Maintenance Thread

[SingaporeSlinky]

Hello, I’ve been on a few other threads since January and managed to lose 19lbs (down from 10st 7 to 9st 2). Motivation was a holiday, which I’ve just returned from, but do want to carry on at least maintaining, if not losing more.

Anyone else in the same position? Thought I’d start this to chat specifically about how to maintain, because I feel like it’s slightly different now, rather than focussing on aiming for the big weekly losses, I need to refine my eating habits, and find the balance of how much exercise to do. Before holiday I was calorie counting on MFP aiming for 1200 cals or under, and was going to the gym 5 days a week - a 45 minute class (bodytone, spin, pump, legs/bums/tums) and then doing up to an hour on machines. But I know that’s not practical long term, so need to work out the best combination going forward.

Hoping to hear other successes and strategies if anyone wants to join me?

I stepped on the scales this morning and I’ve gained 2 kg 🙁 I’m a bit sceptical to be honest. I ate a lot, but I really didn’t eat enough to gain that much. So I’m reasonably optimistic that at least some of that extra weight will disappear at some point this week.

Anyway, I had a good day yesterday and came in under maintenance calories. I’ve started today with a 1 hour row and a small breakfast of yoghurt, berries & seeds. Lunch will be Thai green curry soup & pitta and dinner will be some kind of pasta & roasted vegetable concoction.

@CrimsonAlligator that doesn’t sound right, 2kg in a week. Try again tomorrow or Thursday.
I’m envious of your rowing, you must be burning a ton of energy.

I did a spin class this morning and was really sweating, it’s a lovely day today but the air con in the studio was minimal.

@SingaporeSlinky @CrimsonAlligator
Please don't give up on this thread- I think a lot of us on the lose it thread want to 'graduate' to join you!

@milkfromthesleepycow ok, that’s good to know. I wasn’t sure if anyone was reading while Crimson was on holiday 🙂
It’s hard to know what to post day to day, as I’m just plodding along. I suppose that’s a good thing, and I just need to keep going.

How much are you looking to lose?

I have to be honest, I had 2 packets of crisps today, 2 little brownies and a beige dinner. I’m annoyed with myself, because I was determined to have a good week and get a few lbs off.
I had got into a really good routine, where I was coming home from the gym, and just having a coffee, because I wasn’t hungry yet. Then lunch of yoghurt, granola and berries, which lasted me until dinner. But lately I’ve been coming home, not necessarily hungry, but craving something. So I’ve had the yoghurt earlier, then gone hunting for other stuff, which has turned into a habit again of crisps or chocolate (or both 🤦‍♀️

I need to get back to it somehow. Now that I think of it, before my holiday I was spending longer at the gym, maybe I’m at home too much now 🤣

I find I go through phases like that @SingaporeSlinky, especially if there’s been a change of some kind, like a holiday. I’m sure you’ll get on top of things again 🙂

I'm 2st 7 down, 2st 5 to go so it will be a while before I join you properly! But don't think you're talking to yourselves x

That came out a lot more creepy than it sounded in my head!!

@milkfromthesleepycow 😂 don’t worry I know what you mean. Well done, 2.5 stone is a huge achievement! How long has that taken you?

Started just after Christmas. Going slow and steady. I'm trying to fuel myself properly and hoping it's more a lifestyle than a diet
How long did it take you to get to where you are? And how did you know you were ready to switching to maintaining? Did you always have a target in mind that you achieved or just reached a stage where you knew you were happy with your weight?

I wouldn’t say that’s slow, it’s less than 5 months, that’s very impressive!

I started second week of January, with a holiday booked for Easter, so I had 3 months, just aiming to lose as much as I could. I hoped for a stone, and once I hit that, I kept going, and got to 1st 5lbs.

Once I got back from holiday, I knew I wanted to keep up with going to the gym, and try and keep it off, rather than put it back on again like I have in the past. But being realistic, without the holiday as motivation I thought it would be harder to keep trying to actively lose more. Ideally I’d still like to lose a few more pounds, but I’m happy to maintain. At the moment I’m hovering around 9st 2 and just up and down half a pound so that’s fine.

I think as long as you're happy that the important thing. 1st5 in three months is nothing to sniff at! I find the exercise is driving me more too, I've actually upped my food intake a bit as I was struggling to perform well on my workouts. Been reading about body recomposition and I may try that path when I'm into the healthy BMI range (11lbs to go!). I'd set my target weight half a stone higher than when I'd been at my fittest but, realistically, I was a very lean marathon runner back then and I suspect I wasn't as healthy as I thought I was. Doing strength training and swimming (as well as restarting running) now so not sure where I'll end up really

Ooh, people are watching us 👀....Don’t worry @milkfromthesleepycow , we know what you mean!

It’s taken me a year to get to where I am now. I lost 4.5 stone, the first 3.5 in 6 months and then it took me another 6 months to lose the final stone.

I’m not sure if I’m quite done losing yet, but I changed my focus at the start of April when I participated in an online rowing challenge. I struggled to make it to the end (it was a really tough challenge!), but was in awe of some of my fellow competitors. Some of them were in their 70s and even 80s.

It got me thinking about what “success” really looks like. I can’t really get that worked up anymore about whether I lose another stone or not, but investing in my long term health & fitness is a completely different matter. That’s my goal now! 😊

@CrimsonAlligator sounds like a really good goal! I loved the body gallery link you posted. Have spent far too much time wondering about the different shapes for weights. It's good to shift the focus away from numbers

That’s such a good way of looking at it @CrimsonAlligator the number on the scale is only a small part of it. As my friend keeps telling me, there’s not much point in being ‘skinny fat’ where you look slim, but your organs are actually covered in layers of fat you can’t see from the outside. I’m keeping up my gym membership as a way of life now.

@milkfromthesleepycow yes I agree it’s probably not realistic to aim for the weight you were as a lean marathon runner. How many did you do back then?

9st 2 3/4 today.

I did a bodytone class this morning, then stayed for another 30 mins after my realisation yesterday. I think I’ve been sitting at home watching tv too much, slipping into old eating habits. So I decided to stay longer at the gym, did 20 minutes uphill walking on the treadmill, 10 min cross-trainer, then walked home. So I’m at 10,500 steps so far.

I’ve had a coffee, some natural yoghurt with granola and goji berries. Will have a green tea later. Dinner will be sausage, mash and peas.

By the way, anyone got any ideas why I might get a stitch while exercising? It used to happen regularly when my friend made me run with her, I’d get a stitch under my ribs, and sometimes shoulder. She said it was because I wasn’t breathing properly. Today I got one while doing jumping jacks in class. I hadn’t eaten anything, my friend said maybe it’s dehydration?

@wednesdayafternoon if you’re still around on the forum, how are you doing?

@SingaporeSlinky I've done 3 marathons ever. To be honest I was always more comfortable with half's- I've done loads of them but only two post kids and I found them so demoralising as I really struggled to get around. But I'm older and wiser now and will get back there again and be proud no matter the time! I'm on couch to 5k at the moment as it's been so long since I've ran properly!

I think the only valid theory about stitches is that they are caused by a lack of tissue oxygenation- that could be due to breathing too shallowly, not enough fluid (blood volume) or simply being unfit and your system not being able to cope with a demand. The last ones for full context rather than being directed at you!

That’s awesome that you’ve taken up the gym as a way of life @SingaporeSlinky

I’m in awe of anyone who’s ever run half, or even a whole marathon @milkfromthesleepycow 😯

I thought stitches were caused by your body switching between different energy sources, but there’s a very good chance that is complete and utter nonsense 😂 I used to get them a lot, but come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve had any over the last few months. May be it’s because I got fitter?

I did a half-fun, half-torturous session this morning. Fun because every minute was different, torturous because it was so intense that I discovered that my max heart rate is at least 10 point above what I thought it was! That was pretty good, but then I ate a few too many crisps and undid all my hard work 😬 Oh well, as I like to say, tomorrow is another day and another chance to try again.

Thank you @milkfromthesleepycow yes I ended up googling about stitches and seems there’s a few theories really, as you said. Breathing could have been my issue. The theories I read were about the blood going to your limbs during vigorous exercise, and your diaphragm not having enough oxygen, and cramping. Another was about the heavy weight of your organs bouncing around, particularly during running, and pulling on the ligaments around the diaphragm (from memory).

I've heard really good things about Couch25K, my DH did it a few years ago to get back into running and he now regularly does 10k races, and the 5k Parkrun almost every week. I’m just not a fan, I really, really dislike running. But, I said I might start joining the Parkrun as a walker because I’d rather walk fast.

@CrimsonAlligator wow that must have been a hard session if your heart rate went up higher than ever! Well done! I wouldn’t worry about the crisps, you must have needed the salt 🙂 How are the scales treating you now?

I’ve had a busy morning, school run, walked to the gym, 45 min spin class, then walked to the supermarket and back. So was out of the house for 3 hours, I’m at 14,000 steps and my thigh muscles were twitching by the time I sat down with a coffee!

The scales were exactly the same as yesterday, I’ve realised I would like to actually lose more, probably more than I’ve been saying, but I’m not sure how realistic it is at this point. It’s kind of funny that I’m the lightest and fittest I’ve been for probably 20 years, but I’d like to be a bit slimmer for our next holiday. We’ve got a week in the Isle of Wight for half term, but we’ve also got a week abroad in October, so I’d like to aim for that really. Bought some lovely dresses in TK Maxx yesterday, all different brands, and all size 10 or small, so that felt nice.

Plan for today is usual yoghurt, seeds and granola. Green tea. Dinner of smoky paprika, mayo and breadcrumbs on baked salmon. Might do egg fried rice on the side.

I recognise that feeling of all of a sudden wanting to lose more, even though you thought you’d kind of decided you were ready to maintain...in my case, it was full length mirrors in the holiday home I was staying in last week that made me wonder if I should try and lose a bit more. I don’t have any full length mirrors at home + a relatively slim upper body, so I actually seem to think of myself as slimmer than I am🤔

I’m not sure I can really be bothered with weightloss though at the moment. May be a few months from now? I kind of want to see what eating at maintenance calories does. Maintenance calories is only an estimate based on, no doubt, all kinds of averages. Is my weight really going to stabilise on that, or would I gain/ lose weight. The problem is that I’m not the most disciplined with sticking to calories, so I often go over. I really need to get a handle on that and just be consistent for a few weeks. Easier said than done 😣

It’s a good idea to find out exactly what your maintenance cals are though, I agree. The numbers on various website calculators might not be correct for you. I really had to stick at 1200 or less to lose weight, and I never ate back my exercise calories. Yet some people claim they can maintain while eating 2000 cals. I go to the gym 5 times a week, you’d think I would need to eat more, but I just don’t. I have been snacking too much lately, and I’m still not back to logging on MFP, but I know I need to nip that in the bud before it catches up with me. At a guess, I’m probably maintaining on around 1400 at the moment, but I need to calculate it properly.

I know what you mean about mirrors. I find the lighting messes with my head too. Indoors, in the shade, I think I look really slim, flat stomach etc. But in the sunshine on holiday, the photos told a very different story! I ended up making sure I stood in a shady spot for photos, and then got some lovely comments. I definitely need to lose some more stomach flab, but I’m not in a rush, like you said. I will get back into my ‘zone’ and make sure I maintain. Any loss would be a bonus, and I’ll reassess nearer to the October holiday. At least I know I’ll only have a few pounds to lose, and for once, not thinking about what a mammoth task it’ll be to try and lose a stone.

@SingaporeSlinky hello lovely! How are you and how was your holiday? So happy to hear you're still on the healthy eating! I'm still at slimming world but had a few off weeks as were in birthday season in our family so just taking a breather! Managing to maintain at the min! Still want to loose 6 pounds though!
Hope you're wel ♥️

@Wednesdayafternoon that’s great you’re still going to SW, it seemed to really help you, and if you’re managing to maintain despite the little break, you must be doing something right! My holiday was amazing, thank you. And in terms of diet, I came back exactly the same weight as when I left, which was very surprising. It’s meant I could just carry on, without having to lose some pounds again.

Ended the day on 22,300 steps yesterday which is good considering my spin class doesn’t contribute to that! Had spin again this morning, so that’s me done for the week. Sore calves actually so need to do lots more stretching today.

Stayed on track at the weekend and feeling a bit more positive this week.

9st 1.5 this morning. I think it’s helped delaying my first meal, as I’m not then hunting around for more food in between my early lunch and dinner. So I’m just having a coffee after the gym, and not eating until 12/12.30

Also I’ve been trying to keep busy, which stops me eating from boredom I think.

I would absolutely love to see an 8 on the scales, I wonder if I’ll get there.

How are you doing @SingaporeSlinky . I’m completely out of the zone and definitely need to get back into it. I’m even starting to feel a bit lacklustre about exercise, so I need to snap out of this a.s.a.p. 😬

I bought myself a pair of barely fitting, non-stretchy jeans at the weekend. I’m planning to use those to keep track of my progress. If I can’t do them up anymore, I will know things have gone too far!