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Program for Maintenance
What program do you use for maintenance? Is it simple calorie counting, WW or South Beach? Just curious what successful maintainers use.
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Hi Victoria and welcome! All the maintainers that I know use the same program to maintain that they used to lose the weight. So if they lost with calorie counting, that's how they maintain. If they lost with WW, they use the WW maintenance plan. The same with all other plans.
Weight loss is practice for maintenance. It's the time to learn new habits and skills, and develop lifetime tools and strategies for keeping weight off for the rest of our lives. So by the time most of get to maintenance, we're experts at whatever program we used to lose the weight and it's easy to keep right on going into the maintenance phase. How about you? What program have you been using and what are your thoughts on maintenance? :) |
Hi Meg. I'm actually new to maintenance. My WW goal is 155. I've done WW to lose my weight but have insulin resistance and think South Beach may be the way to go. My doctor told me I should do SB but the lack of structure on SB has caused some weight gain when I tried it. I think WW may be too high carb for me.
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I've been maintaining for 16mo. I counted calories to lose and still do to maintain. I just had to raise my calories a bit to maintain. But I always have over eating days about once a week, not cause I plan to, it just happens that way. The past month and a half, my body has been changing and doesn't want to stay at the lowest weight that I was all this time, it has been creeping up slowly no matter what I do to fight it. I'm so confused, it takes a while to figure it all out & I think sometimes you just can't. Your body has a mind of it's own! Good luck!
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Keep trying! I'm frustrated myself right now, but we'll figure it out as long as we don't give up.:hug: |
I used the old UK WW points plan to lose weight, and I'm continuing with it in maintenance. The main difference is that I have more points per day.
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into my computer software food journal, DietPower, which allows me to easily count calories and track my food. This was true during my 16 months of weight-loss from 190 lbs, and has been true during my 58 months of Maintenance of my Goal weight. Along with this calorie counting and food tracking function, I've experimented with many different "diets" or "ways of eating".:dizzy: I've tried about every diet in existence, and I've not yet found a low-calorie way-of-eating that I can live with comfortably, long-term. However, I've found I can live with most of them for a short time, and this has allowed me to keep my calories low enough to maintain my current weight. |
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Hmm interesting Bright Angel..you keep switching it up to keep it interesting?
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I ALWAYS enter ALL of my food into DietPower, which counts my calories etc for me. But....re my "way of eating"....even in Maintenance, I try out new diets all the time.. My only Absolute CONSTANT in any and every diet, .....whether or not the diet counts calories... is entering my food into DietPower, and keeping my calories low enough to maintain my weight. I treat this like a Hobby, read new books and look for new viewpoints all the time. Then I try out any way-of-eating that seems interesting. This also has the added benefit of allowing me to have...over time... a great deal of variety of different types of foods and new recipes, even with my very small amount of calories (daily average 1050). If I found a Way-Of-Eating with which I could comfortably live long-term, I'd stick with it. But until then, I continue to investigate and experiment with new things. |
Thanks for sharing Bright Angel! I too have maintained a 9 year weight loss pretty much the same way. I always like to see which foods keep me happy and full. I have found I don't do well eating 100% "clean". This has always set me up for failure. If I want chocolate, I'll make a protein shale and include some low sugar chocolate ice-cream...someway to get some nutrition in there:)
I like that you refer to it as a hobby! Which "diet" are you currently into? |
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If...after a brief effort...anything doesn't seem to be working for me, then I try something else....for awhile. This past 5 months or so I've done quite a lot of research and some experimenting with low-carb eating, but...due to my love of complex starchy carbs like grains and legumes...., thus far, I've, personally, been quite unsuccessful in sticking to the practice for more than a few days at a time. During the past couple of years I've done intermittent fasting, like Fast-5 and Eat Stop Eat, Calorie Cycling, and several different "alternate day" diets, which involve eating a very small amount one day and a normal amount the next day. My main problem with those has been my tendency to overeat after an undereating day... ...problems with my binge/fast mentality. http://www.postsmile.com/img/0097.gif It seems clear to me that there are essentially 3 issues involved in all Diets, One main food issue, AMOUNT, and two sub-issues, KIND and FREQUENCY. Restrictions on the AMOUNT of food eaten can be by DIRECT or by INDIRECT means. Some Examples of DIRECT restriction of AMOUNT includes: Counting food calories with the goal of staying near a certain number. Counting food points. Portion control – eating a specific size of a food substance Counting bites 1 plate, no seconds Meal size restrictions – i.e. large Lunch, other meals smaller, etc. INDIRECT restrictions of AMOUNT involves restricting the KIND of food eaten, and/or the FREQUENCY of eating food. KIND – involves DIRECT Restriction of KIND, resulting in an INDIRECT Restriction on the total AMOUNT of food calories. DIRECT restriction of KIND usually involves a shift in the balance of the intake of various food miconutritions. Reduction of KIND frequently involves a flavor/taste reduction resulting in less overall food intake. Some Examples of restriction involving KIND include: Sweets Restriction – reduction of the intake of sugar, resulting in an additional reduction in fat and other carbs such as flour etc Fried Foods Restriction – restriction of cooking method resulting in a reduction of the intake of fat miconutrients. Low-fat –overall reduction of the intake of fat miconutrients. Low-carb – overall reduction of the intake of carbohydrate miconutrients. High-Protein – increase in protein along with reduction in carbohydrates. Food Exchanges – Divisions of foods restricting intake of specific foods containing specific miconutrients, resulting in a reduction in total intake. One example: Dividing food portions on one’s plate such as: ¼ protein, ¼ starch, ½ complex veggies and fruit. Food Combinations – Divisions of food intake involving specific combinations of micronutrients at specific times (includes a frequency factor) resulting in a reduction of overall amount. High-fiber – reduction of the intake of miconutrients with low-fiber. Vegetarian – restricting animal proteins Liquid – restricting solid foods. Organic or No Processed Foods – restricting foods containing various chemicals Raw – restricing cooked and processed foods Low-sodium – reduction of foods containing salt, less flavor resulting in less overall intake. FREQUENCY – involves Direct Restriction on eating FREQUENCY, resulting in an INDIRECT Restriction on the total AMOUNT of total food calories. Some Examples of restriction involving FREQUENCY include: 3 meals each day, with no snacks 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks per day. 6 small meals per day ( or 4 small meals per day) All snacks, no meals zero food – i.e. water fasting No eating after dinner. Eat only before sunrise, and after sunset So far.....I've found that FOR MYSELF... I don't do very well at restricting AMOUNTS INDIRECTLY. The least effective for me, and my least favorite as well, is the Restriction of Frequency. Closely behind that...for the same reasons... comes the Restriction of Kind. That leaves a Direct Restriction of AMOUNTS.... ...which seems to work best for me, primarily by the methods of calorie counting and portion control. THIS is what I am currently doing.....this week. http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/engel/e020.gif Specifically, I can eat anyTIME I want, and anyTHING I want, but my total AMOUNT of daily food is restricted to a 1000 calorie ceiling. Under the ceiling is fine...but Over the ceiling is not. This diet is my own recent Creation (...anyway I put together those few rules....) I named it: QUINTESSENCE, because I mean it as "the most perfect embodiment of Diet". |
WOW, thank you for such a detailed look into your maintenance plan. I too have tried IF and didn't care much for it. I felt it to easy to binge after a fast..plus I didn't like not eat..lol
Sometimes all this research into ourselves is a full time job in itself! |
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