How tight of a rein do you keep on your weight in maintenance?

For the present time, I'm just trying to maintain my weight and not particularly trying to lose.

For a bunch of reasons, I've not been tracking much at all, and have been eating pretty much whatever I feel like. Basically, doing intuitive eating.

I currently weigh myself 2-3 times a week, and I find a lot of fluctuation over time. So I don't stress if my weight goes a pound or two above the weight I'm trying to stay below.

If the weight stays high for 2 readings in a row, I buckle down. I get a lot more focused on tracking, hitting/exceeding protein and water goals, and cutting out foods that aren't very nutritious until my weight drops to at least the middle of my acceptable range. Then I loosen up a bit again.

I'm sure I'll figure out my ebb & flow as time progresses and I may still do a push later to hit my original target goal.

But I thought it would be interesting to find out from the vets...

1. How faithfully do you track intake in maintenance?
2. How often do you weigh?
3. How much of a gain prompts you to make changes in your intake?

Not a vet- but have some time under my belt..

How faithfully do you track intake in maintenance?

i track every meal every day is my fitness pal and still monitor my calories (~1000) and carbs (~80 or less)
How often do you weigh?

daily

How much of a gain prompts you to make changes in your intake?

This is where I needed to take a different approach. The daily weights fluctuate to much for me to say if I'm up 3#s I need to reign it in. So my preferred maintenance BMI is 31. When I'm outside of that BMI I know I need to do better. I'm not at my preferred currently,I'm at 32.something, so I'm working on it.

I still track everything I put in my mouth, and I still weigh myself every day. I am paranoid about gaining weight - it happened so many times in the past, and after losing over 200 lbs, I am not going to be obese again!!

as for number 3, the first year in maintenance 145 lbs was my "oh crap" level, when the alarm bells would ring and it would be all hands on dec****il I dropped back below that.

the last few months my weight has crept up into the high 140s. I am now convinced it's the 5-15 lb "bounce back" that a lot of people have, since I'd been eating the same amount of calories that I'd eaten for over a year (c. 1700/day). I've since cut back to c. 1500 kcal/day, but it's still a struggle - although my weight has dropped a little. I guess 150 is my new "oh crap" level (my normal BMI range goes up to 154), but I'd love to get back down below 145. I'm just not sure I'm willing to drop below 1500 kcal to do it (so there's that...)

your method should work as long as you're weighing 2 or 3x a week and jumping on any gain right away. I'm just so worried about losing control of my weight again that I'm kind of obsessed with it...

I weigh myself every day. I anticipate fluctuations of 3 lbs +/- any given day. If it gets to be more in the plus direction, then it is time to start measuring and tracking again. I haven't been, mainly because I already know what or how much I can eat, and I am lazy that way. So far I've only gone up over 3 lbs once.

Overall, my weight will change in the 3 lb range either way due to a good day of exercise, or two days without dropping a deuce. So far it has worked out very well.

I'm not "in maintenance" yet, aside from the part where I'm maintaining the weight I've lost so far.. but my intention is to weigh myself as close to daily as possible for the rest of my life. I know that I need that awareness. I know that lacking that awareness is one of the many things that let me get to the weight I was when I started this process. Even now, I know that the times I want to not weigh myself are because I don't want to face the number I'll see - and I NEED to face that number.

I so hear you with the "not weigh myself because I don't want to face the number I'll see." I had years of years of not getting on the scale just because that made my actual weight to real to me. If I've had a few days of bad food choices, I have to fight with myself to get on the scale. Most times I win and get on there just to keep myself accountable even though I know what it will say. It keeps it real and I know I have to buckle down. Today is one of those days. Work was giving out ice cream from a local ice cream shop (the best in the area) as a thank you for a big project recently completed. I caved and got a scoop of Reese's. It was so good, but already I'm not feeling quite right. That rotten fat-girl brain got me again!

The first few years the body takes care of weight for you. Then bounceback happens and you have to work at keeping weight off. I worry about a one pound gain if it is one pound over my goal.

Some people never have bounceback. The other 99% do. It is about 20 pounds that happens quickly during year two-three. It happened to me with no change in calories or eating habits. It is a fight to get it back off.

Do you think this is true of VSG too? I wonder since we don't have malabsorption if I have a real sense of what it takes to maintain my current weight or if it will get harder over time.

It will be easy at first and get harder over time.

I weigh daily. I have always been a big fluctuater in weight, so I always had a 5lbs spread that was OK in general. Would pull back when I was above it. I would say my maintenance was +/-165 and 170 was my oh crap number. Not that I didn't occasionally pop over 170, but didn't stay there. I have been mostly over 170 the last 5 months. 10lb-ish regain depending on the day. A lot has happened, Thyroid crash in September, Shoulder surgery in October with 6 weeks in a brace...and some other stuff health and nutrition related as well.. so being kind to myself but trying to figure out the mystery that is me. Don't feel I'm off the rails at all, but sometimes things change and you have to shift. Trying to figure out the shift. I have been in Maintenance 2 years.