Is maintaining harder than losing?

[silverwalker]

What a lovely Labor Day morning.  I am looking forward to another month of maintaining my hard fought goal.  Some days it seems easy and on others it is definitely a losing battle.  I know I have a long history of using food for comfort and have to substitute new ways of living.  I love the success that tracking food and exercise have given me.  I actually cried when my BMI was in the normal range for the first time in my adult life.

Sometime in my life I learned to reframe my self talk.  So a less than stellar food day becomes a learning opportunity.  What was it that triggered my appetite?  Was I actually hungry or was it food for comfort or entertainment?

I am going to use part of this weekend to list other ways to socialize that do not involve eating.  

[USAF-Larry]

@silverwalker, I guess the answer is "Yes, and no". As you note, there are good days, and there are bad days, but there are a lot of okay days, too.  The key to maintaining your weight is lifestyle changes that result in good averages. Everyone will "cheat" once in a while, but will make up for it subsequent days. You know what your "average" caloric intake is to maintain your current weight, and you can adjust your eating schedules so that over the week your daily eats to fit into those averages.  Soon, very soon, it becomes a habit and no longer a challenge.  Just keep on stepping!

[A_Lurker]

I think about this from time to time myself.  I likely had an obese BMI as a teenager and I'm pretty much lighter than when I first went off to college.  I've managed to get slightly lower than I am now, but for various reasons (mostly illness) have slid back up.  I'm 50 now, so any bad habits are well set.  I suspect for me, but not everyone, I will always have to monitor my intake.  I know some people who lose weight can slip into a more healthy routine, but I don't think I'll be one of them.

The research is somewhat depressing, only around 20% of people who lose 10% or more of their bodyweight are successful at keeping it off for more than 1 year.  Oddly enough, using that criteria I could be considered one of them.  My initial weight loss (10% being 41 pounds I've kept off for more than a decade).  Unfortunately I did lose more and most of that came back.  I did manage to keep myself from regaining that 10%.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.long

Some long winded information, but it shows that it can be done.  You can be one of them.  I've seen some people suggest that you have a trigger point and weigh yourself with the same frequency that you used to lose weight (mine is daily) and when I do get to a goal weight (yet to be determined as how do you pick one when you've never been a correct weight) I will likely continue to weigh myself every day for at least 5 years.  I will likely continue to track my food intake and my calories burned.  To be fair I'm getting to a point where I'm eating roughly the same calories for breakfast and lunch (and I make 100 calorie snack packs that I keep in my desk).  At some point I could likely just track my dinner and after dinner snacks and maintain.  For me that's well over a year away so I'll figure it out when I get there.

I don't mean to make it sound unattainable.  However, I do think for people who have always been overweight there needs to be more vigilance than most.  If you originally had a good weight, then getting back to it and maintaining it may be easier.  For those of us who can't ever remember being the correct weight it just requires more effort.  I do believe it can be done.

[GershonSurge]

I met my intial goal weight of 172 pounds on July 15th. I decided to maintain between 170 and 172. My eventual goal is 165. I stopped above my eventual goal because I was afraid of going too far below it. My first excursion above 172 was yesterday morning at 173.1. I was back at 171.9 this morning. My lowest weight was 168.2.

Those who have lost a lot of weight already have the tools to maintain their weight. Personally, I like to step on the scale each morning. If I'm near my upper limit, I do the same things I did to lose weight. If I'm near the lower limit, I either increase my intake or reduce my exercise. It really is that simple, but it's not easy for some. 

Don't be afraid of the 20% success rate. Fewer than 20% of people are successful at anything they attempt. For instance, I'd guess that fewer than 20% of the people who start to train for a marathon or other race actually run it. The same sort of thing is true for those who start piano lessons, weight lifting, etc. To put it another way, it's easy to be in the top 80% in any activity because 80% of the people don't really WANT to do it.

Let me use an example from one of the times I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut. Someone said, "I'd like to know Hebrew like you do." I knew this person had been "studying" for seven years and still didn't know the alphabet. I thought to myself, "No you don't or you would study it as hard as I did." These eventually led me to the conclusion that nobody is better than anyone else. We just apply ourselves to different areas.

In my experience, it has been easy to lose sight of my weight once I achieved my goal, and the weight would creep up again. "Oh well, it's only a couple pounds. I can lose that," I'd say to myself helping myself to another helping of food. Next thing I knew, I gained 20 pounds and had to start over. Not this time as I am prioritizing the skills I learned to lose weight to maintain my weight. Even a tenth of a pound over my upper limit is reason to go back on my losing weight way of eating.

[SunsetRunner]

Personally weigh daily (to know where the trend is), if creeping up a bit (body fat), automatically cutting back a bit, if the trend is stable, knowing everything goes fine, if it goes down to much, knowing could eat a bit more and keep a eye on the trend.. adjusting if needed..

Knowing there are natural fluctuations, the trend matters most. Not getting discouraged if the scale one time says 20% body fat and another day 14% for example since holding onto more water or less water than normally, there can be food remnants left inside the body, which can add up to weight a bit (a few pounds) in case being constipated..

If weighing daily, it's unlikely gained a few pounds of body fat in a day.. if weigh is up a few pounds, it's natural fluctuations..

It's not possible to be at a fixed weight number, but aiming being in a healthy weight / body fat % range,..

Possible using trendweight to see where the trend goes..

https://trendweight.com/

If weight trend is the same, looking at body % trend it decreased and muscle mass increased, being leaner at the same weight though body % loss being likely compensated with increase in muscle mass.

[emili]

Let me answer it a different way. Most people do not make lifestyle changes to eat less and move more. They go on a "diet" and an exercise regime that someone prescribed for them. A trainer, tv ad, book, nutritionist, fitbit community, etc. They have a set of rules for a prescribed period of time and if they follow the rules there will be weight loss. Eat this not that, do this not that. One day you wake up and you weigh your goal. Now, what rules do you follow? Did anyone give you the rules after the rules? Do you know what to eat and when to move? Having been on rules for so long - one starts to flounder around. They remember a cheat day months ago and remember not gaining more than a few ounces so that must be OK. They are tired today and don't really want to go work out. Not losing anymore, so one day won't hurt. No rules- making them up as you go along. Before you know it, ten pounds are back. Now, you can go back to the rules- yay! So the yo-yo starts or gains beyond the losses. The key to keeping it off is never treat your food choice or activity like a diet. Its just the way it is from this moment forward. Constantly working the numbers so you know how much to eat- not what to eat. Working the numbers to know which activity to do- not if an activity should be done. Lifestyle- not rules. I changed my life almost three years ago and never looked back.

[AndyDandyPandy]

Statistically more people gain the weight they lost back than the ones who is able to maintain it. That's why it's important do something that you can do for the rest of your life. For example counting calories and having a daily step goal to keep yourself active. 

On the reality maintaining is easier than losing. But people fail to maintain because they're going back to their old habits: sedentary, eat whatever whenever, not health conscious anymore.

To maintain and be healthy I think it is life, not for a year or two.