What was your finish line mindset?
elisa123gal
Posts: 4,324 Member
i come here because you guys have made it - and walk the walk.
As you approached your last 5 or ten pounds... what was your thought process on seeing your goal through to the end and beyond?
I'm nearing my goal of losing 40 pounds. i have the last five or 6 to go. i'm at the point where i'm telling myself to just finish ..do it! I'm trying to pretend i'm back in the beginning when i was so determined and driven ..just trying to keep my head in the game and not fall back into the old ..i lost enough weight..gee i look good enough.. then ..gaining it back patterns.
As you approached your last 5 or ten pounds... what was your thought process on seeing your goal through to the end and beyond?
I'm nearing my goal of losing 40 pounds. i have the last five or 6 to go. i'm at the point where i'm telling myself to just finish ..do it! I'm trying to pretend i'm back in the beginning when i was so determined and driven ..just trying to keep my head in the game and not fall back into the old ..i lost enough weight..gee i look good enough.. then ..gaining it back patterns.
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Replies
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There is no finish line. Watching what you eat is something you'll have to do for the rest of your life if you don't want to regain the weight you lost. You can't go back to eating as you did before or you'll have the same results you had before: getting fat. In order to maintain, you need to incorporate the same tools you used to lose weight - making good choices, exercising, balancing your calories in and calories out.24
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Never reached the finish line, I like other people on here picked a number based on what I was heading to college.
Then 5 lb from the finish line, I realized that number was borderline healthy/unhealthy bmi (it never dawned on me to check beforehand because I was once that small), and also losing 5lb more would make me really boney up top, and since myfitnesspal recalculates the calories to eat at every 10 lb loss, I would have even less calories to work with. So I let go that goal and I am working on maintaining and building more upper body strength.
It is good to have a finish line, but once you get there you need to realize that the finish line was really just another step in your road of a healthier life. Set new mini finish lines and repeat!
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It took me nearly a year to lose the last ten pounds. I was hungry, that tiny deficit was killin' me! By then I was in the groove and nothing much changed. Plus with a five pound +/- range it isn't really a big event. Once I got there I bought some new clothes that fit, that was fun!
It's just more of the same, now. Still logging food, staying with the macros, eating more vegetables than anyone should really eat, stepping on the scale.
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I’m also on the high side of my range, about 4# above where I wanted to be when I started. I’ve been here for about a year, and I think that I’m successful at maintaining because I’m constantly trying to lose those last 4 pounds. I look good and feel good, and might someday “get there”. No rush!10
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As a long time maintainer, I think of maintenance as regaining/relosing the last 5 pounds repeatedly. So if you are 5 pounds from goal, very likely you are in your maintenance range now. Good job, OP! When I slack off, my weight creeps up, never down. When at the upper end of the range, my mindset is to buckle down for 10 weeks. When I reach the lower end, it’s to stay mindful but not obsessive.
Some people have seasonal weight patterns. This is kind of true for me. Texas summers are soul crushingly hot. Not much a girl can do but shake up a margarita. Seriously, though, I tend to slack on exercise intensity and drink a lot more margaritas in summer. I don’t gain every summer, but it’s approaching a seasonal pattern for me. Accordingly, part of my mindset is I don’t want to start summer at the top of my range (and have that higher weight become my “new normal “).14 -
spiriteagle99 wrote: »There is no finish line. Watching what you I eat is something youI'll have to do for the rest of your my life if you I don't want to regain the weight you I lost. You I can't go back to eating as you I did before or youI'll have the same results you I had before: getting fat. In order to maintain, you I need to incorporate the same tools you I used to lose weight - making good choices, exercising, balancing your my calories in and calories out.
Fixed it for me!
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My experience was a bit different because I was not focused on reaching a scale weight. I went by how I looked and felt when I decided to switch to maintenance.
I lost a significant amount of weight so I knew it was going to take time to get my body the way I wanted and tighten up. It took me 2 years of maintenance to get to where I wanted and 4 years to get a flat lower belly.
My thought process was to keep doing what I did to lose the weight, eat a bit more and increase my strength-training workouts.
I never saw an end game. I knew if I wanted to stay looking the way I look that I will have to keep putting in work everyday.
I'm in my 5th year of maintaining and I still look at each day as a new day to improve or work towards something new. Also I'm constantly trying new workouts and activities and new foods/ingredients. This helps me to keep from getting bored and complacent as well.13 -
rainbow198 wrote: »My experience was a bit different because I was not focused on reaching a scale weight. I went by how I looked and felt when I decided to switch to maintenance.
I lost a significant amount of weight so I knew it was going to take time to get my body the way I wanted and tighten up. It took me 2 years of maintenance to get to where I wanted and 4 years to get a flat lower belly.
My thought process was to keep doing what I did to lose the weight, eat a bit more and increase my strength-training workouts.
I never saw an end game. I knew if I wanted to stay looking the way I look that I will have to keep putting in work everyday.
I'm in my 5th year of maintaining and I still look at each day as a new day to improve or work towards something new. Also I'm constantly trying new workouts and activities and new foods/ingredients. This helps me to keep from getting bored and complacent as well.
How did you lose the belly fat? I’m so close to my weight loss goal. My goal was originally 120 pounds and I’m 122 pounds right now, but I still have some belly fat. I figured maybe I should lose a few more pounds then focus on heavy strength training, but maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know...
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"There is no after. After is when you're dead. There's only during."15
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I was fixated my the scale weight ... and fought right up to it .... then pushed a little bit further to make sure it stuck ... then I felt really underwhelmed and lost as I fought really hard to reach an arbitary number that meant absolutely nothing ... I looked and felt no different at 69.9kg as I did at 71kg.
so dont get hung up on reaching that number, because when you reach it, nothing actually changes ....10 -
I didn't find the last 5 or 10lbs of loss any different to the preceding weight loss - maybe because I had a relatively high calorie allowance due to exercise it wasn't any harder at all.
Can understand why someone with a small allowance would need more care and precision though.
I had set myself a time limit (Christmas 2012) to get to goal but it was a realistic goal (SMART objective) and I did use the time element as a motivator to stay focused.
When I got to goal there was a celebration and satisfaction in achieving something that have eluded me for 20 years but beyond that it was ticking off a goal and moving on to the next goal (mostly fitness and performance related).
As it transpired the period of reflection and goal setting made me realise I wasn't quite where I wanted to be as regards my weight either. I ended up nibbling a few more pounds off very slowly until I was totally happy, that was easier as I deliberately made my deficit tiny and took away the time element as really the extra weight loss was moving from "happy" to "happier" with myself.
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I'm approaching 5 years at maintenance - as others say there is no finish line, what I learned along the way has helped me form lasting and better eating and exercising habits. I got complacent when I was down to my last 5lbs but that was because I was happy with how far I'd come and wasn't too concerned whether they had to go or not. Eventually they did go and then some more along with them.
It took me a long time to see myself as being slim, I still get taken aback when people proclaim that I am 'tiny'! I don't feel tiny and I'm not, but peoples perception of what a healthy weight looks like is skewed.
I like that my eating habits changed enough for me not to have to worry about logging, my eating is instinctive but I do have to keep an eye on the cheeky snacks
, I still aim to have 300 cals a day in cake/crisps/chocolate or whatever I fancy but I need to stick to that 300. I am pretty active - that was something I evolved into, and its now a natural thing.
I will always think in calories, its ingrained into my brain - I can look at any meal and guess the calories accurately. My mantra has always been 'knowledge is power'.
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I was nervous about it because losing is easier; there is a much bigger range of calories for a reasonable deficit and just roughly knowing your TDEE is fine. Trying to eat almost exactly TDEE is harder, IMO.5
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itisidaisy wrote: »rainbow198 wrote: »My experience was a bit different because I was not focused on reaching a scale weight. I went by how I looked and felt when I decided to switch to maintenance.
I lost a significant amount of weight so I knew it was going to take time to get my body the way I wanted and tighten up. It took me 2 years of maintenance to get to where I wanted and 4 years to get a flat lower belly.
My thought process was to keep doing what I did to lose the weight, eat a bit more and increase my strength-training workouts.
I never saw an end game. I knew if I wanted to stay looking the way I look that I will have to keep putting in work everyday.
I'm in my 5th year of maintaining and I still look at each day as a new day to improve or work towards something new. Also I'm constantly trying new workouts and activities and new foods/ingredients. This helps me to keep from getting bored and complacent as well.
How did you lose the belly fat? I’m so close to my weight loss goal. My goal was originally 120 pounds and I’m 122 pounds right now, but I still have some belly fat. I figured maybe I should lose a few more pounds then focus on heavy strength training, but maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know...
You have the same goal as me i.e to lose the last amount of belly fat.
Either you can go about it 3 ways
1) lose weight, (this works of you have spare pounds to lose, but if you are pear shaped like me it would make my ribcage too boney so options two or three make more sense)
2) Gain-cut cycle, basically building up muscle through a designed strength training/lifting program then cutting after a period of time
3) Recomposition, Goal is to maintain weight while building muscle. Much slower than Gain-cut cycle! Best results will be from doing a strength/lifting program. Positives for this is you don't have to gain weight which can be mentally difficult after losing weight.
I'm doing a even slower version of recomposition by doing a mixture of strength toning exercise classes and cardio. But it works! I've already seen a some more muscle in my arms/shoulders !1 -
I picked the point in the last 20 years where I felt best. For me, that point happens to be squarely in the middle of overweight, but I'm ok with that. I'm about 10 lbs from there, and I've been sneaking up on it for about the last year. Creeping in on it, Hitting an NSV and easing back... then grinding in on it again. I'll probably overshoot by 5-10 lbs before I settle in. Then I'll give maintenance a go for a while. At which point I may set a new goal, or I may decide I'm actually happy at my first goal.
But I picked the goal by looking at performance, fitness and overall perceived wellbeing.2 -
I'm within 5lbs of my goal, and I think I set it initially to see how difficult it would be to lose 20 lbs and then go lower from there. But I've had pretty good success (down 16lbs in 3 months!), and when I look at myself in the mirror I like what I see, and in general I like how I feel, and I'm eating well and enjoying my healthy food, so I'm starting to wonder if I need to push myself to go lower. I haven't been working out as much lately (busy, crappy weather, depression), but I've been keeping to my diet and pretty much maintaining, so as summer rolls in and I get more active outdoors (and drink more summer beers, yum), I think if I stay within the 5lb range I'll be in a good place. If I'm depriving myself or worrying about a (basically) arbitrary number, to me that's not a mark of success, no matter what the scale says.
Congrats on approaching the 40lb mark, OP!0 -
itisidaisy wrote: »rainbow198 wrote: »My experience was a bit different because I was not focused on reaching a scale weight. I went by how I looked and felt when I decided to switch to maintenance.
I lost a significant amount of weight so I knew it was going to take time to get my body the way I wanted and tighten up. It took me 2 years of maintenance to get to where I wanted and 4 years to get a flat lower belly.
My thought process was to keep doing what I did to lose the weight, eat a bit more and increase my strength-training workouts.
I never saw an end game. I knew if I wanted to stay looking the way I look that I will have to keep putting in work everyday.
I'm in my 5th year of maintaining and I still look at each day as a new day to improve or work towards something new. Also I'm constantly trying new workouts and activities and new foods/ingredients. This helps me to keep from getting bored and complacent as well.
How did you lose the belly fat? I’m so close to my weight loss goal. My goal was originally 120 pounds and I’m 122 pounds right now, but I still have some belly fat. I figured maybe I should lose a few more pounds then focus on heavy strength training, but maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know...
Honestly it's my genetics. After I lost the weight my skin there was mainly deflated after losing so many inches and being overweight for so long.
I did an unintentional recomp which I believe helped. I didn't do any targeted ab work either, but over time...a lot of time things slowly tighten up.4 -
I got to the last 10lbs from my goal then decided I'd like to increase my calories (from 1300 to 1600) and hit the gym. At this point, I think putting on a bit of muscle and losing weight slower will be a better transition for me and make me look better. I was getting sick of feeling hungry.0
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As a long time maintainer, I think of maintenance as regaining/relosing the last 5 pounds repeatedly. So if you are 5 pounds from goal, very likely you are in your maintenance range now. Good job, OP! When I slack off, my weight creeps up, never down. When at the upper end of the range, my mindset is to buckle down for 10 weeks. When I reach the lower end, it’s to stay mindful but not obsessive.
Some people have seasonal weight patterns. This is kind of true for me. Texas summers are soul crushingly hot. Not much a girl can do but shake up a margarita. Seriously, though, I tend to slack on exercise intensity and drink a lot more margaritas in summer. I don’t gain every summer, but it’s approaching a seasonal pattern for me. Accordingly, part of my mindset is I don’t want to start summer at the top of my range (and have that higher weight become my “new normal “).
Thank you for this, you put my thoughts into words. Maintenance has been more difficult than I imagined, mainly because I'm not as focused. "Mindful but not obsessive" will become my new mantra.2 -
Even though I still think of myself as losing (just playing with vanity weight), in reality, I've been at maintenance for 2 years... just messing around with that last little bit of vanity weight, then thinking maybe not, then thinking why not.
In reality, nothing changes. I still have fitness goals, I still watch what I eat and realize it will be a life long endeavor. I still realize that this will always be an evolving process. There really never is a finish line.
Like @LivingtheLeanDream, I've had people call me tiny or even a "little peanut" (I'm only 5'1") I don't really feel like one and unlike her don't quite see myself as small yet. I have started to dream of myself as my smaller self rather than my 210 pound self, so that's something new.5 -
It took me almost a year to lose the last 5 pounds. It felt like it was never going to happen. It was tempting to just decide to stay a few pounds above my goal, but I knew I wouldn't be satisfied with that. I actually reached my maintenance weight during the week we were moving cross-country, so I was shocked to get on the scale and my new place and realize that I was there.
I still track everything I eat, and I don't see myself ever being "done" with tracking. I just have a slightly higher calorie allowance now.2 -
OP - cold, hard fact....there is no end. You just keep doing what you’re doing, but with a handful more calories.
I added an apple and a serving of peanut butter. That’s it.9 -
I just started maintaining after a 20 lb loss. I ended up taking it a couple pounds under my initial goal, and I am still kindof deciding what to do next.
The good thing is, THIS TIME I did not give up when I started to feel "close enough" to my original goal. Instead, I feel very empowered by the journey I've had here and I feel like I have the tools and information I need to maintain whatever weight I decide is best for me, whether it's where I am now, or a few pounds lower. Maybe that's arrogance, I have a whole 2 weeks of track record, but this "feels" different than other times. I am still logging everything and expect to for the indefinite future - at least a year or two. Knowing I can adjust, change goals, remake any decision I need to, is reassuring.
I did get pretty afraid to kick it into maintenance, until threads like this one convinced me that maintenance was just like loss - plus one apple and some peanut butter, like @nowine4me says
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OP - cold, hard fact....there is no end. You just keep doing what you’re doing, but with a handful more calories.
I added an apple and a serving of peanut butter. That’s it.
This. I only got an extra 200 calories in maintenance. I learned that there's a huge difference between a 100 calorie breakfast and a 300 calorie breakfast, though.
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There is no finish line, there's continuous improvement; it's tied to how I look and feel, not a number on the scale. If you asked me in January of 2012 when I had just started on MFP I likely had that mindset of this site being a temporary tool to reign in my weight and then I'd go along my merry way. Here we are more than six years later, currently riding my longest logging streak at 260+ days and ~15lbs heavier than my lowest adult scale weight (5/8/2013 - 159lb @ 6'1" male). The majority of that extra 15lb is muscle I've gained since getting into weightlifting and understanding that dieting and running wasn't going to yield the type of physique I ultimately desired.5
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spiriteagle99 wrote: »There is no finish line. Watching what you I eat is something youI'll have to do for the rest of your my life if you I don't want to regain the weight you I lost. You I can't go back to eating as you I did before or youI'll have the same results you I had before: getting fat. In order to maintain, you I need to incorporate the same tools you I used to lose weight - making good choices, exercising, balancing your my calories in and calories out.
Fixed it for me!
PAV, are you sure we were not separated at birth my friend! LOL0
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