How to maintain a healthy weight?

JenRainbow1 · July 2016

I'm so close to where I want to be so I'm wondering what next? Once I've got down to the weight I want what do I do?
I haven't been counting calories for about a month and it's been working fine (until a blip where I ate rubbish but I'm back on track). So I don't want to log my food etc I just want to eat healthy, keep treats to a minimum. This is because it doesn't work for me it just adds stress.

But after eating reduced calories for so long do I need to be eating more? Do I continue as I am? I'm not sure what to change to maintain the weight, I want to eat pasties and things again but I won't be eating it as often as I used to.

Any thoughts to eating normally but healthily? For example having treats and eating the occasional pasties or pies etc
I'm not really sure if there is a difference between what you eat when you're maintaining your weight to when you're losing. I'm hoping I can go back to eating the things I want just not as much as I used to

TavistockToad · July 2016

add 100 cals per week until you stop losing weight.

You should have a maintenance range of about 5lbs instead of one number to account for fluctuations

CindyFooWho · July 2016

Tracking on MFP is exactly what keeps me eating normally and healthily. Otherwise, I'd have to keep track of it in my mind and I have other things to think about.

Logging food allows me to see when I can throw in treats, when I should not. When I've been eating poorly, etc. If you can keep track of those things in your head, that's all you need to do. I need an app for that!

kommodevaran · July 2016

You will have to eat more calories to maintain than to lose, but if you don't log, you may not know how much you are eating. Especially if you change your diet to an overall calorie denser, nutritionally poorer and tastier one, you can end up eating more calories without noticing. Regularly weighing yourself and aiming to stay within a reasonable range, is a good idea.

I still plan my meals and log what I eat, but don't track calories anymore. It works well for me because I eat roughly the same kinds of things from day to day in roughly the same amounts, and weigh daily.

sijomial · July 2016

I don't need to log my food now to maintain. I do have to remain conscious of what and what amount of food I'm eating though. I did log to lose weight and also to work out my maintenance calories initially.

Yes you will clearly have to eat more, whether larger meals or added snacks or treats is your choice entirely. The overall makeup of my diet is the same whether losing, gaining or maintaining. I got fat while eating healthily!

Really I eat the same or possibly more calories at my maintenance weight than I did when I was fat, the period of losing weight was just an interlude.

It's a balance but not a balance that needs to be very precise.

WinoGelato · July 2016

How much have you been losing per week? How long have you been losing? What calorie amount were you eating when losing? Have you calculated your TDEE?

Often people are the most successful in maintenance when they ease into it, by slowly adding calories back in until they stop losing. It is also helpful to continue to log so that you know exactly how much you are eating, until you get more comfortable with that. Many people that think they are done once they lost the weight ease back into old habits and gain the weight back. Looking at maintenance as another phase that has to be actively managed has been helpful for me.

JenRainbow1 · July 2016

I'm sorry but I'm not logging calories for the rest of my life. I didn't need to do it before and I haven't had to do it for a month and I've still lost weight. You can't live life counting calories. I don't plan my meals in advance I can't so I'd have to log on after every meal and that was stressing me out. Guess I'm asking advice in the wrong place, to me this calorie counting is to lose weight it's not a life choice. But that's me
I was originally eating 1,500 calories but it's gone up to 1,600 according to this website. I've been doing this since May and I was losing between 1-3 pounds a week. I still continued to lose weight when I stopped using the fitness pal app. I know my portion sizes now so I don't have to worry about it.

kommodevaran · July 2016

What are you asking about, really? There are lots of ways to eat normally and healthily at the same time. Nobody forces you to track calories or plan meals. Do what works for you. Most of us here have had a difficult relationship with food and are need some extra aids to continue eating well. If you don't need any, yay you!

TavistockToad · July 2016

JenRainbow1 wrote: »

I'm sorry but I'm not logging calories for the rest of my life. I didn't need to do it before and I haven't had to do it for a month and I've still lost weight. You can't live life counting calories. I don't plan my meals in advance I can't so I'd have to log on after every meal and that was stressing me out. Guess I'm asking advice in the wrong place, to me this calorie counting is to lose weight it's not a life choice. But that's me
I was originally eating 1,500 calories but it's gone up to 1,600 according to this website. I've been doing this since May and I was losing between 1-3 pounds a week. I still continued to lose weight when I stopped using the fitness pal app. I know my portion sizes now so I don't have to worry about it.

So you just need to eat 'more' than you do now... increase portion sizes, add an extra snack, whatever works.

cwolfman13 · July 2016

I've been maintaining for over three years and I don't log. To maintain you need to eat more. And yes, you can have "treats" or whatever...but really, maintaining a healthy weight comes down to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I still eat very well and I don't let "junk" be a major factor in my diet. I also exercise regularly and I monitor my weight (taking into account natural fluctuations) and watch the trend...if I'm trending up over a matter of weeks I know I just need to cut back on something. Also, just because I'm not counting calories doesn't mean I'm not aware...I may not know exactly how many calories I'm consuming, but I have a general idea.

try2again · July 2016

We obviously don't know how much more you can now eat and still maintain your weight. Whatever deficit you've been eating at up until now, obviously you can begin using those calories. But I'd be highly skeptical that a person could just jump into maintenance and land at their perfect calorie level. Why not monitor your maintenance calories for a while until you get a clear picture how much exactly you can eat without putting any weight back on?

WinoGelato · July 2016

JenRainbow1 wrote: »

I'm sorry but I'm not logging calories for the rest of my life. I didn't need to do it before and I haven't had to do it for a month and I've still lost weight. You can't live life counting calories. I don't plan my meals in advance I can't so I'd have to log on after every meal and that was stressing me out. Guess I'm asking advice in the wrong place, to me this calorie counting is to lose weight it's not a life choice. But that's me
I was originally eating 1,500 calories but it's gone up to 1,600 according to this website. I've been doing this since May and I was losing between 1-3 pounds a week. I still continued to lose weight when I stopped using the fitness pal app. I know my portion sizes now so I don't have to worry about it.

I'm not really sure what you are asking. Your original post seemed like you were inquiring about how to be successful in maintenance. Can you do it by eating intuitively and not counting calories? Maybe. But if people were good at doing that, then they likely wouldn't be in the position of needing to lose weight to begin with.

You also asked in your OP about going back to what you were eating before, just less of it. I don't have much advice there, because I didn't dramatically change what I ate when I was losing. I continued eating the foods I enjoyed, including wine, pizza, ice cream, etc - just in smaller quantities or less frequently than before. I focused on adding things to my lifestyle: more protein, more vegetables, more exercise, more sleep - not on cutting things out. So for me, the transition to maintenance was about figuring out how many extra calories I needed to add in order to stop losing weight - not what foods I could start eating again.

At the end of the day, this all comes down to a mathematical equation, an energy balance, CICO.

If your CI<CO you will lose weight
If your CI=CO you will maintain weight
If your CI>CO you will gain weight

You may not want to count calories for the rest of your life, but having a good idea of what your TDEE (the total amount of calories you burn in a day including breathing, general activity and exercise) will help you get a rough idea of what that energy balance equation looks like for you.

Good luck.

JenRainbow1 · July 2016

Thanks for the advice guess I didn't realise understand what maintenance really meant, as long as I'm not putting weight on I'm happy. I dramatically changed my eating habits to lose weight but I want to go back to eating things like pasties and ice cream just I won't be eating them too often

SezxyStef · July 2016

gripbarz wrote: »

I have the answer, check this video and finally learn how to reach your goals with basic steps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1VJPRl8Anw

you are spamming

janejellyroll · July 2016

gripbarz wrote: »

I have the answer, check this video and finally learn how to reach your goals with basic steps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1VJPRl8Anw

Did you read the post? OP is already close to goal.

srecupid · July 2016

JenRainbow1 wrote: »

I'm sorry but I'm not logging calories for the rest of my life. I didn't need to do it before and I haven't had to do it for a month and I've still lost weight. You can't live life counting calories. I don't plan my meals in advance I can't so I'd have to log on after every meal and that was stressing me out. Guess I'm asking advice in the wrong place, to me this calorie counting is to lose weight it's not a life choice. But that's me
I was originally eating 1,500 calories but it's gone up to 1,600 according to this website. I've been doing this since May and I was losing between 1-3 pounds a week. I still continued to lose weight when I stopped using the fitness pal app. I know my portion sizes now so I don't have to worry about it.

You sound alot like me. But then I realized it's not the exact sum of the calories but the intent. Plus I have my phone on me all the time anyway and if I wasn't logging my food while waiting for it to cook I'd probably be on reddit. When you look at it that way it's not so bad. I'm also focusing more on eating a balanced diet and knowing my nutrition is really helpful

try2again · July 2016

JenRainbow1 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice guess I didn't realise understand what maintenance really meant, as long as I'm not putting weight on I'm happy. I dramatically changed my eating habits to lose weight but I want to go back to eating things like pasties and ice cream just I won't be eating them too often

This is why it would be good to continue to log for a while. If you haven't been incorporating your treats into your diet all along, you won't have the experience to know how much you can reasonably fit into your diet. And plus, if those have been problem foods for you in the past and you've gone without them for a while, suddenly reintroducing them may be tricky.

kommodevaran · July 2016

I think you can (and should) eat the same things as before, but portions and frequency will have to be regulated if overeating lead you to gain weight. If you can do portion control without counting calories, do that. If counting calories is the only thing that stops you from overeating, you'll want to continue counting calories. I don't count anymore because my current diet doesn't encourage me to overeat/it's not so calorie dense that I need to be extremely accurate.

WinoGelato · July 2016

try2again wrote: »

JenRainbow1 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice guess I didn't realise understand what maintenance really meant, as long as I'm not putting weight on I'm happy. I dramatically changed my eating habits to lose weight but I want to go back to eating things like pasties and ice cream just I won't be eating them too often

This is why it would be good to continue to log for a while. If you haven't been incorporating your treats into your diet all along, you won't have the experience to know how much you can reasonably fit into your diet. And plus, if those have been problem foods for you in the past and you've gone without them for a while, suddenly reintroducing them may be tricky.

Yep, this. When you make dramatic changes to lose the weight it makes the adjustment back to maintenance all that more difficult. No one is saying you have to count calories for the rest of your life (although many people do and don't find it to be a burden). What we are saying is the failure rate for those who have lost weight is very high if you don't have a plan for how you are going to keep it off. Continuing to track, log, etc is a strategy to help you understand just what your maintenance calories look like and how many of those other foods you can work in.

nowine4me · July 2016

OP - whatever you do, don't do what I did a few years ago. Once I hit my goal I stopped using MFP and moved on to other "projects." Slowly but surely, I gained back all 75 pounds. I think what will be helpful for me, and maybe for you, is to set other fitness related goals so there is always an end-game. I will also weigh and track for the foreseeable future. For some reason, I don't find it as tedious this time around.

silvilunazul · July 2016

Lots of good advice here. I see you're looking forward to eating pasties. Just be careful; going back to eating the way they used to is exactly what makes the vast majority of people gain the weight back. Which is why tracking or some form of portion and calorie estimation is useful and is used by most successful maintainers.

Nikion901 · July 2016

You know what you are willing to do or not do ... so why bother asking what other people would advise you to do? That only leads to stress when people tell you to do what you have already decided not to do. AFM, increased stress levels often lead to eating two pasties instead of one, and then I have to count my calories again because the scale goes up instead of staying steady.

ncfitbit · July 2016

You haven't been counting calories for a month and you've continued to lose or maintain? If you've been maintaining, obviously you can't add much back in and hope to continue to maintain. If you've continued to lose, figure out at what rate you've been losing to see how many calories per week you can afford to add back in without gaining weight (assuming you keep everything else the same). Pasties seem to be between 300-500 calories each.

How to maintain a healthy weight?

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