Has anyone used a low-carb diet to lose weight, then transitioned to a different way of healthy eating like whole-foods and calorie counting to maintain? I'm really interested in knowing! Any others who followed another type of diet to lose and then another to maintain are welcome to chime in too!

Hi SoulBliss!

Lilybelle immediately popped into my mind when I read your post because she followed Atkins to lose her weight and has been calorie counting and South Beaching since she reached goal. Hopefully she'll see your post and pop in eventually, but she's been sick lately so may not be able to answer for a bit. Hang on and I'm sure she'll get back to you!

I'm one who does exactly - I mean exactly - the same things to maintain as I did to lose. My Fitdays today look just like they did six years ago, so I know that I'm not going to be much help.

Hi Meg and thanks! You ARE of help, actually because I am trying to get an idea of what works for others so I can decide where to go with my eating in the future. I intend to be posting in this forum as an official "maintainer" some day myself!

SoulBliss, please don't wait to post with us! We encourage everyone to post in Maintainers regardless of where they may be in their weight loss journeys because maintenance starts with Day One of your diet. Every pound that you lose is a pound that you want to keep off, right? So you're maintaining your loss even while you're losing more.

And, sadly, most of us have the experience of losing weight only to regain it. Maintenance is something that we all have to research, read about, think about, and plan for the whole time that we're losing. In fact, losing weight is only the warm-up for what really counts -- keeping the weight off for life.

Can you tell that I'm a maintenance fanatic?

Lots of our regulars aren't at goal but everyone is welcome! We'd love to hear more from you, so stick around, OK?

Hi SoulBliss,

Another who can't help you here. I chose one plan and I've used it since I started 2 years and 3 months ago. I consider myself in maintenance only because my body chose to stop loosing weight.


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I changed my way of eating pretty drastically once I hit my initial goal weight, because I didn't like what my body looked like and never would no matter what the scale said at that point. What I needed was a much more intense weight lifting program instead of circuit training and and a lot of cardio, coupled with a very low calorie and low carb diet (that's how I lost, not what I needed!).

I changed my eating to more balance meals, more protein, and eating 5-6 times a day. Over the years, my body shape has changed completely and I dropped and other 15 pounds. Compared to the food pyramid, I still eat what is considered low carb, but I just feel better that way.

Mel

Hi Soul bliss. Lilybelle immediately popped into my head as well.

I'm another one who uses pretty much the same method to maintain my loss as I did to actually lose it. That would be the combination of calorie counting + healthy foods. I eat the same foods as I did when I was losing, in the same portions every day, with the occassional (too often lately) splurge. I do tweak occassionally. Some foods no longer work for me, either I tire of them or I find I overeat them and need to move them out. I add in some new salads from time to time, cook the chicken a little differently, shift my meals around, stuff like that.

My plan is to continue this way - forever.

Same with me - the basic core of what I did (whole foods + calorie counting) remains the same, I just allow myself more calories each day. It is slightly different - now that I'm maintaining I do splurge more and indulge in the occasional glass of wine (which was a big no no for me when I was actively losing weight).

I think it's entirely possible to lose weight one way and then switch plans, but it would be more challenging because part of maintenance is learning if the habits/lifestyle chosen during the "lose weight" phase are actually maintainable for the rest of your life. I had about a year of whole foods + calorie counting to learn how to find recipes, grocery shop, pack lunches, count calories, food journal and say "yes, this I can do forever."

It would be a little scary for me to get to maintenance and then have to find/tweak to find out what worked - I want to know what works before I get to that critical stage. It is just my opinion, but the transition from weight loss to maintenance is the real "make or break" stage - losing weight is NOT the hard part, keeping the weight off is the real life-long challenge.

I do the same thing, except I eat a whole lot more now

I count calories, try to get at least 100g protein in, keep my diet 30% fat or under, and try to limit my intake of refined carbs. I try to avoid processed foods, though that can be pretty tricky. I know you also stay away from them, SoulBliss

My caloric average while losing ended up being 1,200-1,400, though I maintain on 1,800-2,100. I feel like I eat all the time, because I have 3 meals and 2 snacks. I'm also very physically active.