13lb to go... And then how do I maintain?

[Muttley1900]

I don't know why I'm feel so surprised about this - I weigh every Sunday morning, I see the scales moving down each week, I plot the results in myfitnesspal and have a spread sheet that anticipates my mini weight goals as well as trying some non scale victories at certain points. But, here I am today, in shock, surprised and a little bemused that I now am into my final stone of loss and that I have somehow edged into a 'normal'/'healthy' BMI range.

So, in the next 7 to 10 weeks (if I keep up this momentum of circa 1 to 2lbs loss a week) I will have hit target, which is a BMI of 23, 160lbs or just under 11 and a half stone.

So then what do I do? Well the answer is 'maintain' - but how...?

I've been thinking that I should carry on the weighing in each Sunday, to keep a close eye on any weight change and then adjust my behaviour for the following week.

I don't want to slow down (stop the exercise I'm doing, using the car instead of walking etc) because the whole point of this was for my health and yes getting the weight off is a big part of that, but keeping my heart fit is still as just as important.

So, for all of you maintainers or soon to be maintainers, how do you do it/plan to do it? Do you keep a tight reign on your intake and exercise or do you 'let yourself go' to draw back in once a month or so? I'm sure we are all different and have different routes on the maintain part of this journey, so I'm looking to find out as much as I can before my weight loss target is hit.

 

[flutterby1966]

Mutley, not sure how it works for sleevers, but I honestly find maintaining more difficult than losing.

Not the same motivation in staying the same, as when you are receiving a pat on the back for dropping the pounds each week. I carried on losing and am two stones under my goal weight. Half a stone of that disappeared when I was ill in just a week and I was still eating c 1500 cals a day. LOL ... at the moment I would love to put half to a stone back on!

Personally, I didn't just want to let myself loose so to speak as i worried about drifting back into bad habits, so i just upped my calories by a hundred a day on average from 1100-1200 a day to my current 1600-1700 a day over a few weeks. In fact as I upped my consumption my weight loss increased which is why the extra came off. I think now at c 1600-1700 I can maintain and rather than get into any really bad habits will just plod along and wait for my hols at the end of January and rely on a few pinacoladas to put on the pounds

What is your plan of action?

 

[angiemason]

i had worried about this a bit but hadn't really thought too much but maybe i should with 6 lbs left to lose. i focused so much on losing will have to work out how to get extra calories i really don't want to keep losing a lot more but maybe could cope with another stone

 

[Muttley1900]

I'm just not sure Flutterby, I suppose the answer is (for me) to keep a close check on things still and ensure that I don't start gaining (or if I do reverse it right away) but, I also don't need/want to be much smaller than the BMI goal of 23 I have set for myself.

So it sounds like I will have to increase my intake, whilst still exercising (for my health).

By how much is the guess work part though. My first guess is to increase my intake by 3500 cals a week (or around 500 a day) and keep a very close eye on the results.

It's the moving into unchartered waters that worries me...

 

[girlygirl1]

First of all, huge congratulations on having lost so much weight! Fantastic.

Maintenance is definitely harder than losing,I agree, but your progress so far has been pretty smooth and you have adjusted well. There's no reason why maintenance shouldn't go just as smoothly.

As mentioned above by another maintainer, add 100 calories back each day or every other day until you reach a point where your weight remains steady over a week or two. If it is still more or less steady - allowing for fluid fluctuations, hormones, etc - over a month or more, then I'd say you'd cracked it!

Congratulations again, and all the very best for the future x

 

[Cicca]

I firmly believe your body finds a good place to be and sticks to around there. It's normally a stage where it's not a stall but def scales not going either way for 3 months. Then you have to relax because by stressing about it can lead to being obsessive. By this stage you should have developed a sense of the good and bad, leaving you to maintain and live a great life!!

Anna x

Sent from my iPhone using WLSurgery

 

[Muttley1900]

Thank you all for your help, encouragement and words of wisdom and to help things along (and hopefully start getting my head in the right place) I've made an appointment to see my providers dietician in a couple of weeks time.

 

[JO28172]

Well I'm controlling it differently as I'm an all or nothing kind of woman so tend to have a week or two not caring as such followed by a week ortwo of strict diet to shift the gain. Wish I could be that happy medium but its just not me maintaining is tough but so long as you set parameters and don't exceed them you'll be fine. It's def time to relax a bit!

 

[Muttley1900]

Well I'm controlling it differently as I'm an all or nothing kind of woman so tend to have a week or two not caring as such followed by a week ortwo of strict diet to shift the gain. Wish I could be that happy medium but its just not me maintaining is tough but so long as you set parameters and don't exceed them you'll be fine. It's def time to relax a bit!

See, this is what I think I'd like to be like - but know otherwise - as much as I like the idea of doing what I want for a week or two and then strict diet again to get back to my place - I know this is just too near the yo-yo diet / gain rinse and repeat cycle I have been through too many years - okay it may not be the same as it would be in two week cycles as opposed to 1 year cycles, but maybe just too tempting for me to make it 3 weeks... lets call it a month.... I'll start next week... cool champagne is on special offer this month...

May I ask Jo, as you had been an avid user of myfitnesspal - do you still use it now you have reached goal? Or do you now just use your scales and say a weekly weigh in?

 

[JO28172]

I weigh on my focus weeks and only use mfp then too..the other weeks I just ditch and enjoy life! I thought it might be scary territory for me as know what you mean with yo yo but trust me I will never go back even into the 11s....so that keeps me on track! It's quite nice to have pig outs if I want them but I know they're only short term before I shock myself on the scales and kick my ass again

 

[flutterby1966]

Tbh I would love to have jos confidence to just let go (within parameters) but its as scarey as thinking of jumping off a cliff for me. Having said that, when I have gone on holiday for a week say, I have trusted what I have learnt over the past few months together with having my band as back up ... And it's been perfectly fine...only a teeny teeny gain. In honesty, when i havent counted cals, I have eaten a little larger meals then, but not snacked, and have felt fuller for longer. To do that all the time, I do think I would need another quarter of a mil fill ... After Christmas I think I may decide to just go for it and get that extra quarter mil. All power to Jo who has achieved it and a 'little Jo' too... Well jel x

 

[Jane]

I have been at goal for the last six weeks or so, so still fairly early days for me. I have set myself a goal area within 3 to 4lbs so that gives me a little flexibility.

I must admit I am not counting calories now and eating pretty much what I want to, just small quantities. As I have never dumped it would be very easy to go mad on the sweet foods, but as the saying goes, nothing tastes as good as being slim feels!

My top level is 10st and if I got to 9 st 13lb I would cut back.

 

[flutterby1966]

Well I have had a week away on a training course and now definitely know I need another fill to help me maintain without calorie counting. All booked

 

[vicky x]

This is interesting as I've been wondering the same... I had my bypass in march and I've lost 9st. When I had a check up I was told to lose another 10kg, my GP has advised just to tone up more and stop when I feel happy. Everyone around me is saying to stop now or I'll disappear and/or look ill. I'm a primark size 12 now and to be honest I have t set myself a goal, my aim was see where it took me and stop when I'm happy and above all healthy! For me maintaining with food will be ok as I don't dump on anything (!) but go to the gym 3 times a week and on the other days go for a run or a bike ride and (shock) I actually like it but also my mum has committed to a gym membership and comes with me so I feel like I couldn't stop going even if I wanted too so how am I going to maintain using food without bringing bad habits back?!

 

[Lee 77]

As long as your happy I can't see a problem chic

 

[Muttley1900]

So, I made an appointment to see and speak with my providers dietician and phycologist re this and they advised me / gave me some options to think about, which I will list here.

But PLEASE, this is info that they talked to me about, for me - you very well may have different needs to me. Some of it can be seen as fairly generic info, that a lot of us will have read here or elsewhere, but still good sound advice all the same (in my humble opinion).

So the standard health warning applies here - do not follow this, unless it concurs with your providers recommendations.

1) Recognise the challenges I face (e.g. when and why I want to eat, difference between head hunger and real hunger);

2) Develop coping tools to deal with these challenges;

3) Remember that I will have done a lot of these two things already - just so I could get to this stage;

4) There is no one size fits all when it comes to maintaining;

5) Sometimes, the body "thinks" you have lost too much weight and will fight with you to put it back on to a level (some call this the "set point" or "natural weight");

6) To deal with the set-point issue - try the following:-

a) Work out in theory how many calories you required to maintain (taking into account BMR, amount of activity etc etc);
b) work-up to this amount (don't jump straight to it) - increase your daily intake by 100 to 150 calories a day (from "good" foods) - and keep an eye on your weight - again this means keeping records of daily intake and daily exercise (my fitness pal will come into it's own again) and weighing myself once a week;
c) By far the most important thing is to keep exercising - sort of tricking the body into "thinking" that storing up fat isn't a great idea as you need all those calories each day to live okay - actually you may need to exercise a little more than you did during the weight loss!
d) continue on the higher protean diet - or "reduced carbs" food choices (again protean at around 30% of daily intake at least).

7) Personality - Recognise what got me here in the first place - my "addiction to food" why I became addicted to food - my own internal dialog when things go wrong or right for me. Interrupt this negative internal dialog as soon as possible and practice positive internal dialog and affirmations;

8) Believe in yourself, that you can do this and carry on - realise that you have the skills and know how to do it.

9) Monitor yourself! Not just your intake and exercise, but your own internal dialog and copping mechanisms - look at why you don't do what you know you should be doing;

10) External support - seek it and give it - so carry on using the forums - telling people of your successful and your not successful weeks - explore with others the reasons why - try and get out of the shame spiral... Don't do this maintenance stuff alone, you didn't lose it on your own.

Now, 4 more pounds to go and...

 

[flutterby1966]

Muttley ... Thanks for sharing. See my body is doing its own thing. As I have increased my calories ... Now at between 1500 and 1600 a day on average, I am still losing weight believe it or not. I sometimes eat the less healthy stuff to try and increase the calories but the body gets even more of a shock and seems to want to lose more. Hey ho, i will get there eventually. Got my hubby, after months of pestering, to hide my scales yesterday and I am not going to weigh my food or myself now till 1st January (silly man, no good at keeping secrets though .... What a silly place to hide my scales ... On top of a kitchen cupboard, when I spend half my life in there cooking and ironing for him) :sigh: don't you just love them!!!

 

[Muttley1900]

:sigh: don't you just love them!!!

Erm, as I am one of them I'd have to say yes.

 

[flutterby1966]

Loving yourself is important in this journey

 

[Paul-H]

Hi

With me I did not need to do anything as the amount of food I was eating post surgery was the correct amount to maintain so my weightloss just stopped when I got to target as has remained there ever since.

Paul