I've been thinking about maintenance a lot lately. And then I begin to wonder...
What IS maintenance?

You would think that maintenance would be simply maintaining your weight. However, it seems that many people continue to lose weight in maintenance.

Is maintenance merely what happens after you hit your goal?

Is maintenance when you stop dieting and begin adding back in non-diet foods?

What is your opinion on the definition of maintenance? And do you think you need to be nearing your "goal weight" to be "living maintenance?"

Maintenance is when you get to your happy place and decide not to get above a certain weight. My goal was 140p but I am now 139 and still losing. I don't want to get below 135 and not above 141p so I will just eat accordingly, continue to exercise and watch the scale.

I didn't diet, I still ate everything I always ate but in moderation. 1,300-1,450 cals was to lose, 1,700-1,800 will put me at maintenance so I can relax a little with food.

Checks and balances. After a year of this nonsense I know exactly what to do to gain and lose so I should be able to keep myself here. Hopefully.

Maintenance is maintaining your weight loss, not going above your goal weight. It doesn't happen without a lot of care, though, like dieting , trial and error, What works for one may not work for all.

Maintenance for me seems to be where I've no longer got a goal of losing over 100 pounds, or 50 pounds, or 25 pounds.

Instead I keep losing about five to 10 pounds over & over.

It's a state of mind for me, too. No aspirations to be thinner. Work at self-acceptance at where I am, at least as far as my body's appearance. I do hope to become more fit, but it's less about things being tighter or shifting than about being able to perform certain actions (pullups, consecutive pushups, weights that I can lift).

I echo saef's wise words here. For me, losing weight started with health and somewhere along the way took a detour into vanity (which isn't necessarily inherently bad). I thought I could go lower and lower and somehow reach a magic level of "perfect." But then I realized there is no such thing.

My maintenance journey (saga!) is becoming about keeping the health and fitness I've gained and making peace with the things I can't change, like loose skin, an apple shape, a round face, being short, etc. I'd like to maintain within a 5 pound range, which I am currently over, but that's also more about health and not buying new clothes.