The FastDay Forum

Hi Caroline

Not as fleeting as you think . I joined on 5th March bringing the peace lily to brighten the place up.

Still in 2 minds. On one hand I want to treat the transition into maintenance with the same easy come easy go way I've lost the weight. On the other, a wee inner voice is shouting "For once in your life, finish something properly "

I'm a great starter but terrible finisher

Still It's one of life's nicer dilemmas to be faced with

[carorees]

So you did! Sorry @Alf...and fasting is supposed to improve one's memory too!

We joined the same day then.

I too am contemplating maintenance with some trepidation. I've been on the weight loss trail for nearly 18 months so moving to a situation where I'm not trying to hit a new low every week will be very strange.

I am currently back into attempting a bit of weight loss, but I maintained a significant weight loss for almost 10 years, so I have quite a bit of experience with maintaining.

What is most challenging is that when you get to goal you may run into some hidden thinking that believes that once you get to goal you can eat a lot more of the foods you gave up to lose. You may tell yourself, intellectually, that this isn't so. But deep inside something believes that having reached goal you get to make up for some of the deprivation that got you there.

But the hard truth is that for most of us the diet that we must eat to maintain our weight loss is only a very few hundred calories a day more than what we were eating in the last month or two of the diet. An extra piece of peanut butter toast with a generous amount of PB first thing in the morning and I'm there.

If we stalled out for any significant time near goal, maintenance intake might actually be what we are eating when we hit goal.

So it may be a good idea to pause now and then to maintain throughout the dieting journey and before you get to goal see just how tough it is to maintain at your current level and to develop the mindset of constant vigilance that it requires to maintain successfully.

For me, over time, maintenance has seen a slow oscillation up and down around my weight goal with my going immediately into diet mode once I gain 3 real (as opposed to water) pounds. My last attempt to remedy the 3 pounds failed, which is why I ended up with the 6 lbs I am working at now and trying 5:2, as I simply can't get weight off cutting daily calories anymore, as there is so little left to cut.

I would urge anyone maintaining to set a very low threshhold for going back into diet mode, because as I have learned (over and over again!) the few pounds you regain when you hit maintenance are those "last three pounds" that took you longer to lose than the 20 or 30 or 50 or 100 lbs you lost before them. So if it takes you another 2 months to lose that last 2 lbs, you will need that long to get them back off while maintaining if your weight creeps up.

To go from 55.6k to 57k in just a few days was a bit scary. Thank goodness for this tent.I really don't think that the overindulgence was really bad food wise but we did drink a lot of red wine whilst our friends were with us. I am grateful for your conversation @Alf,@carorees and @peebles. It's quite hard to know when to go into maintenance. I thought I was pitching it at the right spot for me, but wow! when I took my foot off the brake it came piling in. And you're right peebles it is taking ages to get to target too.

Very sound advice @peebles and obviously straight from the heart!

Great post Peebles. Thank you. I'll fast as normal tomorrow and think about what I'll do from next week. As you say maybe have a wee practice run before I declare myself officially in maintenance.

To go from 55.6k to 57k in just a few days was a bit scary. Thank goodness for this tent.I really don't think that the overindulgence was really bad food wise but we did drink a lot of red wine whilst our friends were with us. I am grateful for your conversation @Alf,@carorees and @peebles. It's quite hard to know when to go into maintenance. I thought I was pitching it at the right spot for me, but wow! when I took my foot off the brake it came piling in. And you're right peebles it is taking ages to get to target too.

Hey @Auriga,@Alf,@carorees and @peebles

We better make this "nearly there tent" damn comfortable then.. seems we will be here a loooong time. and possibly for people who do go to maintenance... we will need to leave the camp door ajar for them to get things back on track when they increase weight, which whilst undesirables, sounds almost inevitable.

It seems a big question is in order...

When can one consider themselves in "maintenance" and not "weight loss" mode. Maybe we never really should be a maintainer?

(this sounded like one of those Carrie typed questions on SATC)

So glad I found this tent have 3lb to reach target, and it's a struggle, these pounds do not want leave my body, they seem to be hanging on for dear life, and this has being going on since Xmas. Still doing my 5-2 and even have one of my fast days as a " juice day ". So near yet so far, so will be stretching out on one of those comfy cushions. Can I bring in a jigsaw, 1000 piece to help keep me occupied and out of mischief.

So glad I found this tent have 3lb to reach target, and it's a struggle, these pounds do not want leave my body, they seem to be hanging on for dear life, and this has being going on since Xmas. Still doing my 5-2 and even have one of my fast days as a " juice day ". So near yet so far, so will be stretching out on one of those comfy cushions. Can I bring in a jigsaw, 1000 piece to help keep me occupied and out of mischief.

i made you officially a member of this tent @jaclee in Post 1

Thank you, It will be nice to have a natter, offer support or have a rant.

It seems a big question is in order...

When can one consider themselves in "maintenance" and not "weight loss" mode. Maybe we never really should be a maintainer?
[i]

I think you have hit the nail on the head Juliana. You've summed up what I feel about losing weight this time, based on my experiences of being at my goal weight twice in the past.

Each time I've reached my goal, I've considered myself on maintenance, and immediately had a change of mindset. The first time around, 1998, I basically got away with it for a couple of years because pretty much as soon as I had become slim, I also became addicted to escaping my unhappy marriage by living down the gym, then did competitive exercise, then divorced and went clubbing three times a week and ate very little due to wanting to fit into the right clothes - plus I preferred to spend my money on taxis, booze and entry fees than food! It all went per shaped when I met hubby number two and all that stopped. I forgot that I used to be a fat person and thus, swiftly became one once more

The second time I was at goal (2003, when we got married) I just focussed on the wedding dress, and then when the day was over that was that. I thought I had enough good habits to keep me on track, but I wasn't focussed, and the weight was creeping on all the time it took me to get pregnant.

THIS time, as far as I'm concerned, my weight loss management is for life. I know that I need to consider myself to be in weight loss mode every week, but simply not in need of doing too much when my numbers are good. As my father in law once said about business, if you are not moving forward, you are in fact moving backwards. Even if I don't need to lose weight (oh hat a glorious day that will be) I will need to keep up the exercise for health and well being.

Gosh, that was awfully profound for this early in the morning! Kind of one of those days lol.

Good luck ladies.

It seems a big question is in order...

When can one consider themselves in "maintenance" and not "weight loss" mode. Maybe we never really should be a maintainer?
[i]

I think you have hit the nail on the head Juliana. You've summed up what I feel about losing weight this time, based on my experiences of being at my goal weight twice in the past.

Each time I've reached my goal, I've considered myself on maintenance, and immediately had a change of mindset. The first time around, 1998, I basically got away with it for a couple of years because pretty much as soon as I had become slim, I also became addicted to escaping my unhappy marriage by living down the gym, then did competitive exercise, then divorced and went clubbing three times a week and ate very little due to wanting to fit into the right clothes - plus I preferred to spend my money on taxis, booze and entry fees than food! It all went per shaped when I met hubby number two and all that stopped. I forgot that I used to be a fat person and thus, swiftly became one once more

The second time I was at goal (2003, when we got married) I just focussed on the wedding dress, and then when the day was over that was that. I thought I had enough good habits to keep me on track, but I wasn't focussed, and the weight was creeping on all the time it took me to get pregnant.

THIS time, as far as I'm concerned, my weight loss management is for life. I know that I need to consider myself to be in weight loss mode every week, but simply not in need of doing too much when my numbers are good. As my father in law once said about business, if you are not moving forward, you are in fact moving backwards. Even if I don't need to lose weight (oh hat a glorious day that will be) I will need to keep up the exercise for health and well being.

Gosh, that was awfully profound for this early in the morning! Kind of one of those days lol.

Good luck ladies.

That was profound. I guess the theory is why they all say "most diets don't work" and as many of us have proclaimed 5:2 or other variation of intermittent fasting is NOT A DIET BUT A WAY OF LIFE

I think if we reach our nominated goal and think we have "made it".. your right we go inot a false warm fuzzy feeling of it doesn't matter anymore what we eat or do . so then the cycle of weight gain happens again.

I first thought that if we keep thinking we need to lose weight we may become aneorexic or underweight but actually perhaps not.. assuming no psychological issues at play about our weight perceptions, then our "set point" will come into play and we will reach our true natural low healthy weight. And never become underweight.

so yes.. maybe we should never ever think we are in maintenance... and never leave this tent. lol

[carorees]

I think we can say we're in maintenance but perhaps we can call it "active maintenance" meaning that we have to monitor and adjust constantly in order to prevent gaining (or losing) weight because we're not naturally thin (like my OH) so we can never take our eye off the scale.

[carieoates]

@winsome I was fascinated by your post, thanks for sharing. And when I do get to target.......I will come back here and have a good read.

[carorees]

Whoohoo!!! Saw my goal weight (66.5kg) on the scales for the first time this morning!! Just got to get the trend line down there (currently 67kg) and I can officially enter the active maintenance phase!! I'm quietly chuffed about this: I really am nearly there!