What are you doing to prepare for maintenance?

[Lostris]

Hi all,

Thought this might be a helpful thread for everyone nearing maintenance (on any diet) or doing the steps up on a LCD/VLCD diet (I myself am doing CD) and a bit concerned about the ''after-diet''-phase )

I think we can help eachother by exchanging tips etc. to prepare for maintenance

I myself am making lists with calories, daily menu's etc. I would post it except it's a) huge and b) in Dutch... so wouldn't really be that helpful for you all.. just thought the idea might be!

E.g. 1 wholewheat breadslice + jam = xx cals

I do this for every piece of 'topping' I liked on my bread and different types of bread and am also making dinnerlistings (for dinners we eat regularly at home), saladlists etc. I think this will make it easy for me to do a few months of caloriecounting to find a good balance for myself and to see what is healthy/good for me

I do realise this might be over the top for some people, which is fine, but it makes me feel very confident.

Anyone else have nice idea's/preparations going for maintenance?

Thanks xxx

 

[Less Rotund One]

As a total yo-yo dieter, I think that planning to maintain our weight losses is essential. Its something I have never done before and am hoping that its the key to long term weight loss.

I have moved from W8 (vlcd) to Weight watchers to get used to portion control and "calories" (in the form of points). I am finding it pretty easy to get my head round and now that I have my little calculator I think I should be fine.

I will just have to see at what point my weight stabilises so that I know how many points per day I will need to maintain my weight - it will then be easier to flex up and down as needed in the real world - always knowing that its a balancing act and that an induldgence one day needs to be balanced out by moderation the next.

I am determined (as my signature says) to maintain my losses this time. I have worked too hard to be beaten by cake!

LRO xx

 

[Lostris]

Hi,

Thanks for the response :-') I haven't been checking this forum in a bit, it seems so.... dead-ish compared to other forumparts.

I think switching to a caloriecontrolled diet like WW is also a good way to make sure you learn about calories/portion control etc but I have got tons of WW books and it doesn't really appeal to me personally ) So I will try caloriecounting without a safety net... if I fail at that I might join some cal-counting club to get my head in the right place

I know we can do it Determination is very important and it's good to see you're so determined,

xxx Lostris

 

[Less Rotund One]

Having been on the vlcd, I have stuck to lower carbs while doing WW points and using my points wisely on food that will fill me up

Still avoiding rubbish - other than a 25g bar of dark choc every other day (2.5pts) and still losing decent amounts each week

Only got 1.5lbs to go to target so hoping to get there (and stay there) by Christmas and beyond.

did have a thought today that an 8st something would be nice....

 

[wannabslim]

Hiya, I think this thread is a great idea! I'm not sure what I'm going to do for maintenance. Part of me wants to go on WW to lose another stone or so and then maybe switch to cal counting to maintain... the other part of me says I should do the CD maintenance steps. I don't really want to do the steps for 2 weeks each but I also don't want the weight to go back on, and I'm scared that if I don't do the steps, it'll all pile back on and I won't be able to stop it....


Arrrrgh! Any advice would be great xxx

 

[Jim]

That's what I liked about Atkins really. I just kept adding 5 carbs a day into my diet each week until I stopped loosing and that's pretty much where I am now. So I went from ongoing weight loss to maint in about 6 weeks.

 

[Georgiestar]

i need help in maintaining i keep putting about 7 pounds bk then looseing it again im just going to continue with excersise and see what happens.

 

[Jim]

I don't think exercise is enough Georgie, I think you need to look at what your eating and try and work out what is causing that 7lbs. What sort of time scale is this over?

 

[Georgiestar]

its over a few weeks at a time sometimes i stop going to the gym and the weight comes back but I have been watching what im eating so ive just got to continue with it, but I dont eat that much bad foods just the odd thing really and i dont really over eat!
I did gain a few pounds over christmas but its off now just hope i can continue looseing a few more pounds and that it will stay off.

 

[Jim]

I did gain a few pounds over christmas but its off now just hope i can continue looseing a few more pounds and that it will stay off.

Ah good for you then Georgie

 

[nexangelus]

7lbs is the average glycogen store for women (more for men), I think this is what the upping and downing is, depleting the glycogen store and then refilling it with lack of exercise...the only thing to do to balance this out is up your proteins and only eat complex carbs...I have found that eating more protein every day over time has increased my lean mass drastically and has also improved energy levels and balanced out the glycogen up and down thingy...

 

[Georgiestar]

wow I didnt know that, thanks!

 

[rhuba]

that is a really useful thing to know!!

thanks nexangelus for imparting your wisdom!!

 

[nexangelus]

I think switching to a caloriecontrolled diet like WW is also a good way to make sure you learn about calories/portion control etc but I have got tons of WW books and it doesn't really appeal to me personally ) So I will try caloriecounting without a safety net... if I fail at that I might join some cal-counting club to get my head in the right place

Does this mean though that you will calorie count forever? That part worries me...I no longer count calories or look at values of this and that in foods...I no longer 'diet' and maintaining your weight surely means coming off the 'diet' and getting out of diet mode altogether?

 

[KD]

I counted calories for quite a will after I reached goal. I don't now, but I'm a firm believer in it, especially if you've lost a lot of weight.

I wasn't good at portion control, and had no idea about the difference between real hunger and psychological hunger. I was nervous of not only overeating, but undereating as I didn't have the cues that told me when I should be satisfied.

It was all part of the education of normal eating...along with having an idea of what carbs, protein and fat I needed. What foods worked well for me.

I didn't want to count points or syns for a couple of reasons. One, they are 'adapted' for low fat ie: would discourage me from eating healthy fats. The adaption makes sense in a way for weight loss as it works on the volumetrics system. Lower the cals with less hunger. Since I was planning maintenance calories, I wanted a healthy way of eating, rather than an extra low fat way.

Also, calories are calories. They are the real deal. Calories are energy units...energy in vs energy out and all that. For me, checking calories had little to do with dieting. It was the scientific way of eating the right amount, rather than following someone elses idea of eating.

Also, calories are written on virtually everything, and it's likely to stay that way for the rest of my life. I didn't fancy having to work out syns or points.

I don't count calories now, but I am calorie aware. This doesn't mean I chose the lowest calorie item of food, but I'll weigh up the pros and cons of this this vs that if it's a food I have had.

Healthy eating is my main goal. Being calorie aware helps me keep the healthy eating in moderate amounts....but I don't actually count them now.

 

[slendablenda]

Thanks KD

That's the stage I hope to get to eventually. I'm just about to start week 9 of RTM with LL so I'm still getting the hang of re-introducing food and I need the safety net.
But I would get terribly bored by analysing the number of calories in every single thing I eat. I also get bored with other peoplle who constantly do. There must be more to life.
However, if it meantthe difference between staying slim or not then I would do it. I hope to eventually be able totake the common sense approach as you do and make informed choices like real people do. I also have never had apetite or fullness to regulate my eating. In the past I have always been able to eat just because I like something. So now I have "strategies" like having a drink of water instead,or a coffee, or deciding to wait an hour, usually by that time I have started doing something else anddistracted myself. Or I allow myself a non-food treat like a new magazine or a pair of earrings or something if I'm out.
Today I went in a shop on my way to work and bought 1apple, never done that before!!!!

 

[Lostris]

Does this mean though that you will calorie count forever? That part worries me...I no longer count calories or look at values of this and that in foods...I no longer 'diet' and maintaining your weight surely means coming off the 'diet' and getting out of diet mode altogether?

Hiya,

I don't plan on doing this forever no, but I need to find out what is a normal amount of food for normal not-fat people to eat before I can stop doing it

I never used to look at calories and there are small things that make so much difference caloriewise. I think it will be beneficial for me to count calories for a few months after CD to find a decent balance and lose some more weight. I was eating wayyyy too much and I need to realise what normal portions are, which things better to have than others and calories (and carbs, fats, etc) help me to decide what is best to have.

I really don't plan on dieting forever but I need to get myself into the ''slim'' mindset before I can relax. )

Hope that clears it up a bit. It's not really that hard, but I'm only just doing it so may end up finding it hard later on, and when I have a general awareness of kcal / portions etc I will do it without the kcals. )

x

 

[nexangelus]

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned exercise? This has been important for me this time round and has helped me maintain weight, put on lean mass, lower body fat percentage...I think activity of some sort is important, even walking...

 

[Jim]

I'm on Atkins maint forever, let's face it, if I go back to eating like I used to then I'm going to be over 25 stone again. That is logical isn't it.

 

[KD]

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned exercise? This has been important for me this time round and has helped me maintain weight, put on lean mass, lower body fat percentage...I think activity of some sort is important, even walking...

Yes, I think this is important too, but not so much to prevent weight gain (though it really helps), but all part of the lifestyle change).

I believe we go through a number of stages to get to our goal weights. We often start with being blissfully unaware of the problem, through knowing there's a problem but don't feel ready to make a change. Then going through the options and finding the right way for us...etc

But there's also stages in maintenance, and that's when it can get confusing on forums

When I got to goal, I had to teach myself new habits. To my surprise, I found that I hadn't suddenly woken up at goal weight, a new me.

I needed to find out how to make maintenance work. That involved calorie counting, finding the right sort of exercise, sorting out why I over ate in the first place and many more things. The calorie counting wasn't in the diet mindset, nor was the exercise. It was learning how to change my lifestyle. It's a whole new mindset.

It's only after that stage that we can move on and get into another mindset that makes our old lifestyle unacceptable, and something we really don't want to go back to.

In my case anyway, I do nothing to control my weight. My weight was only a side effect of my problems. I didn't care for my health, I used food inappropriately etc.

If I had missed the 'education' phase; the part which teaches me about healthy eating, learning to cope with why I ate incorrectly, finding out what I really wanted to do for the rest of my life, then the final phase would have been a lot more difficult.

Sort those things out by finding what is right for you, and there is no pull towards going back to our old ways.

I believe that staying in the dieting mindset, by using tools to help us control our weight (such as counting and exercise) is very hard to maintain. Useful at the beginning, but there must be the intention of moving to the last stage of a lifestyle change rather than a weight control stage.