Stanski - Welcome to maintenance!

Going to be a crazy week, I can tell (any time I'm up before 4 a.m. I know it's going to be a crazy week!).

Sounds like everyone had busy, productive weekends. I got the Christmas ornaments as far as the living room but I left them in my way so I will be sure to get them up this week. No tree (thanks to very large cat) but I have a nice cupboard I decorate with all the lights and ornaments (and then lock so said cat cannot get into it).

And off I go!

I need some advice maintainers!

My first week of maintenance I did well. After that, I have to admit I haven't been doing too well. I have had a hard time with the ratios and I am way up and down between about 132 and up to 135 today. I am NOT happy with 135 AT ALL! I want to get back down into the lower end of my range. Because of my not so hot performance in Maintenance, I am wondering if I need to stay in the maintenance phase and really work on the ratios and doing maintenance correctly, OR should I do a P1 couple of days however long it takes me to get to my comfortable weight and then back to maintenance? I am really unsure what to do.

On top of maintenance not going to so hot for me, yesterday I had a fever and body aches all day. I had to come to work today because of a co-worker out due to surgery Friday or I would not be at work today.

Please give me your opinions of what I should do. I want to do maintenance RIGHT so I don't gain my weight back!

Thanks!

Hey SallyE, I'm in the same boat as you, I think my maintainers card needs to be revoked. After a fun day on Thanksgiving and questionable ratios the weekend following, I got down to a 164 number from 166ish. Then completely screwed up the ratios Thursday, did P1 Friday day, fun meal Friday night, Saturday was just...not good. Sunday was P1 all day, today has been just a low carb day, not sure if I can call it P2 or what. I'm currently at 167.4 down from 167.8 yesterday. At this point I don't even know what my scream weight is, everything is making me want to scream.

Anyway, hopefully someone more knowledgeable can give you a better answer, but I did have success my first week doing a solid P1 day and then doing a lower carb P3ish day for a couple of days. Water is also key, drink lots of it.

You can add me in that boat, as well! Hope it doesn't sink! Been on maintenance for a couple months now, but still still learning & not really getting the hang of it. I find that after my fun day, the weight spikes up 3-4 or even 5 lbs & then stays up for several days, which freaks me out, causing me to extend the day after phase 1 period for pretty much the rest of the week, until the next Fun day happens & the cycle repeats itself! So Basically, for me, it's pretty much "fun day", then phase 1 again the rest of the week! I'm too chicken to go back to phase 4 for fear that extra weight won't drop back down again. I worked SO hard to get here - went from 180 down to 128 - now at 135 (I'm 5'6"). I guess I just wanted to come here & see how others overcome this fear (if they even encounter it!) and maybe pick up some encouragement & tips to survive during the nonstop holiday get togethers!

Stanski- welcome to maintenance!

Sally, pishposh, perishtheweight -hang in there in give P3 P4 a chance. I wonder about doing a fun meal vs fun day. It may be easier that way and less of sudden change to your body. Are you still getting in all your water? I think the risk of fun day and then P1 for the rest of the week is that we never give our bodies a chance to adjust. I find using MFP helps to plan the meals ahead of time) and then mentally I go over it in my head the night before.

Sally, it is hard to know your true weight when your sick, don't forget your body holds on to everything when you aren't well.

Tryanny - Rollerskating sounds like fun and a LOT OF WORK good for you.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday.

We got all ready for christmas this weekend and I am grateful this week that there are no meals out! Just meeting a friend for tea on Friday and then my DH family party this Sunday. Feels a little easier to manage like this.

Lurking here because I'll be joining you again before too long

To the maintainers who are struggling - since I've been reading over here I have been intrigued by evemomma's approach to maintenance. She seems pretty knowledgeable on the fact that IP is one of those diets that can lower your resting metabolic rate (which is pretty instrumental in helping determine how many calories you can eat) and she has been pretty successful in INCREASING her calories to help boost her metabolism, which will allow her to eat more without regaining.

Granted, there are a LOT of factors contributing to our metabolic rate (age, hormones, stress, activity, muscle mass, etc)....but I think she's on to something. I mention this because I know that knee-jerk reaction that says I HAVE TO GO BACK ON P1 TO GET TO MY GOAL WEIGHT AGAIN RIGHT NOW. What I'm suggesting is that might not necessarily be the answer - you don't want to suppress your metabolism any further when you JUST got past the finish line! Go back and read her Maintainers thread posts - she was EXTREMELY deliberate about slowly increasing her daily calorie intake.

I found this article to be pretty informative not just for calculating your base level calories, but also the process of raising your metabolism by eating more calories. Maybe this will help you too

http://katherinetallmadge.com/2010/1...o-lose-weight/

Wow, thanks Scorbett, great article and advice. I did the calculation and it says 2,000 cals about for regular maintenance, and 1760 for weight loss. 1780 has been my daily limit so far, but I'm certain I've been going a bit over that with my fun days and mess ups. Have been afraid of sinking into the total binge fun day then P1 all week pattern, so have been forcing myself to keep the calories up higher on my P1 days but still doing lower carb. I probably need more time to figure out whether this is actually working or not. Sigh.

I was planning on going back on P1 Jan - Feb to reset for the beginning of the year and maybe try to get another 10 pounds off, but now I'm wondering if that's the best thing for my metabolism. Again, sigh.

As far as going back on P1 after a few months - I think that would be fine. The concern I would have is bouncing off-and-on RIGHT after phasing off, especially since your body is still figuring out what to do with all those extra calories. I think the article mentions that normalizing the metabolism can take some months for a chronic dieter, but my take-away is that the lowered metabolism doesn't have to be permanent, and if I do want to come back to P1 after maintaining a while and lose a little more, it will be fine...I just need to be deliberate in how I structure my eating in maintenance and get back to a more normal metabolic rate.

Hi everyone,

Welcome Stanski and Kristin!

I think maintenance rules work when I work them. The problem starts when I allow more than one fun meal a week. Meeting the ratios or keeping carbs separate from fats has been vital to keeping the pounds gone. I know that I have been bending the rules since Thanksgiving. Taking an honest look my choices lately, is it a struggle to understand phase 4 or am I falling back into inner brat eating? I know for me, I need to follow Phase 4 more closely. For the past 6 months the UP pounds from the free meal have been gone in a couple of days. What has changed? A couple of free meals or treats each week. Too much of a slippery slope for me.

Amen,amen. If they take your maintainers card mine will be gone as well.
I do not do well with a lot of choices. I am and have always been and all or nothing person.
This maintaining thing is very hard for me. I am eating a combo P2/3/4.

I eat a p3 breakfast and a p2 lunch and supper ,my DH is still on P1 so I try not to eat stuff in front of him,then I have p4 for snacks.

I am a total train wreck. I am also so confused on what to eat and when.
I will do more reading on P4 and hopefully my WI on Thursday will put me at ease.

I am sooooooo afraid of gaining it back.
Best to everyone
Debby

Okay guys... breathe deeply lol. Remember in maintenance, don't be weighing yourself every day - that will just freak you out until you are used to the normal daily fluctuations. Sally, it's only been one week - how many times have you weighed yourself in that week?? hmm? 132-135 is NOT 'way up and down'. Maintenance is a range. Yes, you may like the lower number better but 135 is probably still in your range. So keep P1 for your post funday (or preferably funmeal for the first while til your body is used to it). Do not decide to do a week of it until your up pounds STAY on for a couple of weeks. Just eat normal maintenance. 3:1. If you are worried about it just drop your carbs a bit (for instance I move from 150g net down to 100-120g net) and of course your fats to balance. Or eat more complex veggie carbs instead of breads/rice & fruits for a few days. And DRINK YOUR WATER! very important

Make sure you watch out for those 'tiny' little treats you may feel justified in having (because you are in maintenance) outside of your funday. That can be a slippery slope as others have posted.

You guys will be fine, just don't panic too much, lol. You won't gain it all back instantly .

Liana

It sounds like a few of you maintainers are struggling and panicking. I can totally relate! I agree with Jenny and Slip in saying that instead of a 'free day' do a 'free meal'. That is what I do. The problem happens when I have a free meal two or three days in a row. I just can't do that. My body responds with up lbs, sometimes up to 5 extra lbs. Drinking my water is so important and getting my exercise in. But, making sure I do a few days of lower carb and calorie is what works for me. And separating the fats and carbs for lunch and supper. Salads and protein is what I try to eat when I'm trying to get the up lbs off.

Some of the maintainers are much more technical and keep track much better than I do but I know what works for me and I just have to follow. As Slip says, if we look at our eating in an honest way, we can see what changes need to be made. I try to stay away from sugar most of the time and bad carbs. And drink that water! I know this is kind of vague but you know what to do. You lost all that weight, you won't gain it back overnight. Just follow what IP taught you. And maintenance isn't about perfection but it is about effort. I know that you all can succeed!

Interesting article scorbett, thank you. Using those calculations I came up with almost exactly what I'm doing now! Nice to know I got something right!

SallyE - We have almost exactly the same current stats but, lucky you, you got an extra inch of height. I jump between 131 and 134 regularly depending on what day I weigh. Occasionally I am up to 135. I know I will be higher on days after a high sodium day, etc. You need to give yourself a range of weight and not panic as long as you're in the range (and quit weighing every day if it's going to cause you too much stress - weekly is good).

I don't do a strict P1 day very often but if I'm up a little a couple of days in a row I lower my carbs, up my water and really tighten up my eating and ratios for a couple of days and I go back down.

Please give yourself a chance to adjust to maintenance before doing anything drastic. You've done great so far!

I love all the great advice given here! Really, maintenance is something that you have to kind of play around with - finding the exact right balance for you will take some trial and error. The good thing is that the previous phases really set us up to succeed - we are more aware of what a serving size is, how our bodies react to carbs, etc., etc. Hang in there everyone - you'll get it figured out!

Welp, for how much of a gray area maintenance is, my emotions are certainly black and white day to day. Excited this morning after my WI because my coach says I'm completely rocking it and am settling in to a good range. Think I'll heed everyone's advice and quit the daily weighing and go by my weekly WIs again with my coach like I did at the beginning of IP. Going to a clinic for WIs isn't much of a hassle for me, so I'm fine with sticking with it for awhile.

Regular P4 today. My breakfast was on the go so don't have as much fat as I should, but I think I'll be ok. I have a fat meal chicken salad for lunch. Grocery shopping tonight! Sad when that's the highlight of my week, huh?

Yeah pishposh! It's hard when you see the scale moving around to wrap your head around the fact that it's normal. We're so used to the scale going down that seeing it up even a pound can be hard to take. Oh, the joys of retraining our brains!

I stayed with weekly weigh-ins in maintenance for awhile, then switched to every two weeks and now do monthly. Of course, I can always pop in if I have questions or want a quick check in (clinic is in same building as my physical therapy).

Really happy today that we got the last little problem from surgery taken care of (fingers crossed). I am so ready to move on and really get into an exercise program. PT says I'm coming along really well and he's planning on turning me loose very soon.

Hope everyone has a great day!