Reach Goal Weight...Need Maintenance Advice!
I see a lot of advice saying it's good to go under your goal by 10 pounds or so, so that you've got a buffer for regain.
The other advice I see a lot is to add 100 calories a day for a week and see what happens. If you keep losing weight, add a second 100 calories a day the second week. Eventually you'll figure out how many calories you need to stabilize. Remember they should be high quality calories, not processed refined carb crap. (I also figure that I'll go to 4 meals a day, since I don't want to increase volume at the 3 meals I currently eat.)
VSG with Dr. Salameh - 3/13/2014
Diagnosed with Binge Eating Disorder and started Vyvanse - 7/22/2016
Reconstructive Surgeries with Dr. Michaels - 6/5/2017 (LBL & brachioplasty), 8/14/2017 (UBL & mastopexy), 11/6/2017 (medial leg lift)
Age 42 Height 5'4" HW 319 (1/3/2014) SW 293 (3/13/2014) CW 149 (7/16/2017)
Next Goal 145 - normal BMI | Total Weight Lost 170
TrendWeight | Food Blog (sort of functional) | Journal (down for maintenance)
Good luck!
VSG with Dr. Salameh - 3/13/2014
Diagnosed with Binge Eating Disorder and started Vyvanse - 7/22/2016
Reconstructive Surgeries with Dr. Michaels - 6/5/2017 (LBL & brachioplasty), 8/14/2017 (UBL & mastopexy), 11/6/2017 (medial leg lift)
Age 42 Height 5'4" HW 319 (1/3/2014) SW 293 (3/13/2014) CW 149 (7/16/2017)
Next Goal 145 - normal BMI | Total Weight Lost 170
TrendWeight | Food Blog (sort of functional) | Journal (down for maintenance)
You will most likely lose a few more pounds while you figure out maintenance. Add calories through taking in more healthy carbs and fat (easy to do when adding olives, oil, avocadoes, nuts). Continue to track your intake daily and track your weight. Everyone's maintenance level varies. I find that mine is around 1500-1800 calories per day, depending on my activity level.
Congratulations on reaching goal. That's wonderful. I found the transition to maintenance a *****allenging. I needed to add about 300 calories a day to stop losing weight, and after several problematic tries, I settled on adding a 4th meal every day. So when I want to lose weight, I eat 3 meals a day and when I want to maintain, I eat 4 meals per day. My meals consist of 3.5 ounces of dense protein and low-carb veggies.
I usually avoid carbs because they cause food cravings for me, but I found that I was getting dizzy -- I think due to low blood pressure -- and eating an occasional small serving of carbs seems to fix the problem. So far, I've avoided the carb monster, but I am treading carefully in this area.
I still eat carefully, and weigh and log my food. I like the 4 meal-a-day approach as it is easy to shift back to 3 when the scale gets a bit higher than I want. I've been in maintenance for 3 months now, and I'm holding steady around 160 pounds, and I feel like I've got this covered now.
Please let us know how you decide to approach maintenance and what works for you
best wishes,
Carol
Surgery May 1, 2013. Starting Weight 385, Surgery Weight 333, Current Weight 160. At GOAL!
Weight loss Pre-op 1-20 2-17 3-15 Post-op 1-20 2-18 3-15 4-14 5-16 6-11 7-12 8-8
9-11 10-7 11-7 12-7 13-8 14-6 15-3 16-7 17-3 18-3
Congrats on reaching goal! You've achieved something difficult and uncommon, so revel in your success! Also please join us over in the VSG Maintenance Group. A great place to learn and share.
When I reached maintenance, I added 400 calories right away, waited until I saw another loss on the scale (which took about 3 weeks or so) and then continually added 100 calories each time I saw another loss. It was a gradual process that took months instead of weeks, but I really felt like I had a handle on my calorie and diet changes. I concentrated on adding fats and moderately more carbs.
Again, congrats!!
LINDA
Ht: 5'2" | HW 225, BMI 41.2 | CW 115, BMI 21.0