Is maintaining weight, just as hard as losing weight?

Maintaining seems to be harder than loosing. Looking for some practical tips.

I don't think of maintenance as harder or easier - either one is just a process I need to stick with over the long haul in order to achieve my goals.

During weight loss, it was a matter of tracking calories, nutrition & activity, adjusting to keep the weight trending down.

In maintenance, I get more calories (yay!), and I need to track calories, nutrition & activity in order to stay in my goal weight range (for me, goal weight plus or minus 3 pounds, which encompasses normal daily fluctuations).

Psychologically, it might have been harder to maintain, but I learned a lot during weight loss about how to eat in a healthful way while staying full, energetic & happy. That learning is serving me well in maintenance.

Granted, it's early times - I've only been maintaining for 6-7 months. But it's going just fine so far.

@STLBADGIRL - Thank you! I think that was actually one of the most interesting things about these past 18 months. I had never exercised before or ever enjoyed working out. I would join gyms and never go. I think I took one spin class and walked out after 10 minutes. Or I would typically try one class, be so out of shape that I would physically not be able to do it, feel horrible, self-conscious, hate it, and never go back again. When I got serious about losing weight last year, one of my friends said, "You have to just be willing to suck for awhile." It ended up being good advice. I kind of relaxed about my starting point and stopped comparing myself to people who had been at this for years. I was not in shape, I was so de-conditioned. My heart rate went up to 172 in the first 3 minutes. Working out was NOT fun or enjoyable. But I stuck with it. Consistently. Feet to the floor, just gotta do it.

And then you start seeing the progression. And one day you're running a minute longer than you could the day before. Or lifting a weight you couldn't even pick up a month ago. Or feeling your core now strong enough to support you for an exercise instead of sagging. And realizing you don't need to do the modification anymore. Now I can barely get my heart rate up to 172, even with intense exercise. A group fitness class is still always challenging, but you get stronger. And it becomes fun to attack new goals or reach new milestones you never thought possible. Now it is my stress relief, my adrenaline burn, my therapy, something I genuinely look forward to doing.

I've also found the more I challenge my body and the more it performs for me, the more motivated I am to fuel it, take care of it, give it good nutrition, get recovery sleep. I went from someone who ordered (not healthy!) takeout every single night to cooking, and trying new things, and being creative in the kitchen.

And I think surrounding yourself with like-minded, supportive, positive people makes a huge difference too. People who inspire to be better, push harder, help others. In all aspects of life, not just health and fitness. I think with enough consistency, somewhere along the way healthy changes shift from feeling strenuous, uncomfortable, unappealing - to habits and routines that make you feel good, energetic, capable..and then it spirals.

Why, yes. Yes it is. You still have to count calories. You still have to work out hard and often. You're not really doing anything differently from weight loss except you get more calories. How many more depends on gender, age, and body size. For me it's...

wait for it....

A WHOPPING 200 MORE! *throws confetti*

So basically for some people it just entails being reasonable; for others it's restriction for life. As a man, you are probably going to be on the less restrictive end of things.

divcara wrote: »

@STLBADGIRL - Thank you! I think that was actually one of the most interesting things about these past 18 months. I had never exercised before or ever enjoyed working out. I would join gyms and never go. I think I took one spin class and walked out after 10 minutes. Or I would typically try one class, be so out of shape that I would physically not be able to do it, feel horrible, self-conscious, hate it, and never go back again. When I got serious about losing weight last year, one of my friends said, "You have to just be willing to suck for awhile." It ended up being good advice. I kind of relaxed about my starting point and stopped comparing myself to people who had been at this for years. I was not in shape, I was so de-conditioned. My heart rate went up to 172 in the first 3 minutes. Working out was NOT fun or enjoyable. But I stuck with it. Consistently. Feet to the floor, just gotta do it.

And then you start seeing the progression. And one day you're running a minute longer than you could the day before. Or lifting a weight you couldn't even pick up a month ago. Or feeling your core now strong enough to support you for an exercise instead of sagging. And realizing you don't need to do the modification anymore. Now I can barely get my heart rate up to 172, even with intense exercise. A group fitness class is still always challenging, but you get stronger. And it becomes fun to attack new goals or reach new milestones you never thought possible. Now it is my stress relief, my adrenaline burn, my therapy, something I genuinely look forward to doing.

I've also found the more I challenge my body and the more it performs for me, the more motivated I am to fuel it, take care of it, give it good nutrition, get recovery sleep. I went from someone who ordered (not healthy!) takeout every single night to cooking, and trying new things, and being creative in the kitchen.

And I think surrounding yourself with like-minded, supportive, positive people makes a huge difference too. People who inspire to be better, push harder, help others. In all aspects of life, not just health and fitness. I think with enough consistency, somewhere along the way healthy changes shift from feeling strenuous, uncomfortable, unappealing - to habits and routines that make you feel good, energetic, capable..and then it spirals.

So I kept clicking "awesome" then "insightful" then "awesome" until I finally said "oh, heck, I'm just gonna quote the whole thing so I can see it in print again, and tell @divcara that I think it's awesome and insightful". I especially like the bolded parts, but I like the whole thing.

This is exactly what I found when I started getting active, and stuck with it.

Excellent post.

Harder.

I miss the rush of weighing and seeing the lower number....

My story is I added a bigger breakfast and more snacks. Ben and Jerry’s every night! How is that hard?

I find maintaining easy. I recently took about a six month break from losing and just maintained after a 28lb lost. I didn't really log, I just ate with that thought in the back of my head not to eat as much as I wanted to. I knew my body wanted me to gain the weight back and I simply chose to ignore it and always stop BEFORE I wanted to. I logged a little here and there, you can check out my diary it's public. Its the constant vigilant awareness that kept me within 3-5 lbs of the weight I was when I changed to maintenance.

Note that I may be a special case here, I dunno, because I gained the vast majority of my weight in sudden large amounts, not as a gradual gain over time. I very quickly gained 20lbs or so when I went from a walking job to a desk job, like in a couple of months, then I maintained that for a couple of years without even having joined MFP, I just adjusted apparently on my own. Then I got pregnant, ballooned up to 184 lbs, then after I had my kid, while breastfeeding I lost down to 141, then I stopped breastfeeding and due to my child's medical problems turned into a living couch (he had to sleep completely upright for the first four months of his life, so I became the human upright bed, and had to be VERY still every time he slept, and babies sleep a LOT), after which point I gained til I was 176 lbs over the course of those four months. I lost the 28lbs I have lost between September of last year and April-ish of this year, took a diet break over the rest of spring and summer, and now I'm back to lose the final 30. I didn't "gain" any weight during my diet break/recomp/maintenance, whatever you wanna call it. I hovered around the 150 mark within 3-5 lbs the whole time, which can be accounted for with water weight alone, and just normal weight fluctuation from day to day.

Here's the down side: I have a really hard time losing. REALLY hard. It's slow and arduous and tedious and unpleasant and I HATE working out, but I love to eat more. I have to be absolutely flawless with my logging, because my body is set to standard maintenance all the time, and really any deficit makes me feel like I'm not getting enough. And I NEVER take off my fitbit, because my burn estimate also has to be as flawless as is possible for the layman.

I really thought, back in the spring, that I was gonna totally gain back all the weight I'd lost and that I'd have to log everything forever and omfg panic. But it turns out I do okay without doing anything especially strenuous. Even stopping eating, as I said before, before I am ready wasn't that difficult compared to my 1000 calorie deficit. It was kind of relieving actually. I hope this helps soothe someone's fears. Everyone is different, but maybe you'll be different in this way, horrible losing but easy maintenance. I expect there are benefits to the easy loser with difficult maintenance too.

I don't say this to be a jerk to people who have a hard time maintaining, I'm just relaying my experience. I really think, for some people, that the loss is the huge PITA, and maintaining can be the easy part.

heck, losing it is hard enough atm, apparently I am suppose to be eating 2500 to maintain, and to lose 2lbs per week, eat 1500 per day, yet, at 1500 per day, it is up and down..... it is gonna be hell when I get to the point of maintaining.....

I'm maintaining my weight right now.. Although I'm far from my goal.. Losing the weight was the easy part once I cut out the junk and walked more.. I think for me maintaining my weight is hard until I'm ready to shed the last 60 pounds.

You have to remember that it's a lifestyle change and don't forget why you lost the weight to begin with.. For example it's easy for me to feel like a failure until I realize that I shed a significant amount of weight and it hasn't come back nor will it.

I think what helps me is looking at pics of myself from a few months back and looking at pics of myself now and realizing I look soo much better now than I did a few months ago. And thinking to myself " I don't want to go back to being 220 pounds and sad".. This curbs my craving for junk if I haven't been eating healthy all week...