Maintenance Phase

[lifeofblair 308]

So I hit my goal weight this past week, which is exciting, but now I'm trying to transition to maintaining. I know everyone is different and I am going to call my nut, but in the past they haven't been helpful. So I'm asking at you vets.

1. How did your transition go?

2. How did you learn what amount of food would maintain your weight? Trial and error?

The thought of eating more scares me for the fact I've always needed to eat less, so it's weird that I'm now not needing to. I'm sure others felt this way too. Any tips/advice is appreciated.

[lmm300missouri 95]

I to am at the point of maintenance and hope people respond to you. It's a concerning phase, as I am working out with weights and am eating more. Not so much hungry as "needing food". Please keep me informed.

[Dub 9,922]

Excellent thread topic.

I'm looking forward to seeing the responses.

I'm far, far away from maintenance mode....but it sure is cool to think about it. I have tremendous respect for you both and for the others that will be replying and sharing their secrets to success. Good stuff to contemplate this glorious sunrise with a cup of coffee in hand.

[James Marusek 5,244]

Your body controls when you enter maintenance phase. It is not something you do. Your weight loss just tappers off and then comes to a stop. So don't worry about it, just go with the flow.

Before surgery at the surgeons office we discussed a goal weight. This is just an artificial number. I think my goal weight was 190 pounds. In the end, my real goal weight turned out to be closer to 150 pounds.

After RNY as your meal volume increases to 1 cup per meal, you will eventually get to the point where your weight loss comes to an end.

I wrote a short article about my perception of the weight loss phase. Here is a link.

http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

[lifeofblair 308]

I hope my body slows down soon. I've had two people close to me tell me I'm own my way to looking like a skeleton.

[amazon 579]

It's not about what your friends say. It's how you feel. They're not used to seeing you at a normal weight.

As far as maintenance goes, just keep doing what you're doing. That's all it is. Nothing changes.

As James said above, your body will choose where it wants to be and sort of equalize.

For me, if I eat more, my weight goes up. I bounce a few pounds. And that's ok. I typically have 1100 cal a day. That keeps me stable. If it creeps up, I gain. To drop it, I cut back to about 800 and it comes off in a week. Pretty simple. No panicking. :-)

When I first hit maint I was panicking. Then my Nut told me it's business as usual. Don't worry about it. Just keep following the food plan and all will be ok. She was right. The stress disappeared. I had it figured out all ready.

Congrats on your success !!

Edited March 5, 2016 by amazon

[Bufflehead 6,358]

Wow, the instructions I got from my dietitian are completely different from the "don't change anything, your body decides what weight it wants to be" stuff I am reading here.

These are the instructions I got, and they have worked well for me:

1. When you hit your goal weight and want to maintain, start eating your body weight x 10 in calories every day.

2. Continue to weigh, measure and track your food religiously.

3. Weigh yourself every day.

4. After two weeks of strict maintenance eating, assess. If you have lost more than 2 lbs, add in another 100 calories per day to your eating. If you have gained more than 2 lbs, subtract 100 calories per day.

5. Repeat for another 2 weeks and assess. Again, either add or subtract calories by 100 calories per day.

6. Keep repeating until you find your target calorie range.

7. When adding in calories, focus on adding in high Protein or high fat foods -- Jerky, dark meat instead of white meat poultry, avocado, cheese, nuts, olive oil, grass fed butter, switch from nonfat to full fat yogurt or milk, etc. Do not raise your calories with high carb foods such as grains or fruits or sugary foods. Do not raise your calories by grazing or snacking.

8. Weigh yourself a minimum of once a week once you hit maintenance. Every day is better. If you are weighing yourself regularly and sticking to your eating plan, you can stop weighing and measuring your food and tracking it in MFP.

9. When/if you find yourself 4 lbs over your target maintenance goal, or outside of your maintenance range at all if you set a range instead of a specific number as your goal, immediately drop into weight loss mode. This means: lowering your calories by 500 per day (more if that does not result in weight loss), weighing and measuring your food, tracking everything in MFP, and stopping eating all grains, starchy vegetables, and sweets. Once you get back into your maintenance goal/range, resume maintenance eating but be mindful of why/what behaviors you got out of your range and stop doing that.

This worked really well for me. If I had just given up on being in control I would have been an utter failure. YMMV of course.

[Babbs 14,681]

It's so different for everyone. Some people it's trial and error, some it just happens naturally.

I continued to lose when I hit goal, and just decided to see how far I could go with it without becoming alarmed (I would have to lose at least 20 more pounds to be considered "too skinny"). I lost an additional 9 pounds past my goal in a matter of several months. Then, without doing anything differently, it just stopped. I've now either been in a stall or maintaining for about 4 or 5 months now, and I'm just going with it. I've now fallen into kind of a routine where I know exactly how many calories (1400) and exercise (3-4 days a week of cardo/running/weights) it takes to maintain within a couple pounds.

That's how it's gone for me. As VSGAnn says, others mileage may vary

[Babbs 14,681]

@@Bufflehead

Great stuff. I'm copy and pasting to a word document for reference.

[Miss Mac 6,262]

Because of orthopedic issues that limit my activity, the weight X 100 would pack on pounds very quickly.

Much to my dismay, maintenance for me settled at 1,000 calories. There are many days where it just feels like I am not eating enough, and I go to bed hungry. I keep sugar-free Jello on hand, but it's not a filler.

My nut told me to spread my food out so that I can have a little something at bedtime, but then I don't have enough energy to sustain any exercise or household activity. Bummer.

So, this week I have experimented with drinking 4 ounces of milk at bedtime and am not doing too badly with that.

This is so subjective, though. I have some spinal reconstruction coming up at the end of the month and expect to be in a turtle shell brace for six months. If my activity drops any further, I will have to cut back to 800 calories to maintain without gaining.

One bad habit that I started up again is going through all kinds of books and articles reading things like 32 Ways to Help Lose Weight Quickly or Five Foods You Should Never Eat if You Want to Lose Weight, or The 21 Day Diet - Lose 21 Pounds in 21 Days.

Geeze, it seems like this will never end. I am delighted with my sleeve and weight loss, but it's no lie - the mental battle is forever. Finding that perfect balance between food, energy, and maintenance is a crazy-maker.

[lifeofblair 308]

@@Bufflehead this is very helpful! I had an epidural block, so once I'm cleared to exercise again hopefully I can start on my normal routine and do this. I have been adding a few calories hopefully it will all level out smoothly.

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

Not sure how it’ll work for you. Here's how it worked for me ....

I'm a tracker -- use My Fitness Pal. So all along I knew how much I was eating calorie-wise (and otherwise, but calories are most relevant to this topic).

So when I hit my first goal weight (150 pounds) I was sitting on a lot of MFP data. And based on ALL the calorie data I'd collected and how many calories I'd NOT eaten (to lose X pounds at that point). I calculated that to stop losing weight and to maintain at 150 pounds I'd need to eat 1700 calories.

Turns out I was wrong and that my metabolism had actually increased while I was losing weight. How did I learn that? Because while I was eating 1700 calories a day I then proceeded to slowly, slowly lose another 15 pounds over the next 8 months. My current weight is 135 pounds, which I've been maintaining for a few months now.

I recently knocked my cals up to 1800/day. And that seems like it's working fine. I don't eat exactly 1800 every day. Some days it's 1500. Some days it's 2100. But 1800 on average is about right for me now.

An interesting question is: Why did my metabolism increase while I was losing weight? I think it's a simple matter of my just being in motion a lot more these days. I actually fidget more than I used to. And God knows, I sure get up out of my chair more often, do a lot more housework and yardwork, than I used to do, run more errands. For instance, when I turn on the microwave to heat something I walk around the bar until the “done” buzzer sounds.

All our lives we’ve heard inane comments like "calories in, calories out." It turns out that when you’re not 100 pounds overweight it's a helluva lot easier and much less painful to send "calories out."

Of course, your mileage may differ.

[James Marusek 5,244]

I hope my body slows down soon. I've had two people close to me tell me I'm own my way to looking like a skeleton.

As I was losing weight, I received comments that were similar. It was due to the fact that I was still trying to cling to my old clothes instead of replacing them. I had some jackets and coats that I held onto to the very last. The problem was that I lost width at my shoulders and as a result my sleeves were now down to my fingertips. I looked like the Disney character Dopey (the youngest of the 7 dwarfs in Snow White. So for me the answer was simple. I bought some new clothes.

[lmm300missouri 95]

@@lifeofblair

At 5-10 you are tall for your weight, I'm 5-4 and 126-127 and am in a size 4 jeans and medium shirt, but people bug me on how thin all the time. Saw my doc this week and I'm healthier than I have been in years. I just worry since joining the gym I just plain think of food and eating more.

[lifeofblair 308]

@@lmm300missouri yeah the comments have switched from "you look great" to "we won't be able to see you soon if you keep losing". I know the comments come from concern/love