Maintenance is Hard?

Updated 6.27.2014; reformatted 9.3.2015
This is another post that's been building for awhile. My intent isn't to rant, but we'll see what emanates from the finger tips.

I suppose by some definitions that I am in maintenance. I've basically been weight stable for about a year, though, since I adjusted my habits. But here's the thing. I still eat and move as I did while I was losing weight. I didn't "diet" and then stop. I changed the way I eat and move, and I lost some weight. I actually lost about ten pounds more than I thought possible. Do I expect to lose more? Not really. My body seems to have stabilized at this new weight and "defends" it as its new set point.

But is it really maintenance?

I'm not losing any more weight, but I'm still doing what I did as I lost weight. I didn't think it was difficult while losing the weight (after an initial adjustment period) and I don't think it's difficult now. Not every successful dieter agrees. Indeed, she might not consider me to be in maintenance because it's only been about a year. According to her, I can't really know anything about maintenance because it's been too short a period. I have all sorts of "endocrine chaos" in front of me. She would recognize my weight loss (25% of my body weight) as being significant, defining significant weight loss as being more than 10% of total body weight.

She's a HAES supporter, and apparently is unhappy at having to eat less with a smaller body than she did with a larger body. And that she can't be sedentary if she wants to eat more than the minimum. In a comment on a recent Dr. Sharma post, she notes that she's been maintaining for almost a decade now. She doesn't believe that people like me have any idea how difficult it is to maintain weight, and is dismissive of people (such as me, were she ever to read what I write) who claim that weight loss and maintenance are not difficult. I also suspect that she is ignoring the fact that as humans age they require fewer calories. That's not an endocrine effect, it's an effect of aging.

Maintain from the Beginning

My response would be that I have been "maintaining" since I started. I didn't adopt a highly restrictive eating regime. I simply ate the number of calories that a sedentary female would eat were she the size I wanted to be. And then I worked on NOT being sedentary, by increasing my NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis). Sure I also exercise, but exercising a few hours won't offset sitting on your bum for most of the day. So I don't sit on my butt, I stand (or walk on a treadmill desk) while working.

Counting calories is difficult to do accurately, and so rather than trying to gauge how many calories my exercise "earned" me, I use them as a "hedge" against guessing wrong on the intake side of things. Because I no longer track food and drink calories in any way, nor do I measure my food. I do pay attention to portion size still, just as I did in the beginning. I've written before that it took about two weeks of dedicated weighing for me to learn what a proper portion size is for me. I didn't spend that time and effort for a short term "diet." I wanted to know how I needed to eat to be a smaller size. And then I spent some time looking to maximize the volume of food that I could eat at that calorie total.

I'm not deprived.

Once I knew what proper portions were and how much food I'd be eating for the rest of my life, I assessed whether or not mentally I was prepared to accept it. I've noted the numbers previously: for a sedentary woman of my height and age, the number was 1700 and if I'm not sedentary the number is roughly 1900. These numbers don't include any exercise effect, it's just the difference of sitting all day and not. Both number are less than I have been routinely ingesting either by eating or drinking. thus when I altered my habits, I lost weight.

So from the beginning, I've been eating at my "maintenance" level. The concept of maintenance for me is therefore meaningless. My weight loss wasn't rapid— but then my weight gain wasn't rapid.

Was it difficult to be satisfied with a smaller number of calories?

At first, yes it was. My body needed to get used to functioning on roughly 25% fewer calories. Rather than 2000-2300 calories a day, I averaged 1700-1900. How do I know these totals so precisely? I devoted about a month of my life to measuring (without changing) what I was eating and drinking, and then measuring and weighing my food and drink to learn how much food my new calorie goals represented. Someone else might be able to do it quicker, but a month was what it took for me.

So why was it so easy?

There are several answers to this question. The primary answer underlying all of the below is that whatever changes I made, they were being made for life and so I had to be comfortable will all of them.

More specifically, the first answer is that after measuring my food quantity, I was able to be happy with the amount. I wasn't overly restricting calories, I was adjusting my intake for the rest of my life. I wanted to eat the number of calories.

The second reason my transition was easy is that I chose to stop being sedentary. NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) is typically dismissed as being genetically determined, but I disagree with that conclusion. Whether or not you stand while working (or watching TV or posting on the internet) isn't a matter of genetics, it's a matter of choice.

Most people can stand while they work as well, they simply choose not to do so. I've written extensively about training my body to be able to stand or walk all day while working. It did take time and dedication, but it wasn't difficult— because it was something that I wanted to do and in which I believed. I'm a bit of an evangelist about standing rather than sitting, but not everyone is receptive to the idea.

Disclaimer

I'm not a medical or nutrition specialist, just someone who slowly, but successfully, lost 25% of her body weight and has easily maintained it for over a year so far. What worked for me might not work for anyone else because what I find easy to follow might be unthinkable to you. Adherence is all that matters in any diet or movement program. Find something to which you can adhere and go on with living your life.

Disclaimer