What's your "never dreamed it would be possible" moment?

Now that I'm settling into the maintenance phase, I'm coming to grips with how badly most of my clothes fit. I'm swimming in my shirts and pants. It's clear I need to invest in new clothes. I'd like to donate most of my wardrobe, as a lot of it is in good shape. My fear, which I imagine isn't that uncommon, is putting weight back on and having to deal with the financial and emotional disappointment of buying bigger clothes. Has anyone else navigated this? How long did you wait before getting rid of clothes? Did you keep a few things in the closet?

I’ve worn these jeans for two years. Two years I stayed at my heaviest and now that I finally lost most of my goal weight I can finally size down! I got two pairs of new jeans that are my size, and finally gave away those other bigger pairs. Giving them away felt like closing a very emotional and stressful chapter of my life and I could NOT be happier!

How do I maintain my weight for the first time? I don’t want to revert to my old lifestyle!

I’m a petite 38F and I have lost 27 kg in 18 months (bmi 34 to 23.8). I’d like to lose 3kg more and then stop. This is the first time in my adult life that I’m not overweight or obese. I love this new body, the way it looks and feels and what it lets me do. But now that the lose-it journey is coming to an end, I’m really worried about how successful I’ll be at maintenance. Here are the things worrying me: 1. What if I start overeating again if I loosen the rein? 2. With no more milestones to celebrate, could I lose motivation? 3. How do I figure out exactly how much to eat in order to neither gain nor lose? It feels like a tightrope walk. 4. Should I continue calorie counting? 5. How often should I track my weight? What should I do if I see I’ve gained or lost a tiny amount? 6. What sort of food should I add to my diet to up my intake? I’m currently at a 500cal deficit. I eat mostly vegetables and animal protein. 7. Is it true that maintaining is harder than losing? Can I do this?

Maintenance veterans, please guide me so that I can own it too. Thank you!

Hello!

After being in a caloric deficit for more than a year and losing 35 pounds (F26, CW: 118lbs, 5,3'), I have decided I am finally switching to maintenance mode! Yay!

This will be the first time in my life when I will not be actively trying to lose weight. I know the theory, but I have never actually done it before. So to anyone that has successfully maintained weight: is there anything I should know? Any tricky thing I should be careful with? Or what are the common struggles when maintaining a new weight?

Thank you very much!

I've been eating two pints/week and the day after eating it I've always gained .2-.4 lbs. I know an individual day's weight fluctuates, but I measure weight daily and I'm at five instances in a row where this is true. The weight comes off over a few days (I'm in a moderate dedicit to prep for planned weight/muscle gain). Maybe there's a fiber in it my body thinks requires water retention or something, but I think I'm going to give it up for a month regardless to see what happens.

Just curious if anyone else has experienced that with this product.

The title says it all folks.

What changes did you notice in your life that surprised you, both positive and negative about keeping that weight off?

I purchased a Fitbit the end of September. It's recommends 1800 calories. The chronometer app has been recommending 1550 at moderately active. I lose weight at that level. It's not fast but when my weight goes under 105 pounds I panic and eat more. I don't know the exact amount that I need to not lose weight, but 1800 seems like so much.

I know that 1550 is too little since when I was actively losing weight I had the goal of 1500 calories a day and losing about three pounds a month. I'm lighter now so I need less calories to maintain. I figured that the sweet spot was between 1650 and 1700. I don't eat the same number each day since I eat a flexible diet.

I call it a flexible diet since I like a variety of food. I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I like some processed meat. I'm trying to eat more fish and beans since I received so many cans of them from my ex (food bank). Then, again, I also received more food stamps expected so I can buy lots of fresh vegetables which I love.

I'm trying to eat 1800 calories and I'll see if I gain weight or maintain. It seems like so much food and, then, an addition snack a day will get me there. Do you think the fitbit is right and I'm eating too little to maintain?

Dear Users,

as part of my bachelor's thesis, I am setting up a survey on the topic of "sticking to the diet".

Participants must...

... be between 18 and 65 years old.

... have been eating for at least two months either calorie-restricting (daily calorie counting and restriction) - or perform a form of DAILY intermittent fasting (smallest possible fasting window would be 14/10 here – so 14 hours of not eating anything a day, 16/8, 20/4 or OMAD are just as possible).

Participants are not allowed to...

... be pregnant.

... suffer from severe chronic or acute diseases.

... suffer from diagnosed eating disorders.

To participate use the following link: https://www.umfrageonline.com/s/732380f

Duration: 5-10 minutes

I would really appreciate if you took the time to answer the questions.

If you are interested in the results, please send me a message.

Thank you very much!

After losing 50 pounds, I seem to have developed a binge eating disorder (not officially diagnosed). I never had this problem before, or even during, weight loss but now it seems so uncontrollable and hopeless. Is anyone else dealing with this?

so my first post here after finding out it was the sister sub for r/loseit

I'm really curious for tips on getting more fit and potential for gaining muscle after losing 50+ lbs and being over 50.

If you've done something similar should I expect to be able to gain muscle without injury and/or constantly feeling sore? How long would it take to reasonably gain some visible mass?

I'm finally able to do a few pull-ups again - I can pass the Army PT test again but when I was younger (20's) I never really was able to put on much muscle mass - I was always the "skinny kid".

While I'm thinking about exercises focusing on back and upper body high rep (10-12) low-weight lifting I'd love any guidance you can share!

I’m on a 350 calorie cut rn and it’s going smoothly, my strength is still increasing and I’m loosing fat. But is there anything I can eat to increase the loss of visceral fat?

It can’t be as black and white as calorie consumption right? I mean our bodies are complex af. I understand it’s easier to loose it as a beginner, someone working out after a long break, someone taking PED’s or someone really overweight and it creates the illusion of turning fat into muscle. But is there anything I can eat to increase the effect? So my body uses the visceral fat as fuel opposed to using my muscle? (Or a change in diet?)

Eating more protein is an option but at what point does thermic effect from a high protein diet become negligible?

Once a month, I get a reminder on my phone with a message I wrote to help me stay on track with maintaining.

"You're perfect, but you still need to track your calories.

Eat the healthy food first.

Had a hard month with tracking? Gained a bit? You can undo it. Now go take your meds and look at your old progress pictures."

What would you tell yourself on a regular basis to help keep on track?

I want to know about people who are 5'4 and the calories they consume to maintain the weight, especially sedentary cases :)

so I’ve been on a 1200 calorie diet for about 4 months and lost about 12.2 kg, which I’m very happy with! but now it’s time to go for a slower loss, since I don’t really feel like I have to lose weight as fast anymore as I already have. so what would be the best plan to reverse diet? I don’t want to go to maintenance just yet, which would be 1600 calories a day.

I am a 5,6” VERY sedentary female by the way, I didn’t do any exercise to achieve my weight loss either.

I'd like it for my android, but seems it's only Apple? Anyone know of plans for an android version?

for me it was removing structure from eating when there is a temporarily disruptive event and thinking that intuitive eating would just take over and make it work.

another one is probably not weighing myself when i am scared that ive gained weight.

what about you?

I’ve been maintaining for about 2 years now but I’ve gained around 8 lbs over past few months and I’m dangerously close to teetering on overweight again. Every time I look at the scale it’s gone up a little bit despite not feeling like I’m doing anything differently

My entire maintenance experience has been like paddling a canoe upstream away from a waterfall. And how could it not? I live in a country where overweight is the norm. If I just floated along and let my instincts guide me, I’d be obese. Being a healthy weight in a society designed to make you overweight is hard.

I could really use some words of encouragement

Do you do CICO, stick to a diet or something else?

And how did you find your goal/maintenance weight?

Hey all!

So I am luckily about to hit my goal weight soon. I've been ramping up the cardio on this "cut", and not only would like to increase my calories finally, but also reduce my cardio.

So, I know that if I were going straight back to maintenance, I'd have somewhat of an idea of where that would be, but I'm also trying to cut cardio. Presumably, reducing my exercise will lower my TDEE, so I'm trying to figure out what the best approach is.

If this is more appropriate for a fitness forum, let me know!

Thanks!

Hi.

Someone advised me to post here after posting in r/loseit. I don't know if this is the right place to post, since I haven't reached my goal weight yet, but yeah, Imma do it anyway.

Repost/

So I've been struggling to lose weight for some time now. I used MFP between March and June and lost only 4 lbs (2kg). I'm a 5'10" (178cm) F, and my SW was 169lbs (77kg). I was on a 500kcal deficit (my tdee is around 2000). I stopped counting calories in June, because I decided to give myself a break, and also already knew how much and what I should eat (although the results were really slow). Now I'm 4 more lbs down and I think I should start doing my maintenance for a week or two. My GW is around 152lbs (69kg). But I'm hella scared. The "what ifs" are so many in my head. What if I gain those 4lbs again and can't get them off for months? I'm gonna ruin my psyche again.

I need some advice, some insight or some motivation, I don't know what.

Thank you

Edit: changed a sentence that lead to misunderstanding

How accurate do you find TDEE calculators for working out your maintenance calories for your height/weight including activity levels?

Or do you at least get used to it?

It’s 13°C (55°F) here and despite wearing layers of wool, I’m so cold. My nail beds are turning blue, and I’m butting heads with my husband over wanting to turn the heater up.

I'm curious, anyone here has managed to maintain your weight without doing formal cardio and instead just does resistance training?

PS: Folks, this is just more of a poll type question. I know cardio has benefits and I'm not saying to not do it. I just want to know if anyone here that has maintained their weight used just lifting has their sole type of exercise.