Losing vs. maintenance
 

Hi feathers,

I haven't been active for a while -- I think I posted a couple of times in the past few months to freak out about regaining the weight I worked so hard to lose last spring.

The interesting thing is that even though I didn't post, and I only counted calories for a couple of weeks, I lost ~13 lbs in just over two months this time without any plateaus or lags. I didn't think it was anywhere near that much until I weighed myself at the beginning of this week. It happened because of healthy choices, of course -- cutting out refined carbs, burning about 400cal in exercise every day, finally committing to veganism -- but I'm still surprised and torn between happy/anxious that I lost so quickly.

It looks like I'm starting a pattern of weight cycling, and I really want to avoid that... I'd like to stay the size I am now for at least one year, and ideally for the rest of my twenties (until I have kids, at least).

What seems to be my problem is that I can regain weight really quickly as well (those 12-13 lbs came on over only 3 months too -- and at my size, that's over 10% gain!!). Maintenance seems to be particularly tough for me.

Why do you think maintenance seems to be so much harder than losing? What can I do to make sure I stay "on the wagon" and don't burn out and regain with stress this time? :?:

You aren't the only one that finds maintenance hard. I firmly believe that it is as hard if not harder to keep it off as it is to lose it. I must be constantly aware how easy it is to regain. I still count calories, still plan all meals ahead of time, still keep a food diary. As far as I can determine there is no way that you can lose weight, get to goal and stay there without taking steps to see that you do stay at goal, even then your weight will have the normal fluctuations that we had when losing. Losing weight is not something you do and forget about when you get to goal. I have found this to be true and have heard others say the same thing.

I think gaining weight is incredibly hard and I would really need to stuff myself to gain any weight. Hey, a pound is an extra 3500 calories: there's no way I could reach that ! When I maintain I don't count, I just watch my portions size. And I don't exercise in winter... even at my low weight, I never re-gained anyway weight that I've lost.

HOWEVER, I've never been anywhere close to obese !

I heard in biology class that when you get really fat, your fat cells get bigger, but at a time they also multiplicate: so if you have been obese, it is easier
to gain weight because even if your fat cells are smaller, you still have way more of them than someone that has always been a normal size.