How did you pick your maintenance weight?

ROFL. Ooo, brother. My family calls it the gobbler's knob and the warbler.

I think most of us have a dream weight in the back of our mind. We carry it around in our heart and write it down on the 'fridge. We put a sticky in the linen closet and one on the dashboard of the vehicle. We have a dream weight and most of don't want to settle for more or less. We want our dream weight.

Come hail or high water, I worked 2.5 years to reach it and wild horses couldn't change my mind. You will know when you get there. I am bent on maintenance. I don't ever, ever want to go through any of that again. I edged my way down slowly. I had to defy my brain and it did fight against me each and every day. It always wanted its way but I'd had enough of flying by the seat of my pants. That ship has sailed and those days are over.

You will reach your dream weight. Don't worry about the warbler. Your skin will continue to tighten if you're patient. You'll see.


Think Tom Petty here. Runnin' Down A Dream

The reality of maintenance is rather different than our perception when we are working towards it.
It's not just one place and one weight forever and has to incorporate change and our bodies also change.

During maintenance I retired from a full time desk job, took up a part time active job, my cycling volume and activity level went through the roof. There wasn't one eating level and one weight that worked for all that so I've experimented with small adjustments to find what makes things easy and enjoyable. There isn't one "there" to get to - just right for now. My "there" even varies with the seasons which is probably quite unusual but works for me.
One experiment dropping to my lowest maintenance weight showed to me being hungry all the time simply wasn't worth it for a few pounds, better ab definition and a marginally better power to weight ratio.

Your skin will recover (to a personally variable degree) over a long period. I hated my stomach in that most unflattering position of push ups but the skin tightened and vastly improved over a couple of years. Plus you have to factor in age - at 60 my skin simply isn't going to be like a young man's whether I'd gained and lost weight or not. BTW the cold all the time thing also sorted itself out for me without intervention beyond eating at maintenance for a few months.

As for health - what you have achieved has obviosuly been tremendous for your health, 10lbs isn't going to make a huge difference.

A "serious bulk" with your stats and age is a bad idea! Your ratio of muscle gained to fat gained would be dreadful - just train toward your goals and be patient as you can't force something that your body isn't capable of. Keep it simple.


PS - there's a lesson to learn from your COVID lockdown weight gain. Suggest you set an upper limit that triggers action (15lbs is too much), don't risk a slide continuing. There is a thread in another forum about people's weight movement during the pandemic and there's a big difference between those that lost or maintained that welcomed the increased control over their environment and those that regarded being near the kitchen and fridge as a temptation they couldn't resist.

Hi @Onedaywriter !

I was driving myself nuts over this very question!

I finally asked my doctor “to make the call” for me. At a previous appt, he had been thrilled with my drop from 228 to180-185. When I said I wanted to get to 164 (25 BMI) for Female my height, he was Great!

Came back in around 155.

Asked him if I should stay there or lose 5-10 more. He said, “you are healthy at this weight. But if you want to go lower, that’s fine. How about this, go ahead if you want, and lose 5 more & we’ll revisit. But don’t lose more than 10 lbs.”

So I got down to 150.2 for a day - hungry all the time. (Not cold at age 64, used to be freezing when I lost and was younger.) And use the skin bothered me - - a lot. Wondering if it is the every day exercise Ann mentioned!

S l o w l y regained and declared maintenance at 155.

Fast forward a couple of years - average wts 155 & 158. I’m used to the skin now.

I’m now attempting Sone wt loss again very slowly again. Pure vanity. I want a smaller stomach & this time I’m willing to deal with some of those wrinkly skin surfaces (that have less fat/gravity under them.) However I’m already hungrier & I’m only down to 156.2

SO I’m doing a tiny deficit over the next 4 months and hoping I can trick my body into not feeling hungry.

On the Other Hand... I don’t know if 2-4 lbs is worth all this energy. Likely it won’t make such a big difference. Vanity has never been my thing... but I read about dangers of visceral fat ...SO I’m going to try again.

To answer your question...
I’d maintain your weight loss another year. Let your body adjust. Cement your healthy habits. Become comfortable in your new body. Exercise daily.

And revisit next August!

I picked a number that is roughly mid-point of the "healthy" range for my height, and it's a weight I was stable at for about 7 years prior to having a child. Being middle of the "healthy" range gives me a bit more buffer for weight fluctuations than I would feel uncomfortable with if I was right at the top of the range (balancing on the line to overweight).

After I reached this goal weight, I did a DEXA body composition scan so I could have a more accurate understanding of how much fat and muscle I actually have - as I know the scale weight and BMI is not as accurate. This was my double-checking process to make sure I made a healthy choice based on evidence, and wasn't chasing numbers for the sake of it. I had lost 120lbs, and my fat, muscle and bone were all in the healthy range.

I still do wonder from time to time if I should lose another couple kilos (say 5 lbs), but also I know at this point "scale weight" is less relevant than body composition, and if I want to improve my body composition I should do strength training... but I'm not particularly motivated to do that.

Having lost so much weight, I do have looser skin in some places, and a little bit under the chin... but I can see it has already tightened up a bit in the 8 months I've been maintaining, and will do more given time.

Ultimately it makes sense to pick a weight that you think is achievable for you to maintain, and which meets your health needs, but pair it with other non-scale measurements (such as considering body composition, how you feel, lifestyle factors, what you like, etc).

The biggest risk is during maintenance is fat regain - so do ensure you have a plan to stop that from happening.

I wanted to be close to the weight I was in my late teens, I was never 'thin', always had curves so at 5ft 2, 125lbs looked good on me. And I did get there but found I was a bit gaunt looking and it was really hard to stay there, I had to be so vigilent about my calorie intake so have settled a few pounds heavier now and feel happier, healthier and maintenance is a breeze (I'm now 51, and in maintenance since 2013)

My mom's best advice for weight maintenance is to check the scale and the fit of your clothing. If you gain two pounds or more, then lower your calories for a few days until your weight normalizes again. She has maintained a healthy weight for her entire lifetime so I pay attention to what she says.

katiemcm1125 wrote: »

BMI is not a good indicator of health. If you feel healthy and your labs are healthy, you are healthy. BMI is BS.

Of coruse people with normal bmi can be unhealthy, and people with bmi higher or lower than the normal range can be healthy. That does not mean that bmi is BS. It's not an indicator of health. It is a statistical indicator of where your weight lies in comparison to your height. Because excess weight is often a contributory factor for long term health conditions, including heart disease and type 2 diabetes, it acts as a warning indicator. It is, therefore, one of the factors I look at when deciding my goal weight.

kimny72's post at the top of p. 2 in this thread is really helpful on the question of what bmi is and isn't: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10816450/is-bmi-an-accurate-way-to-know-how-much-i-should-weigh/p2.