This was my thought in the car this morning. Are maintainers really just maintaining? Or are you constantly tweaking? Reshaping your arms? Flattening your tummy? Increasing endurance? Running faster or longer?

Are you really in a steady state of maintaining what you achieved or are you still constantly improving? Is it a bit like learning? We never stop?

I'm expecting different answers.

I think that when most maintainers talk about "maintaining", they're talking about staying at a steady weight.

But almost everyone here is constantly challenging themselves in the area of fitness -- trying new exercise, setting new goals, and pushing harder than before. Working on strength, endurance, flexibility and those pesky trouble spots that we all have.

Take me, for example. I've been maintaining for more than eight years and this week I've started using a rowing machine for the first time. I've already set goals to increase endurance and intensity. It's exciting to try new challenges and keeps the gym from getting stale and routine. I'm a geek, but I get totally psyched when I read about a new exercise and can't wait to try it.

On the one hand, it's a lot of work just to maintain a certain level of fitness. On the other, what fun is it if we aren't always pushing harder, faster, longer?

It's getting through life. Life is not static. And weight is an incredibly sensitive & responsive instrument, like a little Richter scale that records all of my wobbles. So I imagine I'll always have to be trying this, changing that, seeing if I can do this, or if I can't.

Also, now that I feel empowered to change myself, I'm always testing the boundaries of that power: What I can change, and what I have to accept as my lot.

In order to maintain, I must challenge myself and tweak my processes. I've found that it just doesnt work otherwise. It's not losing, but it's also not static.

It's a process that does not end.

Gosh, I'm not sure there is such a thing as "just" maintaining, once someone has been overweight/obese.

Here's what I've found:

- My weight never goes down by accident.
- My weight will go up for reasons I can't explain.
- The same old routine gets boring.
- But, some sort of routine is necessary.
- "Winging it" may work for some, but for me, my weight creeps up.
- Flexibility is good, as long as it doesn't become a free for all.
- Discipline is good, as long as it doesn't become a straight jacket.

And most of all:

- Life changes all the time, our metabolism doesn't stay the same, and we are all getting older.

Jay

I agree with the above-quoted statements.
I work very hard, constantly, to stay inside my Maintenance Weight Range.
My maintenance consists of continually gaining and losing the same few pounds over and over.
That isn't how I planned it.
It's just how it is.

"I work very hard, constantly, to stay inside my Maintenance Weight Range.
My maintenance consists of continually gaining and losing the same few pounds over and over.
That isn't how I planned it.
It's just how it is."

Yes, Bright Angel-- yup, uh huh. that's it.
Well, now that I reread it, I don't work very hard constantly -- and that is when my weight travels up Then I work hard constantly, for a time, to get back down. And that is my maintenance.

The above is true for me to. Currently, I am monitoring how different calories effect me, more than just weight gain but cravings, lethargy, etc. I also think of new activities to engage in. I haven't been English Country Dancing in a while and need to get back to it. I do different exercises with my resistance bands.

I'm just maintaining, pretty much.

THANK YOU THANK YOU for your "very long weight loss story." It was just what I needed to hear this morning! I appreciate you taking the time to go into detail - I was really beginning to wonder what "the rest of my life" was going to look like now that I'm not watching the scale go down anymore.

Thanks to all of you for posting your thoughts on maintenance.

I think I'm constantly learning and improving. As for weight, I'm maintaining, which consists of gaining and losing the same few pounds over and over so it's not like I'm staying constant weight all the time.

Fitness-wise, if I don't set new goals, I will lose motivation and stop working out. I know if I stop working out I will gain weight (not because of the calories I burn in my workouts, but because when I stop working out I somehow crave more unhealthy foods). So I have to work on fitness improvement in order to keep up my motivation.

For me that comes in different forms. Yes, I want to be stronger. However, I finally admitted this year that because of my repetitive stress injury in my wrists, I can't follow a standard heavy lifting program without hurting myself. That doesn't mean I'm giving up on strength, but now I have a new challenge of figuring out how to strengthen my tendons and little connective muscles so that they'll be able to stand up to the heavier weights.

I also started doing triathlons. If I can just improve a little bit each year, I feel like I'm accomplishing something. A little faster, or a farther distance, either way is good. I'm also learning that in general my connective tissue is total crap, and standard training programs for running also don't work for me because I get injured. Slow and steady was my mantra for losing weight and it looks like it applies to building up my fitness too.

I'm just maintaining, pretty much. I was doing more exercise for a couple of months before and after reaching my original goal. Recently I've realised that although I don't feel I'm dragging around an aching body any more I'm not as fit as I was, so I intend to at least get back to where I was earlier in the year but I probably won't push myself that much. I've got some personal goals I'm preoccupied with, but they're more related to creative pursuits.

I can see myself constantly improving something or other, mainly exercise. I will probably never be satisfied with my tummy, thighs or arms in that order. I have hopes for my arms though. I will likely always work on those.

But for fitness, goodness, the sky is literally the limit. I may just climb a mountain! I'm pretty sure I want to hike up one some day. That's my goal right now...to improve my spare time every year with hikes, rock climbing, horseback riding, and the like.

Well, when I was maintaining at goal, I *was* "just maintaining". Which pretty much meant gaining a couple of pounds on the weekend and losing them during the week. I never fell in love with exercise like many maintainers do (in fact, I hate it and don't do any. I know, I know), so I never had any fitness goals.

This is my version of maintaining. I bounce around the same 2-3 lbs every week. I continue exercising because I feel better when I do it. If I don't exercise I will seize up like the tin man...