Maintainers weekly Check-in June 2017

@fitand50inSD I, too, have stopped tracking. I was faithful forever until a month ago. I've been on maintenance for nearly two years and thought I'd try living on the edge. So far, so good.

Gender: Male
Age: 66
Height: 5'8"

Total Initial WT lost: 36# (196 to 160#)
Time it took to lose: 6 months; May 15-Dec 9, 2016
How long in maintenance: 7.5 months; Dec 9, 2016 - June 27, 2017

Maintenance WT range goal: 155-160
CPD Goal (TDEE)=2000; CPD=Calories per day consumed

Average WT/CPD in December: 159.7/1915
Average WT/CPD in January: 159.8/1854
Average WT/CPD in February: 158.7/1835
Average WT/CPD in March: 158.6/1847
Average WT/CPD in April: 158.5/1924
Average WT/CPD in May: 157.8/1887
Average WT/CPD in June: 157.5/2033

June WT range (min/max) to date: 155.4-158.8
June CPD range (min/max) to date: 1663-2401* (Excluding 1 binge day of 3243 cals)

7-Day Moving Average WT/CPD as of:

June 5: 157.4/1815
June 12:157.6/1938
June 19:157.1/2080
June 26: 157.9/2034*

Notes/Comments:

No notable problems or difficulties this month.

My level of activity remained the same; moderate exercise -- lifting, cardio and/or crossfit training -- 5 days/week.

However, I increased my TDEE/CPD goal from 1900 to 2000 cals/day on June 4th because it appeared that I was very gradually losing weight over the past 5 months rather than maintaining it. My weight did not drop but stayed pretty constant during the month after the change, which indicates that 2000 CPD is probably a better maintenance level for me.

Including 1 binge day, I averaged 2033 CPD for the month. Excluding the binge day, the average CPD was 1985. The binge day also elevated the 7 day moving ave for CPD on June 26th to 2270 CPD, far above my 2000 limit. However, excluding that day from the computation, reduces the 7 day moving average for the week down to 2034 more in line w/the daily average and my 2000 cal/day objective.

The conclusion? I just need to avoid anymore binge days to stay on target.

PS: I had a DXA scan done on June 3rd which came in at 13.3% which was higher by 3% than the 10% hydrostatic test result I got on April 1st but was slightly lower than the prior DXA scan on Feb 25th at 14%.

When compared w/the Feb results, the June DXA scan measured a total weight loss of 3.3# resulting from a 1.8# loss of LBM and 1.5# loss of BF. In the DXA scan on Nov 21st, I lost a net 2.9# but gained 1.3# in LBM and lost 4.3# in BF. So, compared w/the Nov results, I lost a net 6.2# in BW while losing only 0.5# in LBM and 5.7# in BF resulting in a drop of 3.1% BF from 16.4 to 13.3% during the past 6 months.

Oddly, while I lost BF overall during the past 3 months, my VAT (visceral adipose tissue) mass & vol for actually increased slightly by +0.04# in mass and +1.1 cu in in volume. However, over the past 6 months, VAT mass decreased by 0.16# and VAT volume decreased by 4.89 cu in.

So, while It appears from the 3 month data that I am not working out hard enough to maintain my LBM, the 6 month data indicates that I'm doing just enough to maintain my LBM while still losing BF resulting in an overall drop in BF%.

The question is: If I continue to lose more BF, am I doing enough lifting and other strength building exercise to continue to increase my LBM in order to maintain my weight at current levels?

Ideally, if my weight doesn't change, either my BF & LBM will remain static or my LBM will increase to offset any loss in BF. The worst case would be if I maintain my weight and my LBM decreases and my BF increases; definitely NOT what I want to happen.

At the moment, I'm just trying eat enough to maintain my current weight and do enough exercise to maintain my strength at my peak 1RM lift levels and am not trying to increase my strength beyond that. If I continue to lose LBM (and, even worse, regain BF, I'll have to reconsider this approach.

The next hydrostatic test is due on or about July 1st.

fitand50inSD wrote: »

Just curious if most of you continue to track your food while in maintenance? I feel like I can probably maintain in my goal range without a lot of effort and could just pick back up if I see my weight trending up. Thoughts?

So far I've mostly tracked but have experimented with times of not logging and plan to move more in that direction but keep a close eye on the scale. (e.g. didn't log on our 11-day road trip or previously on weekend retreat and those both went fine) I have yoyo'ed a good bit in the past. Learned some from my mistakes but I really don't want to fall back in that pattern!

Trina2040 wrote: »

@fitand50inSD, I continue to log every day almost 2 1/2 years into maintenance. I will have to closely monitor my weight and adjust calories along the way. I'm trending slightly up to the top end of my maintenance weight so I've started cutting again ever so slightly. I just think of counting calories like balancing my checkbook.

@Trina2040 I think I will keep tracking most days, but maybe loosen up a bit if we have a special occasion, vacation, etc.

fitand50inSD wrote: »

Trina2040 wrote: »

@fitand50inSD, I continue to log every day almost 2 1/2 years into maintenance. I will have to closely monitor my weight and adjust calories along the way. I'm trending slightly up to the top end of my maintenance weight so I've started cutting again ever so slightly. I just think of counting calories like balancing my checkbook.

@Trina2040 I think I will keep tracking most days, but maybe loosen up a bit if we have a special occasion, vacation, etc.

Sounds like a plan! You can always adjust according to your needs!

@mk2fit that is what I do when I don't log; I tend to eat similar meals anyway so I just stay within my guidelines and have an idea of how many servings each of protein, dairy, vegetables, etc., that I've eaten.

Name: Jen
Age: 45
Height: 5'2.5"
Total Weight lost:140lbs
Time it took to lose: 2.75yrs
How I lost it: My story
How long in maintenance : I declared it at 140 in January 2016, but that was too high for a petite lady. Redeclared it 4/14/17.
Maintenance weight range: Would like to stay under 125 at morning weigh-in.
Ongoing struggle: I still need to learn to trust my body cues, be content with eating just enough, and stop asking food to be more than just fuel. Life after work is just filled with getting steps and eating food to fill my evening. Really need to make peace with having fewer cals to work with. Contentment and an attitude of gratitude (and maybe a hobby, like sign language) are the order of the day.

January avg weight: 126.8lbs
February avg weight: 126.1lbs
March avg weight: 124.6lbs
April avg weight: 122.9lbs
May avg weight: 123.4lbs
June avg weight: 122.6lbs

Week of...
26th May: 123.1lbs
2nd June: 123.1lbs
9th June: 122.8lbs
16th June: 121.9lbs
23rd June: 122.5lbs
30th June: 122.6lbs



Successes of the week: Started teaching summer school. Did a 6 mi hike Saturday and my 10.5mi hike Sunday in Baxter with no problems other than threatening clouds cutting us off from the 4th peak. Thankfully the arthritis and bunions were reasonably quiet. The trip was gorgeous!!

Challenges of the week:
Started teaching summer school. The arthritis and bunions are killing me this week, as is a snatch and grab hunger. Meh.

@CoachJen71 Your trip looks amazing - beautiful scenery!

girlgroves wrote: »

@CoachJen71 Your trip looks amazing - beautiful scenery!

It was heavenly!

Name: Ingrid
Age: 45
Height: 5'4
Total Weight lost: 208.5lbs.
Time it took to lose: 3 years and 6 months
How long in maintenance: 2 months
Maintenance weight range: 128-135

Average weight recorded from January: 135
Average weight recorded from February: 132
Average weight recorded from March: 132
Average weight recorded from April: 132
Average weight recorded from May: 132
Average weight recorded from June: 130.4


Week of June 2: 132
Week of June 9: 129
Week of June 16: 131
Week of June 23: 130.5
Week of June 30: 129.5

Average weight recorded for June: 130.4

Struggles/successes of the week: I felt very tired this week. But when I would get discouraged I would come here and read your successes and the ways in which you encourage me and one another. Feeling thankful.

macchiatto wrote: »

TangledThread wrote: »

kgirlhart wrote: »

@girlgroves and @b3achy Thank you both for your replies. Looking at my own data, I would say that my fitbit is underestimating by 200-250 calories per day. Not a huge amount, but enough to keep me slowly trending down. I probably need to stop looking at the fitbit calories burned. And I do think that I am at a really good weight. I have had several people tell me lately that I need to stop losing (which annoys me because I am trying) and even that I should gain some back ( which I don't want to do). But I would be very happy to stay where I am. I am not underweight, and I have become very active and I feel really good at this activity level. And I think I look pretty good too. Maybe my sisters really are just jealous.

Me too. My Fitbit underestimates and I can't stand the red numbers either. I set MFP to gain 0.5 lbs a week and BOOM! perfect maintenance when I close the day with 80 cals left uneaten. I love the green.

This fascinates me. Fitbit definitely overestimates for me; I try to stick closer to 1800-1900 calories per day (MFP tells me my weekly average has been around 1750 give or take 100) and I seem to be maintaining on that, but Fitbit estimates my average calorie burn was 2250/day over the past 28 days (I think my average was a bit higher than that in April-May when I was training for races). I wonder what all contributes to its accuracy in estimating for an individual. (In my case, it is possible that it's PCOS-related, since I know there was one study that indicated women with PCOS may burn fewer calories per day on average than the control group w/o PCOS.)

For me I think it's two things- I'm quite fidgety and the Fitbit rarely catches any of that all day long movement when I'm sitting. Also the other day I was sighing that I "never" get to eat all my food as a bite was stolen from my plate. The combination of a little more burn and a little mislogging adds up.

Name: Michelle
Age: 32
Height: 5'1"
Total Weight lost: Let's say from my very highest (~150 in late 2011), almost 50 lbs.
How long in maintenance: Since February 2017
Maintenance weight range: 100ish lbs - 107ish lbs
Average weight recorded from April: 104.4 lbs
Average weight recorded from May: 105.1

Week of...
June 3rd: 105.6
June 10th: 106.0
June 16th: 105.6
July 1st: 106.8

News of the week: So I'm post vacay, and up a bit. Gonna tighten up and get back to it. I don't like the up trend of my weight this past month, so I'm going to work on getting it trending the other way this month.