How do you define success? Daily goals?

92019start
92019start Posts: 80 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Question for the maintainers: what are your daily goals as someone working to maintain your weight? Once I hit goal, I inadvertently started trying to eat the tastiest food I could eat within my calorie budget, which resulted in a pretty unhealthy diet. I put myself on a pretty low carb meal plan for the last week to kick my sugar cravings and now they're gone. What do you focus on each day and how do you know you're OK as far as maintaining weight?

Replies

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I too aim to eat the tastiest food I can within my calorie budget, but it has resulted in a diet that is better than ever. I do have one caveat, though, I pick the tastiest food I can get my hands on, that doesn't trigger overeating.

    I also aim to get out and walk every day, even if it's just a "midweek milkrun".

    I weigh myself every morning, and stay within a range (55-58 kilos).
  • swim777
    swim777 Posts: 599 Member
    92019start wrote: »
    Question for the maintainers: what are your daily goals as someone working to maintain your weight? Once I hit goal, I inadvertently started trying to eat the tastiest food I could eat within my calorie budget, which resulted in a pretty unhealthy diet. I put myself on a pretty low carb meal plan for the last week to kick my sugar cravings and now they're gone. What do you focus on each day and how do you know you're OK as far as maintaining weight?
    I definitely ate healthier as I was losing. I also worried about being full on those 1200 calories. As I've started to add in some favorites on weekends etc., I've skipped meals trying to stay in my new calorie allowance. I don't like doing that, but it helps me fit things in that I don't eat regularly.
    Today, I had Panera for the first time in weeks, (salad), and it tasted so much better than anything I thought I was "missing." (Panera always filled me up and satisfied me while losing.)
  • Lkush89
    Lkush89 Posts: 25 Member
    I'm having a hard time not over eating. I thought I could get away with not logging my food, but I learned after a couple of weeks that I don't feel in control and if I continue down that path I'm afraid I will gain. At least I realized what I was doing and caught myself before it was too late. My current goals are to continue to try and tone up and just go to the gym as often as possible, knowing that I'm staying active really helps me mentally.
  • mrmeza123
    mrmeza123 Posts: 34 Member
    Here is a good tip I like to keep in mind, to always make note of the good feelings when on your diet. And make sure to give it plenty of attention so when the bad times come through they won't override the things that made the food journal worth it in the first place. I use my journal #1 and this comes #2nd.
    Like I said, I always celebrate the good feelings and do everything I can to make them last even if they're small and I'm only talking with the diet or the things I can't go without in life (goals & fitness).
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    I've only been in maintenance for about 6 months, but my eating goals now are to (mostly) to keep things on target nutritionally.

    For decades, my way of eating has included lots of one-ingredient & few-ingredient foods, with many pretty healthy things. My problems were mainly portion control, and a tendency to think I needed treats - which were not necessarily mega-low-nutrition choices, BTW - way too often.

    Logging really helped me sharpen up my macros (especially protein, since I'm vegetarian) and be consistent with veggies. During the weight loss process, priority one was hitting my deficit-calorie goal most days, but a very close second was learning how to optimize the nutrition while eating in ways I truly enjoy.

    These days, I'm going for
    • a minimum of 100g protein daily (usually get more),
    • around 42g of fat, with some/much of it from healthy sources like nuts, avocado, seeds, olive oil, etc. (more is fine with me),
    • 5+ servings of fruit and vegetables (usually get much more),
    • at least 25g fiber
    • hitting my calorie goals for maintenance on a more-or-less weekly basis (I under-budget by a bit on a typical day to allow some indulge-y days or meals periodically)

    If I get close to the end of a normal day having met my nutritional goals, but still under my rough routine daily calorie allowance, I'll pick out something(s) enjoyable but less nutrition-dense to round things out, like ice cream, a glass of wine, etc.

    I'm still logging, and doing NEAT (eating back all carefully-estimated exercise), but because I distribute calories unevenly across a week or two, I also have a maintenance weight range (plus or minus 3 pounds of goal weight, which is wide enough to cover routine daily fluctuations . . . and besides, if I know I've done something to add water weight, I'm not going to be too upset if I exceed the top end for a day or two as long as I drop back down).

    It really isn't a huge problem, for me, if I go for "the tastiest food I can fit in", because so many of the things I find tasty are quite nutritious. Farmers market prime season is like the promised land to me - all those wonderful super-fresh veggies and fruits, changing every week or two. Yum.

    I'm actually enjoying eating more than I have for a long time - much, much more than just shoveling stuff into my mouth willy-nilly without much focus on whether I was making the most enjoyable choices.
  • bfanny
    bfanny Posts: 440 Member
    I enjoy my weekends by eating more freely so in exchange I have to be extra careful from Monday to Friday to stay within my budget and earn some extra cals, that way there's NO guilt ;)
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    I no longer log meals as I eat consistently ...but i do keep snacks to no more than 500 cals per day (crisps/chocolate)

    Eat at slight deficit during week to splurge some at weekends.

    Always keep mindful of how much I'm eating and make healthier choices majority of the time.

    Minimum of 15k steps/ 7miles a day.

    Strength train x 3 per week.

    Weigh regularly.

    (Almost 4years at maintenance)
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,610 Member
    I ate the tastiest food I could eat within my calorie budget right from the beginning. Day 1, when I signed onto MFP, I decided that I would not waste my calories on foods I didn't like.

    I've been maintaining for about 9 months now and when I started maintaining, my focus changed from diet, diet, diet to train, train, train. I've been training for cycling events. :)

    So I eat at a slight deficit for 4 days during the week, and eat at roughly maintenance or slightly more for 3 days over the weekends. And I exercise a whole lot more than I have done in the last 3 years or so. Back to normal again. :)

  • kristen6350
    kristen6350 Posts: 1,094 Member
    I'm at the point that I define success as my clothes fitting. When I look in the mirror and still like what I see. When I get on the scale once a week and don't want to cry.

    It never gets easy. It's always going to be hard. And after 5 years of maintainance I'm finally willing to accept that I'll never be perfect.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    Mine is tied to the scale since I weigh every morning. If it stays below 140, I'm good. I'm certainly not happy about any weight gain, but it happens due to food, sodium, exercise, hormones. I feel I succeeded with weight loss since I hit goal in January. Other success is measured differently.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    My daily objective is just to stay below my goal weight of 175 (achieved a month ago) and w/in a range of 170-175. So far, so good.

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