Start maintaining? Your inputs are highly appreciated.

qvene · November 2016

Good afternoon,

It's my first time posting in this forum, so please pardon me of any misconception.

Thanks to MFP, I have been losing 50 pounds since March 27th this year. My initial weight loss goal was 165 pounds (with 1,500 kcal alloted), achieved in mid-August. Then I revised my weight loss goal to 150 pounds in mid-September (with 1,270 kcal alloted), achieved by mid-November. I am 5'7", dress size down from US 14~16 (big hips) to US 8~10.

I have received several comments that I should no longer losing weight. Per old-school calculation done by my primary physician, my ideal weight should be in mid-130s, but I am thinking twice about maintain my current weight (145-150 pounds), so my body can adjust and stabilize.

Thanks in advance for your inputs! I want to be more confident before proceeding to change my goal in MFP.

Best regards,
Mandy

qvene · November 2016

Thanks Megan, I am being greedy... A voice told me to continue losing weight as I am in such a good momentum, while another voice told me to maintain as my current weight is even lower than my best record (i.e., on my wedding day back 16 years ago).

sijomial · November 2016

Whatever you decide now doesn't have to be forever. It takes time both for you to adjust to your new weight and also takes time for friends and family to adjust their preconceptions of you. I also got "too thin" comments and I'm hardly undernourished!

An alternative between carrying on at your current rate of loss and maintenance is to switch to a very small deficit.
I ended up nibbling away a few extra pounds under my original goal weight in a series of small steps - another option.
Really every option is open to you but in your position I would raise my calories a little to lose very slowly for December to give myself some Christmas/New Year wiggle room.

Well done and enjoy the new you.

qvene · November 2016

Thank you both. I should give myself some flexibilities on my long term goal, aiming not to regain the pounds back. Your encouragements are very much appreciated. I believe that I am now ready to rescale my calorie deficit.

HappyGrape · November 2016

I agree, whatever you decide it doesn't have to be forever and a maintenance break could help you decide on what is the right thing to do

well done

nxd10 · November 2016

Congratulations! I also nudged my weight loss goals down and down as I got there. I eventually settled on 150 - which is where I was at the end of college. I had originally hoped to get to 170, dropped then to 160 then to 150. I've maintained 4 years.

I found when I got closer to my low goal (150) was that my weight loss slowed down substantially. It took me just 3 months to drop the first 20 pounds, 3 more the next 10, 3 months the next 5, and 6 months the last 5. At that point I upped my calories to a 250 cal/day deficit and maintained a year before upping it to full maintenance.

You naturally slow as you get closer. Maybe try going to maintenance over the holidays and drop back to weight loss in January? But what I would actually recommend is just keep at it. Weight loss really does slow down as you get close - and I was very very rigorous.

And you've done fantastically well! Congratulations.

victoria_1024 · November 2016

I think maintenance breaks are great. Last year after I had lost about 80 pounds, I reached my goal weight of 137, which was the very high end of normal bmi. I stayed there for a few months just to see how I felt. After that time I decided to lose another ten pounds. Now I've been maintaining around 125 lbs for the past 7 months and I feel good here. But I'm glad I had that time to just get used to my weight loss and take time with the process instead of plowing through.

I agree with the comment about maintaining over the holidays and then seeing where you're at in January! That's essentially what I did last year!

crzycatlady1 · November 2016

My original goal weight was 135, hit that and kept going all the way down to around 117lbs, then I purposely gained a bit back and I'm now comfortably maintaining in the 128-133lb range. Now is the time to experiment a bit and just see what feels best to you, no harm in losing a bit more and seeing how it goes, but there's also nothing wrong with staying where you're at and seeing how that feels. With the holidays approaching it probably wouldn't hurt to just experiment with maintaining your current weight. Then, maybe in January/February you can assess how you feel, and then go from there

And a big congrats for getting to this point!

qvene · November 2016

Thank you very much for all insightful and encouraging responses! Just hopped on the old-fashioned Detecto scale after the HIIT class and found myself below 145 pounds.

By thinking twice, I do have 3-5 pounds variance just by water weight.

So this is official - I will set my goal to maintenance effective tomorrow (December 1st), what a good feeling to start a new milestone.

Thank you again for all the inputs and personal stories.

qvene · December 2016

After modifying to maintenance, now my daily alloted calories are 1,690 - a whooping 420 increase.

sgt1372 · December 2016

qvene wrote: »

After modifying to maintenance, now my daily alloted calories are 1,690 - a whooping 420 increase.

Be careful about jumping back up 420 cals after losing so much weight at only 1270 --that's a 33% increase!

There is scientific evidence that after a large weight loss, people only need about 80-85% of their recalculated TDEE to maintain their weight loss and that eating more than that is the main reason people fail to maintain their weight loss. In your case, this would put your needed cals at only 1352-1436 - not 1690.

FWIW, I lost 35# from 196 to 161 in 5 months and have been maintaining for the past month at only 1800 cals, even though my TDEE was at 2100. Initially tried 2100, as calculated, and immediately gained weight. Went back to 1800 (almost exactly 15% less than 2100) where my weight has been maintained.

qvene · December 2016

Thanks for reminding, sgt1372! I better not to max out the TDEE every day. Right now I am at max for the first weekends in December, aiming to get below 1,400 during weekdays, of which I will have more controls of my food intakes and exercises at work.

qvene · December 2016

Hi all! Hope all have been enjoying your holiday season. Just want to give an update that my first month of maintaining is not as bad as I anticipated. Did my weekly weigh-in today and still at 145 pounds. Think this is a good news to share.

Last but not least, have a Happy New Year and looking forward for a healthy 2017!

sgt1372 · December 2016

qvene wrote: »

Did my weekly weigh-in today and still at 145 pounds

Congrats on your success!

I'm at 160 (my goal weight) and have been maintaining between 158-161 for the past month but am stll tinkering w/the cals.

Was still losing weight at 1800 and got down to 158# b4 I upped the cals to 1900 and then upped them again to 2000 to curb the loss but just started to gain again. So, I'm backing it back down to 1900, which should be my stasis point.

We'll see . . .

WinoGelato · December 2016

Congrats on a month so successful maintenance! Sounds like you've got a good handle on your calorie requirements especially with being able to maintain over the holidays.

A couple of other tips for lasting success in maintenance:

A lot of people find it important in maintenance to continue to log, its far too easy to eat too many calories when just eyeballing.

A lot of people also find they need to find challenges in maintenance to keep themselves focused, without the excitement of seeing the scale weight progressively go down. Whether that be a new fitness challenge or something else, that's been a common theme from successful maintainers.

Good luck!

Start maintaining? Your inputs are highly appreciated.

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