Maintenance - so many questions!

nzmegs

Silver Member
Hopefully some you are able to give me some advice regarding what maintenance is going to be like. the first couple of weeks at least.

I have gotten the literature for the first week which details the foods I can eat in addition to my 4 packs. it really seems like lots of food - 4 packs plus a small meal - phew!

What I really want to know is:

Is the addition of a small protein based meal enough to make me put on weight? I know the aim is to stay the same, but I don't want to immediately start putting it on.

Will cravings come back immediately?

How long should I stay at level one (4 packs plus a meal)? I want to move on quite quickly as buying food on top of 4 packs is pretty expensive.

How does it feel to no longer be losing weight each week. Does the motivation stay with you are does the excitement factor start to fade?

In fact anything you can tell me about the maintenance phase and the reintroduction of food will be helpful. I feel like I can handle it - but it is still scary. I still have the fear that in three months time I will be where I started. (silly - I know!)
 
I can't answer most of your questions as I'm not there yet. However, as regards still losing weight when you add a small meal. I don't know the details of the meal you would be adding but if it means you eating less than 800 calories in total and less than 60 carbs then it's still a VLCD. To work this out you could put an example daily food intake into something like My Fitness Pal (which contains the LL packs).
 
An example for me would be 100grams of tofu, two cups of salad and some celery with a fat and sugar free dressing. Sounds like about 200 calories and very minimal carbs. So I may even continue to lose at first. The booklet says that we will still be in ketosis, so I doubt I will put on weight. But I have always been strange in that way - I am not very good with carbs at all.

I didn't know myfitnesspal did the LL packs - how useful. I might give it a go. Pity my phone is from the ark - I doubt it would cope with the app. It is a Nokia smartphone and the available apps are about as useless as the phone seems!
 
Hi nzmegs, I went through similar thoughts when I came to goal last year, I found it quite exciting but daunting , how will I cope, that's a lot to eat, here will I get enough right protein, carbs, fat etc etc from?
The first week on 4 packs and meal I felt very 'overfull' I also had challenging moments ' why am I eating this when I am full from my packs?' you do have to get through that, certainly the first week. Also I had feelings of 'omg if I eat all if that I will gain weight, surely?'
LL know what they are doing, if you keep to their program you will not gain weight. There was some discussions before about getting down to half a stone under where you want to be, before starting RTM, but there is a change of thought process and now you no longer need to do that.
For the first 3 weeks I continued to lose weight then stabilised.
Challenges for me really began at the end where there is complete choice everyday everywhere, to be honest I have good weeks bad odd days. I am now doing a 'lite' version to lose the half a stone I gained, trying very hard not to become too focussed on every meal, being 'sensible' goes without saying, but I try and have guilt free eating within reason, I found I was focussing so hard on the content for values, I was not enjoying it, and after all it's for life.
I now use myfitnespal on my phone or pc depending on where I am, entering the data before I eat, mostly, this helps me rather than just grabbing at something. On the whole this works for me.
I have set up my own recipes so when I make up batches of food, usually a large pot in the slow cooker, I freeze the rest in 'portions', so it's quick to just heat when I'm in a hurry or feeling like I might go off plan. This does not work everyday every week, and I know it's for life!

I have challenges around my old 'trigger' moments and foods, and have gone to them recently almost sabotaging myself but for what reason? Stress? Who knows, I am trying to work through it and it also helps that I have joined the management group, I have only been once so far and am looking forward to next time. It reinforced some good points, and just reminded me, how far I have come as silly as that may seem. I know when I look in the mirror that I have lost weight, but I also still have challenges when I am feeling low, where I 'focus' on the lumpy bits or how tight something looks. I try and exercise most days too, which helps, I enter that on myfitnesspal, also my SAD lamp definitely lifts my moods.

I sometimes 'forget' my LL lessons, so again, I need to remind myself what needs to be done to maintain correctly, I still do not see myself as slim, even though others tell me, I'm not sure it will ever come. I'm happy I will lose these last few pounds and manage to stay at this size 10/12 for life.
Overall, it's great how I look and feel, just little moments to deal with, which I know, I have to deal with for the rest of my life, one day at a time!

hope this helps, good luck with the next stage.
Also, I found watching Obese a year to save my life, sky 1 with Jessie pavelka is very very useful, his manner is lovely, not nasty like some of the extreme programs oh, and he is real eye candy!!!!
Jx
 
I have the myfitnesspal app too. I calorie count to msintain. Within reason, I don't mind if I go a bit under or over. It works for me and I just haven't gained back and I always know I'm eating the right amount for me
 
Thanks ladies - sorry to reply so late. This thread got moved and I couldn't find it! As you will see i am now on week one of maintenance. I am keeping a diary in that section so feel free to read there how it is going. Hopefully it will be a help to others as well.
 
So pleased for you that you've moved to maintenance! Off to read your diary now...
 
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