keeps me honest about living a healthy lifestyle. There are days that I feel like I have been running non-stop, but my Fit Bit tells me that I have not been as active as I thought. I have learned that prolonged sleep deprivation (less than 7 hours per night for me over a couple weeks) has a negative effect on my weight – even if my eating and exercise have been good.
So for those who are interested, my maintenance plan includes a lot of cardio exercise. I use an old Nordic Track Ski Machine for an hour every morning Monday – Friday. It gives me a great workout in a short amount of time. I also walk for about 45 minutes nearly every day during my lunch break. I belong to the YMCA and enjoy classes a few days a week, including BodyPump which is a weight lifting class. I have incorporated weight lifting into my exercise routine at least twice a week and I believe this is also key to long term weight management.
On the eating side, I keep my calorie intake under 1200 per day. I normally eat small meals every two to three hours during the day. I have learned to watch my sodium intake along with fat, sugar and carbs. I make a point of getting sufficient protein. I eat a great deal of fresh fruit and vegetables - however I have NOT eliminated any food from my diet - if I really want it, I plan for it and enjoy it! I very rarely eat in a restaurant – it is just too hard to know how the food is prepared – I have learned that even when I think I am making a good choice, there are often times more sodium in the meal than I would anticipate.
Most of all, I LOVE living life in my new body! I can do ANYTHING I want to do without back pain or knee pain. My world has completely opened up for me! I wish all of you nothing but the best as we continue on this journey together.
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this thread was a lovely read! I initially lost my weight in 2011-2012, gained a little bit back and then coasted comfortably at a level that was slightly above where I had originally wanted to be but that felt comfortable for my body 2013-2016. Got pregnant, had baby, lost most of the weight and now I need MFP to lose the rest and get back in touch with my eating habits pre-pregnancy. Ya know, because of the whole hormones thing, I ate weird stuff.
For maintaining without MFP and daily logging, this is what worked for me, in no particular order:
Still regular (at least once a week) weighing, just to know I was still on track.
Water instead of cola, juice or alcohol - those I moved into the "treats" section of my diet.
Cut out almost all potatoes. They made me feel bloated and I always managed to eat too much, calorie-wise. Replace with extra veggies, rice or quinoa.
Always keep raw carrots in the house in case of "oh heavens I NEED a snack NOW". They have a satisfying crunch-factor and I can eat pretty much endless amount of them calorie-wise. For a salty snack, unpeeled salted sunflower seeds - because it takes way long to eat any significant amount of them seeing as you first need to peel each.
Keep excercising and set stamina goals or measurement goals.
Just because I stopped writing down my calories, didn't mean I didn't keep mental track.5 -
Baconville wrote: »I use an old Nordic Track Ski Machine for an hour every morning Monday – Friday. It gives me a great workout in a short amount of time.
Congratulations on your loss and maintenance. Also, I thought I was the only human left using a Nordic Track. Good to know there is at least one more out there!3 -
Bump1
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There is a great book I read called "Thin for Life". It gives great examples of how people maintained their weight loss over years. My best advice? Make MFP part of your life just like checking your email, voicemail, and bank balance, etc every day.
What I tell my patients who want to lose weight and maintain is this:
Think of tracking your intake and exercise is like tracking your checking account. Would you ever go to a store and swipe your debit card without ever knowing what your balance is to spend or what the price of the item your buying is? Eating without tracking is exactly this.
Who would ever go to Best Buy and just start writing a check for the prettiest washer and dryer or fanciest computer just because you were "hungry to have one"? Blind eating is just like blind spending.
Would any of us irresponsibly ask the question, "Hey when can I stop checking my balance at the bank? It's getting old seeing how much money I have or don't have every day . I just want to relax and spend freely and assume that I have unlimited funds available". Or how about, "Hey, I'm going on vacation for 2 weeks...can't I just blow a bunch of cash that I don't have and just worry about the overdraft fees later when I get home?"
I would hope not.
Your friendly Registered Dietitian
Really good advice! And a great point!7 -
My experience may be a little different since my maintenance has been from anorexia and not from having lost weight but I've maintained my weight (with the exception of pregnancy but am back in my range now) since the 1990s.
I always count my calories (I could tell you how many calories I had on this day 10 years ago...scary).
I move on after a bad day.
I weigh myself daily and keep a journal.
I work out: if I can't get to a fitness class I walk or do body weight exercises at home.
If my number goes up I cut calories. If my number gets too low I try to eat more.
I've tracked my weight for so long I know my normal fluctuations.
To make myself eat I don't have any foods that are restricted as long as it fits into my calories for the day.
Don't know if that's helpful, but that's what I do.20 -
I've been in and out MFP but now just trying to lose a couple pounds. I'm 5' 4" and 115.3 lb today. I've been at my ideal weight for over 20 years. No secret, just keep exercising, eat healthy and every now and then log your food again if you're a bit "off." Its easier to lose when it's only a couple pounds. Much harder when you're "off" by 10, 20 or 30 pounds.10
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I am just starting maintenance now. I actually lost too much weight if that is possible. I went from 410lbs at 6'2" to now 180 in a little under 2 years. 70lbs the first year, 140 the second. I was noted as a prediabetic. I have been having a bunch of health problems since about the 200lbs mark. I get cold easy and blood sugars drop out easy. I am very active IE walk 11000+ steps a day, lift hypertrophy 3 days a week. and log my food. I have been told by my dietitian/ ED therapist, that I need to gain about 40lbs. I am sad about this because I worked so hard to take it off. I am eating about 3000 cals a day at this time. I am trying to establish a maintenance caloric intake, but it has been hard. I was well under eating for so long. When I started this crazy trip, my MD told me to quote, "eat 1600 calories a day and exercise a lot." I could kill this man for that advice. I honestly had no idea what I was doing. I did up my calories, but then I read an article about the biggest loser season 8 winners. They all had sliding RMR's and most regained all the weight. Nearly crushed me! I have sense been researching everything I can about weight loss and metabolism.9
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How do we know what an appropriate # of calories is when we are ready to start “maintaining”???3
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sellis2844 wrote: »How do we know what an appropriate # of calories is when we are ready to start “maintaining”???
If you've been losing weight and tracking calories you should have an idea.
If not, put your stats into the Goals portion of this website and go from there.2
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