One year out @ Goal.. How to do Maintenance??

Well I'm (one year 4-23-13) out and I hit my goal of 175 lbs.   I started off at 346 lbs and  I now weigh 169 lbs...

My question to all the vets and people that maintain now is what do you do different?? Any tips would be great!!

I go to the gym 5-6 days a week for about 2 hours and I talked to my NUT yesterday, she changed all my numbers around I was getting in 700-900 calories, 20-30 grams of fat, 60-70 grams of protein, tried to stay under 40 grams of carbs which was kind of hard some days...

Now she told me to do 1500 calories, no more than 50 grams of fat, 80-100 grams of protein, and 160 carbs... DOES THAT SOUND RIGHT TO SOME OF YOU , DOES ANYONE HAVE THOSE TYPES OF NUMBERS? I'm 5'9 @ 169 lbs

In my mind I will have to get use to upping my stats as I'm so use to staying under 40 and between 700-900 calories. I could get to 155-160 lbs but I deff wouldn't want to go any lower so I need to find a balance of what I can eat/workout and still stay the same weight.  I'm not going to lie it scares the **** out of me b/c my whole life I've gained, gained, lose some and gained NEVER have I had to maintain so I need all the help I can get LOL 

Thanks Jennifer

Maintenance looks different for everyone.  Unfortunately there is no one size fits all answer.  I probably wouldn't recommend upping your calories as drastically as your nut recommends all at once, but over time you may find that you can eat that much and maintain just fine.  I probably eat that many calories (I don't really track much at all anymore), and I'm only 5 feet tall.  I know I could weigh less if I ate less or got to the gym more (currently I don't do any formal exercise plan), but for now things are working for me and I'm pretty happy with where I am.  Any time I lose more weight it doesn't come off the places I'd like it to and I just look disproportional so I've kind of just decided to stay where I am.  I wear a size 2/4 on the bottom and s/xs on top, so I'm quite pleased.  I like that I don't currently have to watch what I eat too closely which makes life with two toddlers a bit easier.  I really just try to be good most of the time and don't stress about the occasional cookie.  But, like I said, it will look different for everyone, you need to find what works for you.  I would just make changes slowly and try to find your sweet spot.  Good luck!

It takes some time.  I am almost a year out and I still fly by the numbers.  Right now my weight has been back up and staying up - see MF post for details - so I cut back to 600 a day till it comes off.  Usually when I see fluctuations I try to ride them off until it becomes clear that its a trend.  If I am below my maintenance range I may add in a few more calories.

I maintain much lower than it seems I should be.  I usually maintain on 1100 to 1300 calories a day.  That gives me 3 good meals and two quest bars during mid morning and mid afternoon.  SOmetimes I may have one for desert.

The key to maintenance is to not get carried away with the increased freedoms.  Mind what you have learned, save you it can (from regain).  Learn to listen to your body.  What is it telling you?  Maintain all of the habits you learned during weight loss.  Weigh yourself daily or weekly.  Record it, look at the trends.  Is it going up?  Down?  Staying level?

For me the hardest part of maintenance has been learning to trust myself to manage my weight.  Honestly, every time I gain a little and battle it back down helps me in that way.  I learn a little bit more that this is my new life, I achieved it, and I can hold onto it if I choose to.

Congrats on hitting your goal.  The first thing I would do in maintenance is start increasing calories in 100-calorie increments per wee****il you start gaining weight.  Then stop :-)  I would experiment to find the right protein and fat levels, and I would definitely experiment with carbohydrate levels.  I personally found that I could increase my protein and fat intake without a problem, and I could even increase my starchy vegetables and whole grains without any issues.  But when I started increasing the sweet carbs (whether they were protein bars or shakes or fruit or artificial sweeteners or whatever), I'd just want more sweets.  Chocolate (even if sweetened with stevia) will kill me if I let it.  So just something to look out for. 

Your exercise sounds great.  It's vital for maintenance.  Do you do 2 hours per day for 5-6 days per week?  Or is the two hours cumulative for the week?  If it's per day, that's a lot - good for you!

Having some form of tracking for your weight and what you eat is pretty critical in the beginning.  After all, you need to know how your weight reacts to the amount of calories you're having that week.  Later in the game, I have to admit that I've been playing at not tracking my food quite so much, but I weigh daily, so if that goes up beyond my allowable range, I can reign it in pretty quickly.

Those are the basics that I can think of.  Food-wise, maintenance does not look (or feel) much different from weight loss, but it's an entirely different head game.

Good luck!

Fiona

P.S. One of the first things I did when I found this board was to go all the way back to the beginning - from the very first post (by dianne, by the way) and read every single post all the way back to the present.  I learned A LOT from that.

Thats a good idea might take a while thou lol thanks :)

it will take you time to work up to those maintenance eating goals. don't try to jump to 1500 right away. work up to it. and the carbs sound a little high but i wouldn't substitue my uneducated opinion for that of a professional.

read through old threads in this group as there are many about successful maintenance habits - especially by frisco and elina.

welcome to maintenance. you might accidently lose a little more weight but don't worry too much. be sure to keep the protein up there.

diane

Thanks...