Fight!
daisycrazygir1
Posts: 4 Member
Maintaing your weight is always going to be a battle
11
Replies
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Is it? I can't really say I agree, three years in
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Why? If you are structuring your diet well, for nutrients and satiety, while hitting calorie targets, I just don't see why it would always be a battle. I don't find it to be so.8
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Maintaining two years now, I have not had any struggle either.
Maybe give us hint what you find is hard. We can help.7 -
I've been maintaining my current weight for several months now. Yes it fluctuates but that's normal.4
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It is for me, always has been, probably always will.9
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Me personally for the moment, yes it will be. My leptin and Ghrelin are seriously messed up. Hunger ques are nuts! I am hoping with about 30 lbs of re weight gain in the next year and a half, things will get better. Has anyone else had hunger que issues after massive weight loss? Did gaining some BF back actually help? How about hormonal issues?2
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I guess it can be if you want it to be a struggle. But why would you want that?9
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Oh some people are just so awesome! Not a struggle for you! Great!
It's a struggle for me too, OP. I have the appetite of my fat self, but cannot eat that much. And it sucks. And it's hard.34 -
What specifically are you struggling with? Have you lost weight previously and been unable to maintain the loss?2
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Nope, not for me it isn't. I love maintenance. I found what works for me and it feels normal.
But there are a few ground rules I have for myself - watch portions, weigh frequently, and keep fairly active.
Approaching year 5 of being at maintenance.
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I do not believe, that anyone wants maintenance to be hard. Before I discovered the truth about weight loss, I always thought there would be a day when I could be normal. Yes, I know, define normal. I always saw myself just going out to eat, grazing like I always did, eating until I was stuffed. Not reality at all. I am glad certain things I read took me down the rabbit hole that is reality for me at this time. I do hope for it getting easier, if I can get my hormones back in control, in the future. I believe in some ways maintenance can be easier for people who's BF set point was not as high as some people's. I was over 300lbs for 16+ years. I will not throw myself a pity party at all. I got myself into this mess, I have to fight my way out of it. I have know several people who have lost the kind of weight I did. 2 natural, 1 with a gastric band, and one with gastric bypass. All of them have regained a lot of weight. The 2 who did it natural, gained all of it back and then some. Quite quick actually. I am talking about 100+ lbs in a year and more. The one with the gastric band gained most of theirs back. The gastric bypass has been the most successful. He has only regained about 50lbs of over 200 lost. I know why though. I have seen what he eats. Cookies, candy, chips, ice cream. Not just as small so called treats. I hate to call things treats, but in a way they are. He eats them every day. The man has been given the greatest weight loss and maintenance tool modern medicine can give him, but he is pissing it down his leg. He refuses to exercise at all. He is completely non compliant with his diet. Sorry for the rant there. LOL I have a tenancy to do that sometimes. I said all that to say this, I want to learn from the people here. I want to see what works for them, so I can get ideas with what might work for me. All I can do is research, listen, and do a little trial and error for myself. To all those who have no problems. That is amazing. I can only hope to oneday be like you. for all those still in the trenches fighting, I am with you.9
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psychod787 wrote: »I do not believe, that anyone wants maintenance to be hard. Before I discovered the truth about weight loss, I always thought there would be a day when I could be normal. Yes, I know, define normal. I always saw myself just going out to eat, grazing like I always did, eating until I was stuffed. Not reality at all. I am glad certain things I read took me down the rabbit hole that is reality for me at this time. I do hope for it getting easier, if I can get my hormones back in control, in the future. I believe in some ways maintenance can be easier for people who's BF set point was not as high as some people's. I was over 300lbs for 16+ years. I will not throw myself a pity party at all. I got myself into this mess, I have to fight my way out of it. I have know several people who have lost the kind of weight I did. 2 natural, 1 with a gastric band, and one with gastric bypass. All of them have regained a lot of weight. The 2 who did it natural, gained all of it back and then some. Quite quick actually. I am talking about 100+ lbs in a year and more. The one with the gastric band gained most of theirs back. The gastric bypass has been the most successful. He has only regained about 50lbs of over 200 lost. I know why though. I have seen what he eats. Cookies, candy, chips, ice cream. Not just as small so called treats. I hate to call things treats, but in a way they are. He eats them every day. The man has been given the greatest weight loss and maintenance tool modern medicine can give him, but he is pissing it down his leg. He refuses to exercise at all. He is completely non compliant with his diet. Sorry for the rant there. LOL I have a tenancy to do that sometimes. I said all that to say this, I want to learn from the people here. I want to see what works for them, so I can get ideas with what might work for me. All I can do is research, listen, and do a little trial and error for myself. To all those who have no problems. That is amazing. I can only hope to oneday be like you. for all those still in the trenches fighting, I am with you.
Unless you're current underweight and under-fat I would suggest predicted maintenance calories and accepting a small trending weight gain but not setting yourself up to accept a 30lb regain without fighting it tooth and nail.
While in the beginning I might accept a bump up that is faster... I would resist a (not specifically for the purpose of gaining muscle) bulk of more than 1lb a month over the long term.
I suspect that things will improve hunger wise after at full maintenance (not permacut) eating for a year or two.
And inventing "treat analogues" is always fun! Currently experimenting with Greek yogurt based bagels
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psychod787 wrote: »I do not believe, that anyone wants maintenance to be hard. Before I discovered the truth about weight loss, I always thought there would be a day when I could be normal. Yes, I know, define normal. I always saw myself just going out to eat, grazing like I always did, eating until I was stuffed. Not reality at all. I am glad certain things I read took me down the rabbit hole that is reality for me at this time. I do hope for it getting easier, if I can get my hormones back in control, in the future. I believe in some ways maintenance can be easier for people who's BF set point was not as high as some people's. I was over 300lbs for 16+ years. I will not throw myself a pity party at all. I got myself into this mess, I have to fight my way out of it. I have know several people who have lost the kind of weight I did. 2 natural, 1 with a gastric band, and one with gastric bypass. All of them have regained a lot of weight. The 2 who did it natural, gained all of it back and then some. Quite quick actually. I am talking about 100+ lbs in a year and more. The one with the gastric band gained most of theirs back. The gastric bypass has been the most successful. He has only regained about 50lbs of over 200 lost. I know why though. I have seen what he eats. Cookies, candy, chips, ice cream. Not just as small so called treats. I hate to call things treats, but in a way they are. He eats them every day. The man has been given the greatest weight loss and maintenance tool modern medicine can give him, but he is pissing it down his leg. He refuses to exercise at all. He is completely non compliant with his diet. Sorry for the rant there. LOL I have a tenancy to do that sometimes. I said all that to say this, I want to learn from the people here. I want to see what works for them, so I can get ideas with what might work for me. All I can do is research, listen, and do a little trial and error for myself. To all those who have no problems. That is amazing. I can only hope to oneday be like you. for all those still in the trenches fighting, I am with you.
Unless you're current underweight and under-fat I would suggest predicted maintenance calories and accepting a small trending weight gain but not setting yourself up to accept a 30lb regain without fighting it tooth and nail.
While in the beginning I might accept a bump up that is faster... I would resist a (not specifically for the purpose of gaining muscle) bulk of more than 1lb a month over the long term.
I suspect that things will improve hunger wise after at full maintenance (not permacut) eating for a year or two.
And inventing "treat analogues" is always fun! Currently experimenting with Greek yogurt based bagels
I am currently about 8.6% bf. I am shooting for 1/4 lbs a week for a while. So yes, I am underweight, not by body building standards, but by American standards yes. I appreciate you answer me. I am all ears from people who have been living the lifestyle longer than I have. After about 10lbs on, I will probably re assess my situation. I was saying 30lbs because the RD states that about what I need.2 -
For me neither. Being in deficit is deffo harder.1
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I wouldn't say that maintenance is a battle but I do know that it can be a struggle at times being around others who eat without care of what it is doing to their waist line while I am mindful of everything I eat. A small sacrifice for health and fitness in the scheme of things though as I do enjoy what I eat.5
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The first year was a battle. Year 2, it’s just a new reality.8
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I'm ten years in...I go back and forth between, "Psh. This is so easy," to, "I just want to eat more!"
I find that if I give myself one day of over-eating per week I am satisfied with that. I get enough food the rest of the time, I just wish it could involve Ben and Jerry's every day.
But, choices have to be made and I choose to not gain weight again and delegate B&J to every-now-and-then.11 -
It is a struggle for me as well. Even after weight loss surgery, regain, re-loss, & several years in maintenance, I have to think about every bite I put in my mouth. I wish it were easy.3
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I did feel that way at first, but I am approaching a year at goal now (end March will be one year!) and it really has gradually got less mentally taxing. Unless you really tapered into maintenance you'll be learning what new habits are going to stick and what you can and can't live with, it's almost akin to the mentality of starting to cut in my opinion. That in itself can feel disappointing, like I thought this emotional effort should be done now I am at goal? In fact maintenance for a lot of us means to keep counting and logging and tracking, but hopefully you can find a sort of peace and balance with it.5
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Only been in maintenance a few months but am continuing to learn a lot. There are always going to be challenges - for me - injury, then flu. Now I am fighting S.A.D. and the urge to binge uncontrollably at night. But there is a great support group RIGHT HERE to help us with all these challenges. I don't think of it so much as a fight tho. More learning experiences.
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I go through periods where I find it easy and when I don't. When I don't, I am good and doing my minimums to keep[ me in check. When I do, I try to get most out of it - workout, cook, walk. My maintenance range is pretty big, 5lbs +- meaning that when I am finding it easy I shoot for be near the lower end, and if I find myself near the upper weight I get back eating in deficit motivated or not.
I am near acceptance, that there are times that I am not into it and I have to do what needs to be done even if it feels harder.
It doesn't matter how it is for others. This is me and my journey. Coming from a family that have obesity, I am grateful that I never been overweight, that we have tools to help as mfp, that information is easy to access. And there is no point of beating myself up that some find it easy all the time, or don't need to count calories, or are very naturally gifted to be more athletic. I am what I am and for me, sometimes it's hard and I don't dwell on it. Other times feels supper easy.
It will be harder for me to be obese, than it is to keep my weight in check and adjust actions to keep it at happy level.
Me remaining healthy weight - it's worthy goal. It's worth the effort even when it's hard and I don't feel like it.
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It could be at times, but it is wonderful at the same time and extremely satisfying. I was an always overweight child, teen, adult. I'm 46 now. At my highest, i was over 235 lbs. I didn't get there all at once, i dieted many times, lost weight, regained all of it plus some extra pretty much every time. I realized now, that my pitfall was the dieters' thinking how i can go back to eating the way before, basically whatever whenever i wanted. I have been always athletic, but it's not easy with all extra weight. So i keep active, enjoy it more, and I'm in maintenance for going on a year and a half. I know that i have to mind my portions, my sweets, and can't eat until I can't get up, lol. And I'm ok with that, i enjoy the freedom that comes with not being obese. It's totally worth my efforts, my time.7
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Lillymoo01 wrote: »I wouldn't say that maintenance is a battle but I do know that it can be a struggle at times being around others who eat without care of what it is doing to their waist line while I am mindful of everything I eat. A small sacrifice for health and fitness in the scheme of things though as I do enjoy what I eat.
Yep, this. For me maintenance hasn't really been difficult but I have to pay attention to what I'm doing, eating, and living like each day. It's worth it to me, along with looking better I feel so much better than when I was heavier.
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The mental struggle I've had to face was, first, deserving to be healthy. I'm seriously convinced that my lifetime of obesity was attempted suicide.
Second, I had a struggle with choosing to make a change to get off the multi-year plateau after overcoming the first battle. In the first battle I'd lost about 100 lb. I still had 100+ more to go.
Third, I most recently struggled in the August 2017-January 2018 period with facing the reality that even with the reality of being near my arbitrary goal, it was obvious that I would have to continue losing to find the weight at which my learned way of eating would become my maintenance level.
Everyone who got obese has a different set of struggles. For me, it exists, and at some time my sub- and super-conscious minds reach agreement and the battle is over.5 -
Oh some people are just so awesome! Not a struggle for you! Great!
It's a struggle for me too, OP. I have the appetite of my fat self, but cannot eat that much. And it sucks. And it's hard.
Thank you. I appreciate what you said there.
OP: yeah, it totally sucks for me to. Maintenance is just is a lifetime perpetual diet. I wish I had something more than sympathy and empathy to offer you.9 -
Oh some people are just so awesome! Not a struggle for you! Great!
It's a struggle for me too, OP. I have the appetite of my fat self, but cannot eat that much. And it sucks. And it's hard.
Thank you. I appreciate what you said there.
OP: yeah, it totally sucks for me to. Maintenance is just is a lifetime perpetual diet. I wish I had something more than sympathy and empathy to offer you.
I was born ravenously hungry. Still ravenously hungry 2 years after goal weight. It's dumb. But it is what it is.
I will have to log everything forever until I'm in the grave.
Better than being fat again, but still wearing sometimes.
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Transitioning from weight loss to maintaining was a slight struggle for me mentally. I worked so hard and did not want to gain any weight back. Those statistics are pretty grim.
Once I figured out to just keep doing what I was doing to lose weight, slowly up my calories and when I saw I wasn't gaining or losing I became more confident in myself to keep the weight off.
I've maintained in my weight range for 5 years, but it's not a fight or struggle for me.
If I want to stay at this fitness level and weight I have to work for it everyday.13 -
Such great support here, this place rocks!4
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