Quote:
Originally Posted by EagleRiverDee
I know how to lose. I have no idea how to maintain.
I have total confidence that you'll learn what works for you.
I've heard that statistic too, and it can sound disheartening. I suspect a major reason many people regain is they go back to how they used to eat. Or at least change their diet *too much* from how they ate while losing. Although large weight loss reportedly slows the metabolism for at least several years after its occurrence, I don't think that's what causes the regain for most people.
Maintenance is a lot like losing weight imo, just with more wiggle room for occasional feasts. Maybe an additional snack a day, or dessert a few times a week, or a couple more drinks on the weekend. The calorie difference between losing and maintaining often isn't all that much, so the lifestyle is pretty much the same. Losing one pound a week is a daily 500 calorie deficit. If someone's using exercise to help achieve that, that's an even smaller difference between their calories while losing and maintaining. Losing and maintaining are very similar lives. I think that's why so many people regain--they think of them as radically different, either "on" or "off" a diet.
Now the lifestyle when I
gained...that was a whole other monster and one that would most definitely cause me to gain if I were to live it again. For me, that was no exercise, hardly any activity at all actually, and low fiber/high'ish processed carbs. I wasn't even eating that many calories, just a couple hundred more a day than I needed to maintain, and that life put over 40 pounds on me in two years. I have no desire to return to that. The change in my eating was bc of IBS and that's much better for me now
, and the slothfulness was due to undiagnosed anemia as well as going from an active job to a sedentary one. I know going forward that I can't ever let myself get that inactive or I'll gain. Not to mention how unhealthy it is in other ways...
I suspect if you mentally frame maintaining as losing with a few hundred extra calories a day (and however you'd like to spend them), you'll find that losing has actually prepared you very well for maintaining.
My vacation begins tomorrow.
I probably won't be back at 3FC until October. That's unless I have a 139.something weight to report tomorrow.
I'm not expecting that though....had a high sodium restaurant lunch. Keep rocking the 130s!