Oh come all ye injectors, slimmer and maintaining, oh come ye, oh come ye to Thread Number Three! For all those who've hit goal, maintaining in whatever way they can / want to / aim to etc

[MargoLivebetter]

Welcome fellow maintainers to our third thread! Tis the season to be joyful and we do have reasons to be joyful, as we are still here. Not always the perfect journey and full of treats and temptations, but we'd have nothing to talk about otherwise. So hop on the Magical Maintenance Sleigh of Wonder and lets go! (Apologies to all those reading this for the first time in March! I got a bit carried away my festive season puns.)

Teaspoon a day for the first week and then up it from there.

Oh it's inulin - I haven't used that much, but Holland & Barrett suggest 1 heaped tsp up to 3 times a day, if that helps?

Thank you both

How strange. This reply was on another thread

Oushk have approved my order so happy I can see an end, probably not for another year. But an end to injections once my brain and body have been educated.

What exercise should I be doing to avoid the saggy skin and flat bottom??

Welcome @RosieBright good to see you on the maintainers thread. Are you down to goal weight now?

@Merlin23 that's good news that Oushk have approved your order.

@Blondeshavemorefun fingers crossed for the various recommendations for getting things moving!

Flat bottom? Squats, hip thrust, abductor machine, deadlifts etc. I can see a difference

@RosieBright
Saggy skin will only be helped if you replace the space formerly taken up by fat with muscle and, in my experience, it's extremely hard to build muscle on that scale and will take a long time (obvs variations based on age, genetics, gender, etc). I've been working on my muscle for about 6 months now with particular focus on abs, glutes and inner thigh (so Reformer pilates, resistance bands and weights) - it's really difficult to see any improvement at all. My arms and legs do look more defined and toned but skin in those other places hasn't noticeably become less wrinkly unfortunately. And my bum is still flat. That's just my experience, others may be having better results!

I do reformer Pilates for balance mostly. Despite the cables and resistance I don’t think you’d build enough muscle from that to notice much. I do heavier springs than the teacher suggests.

I am now seeing a difference on my bum but i think the standing abductor machine in the gym is the one making the difference but I’m now up to 130kg. You just can’t get that level of resistance from resistance bands. I also managed 150kg on hip thrust.

@MeridaBrave
I'm sure you're right. Unfortunately I can't afford a gym membership on top of my pilates class so making do with bands and dumbells at home (plus a day pass twice a month). I also started from a very low point in terms of fitness so I definitely 'feel' the impact of all of these activities on my overall strength and fitness. I'm hoping to maybe afford gym by next winter by which time I'll have outgrown my home equipment!
I don't want to downplay the impact of strength based exercising, I love it and am definitely much more toned and stronger, just that, after 6 months, it's not giving much result in relation to patches of wrinkly skin...yet.

Well no poo yet

But gawd I have loud smelly farts 😳😳😳😳🙀🙀🙀🙀

yes takes time to build muscle

Fact of the day: Inulin is found naturally in high levels in Jerusalem artichokes, giving them their nickname "fartichokes". 💨

And the bowels have been released

I can clarify that 3teasp yesterday and today have solved the issue !

I thought the advice was to build up inulin gradually to avoid this. Although I see it has had the desired effect. PS, don't tell us it was another 7lb poo-baby??

If you keep taking small amounts your gut adapts (without all the digestive noise) and you will be doing a very good thing for your gut health. Don't just keep it for emergencies.

Would recommend aloe Vera juice (I use the fushi one from Amazon) definitely gets things moving!

A little later an all is good

I've found kefir daily, with two teaspoons of biomel fibre powder really helps. The kefir took my gut some getting used to, but now it loves it...

I’m on week 2 (or maybe 3) of 3.75. All is good apart from a flare up of my heart condition means I’m not allowed to run (or exercise) for a couple of weeks. I’m allowed to walk, so my poor dog is knackered as I drag him out!

I’ve been maintaining almost spot on. I’m slightly concerned that I’m sloping with someone good practice. Even though it hasn’t led to weight gain, I know it could when I eventually stop altogether. Food noise is definitely creeping back in.

@FoxRedPuppy sorry to hear that you are having to take it a bit easy at the moment. I hope the flare calms down again quickly.

For me maintenance has to be as conscious as losing, if that makes sense. I am slightly more generous with my calories but that is about it. As soon as I stop carefully monitoring what I eat, then it starts to disintegrate. Even with the food noise damped down on my half dose, I still have to be very careful about what I eat. @FoxRedPuppy what is your plan for food intake? Are you a calorie counter? How will you be hoping to stay on track? (sorry if you have already said this somewhere.)

On separate note, for the sake of my own accountability, my weekly weigh in remains unchanged again this week.

Hi everyone
Second to last dose of my last 7.5 before I move to 5. It was my birthday last week so celebrations ( albeit sensible!!) and lots more exercise- week 6 of c25k, Aqua, 4 x reformer Pilates and a home weights session. I’ve bloody well injured my foot, probable tendonitis so no running for a couple of weeks, have dug out our exercise bike and did 25 mins on that this morning but v annoying. Even more so is the fact I’ve put 3 pounds on! I’ve tracked calories, had a few glasses of fizz over the 5 days but nothing major. Hoping exercise related and I’ll get a whoosh soon. This is hard!

@MargoLivebetter well done for sts

i think we will always be watching our weight. We have to

think I’ve said before that I lost 4s 20yrs ago. Gained it and 2 more after saying I would never gain again 😳

now I’ve lost 7s and don’t want to gain it back and 2 more

far easily to lose 3/5lbs then 7stone !

@FoxRedPuppy Hope feeling a bit better

@26inprogress it will be the booze. Sure will shift my next week sorry about foot

@26inprogress you haven’t put on 3lbs, hold firm you know it’ll just be inflammation / fluid retention and it’ll piss off again.

Well done for finding a way to continue exercising despite the injury!

@MargoLivebetter that really resonates with me, I can't take my mind off weight/food or it all starts to slide. This past week I've been back in diet mode as I try to shift some of the 4lbs that's crept on since December. And I've been hungry, but at least 'losing weight' is a familiar mental space.

I'm very envious of those who are able to intuitively eat - if I ate according to my hunger cues, even eating well I'd overeat and gain. Add the existence of delicious snacks and treats and there's no chance. Probably I need a higher MJ dose even in maintenance. It's just all such trial and error.