Dear Kayla,
I am finally at my weight loss goal..yippee! I feel great, and my doctor is happy too. But! I have been here before, and slowly put weight on again. So I know how to lose (I did the two meals a day plan), but I am worried that if I’m not working to lose weight, I’ll put it back on. What is your advice on maintenance, to stop the yo-yo weight?
Signed,
Ophelia
Dear Ophelia,
I am thrilled to hear you reached your goal weight! I did a little happy dance when I read your letter. Your question is an excellent one. I wrote an entire book about maintenance because even though there are many similarities, it’s a different animal than the weight loss journey. But if I had to sum up an excellent maintenance strategy using only a single word, it would be this: vigilance.
If I’ve learned anything in maintenance-which has been going on for 8 years now-it’s that this process is a bit tricky only because of how tiny changes can cause the weight to creep back on almost imperceptibly. It can come down to just a few bites here, a little snack there, and before you know it, you’re right back to where you started before you lost the weight.
This subtlety is what can make maintenance seem like such a mystery. I know I used to think of it as a game of chance. But it’s not. As long as you keep it firmly in your mind that gain means you’re overeating, you’ll be able to correct it and maintain your weight loss. You must beware those little bitty bad habits: they can come back in and eat up all your progress.
You used a great phrase in your letter: working to lose weight. You do have to work to lose weight. In maintenance, you still have work to do. And most of the work of maintenance is prevention related, much like with all other kinds of maintenance, like your home or your car. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. (The cure, by the way, is simply going back to your weight loss plan that worked, and getting the regained weight off, then returning to maintenance.) Here are three things you can do to prevent regain in the first place:
- Write down your maintenance plan and set a goal range. Jot down a range you want to stay in (I recommend 10 pounds, but some people feel more comfortable with a tighter or slightly looser range.) Also, write down the rules you are going to abide by, including exercise.
- Continue to track. I recommend weighing daily and watching your 7 day average over time.
- Have a system of implementation and tweaking. Your plan will tell you how to act, day in, and day out. Your tracking will show you if that plan is working. If your maintenance plan is the same as your weight loss plan, you can rest easy, because what got you there, will keep you there. If you decide to tinker with your plan, you absolutely have the freedom to do so. As long as you continue to track, you’ll always be aware of whether your plan is working or not. If it’s not working, tweak it. Then keep implementing and tweaking until you find your maintenance sweet spot.
Note: I’m a tinkerer. I like to see how loosey goosey I can be with my plan from time to time. Consistent weighing kept me from getting too far off track.
Kayla Cox