Weigh-Ins are on MONDAYS - Updated July 3, 2017

Surgery Date: October 20, 2009:

Saturday, November 19, 2011

How Maintenance is Different than Losing

I would like to send a big shout and thank you to Dawnya who inspired me to do this post. 

If you haven't visited Dawnya's blog, please stop by and say "hi."

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Maintenance is NOT losing.

Losing is NOT maintenance.

No one ever told me about what maintaining my weight would be like. 

This is uncharted territory for me.

I never knew what it would take to maintain my weight because in the past I would lose about 25 lbs and then gain it all back.  Repeatedly.  A very viscous and frustrating cycle.

What I ate and my exercise choices when I was losing is different than what I currently eat and my exercise choices in maintenance.

However, what I learned when I was losing has helped me to better understand what I need to do to be successful at maintaining my weight. 

Confusing, right?

Well, since I love a fancy color-coded spreadsheet, I created this one to explain it: (Click on the picture to make it BIG):

My summary of the above:  I eat more carb-type foods now (and more of them) but I exercise more to make up for it.

Sure, there are many different ways to achieve weight maintenance, but for me, this seems to be working pretty well.

9 comments:

  1. I think this definitely shows that all of us are different. When I hit goal, my eating habits didn't change dramatically (I still don't do breads, etc...), I wasn't so fervent in my exercise and my calorie intake stayed the same (around 1200). We do what is right for us on our own journey, but hopefully everyone realizes that there is no one rule that applies to everyone.

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  2. This is so interesting, my BFF Robyn and I have talked, while I think I may be able to relax on exercise a bit, I currently workout 8 times per week, I was thinking maybe scaling back to 5 and adding more strength training for maintenance.

    I have a feeling that like Steph J, high carb foods will still be rather limited for me. I just know how carb sensitive I am.

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  3. You're probably right about the number of calories you can eat now. Once you hit maintenance, your calorie intake can go up. In WW, I was able to add back about 6 points (under the old system) per day. I think it amounts to about 500-600 extra calories to maintain my weight (140 at the time). I was playing around with My Fitness Pal the other day and to maintain 140 lbs I think it said I needed around 1850 calories but if I wanted to lose 1.5 lbs a week, I needed to eat 1200 calories. To lose 1 pound a week, I can eat 1340 calories. So I think that's why I'm losing weight slowly right now too. At 153, I'm just at a point where eating 1200 calories a day is only going to help me lose 1-1.5 pounds a week. Last time (8years ago) I got to this weight, I got the flu to get to 142 lbs but once I got there I stayed there for 2 years.

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  4. Interesting... I like the way you showed us. Definitely some things to consider, especially for those still in the "losing" phase.

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  5. Great info. Thanks for posting it!

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  6. That was a neat comparison chart, thanks for sharing with us.

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  7. Working pretty well is an understatement ... you are working it fabulously. As always, thanks for sharing !

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  8. I love seeing how you did it, it gives others great tips and ideas.

    These are so important. Miss you!

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  9. Thanks for sharing this information. It's always good to understand the success of others.

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