Good morning everyone! An exciting day today. I weighed in and I have just 2lbs left to go before I am at goal! Hopefully this time next week I will be there!

Now comes the maintenance... I have been thinking about how I will do this. I weigh every day as that seems to suit me. My goal is 140lb, so I was thinking about trying to maintain between 138lb and 142lb. Does that sound reasonable? I don't want to cause myself extra worry and stress by not allowing for my bodies natural fluctautions, but equally I don't want to loose my grip on it all!

Any advice from those who have been maintaining gratefully recieved!

My weight fluctuates between 134-137. I consider my "red line" to be 135. I have not been able to get down to either my original goal weight or my current ticker. I suspect 135 is the weight my body wants to be at or near.

So your idea of the 4 lb. fluctuation is a good one, to me. 2 lbs. over goal and you rein in the cals. 2 lbs. under and a bit of indulgence can be had.

Congratulations! You're almost there and it sounds like you already have a maintenance plan in place.

Dagmar

Welcome and congratulations on your loss. It sounds like you have a plan in place. Maintaining is not easy, it takes a lot of effort just as losing did. You can do it, though.

My current range is between 137 and 142 pounds. If I exceed 142, I immediately cut back until I'm back within range. I think the "red line" is an extremely important component of successful maintenance.

You'll get different opinions about how often to weigh yourself. I find that doing it every morning keeps me accountable. If I've been on plan and my weight goes up a bit, I don't worry about it as I know it's just random noise. If I've overeaten and my weight goes up, I take swift action.

F.

I do the "red line" as well.

It has prevented me from gaining weight after surgery, during stressful times (life!) and all that jazz. I hit my redline yesterday, so back to being über careful.

I keep pretty tight control on my weight. I weigh daily, but I focus more on my measurements.

Because I lift I'm not overly concerned about the number on the scale, but I do use it as a guide as to how I'm doing. If it goes up too fast then I'm gaining fat, not muscle.

I still weigh daily. I'm maintaining for now because I'm too lazy to lose more vanity pounds :P but with lifting regularly, I'm seeing decreases in measurements which is encouraging. My "range" is 123-126, and I prefer to see < 125 but often do not after the weekends.

I like this approach very much. I do weigh daily, and I think I will need to continue with that. It is so much easier to fix one bad day than one bad week!

I weigh daily. If I don't it's because I don't want to see the results of my overeating--DENIAL. I aim for a range of 4-5 lbs, which can be a struggle for me. I'm working to get my head in the proper space so it's not a struggle for me.

I weigh every week, or once every two weeks. Daily doesn't work for me, it holds too much power of re-triggering my old bouts of ED, so I don't want to touch that with a 10-ft pole now. But I mostly know now if what I eat is going to wreck havoc or not, so I keep aware about that, and balance things out over the course of a week.

Anyway. More than 1 kg (~2 lbs) gained means I have to be careful for the next few days. I like joking about nipping it in the bud because being careful for a few days is easy, but on the other hand I'm way too lazy to go on a diet for weeks. (I'm also too lazy to walk to the nearest McDonald's; my kind of laziness is actually great.)

These days I'm not sure where to put my lower limit, though. I thought I was alright in the 58-59 kgs range, but after my teeth problems, and having to reconsider a lot of food-related things (due to being unable to eat properly, that is), I've noticed I can easily maintain in a 55-56 kgs range, without having to restrain/deprive myself. I'll revise my 2-lbs-up limit accordingly if I see this is something I can indeed keep up without having to resort to unhealthy means.

I used to very rarely weigh. I just paid attention to how my most snug pants fit. This seemed to work for me. When I'd start noting they were getting uncomfortable, I'd make small corrections. When I have weighed, I've noticed I tend to cycle max 7 lbs + or - goal.

I've been experimenting more with diet these last couple years and this year I've been weighing more. I try not to obsess over numbers as it seems I need to get an average of many weights in order to get an idea of where I really am. I drink a lot of water and tea and depending on the time of day that can throw it off by several lbs.

I have huge monthly fluctuations. I'm not even at maintenance yet, but I've basically maintained the last year (up now with a vacation weight gain I'm working on taking off). Every month I gain 5-6 pounds around ovulation, hold it for several days and then it whooshes off. I see a slight gain of 2-3 pounds around TTOM which then slowly comes off and then I hold steady.

At least that was the case until I starte dealing with menopause stuff. Now I have no idea what to expect. I just gain a LOT with travel, antibiotics, eating a high carb day, etc. My guess that I'll try to keep it a 5 pound range, but will have to realize I'll dip up another 5 when I'm dealing with hormones/travel. I'll know the difference as I'll know how my eating has been.

What I have noticed is that I gain REALLLLLLY fast when I go off plan. 3-4 pounds a week! And that is still eating with moderation - I still haven't figured that one out!

I have this problem too. It seems really unfair! It can then take me a week or more to get rid of the gain.

I think it is going to have to be daily weighing for me. There isn't another option... I'll loose control of it otherwise.

I'm like JohnKY. I weigh, but it's more important whether my work pants fit. Right now after a summer break away from some of my regular exercise, I am nowhere near my "red line" (64kg) but some of my good pants are too tight, probably because I've swapped some muscle for fat.

That's pretty much exactly what I've been doing. My maintenance weight is 140 and my range is 137 to 142. If I get to 142 I IMMEDIATELY cut back by 400 calories per day (from 2,000 to 1,600) until I'm back down to 140 or less. I also weigh myself daily. This system has been working well for me for close to a year now and I've only hit 142 on a couple of occasions (and I'm FAR from perfect in my maintenance habits).

F.