I made a promise that this would be my last structured diet to shed the extra pounds. I'm still trying to get to my happy weight after our Christmas-New Year cruise. I want to free myself of the endless rules, measuring and recording. It's becoming an obsessive part of my weight maintenance. There was a time when I could maintain without even counting calories .... and how good was that!

Just recently, I logged into IE (Intuitive Eating) and thought that would be OK for me, but chickened out after reading the book.

Perhaps if we could share strategies or ideas to keep this endless task easier.

e.g. avoid certain foods, fasting etc.

Everyone is different. We all lost the weight using strategies that worked for our body and in our particular situation.

This is my basic maintenance plan, which has worked for me for the past year.

First I accepted that the goal weight I went for was too low for me to maintain without a lot of work and stress so I adjusted upward and picked 2 ranges of maintenance - winter and summer. Winter is a bit heavier - 135-138 lbs., and summer is 132-135 lbs.

Second, I basically eat the same stuff every day during the week and every 3 months I weigh and measure my portions to make sure they haven't "expanded". On weekends I change things up a bit one day, and then eat very lightly the other to compensate.

I weigh myself once a month. I know from looking at my body and from how my clothes fit when the weight is creeping up but it's still mentally good to have a number.

That's it!

Dagmar :

Mudpie has a very successful strategy for maintaining her weight. The part that she didn't mention is that she's a professional dog walker/pet sitter, and gets a lot of exercise every day.

I was not a successful maintainer because after a point, I developed "diet fatigue" that did not allow me to buckle down no matter what strategy I tried. I finally had to relax completely to clear my mind. As you might guess, I regained weight.

I'm now a successful maintainer because my weight has stabilized. Only problem is, it's way higher than what I thought would be ideal. In the last few months, I have been slowly (and I mean REALLY slowly) losing weight. I'm not doing this through dieting because like you, I can't stand that anymore. Instead I use the following approach:

1. I go for a walk almost every day. About 1-1/2 to 2 miles. Every other day, I lift some weights. Twice a week, I go to a Tai Chi class.
2. I eat only half of what I'm served in restaurants, or I order less if I can. At home, I watch my serving sizes and choose less. I have found that I am satisfied with less food--I was eating more because of habit or because "it was there."
3. I usually don't eat breakfast because I'm not hungry. I drink coffee with creamer, and I think that makes up for it. I used to eat breakfast religiously until I realized it was just an additional meal's worth of calories that I didn't need.
4. I weigh once a week and record it. Too many people get obsessed with thinking that what they ate yesterday has caused their weight to go up or down today. There is no way to know anything with that idea. My weight can go up 2 pounds because the moon is full.

Good luck with finding what works for you!

Thanks Dagmar and Jayell. I'm praying for a miracle ...I hope to stumble on a strategy that is doable and stress-less.

Do you eat low carb or balanced? I know I need to go more balanced with 50% of calories coming from carbs, but I do better controlling my weight with carbs <50g/day. Those strategies however, require counting & recording and I want to get away from that minefield.
Cheers,

Well, I eat food. I used to track grams of carbs, proteins, fats, and the result is that now I pretty much know what I'm getting into with any food I choose. But I don't worry about it much. I don't want to make things any more complicated.

Jayell is right - I do get a lot of exercise. But I did that when I gained the 22 lbs. that brought me to 3FC.

For me the type and amount of food I eat seems to be key in maintaining the weight loss. I try to stay away from processed foods and don't eat out in restaurants a lot. I also try to stay away from high carb foods. My 22 lb. weight gain in 2006 involved a lot of ice cream, pastries, potato and tortilla chips, and other high carb foods.

Now I try to eat a lot more protein - lean meat, fish, chicken, lower fat dairy, and I try to get most of my carbs from less processed grains and fruit. I did mention portion control in my previous post and that is big for me too. For example if I'm having grapes I put some in a bowl and eat them, rather than sitting down with the whole bag. I have particular bowls for certain foods that automatically give me a reasonable portion of that food.

I also gave up drinking alcohol. I find it a lot easier to not overeat if I don't have anything alcoholic to drink. I tried to drink a couple of beers now and again for about 2 years but it always led to bouts of overeating.

I also try to get enough sleep. Getting 6-7 hours a night helps a lot to curb overeating for me.

Dagmar :

Pina - and thanks for starting this thread.

Dagmar, that is a great idea. I've been wondering about automating portions somehow - especially yoghurt and nuts. Yoghurt is hard to measure by the spoonful and a 'handful' of nuts is a bit too vague for me. I want something intuitive rather than weighing. (Remember we don't use cups here.)

I think JayEll's strategy is spot on!

I walk every day and lift some weights three times a week. I eat about 50% carbs and make sure I get >100 grams of protein a day. I do track food, because I don't want to guess whether I can eat more on any given day, I want to know. It is easy for me to get into the "feel guilty for being full" mode. The kitchen scale is my best friend. Generally I need to go to bed a little hungry 2 days a week to maintain. And to never get "full-full", but always stop at 80% full. No food is off limits, but I generally choose very healthy stuff because it keeps hunger at bay over the course of the day much better than cheesecake.

I make weight maintenance a very high priority in my daily life. If the scale goes up over 125, I cut my calories by 100-200 per day until it goes back down. It's impossible to be that precise without tracking. Instead of considering tracking to be a chore, I have labeled it my hobby That makes it much easier to deal with.

Good luck, Pina!

I'm with you in your strategy, Howl. There is no magic pill to maintenance. Yesterday I did lots of reading about maintenance challenges and now feel much more confident forging ahead, as I've been doing so far....measuring, recording and observing.
50% carbs may not be my number, but I agree we need to keep protein up or risk losing muscle. After my reset on the Fast Metabolism Diet (another 2 weeks on it)I'll work on finding my calorie level, starting on 1200cals. I will check every 2 weeks to adjust by 100 cal either way to maintain.

By the way I was quite pleased with my 55.2 kg (121.6 lb) weigh this morning.
Have a nice day everyone.

PS I wish I'd read the good information available re this topic on the stickies...sorry.

It's interesting to read old posts. This one is over a year old and I can say that in that time, maintenance has also become an enjoyable hobby. I count and weight everything and keep records and weigh daily. I average my calories and macros over a week. I'm almost at the stage of locking in an average of 1250 cals per day and my macros are 40% good fats, 30% carbs and 30% protein. I would like to eat more, but feel this could be my TDEE. I walk every day and have a "daily dozen" routine (Pilates/yoga). I've lost a few pounds (7 in fact) since January, when I adopted the Dukan Nutritional staircase. I am sticking to this rotational/cycling style of eating, which is a close to balanced diet. For those who are not familiar with the Stairs, on Mondays you have protein only, Tuesdays you add vegs, Wednesday add a piece of fruit, Thursdays you add 2 slices of grain bread/legumes and follow though for the balance of the week.

I guess you could say I'm happy with myself and my lighter weight.

It is interesting to read old threads. I've forgotten/lost a couple of things I did for maintenance and have been at a higher weight than I liked for about 6 months.

Now I'm down to my "summer weight" range and will stay there, and will be using the strategies I had forgotten to help do that.

Dagmar :

I'm Done