MadameLaMinx
Gold Member
I think we would all get along better with maintaining if we knew from the outset that it doesn't always involve staying exactly the same weight.
I stopped going to group a while back now, and despite a bit of a gain while moving house, which I have since lost again, I have managed to maintain. Not by being exactly the same weight every time I get on the scales, but by going up a bit or down a bit week on week.
We are not of the sort of metabolism that will suddenly turn us into people that can eat what they like and stay the same weight year on year. We do have to be conscious of the fact that we have a built in tendency to gain weight, if we didn't we wouldnt be here.
When you are losing, you see the 3lb each way that SW has as its maintenance policy as generous, but really, its not. You can eat a big dinner that weighs that much, or more, not because its a high fat dinner, but because of the weight of the actual food, or because its a bit salty and makes you thirsty and drink more. Then you get on the scales, panic because they have leapt up, feel bad about it when there is no real reason to, and are much more at risk of a bit of a fall off the wagon. Hardly a healthy mindset, and no wonder maintaining becomes more of a struggle.
While in every other single respect SW is excellent, this maintenance bracket is very hard not to overshoot, or undershoot. Whereas Scottish Slimmers has a 7lb each way policy, which to my mind is much less pressured.
If you are at target and still losing, official advice is to eat more hexs, and increase week on week to a level where things steady off. Eventually you will reach a point where you do meet the calories in /calories burnt point, but I feel that there is an inbuilt pressure that comes from the 3lb rule that makes maintenance feel far harder than it needs to.
I stopped going to group a while back now, and despite a bit of a gain while moving house, which I have since lost again, I have managed to maintain. Not by being exactly the same weight every time I get on the scales, but by going up a bit or down a bit week on week.
We are not of the sort of metabolism that will suddenly turn us into people that can eat what they like and stay the same weight year on year. We do have to be conscious of the fact that we have a built in tendency to gain weight, if we didn't we wouldnt be here.
When you are losing, you see the 3lb each way that SW has as its maintenance policy as generous, but really, its not. You can eat a big dinner that weighs that much, or more, not because its a high fat dinner, but because of the weight of the actual food, or because its a bit salty and makes you thirsty and drink more. Then you get on the scales, panic because they have leapt up, feel bad about it when there is no real reason to, and are much more at risk of a bit of a fall off the wagon. Hardly a healthy mindset, and no wonder maintaining becomes more of a struggle.
While in every other single respect SW is excellent, this maintenance bracket is very hard not to overshoot, or undershoot. Whereas Scottish Slimmers has a 7lb each way policy, which to my mind is much less pressured.
If you are at target and still losing, official advice is to eat more hexs, and increase week on week to a level where things steady off. Eventually you will reach a point where you do meet the calories in /calories burnt point, but I feel that there is an inbuilt pressure that comes from the 3lb rule that makes maintenance feel far harder than it needs to.
