Living Maintenance general maintenance topics and discussions

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Old 10-13-2010, 09:31 AM   #1  
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Default An epiphany

I posted about this briefly on the Operation 5-10 thread, but I thought it deserved its own thread. This morning I had something of an epiphany. The past week and a half I've been back in weight loss mode to try to get to the bottom of my maintenance range before the holidays (which I expect to push me back up to the top of my range). You know what? Eating for weight loss is easy.

It's easy for me to eat 1400 cals/day . . . for a week. It's easy to do it for two weeks. It's even easy to do it for three weeks. What's HARD is continuing to do it for an extended time period.

In September 09 I went from maintenance mode to weight loss mode to try to get rid of the weight I'd gained from my thryoid problem and from slacking off. I watched my calories and logged and weighed everything until February of this year, and I lost 9lbs. But by February, even though I was still up 8lbs from my original goal weight, I was at the point where I said screw it, I can't handle the weighing and measuring anymore, it's driving me nuts, and I went back to maintenance eating and revised my goal weight up 5lbs and my red line up 5lbs, which made my weight at the time of 139 within maintenance range.

Maintaining is both easy and hard. I've been doing it long enough now that it's mostly habit, and checking in at 3fc to remind myself that I still need to be paying attention. It's also easy to become complacent and slip up more frequently than is really acceptable, leading to slow gain.

In any case I was able to maintain between 137-139 from February through September of this year with no problem. After going on vacation though my weight was up at 140 and I said, okay, I'm at red line and the holidays are coming so I need to be at 135 before the holidays if I want to stay in my range. So, back to weight loss mode. My weight is already going steadily down with only a week and a half of weight loss eating. I know how to do this. I know exactly what needs to be done to lose weight.

I almost wonder if this is the approach that we should be advocating for people who are new to weight loss. Work hard and lose weight for 2 months, then practice maintenance for 6 months. Then lose for 2 months, maintain for 6 months. That way people would get experience working at maintenance, without burning out on losing.

I'm curious to see what other people think about this. Are there others of you for whom weight loss is easy, but only for a certain period of time? Is this why we maintain by "yo-yo dieting on a very short string"? Because it's easy to lose weight for a couple of weeks, so we just have to catch it before we gain enough that it takes more than a couple of weeks to lose again?
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Old 10-13-2010, 09:46 AM   #2  
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My friend did a medically supervised diet and that was the basic principal. They went into maintenance for several weeks and then went back to weight loss mode again. It made sense.

I've wondered if this approach would be good for me. Right now, I just want it gone! My body seems to put itself in maintenance mode every few months anyway! Why help it along?
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Old 10-13-2010, 10:32 AM   #3  
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I really think you have something here. My highest recorded non pregnancy weight was 169. I started losing weight when I was a graduate student, about 2 yrs ago. For 2 summers, I worked hard at losing weight, but decided to maintain during the school year just because I was not able to commit to it with all the stress. I was successful at maintaining within a few lbs. both school years, even without much effort or thought to my weight. I absolutely think this approach works for people like me

I've graduated and recommitted to weight loss in July. I am losing slowly, but I know it's something I can keep up forever, and I'm grateful for that. I know maintenance is something I will have to think about forever, and I think this is excellent practice

congrats on maintaining your loss!

Last edited by pinkflower; 10-13-2010 at 10:34 AM.
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Old 10-13-2010, 10:36 AM   #4  
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This can work for some people, I'm sure. With supervision, it makes sense that it would work.

The danger is that one doesn't continue maintaining and instead starts gaining--and fails to get back quickly enough to weight loss. IMO six months is too long before going back into weight loss mode. And, if someone has a lot of weight to lose, that can get really discouraging.

Since we're talking theoretically, I'd say three weeks on weight loss and then one week on maintenance level might work better, as long as one was prepared to see a slight rebound on the scale during the maintenance week.

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Old 10-13-2010, 11:04 AM   #5  
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Jay, you're right, as with anything weight-related, different things work for different people. The durations of loss and maintenance would have to be related to the person's amount of weight they had to lose and the speed at which they lose it. If you are losing 2lbs/week, then a 3 week/1 week spread make sense. If you are losing 1lb/month, then you might want a longer time period on loss before switching to maintenance.

Plus, I know there are folks out there who weigh and measure every bite as their maintenance plan, so for them losing and maintaining might not be different enough to even notice. For myself, the difference between losing and maintaining is basically whether I weigh and measure portions and carefully track calories or whether I eyeball portions and approximate calories. My exercise stays the same either way, which is why I didn't include any talk of exercise in here.
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Old 10-13-2010, 11:56 AM   #6  
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YESSSS!!!! I totally agree!! I find if I eat in a calorie deficit for too long and am also exercising a lot, I tend to go nuts after about 2-3 wks of it. I've tried eating more calories while still staying in a small deficit, I've tried increasing fats for satiety, increasing veggies, more lean protein, fewer carbs, paleo, primal, but at some point I end up eating more than I planned for several days and then things calm back down.

For awhile I was really hard on myself about it. Where was my discipline? My will-power? My motivation? My commitment? After all, it's still me making the choice to eat "xyz". Was I copping out? Making excuses? So then I started wondering if the problem was less in my head and more in my body.

I think, for me anyway, my body really latches on to certain weights. I like healthy food. I like to exercise and run and lift and push myself. And my body thinks it's in trouble when the fuel =/= what it needs for homeostasis. I believe that for me, there is a biological drive from my body to have a certain amount of fuel, and all of my intellectual reasoning cannot always stifle that drive. Doesn't mean I am giving up my own sense of control here, just trying to understand my own behaviors more.

The more I consider your epiphany, Jessica, the more I think I will give it a shot, perhaps trying for shorter periods of a deficit, knowing that having a period of maintenance for fuel equilibrium is okay, and taking a longer view of things rather than looking at lbs on the scale or time on plan.

Hmmm.....
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Old 10-13-2010, 12:02 PM   #7  
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Quote:
I almost wonder if this is the approach that we should be advocating for people who are new to weight loss. Work hard and lose weight for 2 months, then practice maintenance for 6 months. Then lose for 2 months, maintain for 6 months. That way people would get experience working at maintenance, without burning out on losing.
I could never, ever suggest something like this. I think for many it's a recipe for disaster.

First of all, my life was on the line. After two months, it was still on the line. Going to maintenance would have been playing Russian Roulette.

And after two months I was on a roll. For me to have practiced maintenance could have been the beginning of the end. I'd lose steam. I'd lose momentum. And just what would I do with those extra calories? Cookies? Cake? Ice Cream? One minute you're practicing maintenance, the next minute your gaining weight and fighting off cravings.

No, I hadn't had these wonderful habits firmly implanted in me. Would have been way too easy to slide back. Besides, I've said this often lately. I actually find the stricter I am, the easier it is for me. I like black and white. Gray is where I get into trouble.

For me, it was much easier continuing on. No stopping. It would have been waaaay too hard for me to ADD back more calories, just to get them pulled again and have to re-start. And than have to keep repeating that. No, much easier to keep on going.

I for one don't think it got harder after two months, I think it gets easier and easier and dare I say - easy. To switch gears, that would have been too difficult and frankly, unnecessary, for me.

One other thing, if you're practicing maintenance, you're still working hard, still focusing - but where is the reward? Where is the thrill of your clothing size plummeting, discovering new bones, fitting into places, compliments, etc? You're still working hard and it still may seem like sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice without the wonderful rewards surfacing. I say work a little harder - get the habits firmly ingrained and reap the benefits, find the thrills and the joys.

Oh and lastly (I think ), maintaining for me and losing are almost identical - I keep my calories just the same, but get my added calories through splurge meals/days every now and then. I couldn't have handled that back then. And more importantly I wasn't interested. I wasn't taking any chances. That could have sent me out and over.

Losing was an absolute thrilling journey for me. I LOVED every second of it. It was an unbelievable time of self growth and self discovery and a heckuva lot of fun! I wouldn't change a thing about it.
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Old 10-13-2010, 12:04 PM   #8  
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this could work for some.

also, each plateu is a chance to practice maintenance.
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Old 10-13-2010, 01:13 PM   #9  
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That is how I lost 160 lbs... losing, maintaining, losing, etc. I'm still maintaining even if I'm considered 'obese'. I have been maintaining for nearly 3 years with only slight ups/downs.
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Old 10-13-2010, 01:32 PM   #10  
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Hey, hope its okay for me to snoop over into a maintenance thread, but I was reading though this and though I'd comment. I actually do something similar to what JayEll suggested, which I learned through the Curves I go to, except I do 4 weeks on, 2 weeks off. Its worked pretty well for me so far.

I started June 1st and am in the middle of my 4th cycle right now, which means I've had 3 full maintenance periods so far. I don't just eat whatever I want then, I just try to continue eating a balanced diet with increased calories. I'm not as strict about weighting things out and such for every meal, but I pay close attention to my hunger levels, and don't overeat.

There is another part of the maintenance phase that I think is important though. If you gain more then your normal water fluctuation (normally about 3lbs for me), then you go back on the diet until you get back to the low weight you started that part of the cycle on. Once you are back to your low weight, you can go back to the maintenance if you still have part of the 2 weeks left.

So far, I haven't had to diet in the middle of any of my maintenance phases, since I've always stayed within three pounds of my low weight for the whole 2 weeks. And actually, it was only the first time that I ended up higher at the end then the beginning at all (the first time I was up 2 lbs, but the next two times I stayed the same).

I know this way won't for for everyone, but for me its been really helpful. I get to practice healthy recipes with a few more calories to work with, and I get a change of mindset periodically, which helps me stay focused. It also helped me work though a lot of my issues with overeating, and after getting though that first week of higher calories and figuring out how to interpret my bodies signals to deal with them, I haven't had much issue with it.
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Old 10-13-2010, 02:32 PM   #11  
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years and years ago I bought a book on the same sort of principles. That few people could stay on a diet long enough to lose that much weight without getting discouraged. It was a 21 day cycle. 7 days at extremely low calories then 2 weeks of more reasonable calories. Then you maintained till you were ready to do it again.
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Old 10-13-2010, 05:17 PM   #12  
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For me, no way. I was sick and tired of being fat. I had driven the wrong way using a wrong plan for about 18 months. No more isle of denial. I wanted the weight gone yesterday and my life back today.

Looking back on all of the fantastic experiences I had this past year because I dropped the weight quickly (1 1/2 #/week on avg & consistently) I would do it exactly the same again. I lvoed the challenge of figuring out how to eat what was good for me in many difficult situations. I have tips and strategies, and still add to them, that was made possible with my desire to avoid a self induced plateau. In fact, how many impassioned posts do we read about from those experiencing them.

Therefore, I really cannot promote this process to someone else. However, if it floats your boat, more power to you. I can't argue with success.
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Old 10-13-2010, 05:59 PM   #13  
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I understand that individuals are different and that different things work for different people, but I'm firmly in rockinrobin's camp on this issue--I don't see this approach working for me At All, and I have reservations about it in general. To me, it seems geared to a mentality of being On A Diet/Not On A Diet. If someone is on a diet that they can only stick to for weeks at a time, I'd say that either there's something wrong with the diet (e.g., too restrictive) or it's not right for the person.

For me, it's actually easier to stick to plan once I'm "on a roll", and I can't imagine wanting to stop and start and stop and start like that. My particular approach allows me to "save up" calories for special meals and treats now and then, and 1400 calories a day gives me enough flexibility that, even if I'm eating 1200 or 1300 for a few days to pay for a splurge, I'm not feeling hungry or deprived.

Maybe an option would be to permit a special meal every three weeks or so if that would make it easier for you to stay on plan the rest of the time. It seems to me that would still result in more progress than planning not to lose any weight for months at a time.

All that having been said, if the approach of switching between dieting and maintaining works for some people, I have no right to be judgmental about it.
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Old 10-13-2010, 06:14 PM   #14  
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Originally Posted by Oboegal View Post
I understand that individuals are different and that different things work for different people, but I'm firmly in rockinrobin's camp on this issue--I don't see this approach working for me At All, and I have reservations about it in general. To me, it seems geared to a mentality of being On A Diet/Not On A Diet. If someone is on a diet that they can only stick to for weeks at a time, I'd say that either there's something wrong with the diet (e.g., too restrictive) or it's not right for the person.
Another one who doesn't want to "work hard" for a limited cycle. I've incorporated changes in my eating and activity level that I plan to continue indefinitely. As my weight drops, my calorie deficit drops and I expect that my body will pick its maintenace weight when I stop losing based when my body "deciding" what weight it will maintain on 1600-1800 calories per day and 6 hours of weekly exercise.
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Old 10-13-2010, 06:16 PM   #15  
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All that having been said, if the approach of switching between dieting and maintaining works for some people, I have no right to be judgmental about it.
I'm not sure of a plan that institutes actual maintenance and how that'd work. For me, my weight loss was a couple years of losing weight and then weight loss stopping, so me tweaking, losing more weight, etc. It wasn't exactly planned to have periods of maintenance but it worked for me. I see a lot of people here who have over 100 lbs to lose that have had similar issues. A lot of people feel defeated if their weight stalls for various reasons. I think it is best to tell them to maintain their weight loss and work on tweaking until they lose again.
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