I don't want to stop...

Has anyone else experienced trouble transitioning from weight loss to 'weight maintenance"?

I am a male, 6'2, 158 pounds. I started my diet regimen almost exactly 5 months ago. I have lost 60 pounds since then (started at 218 lbs).

 I could lose another 10 pounds or so before I start edging on "underweight" according to the BMI...

 But the thing is... I have an aversion to eating more than 2000 calories a day. I workout everyday still, and eat absolutely no more than 2000 calories.  So... I'm still losing weight.  At this rate, I will be underweight by sometime in March.

 

Try slowely increasing the number of calories you eat per day.  That might be helpful :)

hi edwardolsenjr,
i am the same way.  i lost around 25 pounds using cc and am trying to maintain, but there is something like a high i get seeing the scale go down.  i dunno.  i am trying to work on it and be happy with the way i look before i end up going too far.

i think there is a limit that you have to set for yourself....i am "testing out" my new body, i guess, and trying to stay here as long as i can til i am comfortable.  if after toning i still feel that i want to lose more, then i may try but i don't want to get near an underweight BMI. 

maybe you can try to slowly up your calories a little?  like 100-200 to start out? 

are you unhappy with the way that you look or do you just have an aversion to calories?

Congratulations!

Yes, I have.

It seems you have two goals - lose weight (you did it!) and maintain. To maintain, it sounds like you have a clear idea of what your body needs to have in order to maintain - working out and eating over, or maybe by the time you drop another 10, close to 2000 calories. Depending on your workout.

The key for me is when you said you have an aversion to eating over 2K. It is good to figure out what/why that is.

Here's my experience: you change your lifestyle and get on a roll ...you grow accustomed to doing things a certain way and you want to hang on to what works for you and what has brought you success.

But it is also unnerving to break out of that...you had to once before, when you changed things to lose weight, and you'll have to again to maintain. But you don't want to do anything - probably - to get less than healthy and revert. Locking to the number is a core of dependable stability you can rely on and go to.

But to deal with the next situation, in my experience, you'll have to move to a new paradigm. What I know is that as humans, to survive we all have the capability to adapt our minds to successfully deal with the new situation we are facing. It just takes time and trusting the process.

Maybe it could be helpful to think outside of the 2000 calorie ceiling. If you do what you need to do and consume the healthy fuel you need to maintain your body at its best, and that ends up being more than 2000 calories, that's by the way side.

If you keep your goal in mind - maintaining, and a different level of calories you'll need in order to do that, you can avoid focusing on the number you had to set as your standard to achieve the amazing goal you met.

Maybe as part of maintaining, you need to figure out how many or what healthy fuel you need to consume to stay that way. And what that new lifestyle (not even number) is. With some flexibility so that you can still live your life and not hate it later if you have a few beers and pizza with friends.

Good luck!

Would it be easier to drink two protein shakes a day on top of your regular diet  (add a tablespoon of peanut butter to each) and drop 300 calories from your burn meter, perhaps by cutting your workout shorter by 30 minutes?

This site is great but it does sort of promote "obsessing" over calories taken in and burned because one becomes so into logging absolutely everything.  My recommendation would be to STOP logging everything and just estimate.  By now you know about how much everything totals to and you don't need to watch it that closely to maintain.  If you see the scale inching up or inching down then just eat less or more as needed but don't indulge in the counting as much.  Otherwise you become another eating disorder statistic (men can suffer from this as well).

Just my 2 cents.

youre at the low end of healthy bmi 20.3 158 on 6'2 is pretty slim. my brother is 6'4 162 and he is very bony looking, muscular but still. i think if you lost more you would start looking sickly based upon your stats and picture

if you lost even 3lbs you'ld be underweight. youre causing yourself harm at that point. i dont mean to be mean but why would you want to be that thin as a man???? you should up your cals and keep working out

You could try eating a spoonful of peanut butter and low-sugar jam on bread every day.  Peanut butter is very good for you anyway, and would help you up your cals.  I don't think you should stop logging your food, because you'll likely get paranoid about if you've eaten too much and not eat enough that way.  I do suggest you put the scale in the closet for a week or so - you're obviously nearly underweight and don't need to lose more - so ditch the scale for a while.

protein shakes might be good, but they sometimes have high-sugar, which you don't necessarily want.  How about a steaming bowl of hot non-instant oatmeal in the morning with a little cream or half and half and berries? or add a spoonful of nut peices to your salads? 

Now I'm hungry... : )

First off, congratulations on your losses!  That is an accomplishement to be proud of. 

You seem to be focusing on that 2000 number.  If you absolutely need to focus on a number I would try to focus on your deficit number as opposed to your total food calories.  You've been setting goals and achieving them all through your weight losses, now your goal should be achieving a zero deficit.  I'm very goal oriented...I need to be looking to "accomplish" something and think I may run into exactly what you are describing when I get to maintanence.  Until very recently I never even gave it a second thought but now that I am close and am very content with my new lifestyle I am now realizing that eventually I'll have to get used to the idea of a zero deficit. 

Like Seekifonix mentioned, it took a while to adjust to eating at a deficit to reverse our weight gain to a weight loss, and now it is going to take another adjustment to move to maintanence.  Thankfully, we already have the tools and know how to do it so we're ahead of the game on that.  I don't think you should stop logging at this point either.  At least not until you are comfortable eating at maintanence.

Good luck!!!