what is maintenance
prettygirlstorm1
Posts: 721 Member
I finally reached my goal at Weight Watchers. I lost 40 pounds!!! Yay me!!! Now I must learn to maintain the weight to become a lifetime member. I only know how to lose and definitely I know how to gain, but how do I maintain. This seems harder than losing!!! I need help!
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Replies
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The doing of maintenance is no different - eat the correct amount of calories, average an appropriate intake over time.
The mindset is/can be very different, and can be a challenge for some. Giving yourself a range to maintain in, not a specific weight/number to maintain at... allowing yourself a bit more flexibility... looking at REALLY long term trends vs short term numbers/averages... etc.6 -
Its not much different to losing, probably accounts for one extra snack a day along with what you have already been eating whilst losing.
So in other words, there is no end date to keeping an eye on food intake, if you eat more than you burn consistently gain will happen.4 -
The avg rate of loss for the last month will give a clue as to how much more you can add to maintain at.
2 lbs means about 250 more daily.
4 lbs means about 500 more daily.
6 lbs means about 750 more daily.
8 lbs means about 1000 more daily.
If you actually accomplished those last 2 I'd be surprised.
If you were attempting those last 2 but only achieved the first 2 with good food logging, then body probably adapted so it'll be more than the first 2. But start there.
If you still lose weight, you get to eat even more!5 -
shhhh.. the secret to maintaining is that instead of going up and down 40 pounds over a long timeframe, you now monitor and only go up 5 max before you drop again. shhhh... Maintaining is just smaller yo yos...
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For me it was the lowest amount of calories I am willing to eat long term. Could eat less calories and lose weight, but I like to have chocolate and wine and peanut butter in the portion sizes I eat now.
Also it feels mentally harder for me, because I lost weight so I know that I can DO that. But maintenance is well forever, so how long do you have to be in maintenance before you know you can actually maintain.1 -
Thanks for the advice. To be lifetime with weight watchers I can on be 2lbs under or 2lbs over my goal weight. Right now I'm 2 lbs under so I have 4lbs to play with over the next 6 weeks. Wish me luck!3
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A weight trending app is helpful... it can help you see any upward/downward trends a bit earlier amongst the noise of daily weight.3
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prettygirlstorm1 wrote: »Thanks for the advice. To be lifetime with weight watchers I can on be 2lbs under or 2lbs over my goal weight. Right now I'm 2 lbs under so I have 4lbs to play with over the next 6 weeks. Wish me luck!
I second the weight trend application and the finding where your maintenance calories are and personally deem them more important than the lifetime membership.
The lifetime membership is important if you continue going up and down in weight and have to spend money every few years to try and drop 40lbs.
If you achieve the weight management skill though... I don't know what the benefit of the lifetime membership would be at that point?
<I may be making assumptions as I've never been a member; if so, please ignore>1 -
One option to consider is increasing your eating gradually, maybe around 100 daily calories (or equivalent WW points) at a time, once every week or two, until your weight stabilizes.
This can help avoid the potentially-scary larger scale jump from replenishing glycogen (water weight) and increasing average digestive system contents. Also, some people find that this gradual process helps increase their ultimate calorie needs: Sometimes, there's been some subtle adaptation to lowered calories, so that when one starts adding back, energy level increases, increasing calorie burn via amped-up daily life activities and workout intensity.
For me, adding back calories gradually had another plus: If I'd added 250-500 daily calories in one jump, it would've been a big temptation to add some single big treat to each day. By adding more slowly, I tended to add small nutritious tweaks that also increased my food enjoyment, like some hemp/flax seeds to add crunch in my oatmeal. (I'm not saying treats are bad, or that I don't have them, just that I think it was helpful not to make them a big chunk of daily consumption.)
Gradually adding, it's tough to put yourself in a position of accidentally overdoing by a lot. If one overshoots by 100 daily calories, it's going to take more than a full month for that to result in a pound of true weight gain.5 -
prettygirlstorm1 wrote: »To be lifetime with weight watchers I can on be 2lbs under or 2lbs over my goal weight.
What? That's utter madness! I can put on 5lb at TOM through water retention - what does Weight Watchers expect someone to do about that?!6 -
One option to consider is increasing your eating gradually, maybe around 100 daily calories (or equivalent WW points) at a time, once every week or two, until your weight stabilizes.
This can help avoid the potentially-scary larger scale jump from replenishing glycogen (water weight) and increasing average digestive system contents. Also, some people find that this gradual process helps increase their ultimate calorie needs: Sometimes, there's been some subtle adaptation to lowered calories, so that when one starts adding back, energy level increases, increasing calorie burn via amped-up daily life activities and workout intensity.
For me, adding back calories gradually had another plus: If I'd added 250-500 daily calories in one jump, it would've been a big temptation to add some single big treat to each day. By adding more slowly, I tended to add small nutritious tweaks that also increased my food enjoyment, like some hemp/flax seeds to add crunch in my oatmeal. (I'm not saying treats are bad, or that I don't have them, just that I think it was helpful not to make them a big chunk of daily consumption.)
Gradually adding, it's tough to put yourself in a position of accidentally overdoing by a lot. If one overshoots by 100 daily calories, it's going to take more than a full month for that to result in a pound of true weight gain.
Emphasis mine. That is a good point. I have been eating a lot of junk. Even fruit in the amounts I eat it might be considered junk at some point. I don't always hit my macros, but I generally get beyond what they were while losing.1 -
For those of you who have never tried weight watchers, being a lifetime member means I never have to pay for the service. Just like MFP I can log my food and get support from people who have lost a lot of weight and kept it off. I have learned to control my eating during PMS and have not gained any weight during that time. I only have to get weighed once a monthduring maintenance so as long as I'm with that 4lb range I'm good. I will continue to get weighed weekly so I can see my trends from week to week as well as log my food in MFP1
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The avg rate of loss for the last month will give a clue as to how much more you can add to maintain at.
2 lbs means about 250 more daily.
4 lbs means about 500 more daily.
6 lbs means about 750 more daily.
8 lbs means about 1000 more daily.
If you actually accomplished those last 2 I'd be surprised.
If you were attempting those last 2 but only achieved the first 2 with good food logging, then body probably adapted so it'll be more than the first 2. But start there.
If you still lose weight, you get to eat even more!
Thank you for this. This really clears some things up for me!
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Also, generally speaking....keep in mind that as you are progressing in your weight loss journey that you maintenance caloric intake value will change (downwards). So, every month or so re-evaluate....2
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LiftHeavyThings27105 wrote: »Also, generally speaking....keep in mind that as you are progressing in your weight loss journey that you maintenance caloric intake value will change (downwards). So, every month or so re-evaluate....
Why would maintenance calories change downwards?? I'm in year 5 of being at goal weight and I'm still maintaining my weight on the same calories. Yes perhaps as another decade would loom I could lose a few calories but I'll not worry about that until I have to.1 -
LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »LiftHeavyThings27105 wrote: »Also, generally speaking....keep in mind that as you are progressing in your weight loss journey that you maintenance caloric intake value will change (downwards). So, every month or so re-evaluate....
Why would maintenance calories change downwards?? I'm in year 5 of being at goal weight and I'm still maintaining my weight on the same calories. Yes perhaps as another decade would loom I could lose a few calories but I'll not worry about that until I have to.
Ha! Good question. I mis-read her post. For some reason, I thought that I read something about loosing weight....and, as I am sure that you would agree, as you loose weight your maintenance caloric intake drops with your weight loss.
No - if you are simply maintaining your weight....then naturally your maintenance calories remain constant. My bad!5 -
LiftHeavyThings27105 wrote: »LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »LiftHeavyThings27105 wrote: »Also, generally speaking....keep in mind that as you are progressing in your weight loss journey that you maintenance caloric intake value will change (downwards). So, every month or so re-evaluate....
Why would maintenance calories change downwards?? I'm in year 5 of being at goal weight and I'm still maintaining my weight on the same calories. Yes perhaps as another decade would loom I could lose a few calories but I'll not worry about that until I have to.
Ha! Good question. I mis-read her post. For some reason, I thought that I read something about loosing weight....and, as I am sure that you would agree, as you loose weight your maintenance caloric intake drops with your weight loss.
No - if you are simply maintaining your weight....then naturally your maintenance calories remain constant. My bad!
No problem
I misread stuff all the time lol
And you're right, when someone is losing then their calories will have to decrease as they get smaller and are burning less.2 -
Correct.....TDEE likely drops.....as their body weight drops. Naturally, the BMR dropping is the driving force to the TDEE dropping.3
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