Hey chicks, I have a dilemma that I hope you can help me out with. I don't think I'm doing this maintenance thing right. You see, I have been having a hard time adjusting/switching from the losing mentality, to the "staying the same" mentality. For the last few weekends I have gone way over my regular (losing) calories, and then for the week I have to go back to my 1200/day to take off what I gained. The scale has been jumping all over the place. Something I'm not used to seeing since I had been only weighing once a week. Today thankfully, it was back to 158. I can't seem to get out of the rut. I really would like to try around 1800 calories a day for a few weeks to see what happens, but because I go overboard on Saturday and Sunday, (eating treats I haven't eaten for over a year...like mashed potatoes and rich salads) I haven't really got to test the waters. I spend all my time undoing what I screwed up over the weekend. Is this maintenance, or am I in la-la land? I have faith I'm not going to quit, but it seems there has to be an eaiser way, but I can't get into it.

That's EXACTLY what my first few months of maintenance were like...losing calories during the week, higher on weekends. It worked for me and I DID maintain that way. I believe Rockinrobin was similar on this, at least if I remember the posts correctly....weekdays lower, weekends higher. It's a perfectly viable way to maintain within your range, IMO, and it just works better for some people given the structure of their lives.

If you're not comfortable with it, though, you know what to do - commit to a calorie level and go with it. Obviously, having gotten where you are from where you were, you KNOW how to commit to a plan, so if you're not OK with your current way of doing things, you have the power to change it. But that way of doing things isn't "wrong" or "abnormal".

And obviously, if the scale starts going just UP, instead of bouncing up and down, you've got to rein in those weekends to keep where you are...same if those "treat" foods are starting to trigger overeating in a way that prevents you from staying OP during the week.

I still go a little overboard on the weekends and then get back OP during the week....

So far, I haven't had any permanent upswings, I also bounce up and down. Some weekends are fine, others I also have 'treats' a little more. I have had to be careful, because some of the ones I have chosen have made me binge a little. I try to stay away from those.

Hey Lori Bell, I'd suggest you get more careful with trade-offs, that's all. If you want to eat mashed potatoes on Sunday evening, make a trade-off accordingly with other Sunday meals. Try to keep it all within one day if you can. Maybe that will help to minimize those "swings" you're in.

Jay

Yes, yes. Exactly this. All 3 paragraphs.

I hit goal - and immediately went up a few pounds. Went RIGHT back into losing mode. Hit goal again (within the week) and come the weekend - went right back up again. And that has been the case with me for over 2 years now. And I'm more then fine with it.

I knew right away, right away that in adding in more calories every single day was not going to work. Nu-uh not for me. I mean I would have LIKED to, but I was coming off a big loss. Big. In my mid 40's. In full blown out menopause, a mere 5 feet tall, had been morbidly obese for 20 years. This old body of mine just doesn't require many calories. So for me, it was/is tight, tight all week and then a splurge or the weekends. But I actually LIKE it that way. I have no problem sticking to my same losing calorie budget to maintain. I actually like the "tightness" and rigidness of it so to speak. Or at least I've certainly come to accept it and again, I am more then fine with it. Completely satisfied. So my way of upping my calories in order to maintain - is to add in that weekend splurge. But you do have to watch it. It can't be a free for all, no way, no how. And to tell you the truth - I can't even add in a splurge every single weekend. There are weekends where I do completely without a so called splurge because I'm still playing catch-up from the weekend before.

As far as staying the same exact number day after day after day, I can't do it. I now keep within a maintenance "range". And again, I'm fine with it.

I still keep to lots of my definite NO's and have lots and lots of foods that I will only eat on rare occasions.

Do some experimenting. Find what works for you - and what doesn't. Take small steps, nothing drastic so that you're able to "fix" quickly any experiment that doesn't turn out too well.

because I go overboard on Saturday and Sunday, (eating treats I haven't eaten for over a year...like mashed potatoes and rich salads)

Hmmmm . . . I am also one who eats more on the weekend and bounces back and forth about 2 lbs during the week. However, this sentence really got my attention. The question is, are you eating these treats on the weekend -- which you didn't eat at all while losing -- because you feel like you're "done" with losing weight? Like you should go back to eating "normally"? Those are the types of thoughts that really sabotage maintenance.

Thanks everyone. I feel a little better knowing I'm going through similar patterns that other successful maintainers have gone through. I'm going to give it all I got to stay focused and commit to a "new" plan this weekend. I really would like to eat a little more every day rather than a lot more on one or 2 days and then back to losing mode.

And yes Paperclippy. I didn't indulge in many off plan foods when I was losing. (Christmas Day and then a few days following because the sugar addiction reared it's ugly head after having a pretty good dose that day...)and recently an occasional sugar treat on Sundays at Church which I gave up when I stopped losing because of it. I realized that I can probably never add sugar back into my life. Last weekend I was really good on plan until Monday night when some girlfriends took me out for a B-day dinner at an AWESOME Mexican restaurant that I had not eaten at in A LONG time. I kind of went nuts on the chips and salsa. Also I was not going to eat the rice that came with the meal, but I did, and I was going to bring 1/2 home...which I didn't....SO back to 1200 calories I went this week. I just don't want to get into that "reward" mentality again. I have a feeling this is going to be harder than l ever imagined...gurrr

My calories are all over the place - by design. I map out my week ahead of time. I consider it a form of calorie cycling.

Usually my days fall into one of the following:
Normal day - 1500 (ish) calories (most of the time)
Restricted day - 1200 calories (basically back to my losing mode)
Event day (outside meal event planned) - 1600-2000 calories

I try to balance my calories over the week, so an event day is often preceded by a restricted day.

Event weeks (vacations, work travel weeks) are preceded by a restricted week.

When best laid plans don't work perfectly, event days and weeks are sometimes FOLLOWED by restricted days

Following this formula, I've stayed within a 3-4 lb range for the last 8 months or so.

More events and celebrations tend to happen on the weekend. Also there are meal schedule changes - eating earlier/later - that can be disruptive.

I find that I tend to eat more calories on the weekend and then cut back for Mon. - Wed. to compensate. Mostly this is due to being at events where I am not in control of the cooking, rather than adding in treat foods.

I still tend to go off on binges if I have the treat foods in the house. I try to buy those once every 2 weekends in single portions somewhere outside of the house.

For example I'm going to get an ice cream cone or a slushie coffee thingee tomorrow while at the jazz fest concert. I figured that into the meal plan and will eat lightly today and Monday to compensate.

Have a great weekend all!

Dagmar

I do something very similar to this too. I actually see what "events" I have scheduled for the upcoming month. And then I pick and choose and DECIDE ahead of time, which events I will splurge at and if there's lots of events, which ones I won't. Because for me, I can't have a splurge at every single event.

Another thing, I almost never have my splurges at home. They are most always away from home in a controlled setting, at some sort of social occasion. Which is kind of funny. It means I am "splurging" in front of people and then the food police is all over me. "OMG, I can't believe you're eating THAT". Oh but that's a whole other thread.....