I have a question for all you maintainers.

I am 21 and have been overweight (actually obese and morbidly obese) my whole life, as a child, teen all of it. My highest weight (that I know of) was 320 my goal is 200 (might go lower once I get there) which puts me exactly halfway to goal right now. My question to you is how do you do it? How do you maintain? I sit here thinking and I realized I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to be 259 lbs let alone 200 or lower. Never having been skinny I don't know what it is like and it scares me. I feel like I will get there be great for a bit and then start to sabotage myself and gain it all back (last thing i want or need). So how do you maintain and not sabotage yourself?

Maintaining is like losing. You can't be "done" with your diet or you will regain. All of us in maintenance have had to play around with the right balance of calories/exercise, etc. You do get to eat somewhat more in maintenance so you stop losing, so that is something to look forward to.

As for sabotage? I worked way too hard to take the weight off. I hope and pray that I never get complacent enough to gain my weight back. It does take getting used to when you are no longer overweight/obese. I still have body issues. I'm trying to embrace my new(ish) healthier self and love myself.

Congrats on your weight loss so far! You are doing awesome! Feel free to hang around/post on the maintenance forums too. That will give you a sense of what we do/eat, etc.

I agree with traveling_michelle in that maintaining is basically the same as losing, only with a little more food!

That said, this is the reason why losing should be ENJOYABLE. You should be eating in a way that you honestly feel that you can maintain. For example...if you never in life hope to eat a treat/dessert, then by all means totally exclude it from your diet now. BUT if your anything like me...and you (being honest with yourself) realize that you could NEVER live the rest of your life without a cookie, then find a way to incorporate that cookie into your diet while losing.

THIS IS MY SOLE OPINION...not popular, but I strongly encourage this behavior. I am in currently in maintenance. It's completely a walk in the park for me...honestly...I love it. Why? Cuz I followed the advice I'm giving you.

Try to see your weight loss as not just pounds on a scale, but as a JOURNEY. A journey to rediscover yourself..your relationship with food...your body AND your mind. If you do the "weight loss" part in a both physically and mentally HEALTHY way, you will learn valuable lifelong lessons, develop healthier habits and maintenance will just be an extension the higher quality way of eating that you've had a year or better to get used to!

Thanks to you both for replying! I see the points you are making and as I near that 200lb weight goal it will help me be a little less scared

Joyful- I am DEFINITELY doing that. I don't measure things except once then I memorize how that measurement looks on my plate/in a bowl or in my hand. I don't want to be stuck measuring every last thing for the rest of my life so I figure if I can successfully guesstimate now and lose then maintenance will be easy. I am not excluding ANYTHING from my diet. Last sunday I had a doughnut, tonight I had ice cream. I love to travel and I know that eating out almost always happens while traveling, trying things out and eating a bit more than you want/need always happens in life so I figure that if I can successfully sit there and gauge is that piece of fish 4 or 8 oz? Is that a half a cup of ice cream or 3 cups? It will make my maintenance life easier. I also don't want to have to calorie count all my life. I know I could if I had to but id rather be able to roughly in my head keep track of calories and for the most part maintain then have to write everything I eat down in my blog or on a piece of paper. Glad to know I am on the right track and that there really is hope for me maintaining!

Hey!

Please keep in mind that although we can share our experiences with you, no one can tell you what successful maintenance will be like for you. It's a very individual thing. Some people find that it's best to continue counting, and they do it indefinitely. Others find that they don't need to do that, as long as they follow certain principles for themselves.

Another thing to keep in mind is that maintenance changes--it doesn't stay the same forever. What works at first may not continue to work later on. So it's good to be flexible and not box yourself in to having to have things just one way.

Everyone who has been obese and then reached their maintenance level is concerned about regaining, so you aren't alone in this. As you're losing, consider what maintaining might look like in terms of how you eat. I'd guess that for a lot of people, "I will never eat a cookie" just isn't realistic--and neither is "I will eat cookies whenever I want." The optimal path is somewhere in between.

Also, don't be fooled by what online calculators tell you you can eat to maintain. I regained in part by thinking that I "should" be able to eat at a certain level without regaining, and it turns out that wasn't true for me. Better to find out for yourself.

Good luck!
Jay

Thanks all. I know maintenance is different for everyone and once I get there I need to find a way that works for me and adapt to it. I guess what I wanted more than anything was reassurance that maintenance can be accomplished which you all gave me. Thank you!

I approached calorie counting not as a diet, but as an education. I really was naive about what foods were good for me, which ones had too much sugar and fat, and all kinds of other thing. I made it my mission to learn all about nutrition and health. It really was like going to college!

Because you have a lot to lose, it will take a long time. This is good! More time to learn. You can take some breaks along the way- maybe when you go on vacations- and practice maintaining your weight. It's definitely a life-long journey. And it can definitely be done

I did the same thing. I thought, "If I were going to design a weight loss program that I would spend money on like Weight Watchers (which I did 2 times), what would I design for me? Would I hire me?"

Maintenance for me is a lot like losing. Most days are terrific, but then some days are harder than heck. I still count calories, I still measure some foods, and I still am very mindful of what I feed my body. I still want my calories to count and be healthy and provide ultimate nourishment. I do however have treats now, which I didn't do while I was losing.

I had an enormous amount of weight to lose, and it took a long time to lose it..it would have taken MUCH longer if I had eaten sugary treats. I didn't trust myself. I have a sugar addiction and sugar moderation is extremely difficult for me. Thankfully, sugar is not a food group and a person can happily live without it and without deprivation. I don't need daily sugar to be happy....a good man (my dh) can do that, if you know what I mean.

I find that if I estimate I am actually eating much more than I think. For me to maintain I stll count calories, still plan my meals and still keep a food diary. It is not as difficult as you might think, and yes I do allow myself treats now and then but in smaller portions, I no longer eat a whole pie or a bag of candy. Planning what I will eat is much easier than it would be to have to start wearing extra large clothing again or to struggle to climb a flight of stairs and other unpleasant things that go along with being overweight.