Is it really as simple as keep counting and weighing?

Congrats on your progress and your habits!!!

Personally, I would say it’s 3 things. Counting, weighing, and adjusting. The counting is the mechanism by which we’re balancing out calories in versus calories out. The weighing is the metric by which we are judging our success (obviously, really strong knowledge of water weight fluctuations super helpful here, to cut through the noise of the day-to-day up-and-downs). And the adjusting is the process that allows us to keep an eye on our weight, keep an eye on how we’re feeling, keep an eye on any life changes that are making our habits hard in the moment, and give us the freedom to tweak those habits in order to keep our progress (even in tough times that we’ll go through inevitably, which often result in weight gain).

Part of Adjusting is pre-work. Right now, when things are going well and you’re hitting your calorie goals and exercise goals and it’s easy, can you sit down and make a simpler plan (think video-game Easy Mode) that you could pivot to when life throws you curveballs? Think death in the family, health emergency, loss of job, having to move, financial insecurity, etc. Think of how you can still achieve some mindfulness of your food, your movement, and your weight so that you don’t backslide when times get tough. Simplifying your healthy habits can help you keep them in times of crisis, which can be such a relief and a solid backbone for yourself (freeing you up to deal with the important stuff going down).

For example, on perfect days, I try to hit 110 g of protein. It keeps me feeling full, it’s good for me, and I’m pretty solid about it. HOWEVER, when the pandemic hit and I was eating dried beans, rice, and frozen vegetables (and meat was in short supply, and I couldn’t get the protein bars I liked, and we ran out of canned tuna and chicken sausage), I adjusted my idea of success during this time. I simplified my eating habits from “hit average 2200 calories, weigh everything, 4 servings of fruit/veg a day, 110 G protein a day” to “hit average 2200 calories, weigh most things, a little fruit and veg a day.” I am still successfully and preventing a weight gain, but I redefined success and I’m so glad I did, otherwise I’d be beating myself up for “losing my habits” or “backsliding on my protein goals.”

Adjusting means pre-planning, being flexible, and knowing the bare minimum healthy habits that you can fall back on during tough times, to keep you moving forward without overwhelming you.

Holly *kittens* @gallicinvasion you are so on point and articulated this so well it is scary.

I will be a bit blunter than Ann in terms of the likelihood of encountering future changes in appetite.

It is anecdotally quite likely that after a substantial weight loss you will have an uptick in hunger and will view food as extremely desirable for a while. With weight loss, hormonal changes do take place that promote regain. And if they were something that was consciously controlled there would be a heck of a lot less people regaining weight.

That said, everything said by the ladies above applies. Including the fact that in my experience too it took several years for things to settle down (sometime between year 2 and 3). And such time-frames can also be seen in the general statistics of how many people manage to retain their weight loss.

So, in fact, going in with a plan that involves continuing to do what you've been doing for at least the next 2-3 years post weight loss (if not 5) is an extremely sensible precaution that I share.

And life curve-balls are definitely a thing!

But it does sound like you're laying down a good foundation!

sofrances wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

It is anecdotally quite likely that after a substantial weight loss you will have an uptick in hunger and will view food as extremely desirable for a while.

I think this is something I can live with if I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel - if the hunger will eventually reduce, or if I will get used to the it.

I've been maintaining since 2015 (lost around 40 pounds). My experience is that there are times when I am hungrier than usual and I have to be stricter with myself. And lots of other times where I'm fine with meeting my calorie goal.

For me, the most important things are having regular checks of my weight (so I can adjust if it is going up outside of my comfort zone), being realistic about scale fluctuations (my "goal weight" is a range, not a specific number), and remembering that I can always pop back into a deficit to address weight gain before it becomes a big deal. I don't feel like I'm constantly fighting the potential of regaining weight, but neither do I feel like I'm just on autopilot with food. This is just my experience, I've heard a whole range of things from people who are maintaining.

Yes, yes, yes.

Mindful eating, intuitive eating, listen to your body, follow your hunger cues and do whatever works for you. All of these things lack any real direction.

Sounds good on paper but very vague if you don't know how to do it. We are seldom the same. Our goals, lives, cultures and our ideas about what life and health should be.

Most have lost touch with their body's hunger cues a long time ago or you wouldn't be here. You'd already be at your dream weight and have the listen to your body superpower working for you. For the rest of us who don't have that superpower we need a strategy and a plan.

We can learn to moderate ourselves with foods and our portions. It works.

sofrances wrote: »

gallicinvasion wrote: »

Congrats on your progress and your habits!!!

Personally, I would say it’s 3 things. Counting, weighing, and adjusting. The counting is the mechanism by which we’re balancing out calories in versus calories out. The weighing is the metric by which we are judging our success (obviously, really strong knowledge of water weight fluctuations super helpful here, to cut through the noise of the day-to-day up-and-downs). And the adjusting is the process that allows us to keep an eye on our weight, keep an eye on how we’re feeling, keep an eye on any life changes that are making our habits hard in the moment, and give us the freedom to tweak those habits in order to keep our progress (even in tough times that we’ll go through inevitably, which often result in weight gain).

Part of Adjusting is pre-work. Right now, when things are going well and you’re hitting your calorie goals and exercise goals and it’s easy, can you sit down and make a simpler plan (think video-game Easy Mode) that you could pivot to when life throws you curveballs? Think death in the family, health emergency, loss of job, having to move, financial insecurity, etc. Think of how you can still achieve some mindfulness of your food, your movement, and your weight so that you don’t backslide when times get tough. Simplifying your healthy habits can help you keep them in times of crisis, which can be such a relief and a solid backbone for yourself (freeing you up to deal with the important stuff going down).

For example, on perfect days, I try to hit 110 g of protein. It keeps me feeling full, it’s good for me, and I’m pretty solid about it. HOWEVER, when the pandemic hit and I was eating dried beans, rice, and frozen vegetables (and meat was in short supply, and I couldn’t get the protein bars I liked, and we ran out of canned tuna and chicken sausage), I adjusted my idea of success during this time. I simplified my eating habits from “hit average 2200 calories, weigh everything, 4 servings of fruit/veg a day, 110 G protein a day” to “hit average 2200 calories, weigh most things, a little fruit and veg a day.” I am still successfully and preventing a weight gain, but I redefined success and I’m so glad I did, otherwise I’d be beating myself up for “losing my habits” or “backsliding on my protein goals.”

Adjusting means pre-planning, being flexible, and knowing the bare minimum healthy habits that you can fall back on during tough times, to keep you moving forward without overwhelming you.

Really insightful, thanks @gallicinvasion.

I have an "all or nothing" tendency which I definitely need to plan around.

Also, a big worry for me is what happens if something stops me from exercising (e.g. injury). So I do have things to think about in terms of "curve balls".

You can accept a smaller deficit and smaller weight loss if that comes up for that smaller period. - because perhaps without exercise you'd be eating too little for you to mentally handle.

Same thing should be happening right now though, unless you indeed exercise every day which increases what you burn and therefore what you can eat and still keep reasonable deficit.

Separate clearly the distinction between the food for weight loss, and the exercise for heart health.
That way if the exercise pauses you don't feel the need to chuck the diet too.

While many realize they can get by on terrible diet (for nutrition and body health) and feel "fine" and function daily, and sometimes they think the changed diet and exercise done together helps them feel better solely because of the exercise part of the changes - some of it could be due to the improved diet - so even kept by itself you might feel better than normal.

Hopefully that way you can apply the all or nothing to each thing by itself, and gain benefit from each thing by itself.
Because it is hard to change that ingrained attitude - that's it's own battle!

seeahill wrote: »

Thank you all for these comments. I'm nearing my weight goal and thought I'd peek over here and learn something about maintenance. What strikes me most forcibly is that I need to map out a maintenance plan. I've been successful in losing weight because I had a plan and stuck to it. Obviously, I"m going to have to do the same for maintenance.

@seeahill: Start now, if you haven't been already, eating and behaving in the way you expect to eat and behave in maintenance (just with a sensible calorie deficit in the picture). IMO, treating weight loss as maintenance practice is a good strategy. That bit of calorie deficit creates a safety net for learning.