I have done an obscene amount of lurking in the maintenance threads this past month. Your thought provoking posts have been so very helpful in helping me sort out a lot of things. Most of all they have helped me to see that what I have done to myself is not permanent.. It CAN be undone.

I was 10 pounds at birth and have been obese my entire life except for two very brief periods. The first time I was in my late teens and lived overseas...at that time I was not obese but just mildly overweight; the environment itself was condusive to healthy living so I can't say I lost weight on purpose...

The second time was 4 years ago. In about 10 months time, I went from 215 pounds to... 179? 176? was it 170? I've been in such a denial about my weight gain that I can't even remember how much I weighed in 2002. All I do remember was that for the briefest moment I felt great about myself. I actually put on a pair of size 10 jeans and wore them comfortably.

How it unraveled?. sure there was a a defining moment .. a trigger.. but the rest was just me. Me in denial, me in lazy land, the more I gained the less I believed I was gaining. I did it to me.

I know how to loose the weight.. slowly, safely, ... But I didn't understand then how maintenance and loosing the weight look so much alike in most respects. Thanks to 3FC I am beginning to understand this now.

My question? I would love to hear how maintenance is different for you compared to the initial weight loss journey. I know Thin for Life will give me some of the answers I am looking for, but I value your knowledge and guidance.

For example, for myself I think weighing myself everyday for now will be a little self defeating, but also think that daily weigh-ins might be something I will need to keep myself from another horrible denial.

I also think that the lighter I become the more I will have to exercise to maintain. For example, exercising at my current weight burns quite a few calories just from the fat I have to push around. To burn the same amount at a lighter me, I would have to do more, right? Or will the muscle I will have developed by then make up the difference?

I can totally relate to the denial thing. The biggest part of maintenance for me is just getting on to the scale every week and looking at the number, good or bad. When I was gaining weight I never got on the scale. Even at the doctor's office I would look away when I had to get weighed.

I'm eating about 300-500 more calories a day than I was during the end of my weight loss phase. That's really the only difference. My exercise level gradually increased over the years I was losing and now it's humming along at about 10 hours a week.

Mentally, it's definitely taking a while to get used to the scale not going down. I'm trying to transfer that excitement I used to get from that to the fact that all the pretty new clothes I bought still fit.

I'm only 6 months in to maintenance so it's still pretty new to me.

Thanks for responding, Tani.

Congratulations on your six months into maintanence! Your pics are so beautiful. Both of them!

So for you it is an extra 300 or so calories with about the same amount of exercise you've built up. 10 hours of weekly exercise sounds about what I am reading about in Thin for Life.

Your post has also given me something to think about. I've never really been a scale person. But I think a red line weight is what I need. You say you felt excitement when the scale showed a loss. I am going to keep this in mind and try to curb that feeling.. if it should arise so that I don't have to deal with it later.

The smaller clothes.. I don't know if my excitement to wear smaller clothes will continue once I get past my red line. After the initial honeymoon it will all be new to me.

I am glad for the maintenance threads here at 3FC. I am also glad that it will take a while to get towards goal.. I need the time to sort things out.

Thanks again.

I've been thinking about how to respond to this question. I initially lost weight through a lot of frantic exercise, but not the well-thought out exercise plan that I use now, and a very low calorie version of SugarBusters. Weightloss was exciting- I never had a plateau or significant cheat. I lost steadily and fast despite being 46 years old and perimenopausal. I was 100% committed. Fitting into new clothes was wonderful, compliments and comments were wonderful, how I felt was wonderful. Then the shock hit. My body didn't look like I expected that it would at goal despite exercise, and I couldn't go back to eating more and exercising less.

I have changed the way that I exercise now. I lift heavy five days a week and do 30-40 minutes of cardio at least 4 days a week. I've also changed the way I eat in that I eat 5 small meals a day rather than 3. I still try to stay sugar-free and keep refined food to the absolute minimum, unless you count protein shakes. Every once in a while I have a splurge meal or an out of control day- but for the most part not much has changed.

Last year I dipped way below my goal weight loved it. It wasn't a maintainable weight, but the excitement of losing and getting even smaller clothes was back. Reactions from others were mixed- some were alarmed, some told me I looked great. Gaining back some weight, even though I'm still at a very healthy weight and much smaller than most women my age, is depressing. That's one of the real traps of the scale thrill.

I've been maintaining for 4 1/2 years and it doesn't feel any easier....Some people say that it does get easier, but I haven't crossed that magic line. I know exactly what I have to do, and everyday I have to consciously do it.

You don't need to be a lurker here! I love your signature

Mel

I've been on maintenance for 25+ years. I am listed in the National Weight Loss Registery. Two recommendations from them that have worked for most people - keep a journal and weigh daily. Yes, I said daily. You will become used to the way your body fluctuates as you eat different things etc. It is this complete awareness that keeps you at your goal. Never let yourself gain more than 2 pounds before getting on track. Do not reward yourself for food. Do not use food to celebrate. Use food to fuel your body. I originally lost weight on WW but moved over to SBD and do much better eating very healthy 99% of the time. Good luck to all of you!

I've been in maintenance for 2+ years (WOW, Quilter, 25 years!! CONGRATS! ). And the major lesson I've learned is this: watching what you eat is NOT over.

And, just because a certain food is on the maintenance "ok" list does NOT mean your body will do well on it. It was during maintenance that I learned my body is sensitive to dairy. If I eat milk, cream, ice cream, I not only get sleepy/brain-fogged, but I crave more of it. YIKIES!

Just because you reach goal weight does NOT mean you get to relax. In reality, there's a period of adjustment as you learn what your body wants/needs (vs what your MOUTH wants ) and PAYING ATTENTION.

After I reached my goal of 150 and moved to Fat Flush maintenance (aka: Phase 3), I lost 4 more pounds and TWO more dress sizes. ( ) Let me tell you, if I had been offered - at the start of Fat Flush - EITHER my goal weight OR say, size 12 - I would have grabbed size 12 because I have never EVER been smaller than size 14 as an adult.

So the fact that I am now a size 6/8 is such a continuing source of jubilation that no food can compete. Me, shopping in the SMALL section??!! Never would have dreamed it possible.

It's true, I can't have ice cream. I got over it.
I can't eat white flour/white sugar/white rice. Pffffffffft! Who cares?!
I CAN have dark chocolate, organic wine, yogurt. And luscious size 6 clothes. <cue the dancing and prancing!>

Many of us obese types got that way because we use food to avoid dealing with our emotions. I highly recommend the book Life is Hard, Food is Easy by Linda Spangle for the emotional eaters out there.

Maintenance is identical to my initial weight loss.

I have dieted my entire adult life. Dieting was always the same - severe restriction in calories with no real plan. Two things always happened:

1. My body would rebel against the deprivation and I would binge. I would feel out of control and horrible, like a loser. I would just give up.
2. I would reach a goal weight and return to the unhealthy eating habits that made me heavy in the first place.

The cycle of restriction/unhealthy eating took me from 140 lbs at age 18 to 200 lbs at age 35.

This time, I decided at the very beginning, that my goal was long term. I planned how I was going to maintain my weight loss before I even started losing weight. I looked at how I ate and changed what I normally ate so it would be healthy but something I could stick with (brown rice for white rice, whole wheat tortillas for plain, whole wheat pasta, more veggies, cooking with less butter, more whole foods, no processed foods).

Maintenance is exactly the same - I still menu plan and grocery shop 2+ times a week. I still keep a food journal, still count calories (although I allow myself maintenance level calories). I still weigh one time a week and take measurements once a month. I still don't eat fast food, processed foods, fried foods. I still avoid alcohol (except for the occasional glass of red wine).

Exactly the same - been maintaining one year, the longest I've ever maintained weight loss in my life!

My maintenance is a little different from my initial weight loss, but only in that I don't keep a food journal anymore and I eat a little more. I still exercise the same as I did when I was losing, and I still try to make all my food choices healthy ones, and I still get on the scale every morning. I have one cheat meal per week (I usually go out with my fiance on Saturday night and get whatever I want), just like when I was losing, and I will not go out to eat any more than that. When I was gaining I went out seriously all the time.

I only sort of plan my menu for the week. I always eat the same breakfasts -- well, I have about three breakfasts that I can choose from, but they are easy and I know exactly what a cup of multigrain cheerios looks like in the bowl without having to measure it. I pick out about three or four recipes on Sunday before going to the grocery store (I am working my way through back issues of Cooking Light!), which I will make for dinner during the week, and lunch is almost always leftovers from one of those dinners.

Actually, this is kind of funny, but something that's helping me stay on track is taking fiber supplements. I started taking them (Citrucel, the powder you mix in water) twice a day on a doctor's orders (unrelated to weight loss), and I think it helps me a little with my appetite in addition to just keeping things moving through my system.

I'm no expert on long term maintenance, as I only hit my goal weight last month, but so far there's pretty much no change. I've completely changed the way I live my life in terms of exercise (I do some) and diet (I eat loads of healthy stuff now instead of limited amounts of junk), and I just couldn't imagine going back to what I used to do. Pizza, burger and chips just doesn't even appeal any more compared to what I eat now. It's not a weight issue any more, although eating right is obviously going to help me maintain. I just want to make my diet and my lifestyle as healthy as I can, to give my body the nutrients and vitamins that I need, and the exercise that will help stave of medical problems other than obesity.

I am aware though that even though my diet is generally clean and nutritious I still need to watch portions and I still need to burn it off. There is no easy ride and there never will be. But my life has changed so much that at least I enjoy what I'm doing now and am confident that I'll want to stick to it.

Hello,

I reached my goal weight in December and have lost ten pounds since then. I got my life time in the 80's and have come back every year or two. This time, it's been different, I didn't reach goal and go off plan. I'm doing core and enjoying it. I've been very enthusiastic about my core cooking and am constantly trying different things. I read Meg's post on how maintenance is really no different than the losing process. I think by realizing that, I will be able to continue on this journey and look forward to reading this board.

Thanks for all your advice and information about your own experiences. You've given me a lot to think about. Quite a bit to digest.

Very interesting reading everyone and so much truth in it all.

I always have said that as you reach somewhere in the vicinity of where you need to be goal weight wise, you need to ease into a lifestyle of eating you can sustain and exercise you can sustain and eventually you stop losing weight and *arrive*. That's the point where you need to be and it may or may not be exactly what you had in mind for original *goal* but it is where you body feels good. I think the biggest mistake is overzealously losing and exercising frantically and then just burning out and not being able to continue.

I think my biggest mistake in the past is IMPATIENCE. I get into a good eating and exercise pattern and it just isn't working fast enough and then I cut back on food or exercise more and yes indeed it works, but finally I burst mentally and physically and that's when I rebound eat.

Anyway I think maintenance is sortof about the way you lose as well if that makes any sense and when you are doing things at a reasonable pace, maintenance rather happens as the loss slows and finally you kindof are at maintenance without hardly knowing it.

I will agree that journaling helps a ton - I don't write down what I eat every day, but I do at least several days a week - it's amazing to me how close to consistent calories can be around lunchtime when you are sortof in the groove.

I'd like to put in a plug for BOTH kinds of journaling ... recording what you're eating and exercising AND recording how you're feeling. I've kept food and exercise logs for years, but I haven't been as diligent about journaling my thoughts. Now, at the urging of lots of other maintainers, I'm trying to journal almost every day. Sometimes my entries are looooooooong; other times, just a sentence or two. Sometimes I pose questions to myself; sometimes I rant; sometimes I whine; and sometimes I validate decisions I've made. It's amazing. As many others have said, sometimes I'm totally surprised at what pours out of my pen, seemingly of its own volition. Feelings I didn't even know I had pop up on the page. I can't recommend it enough as both a losing and a maintenace strategy.

This is exactly what I am hoping for. Exactly what I am preparing for. Hopefully I will know how to handle the changes. Luckily I have this forum to reach out to.

I will keep the jounaling in mind also. Perhaps I should keep some kind of record to reflect on and understand myself better.

Hi--I'll just jump in here to say that in my experience, maintenance is much, much harder than the initial weight loss phase. I've learned (through trial and error) that I HAVE to weigh myself at least once per week to fight the demon of denial, and I have to journal all my food. Sounds (and is) obsessive but to me it's simply survival. There's a point at which you realize that these new habits ARE your new life, and not just temporary. You also realize that you can't ever eat "normally" again, depending on how much weight you've lost.

Having said all of that, I wouldn't trade my new health and fitness for all the twinkies and ice cream in the world. Good luck to you!