How do you know when it is time to maintain?

Hi all. How did you know you were ready to maintain?

I just can't help but think I love watching the scale go down & down..how do you get over that? I know it can't go down forever or I would disappear.

What was your stopping point? My original goal weight was 121, I am now at 119 & set a new goal of 115...but when I get there will I be satisfied? I don't know whether to set a firm number and hold myself to it (or try to) / a size / just stop now. agh.

Help.

I can totally relate to this post.  I have changed my goal weight three times already.  I don't have an answer.  I am hoping my next goal (3 more pounds) will be the "magic number" for me.

Me too! I am at a healthy weight 128lbs 5'5" my goal weight was 130 by Halloween. I did it and then some the week of Halloween I actually weighed about 125. 

As you can see I have gained  a little, but that will stop now, working out and logging calories again.. trying for 125 and maintaining it.

But I love to see the scale go down, It is an addiction.

I am hoping that 125 will be the number that makes me stop.

I don't think there is a magic number.  When I started dieting I was at about 136 lbs. My first goal was to get below 130, then I wanted to get below 120, then 115, 110.. I was totally addicted to seeing the number on the scale go down and it went all the way down to 98 and I was never happy at any number. Now I am back to like 115 and I am really, really unhappy with this number.

So yeah I really don't have an answer for you but its a good question and I will check back later, I hope someone else has some good advice.

I am the same way. I like seeing it go down. But it isn't the number ladies and gentlemen!!! It is how we see ourselves in the mirror. Or at least that is what I keep telling myself. I still see myself as slightly bulgy but definately not overweight anymore. I want to lose about another 10 pounds to be 120 with clothes and everything on in the middle of the day. (Which means about 115 first thing in the morning with nothing on.) I am 5'4" so I know it's a healthy weight. That is probably not going to be the magic number for me but I will be stopping. If for some reason some places on my body are not to my liking then I will just work harder with my strength training but there will be no more deficit. And if I have to get rid of or hide the scale then so be it. People are already telling me now that I need to stop losing because I am so small already. We just need to remember that originally it was about our health right? And how we feel about ourselves? Hope some of that made sense. It made me feel better at least.

It seems like a lot of people have this problem, so I just wanted to add- me too!

Right now I'm trying to think of what I want my goal weight to be and I just have no idea.  I might try to find a "goal size" like, clothes-wise for myself.

I've lost about 30 lbs but i don't FEEL lighter.

I'm on the opposite side here -- I lost all of my "freshman fifteen" and then a few pounds and I feel so slender and good about myself! I'm just scared of gaining any of it back.

Before college I was 111, steady, year after year. Then I gained 9 lbs in college, and after about 3 months of counting calories and exercising, I'm 108. I feel really good about that. I would like to be 105 eventually (I'm 5'2" so that would still be a healthy BMI, just slender) but it's more important to me to become more active now than to continue to restrict calories. I simply can't keep my calorie count down to 1600/day!

I think that soon it will be time for me to switch to maitenance, or at least a range of 1600-1900 per day, depending upon my activity level. I'm constantly craving, and then overindulging, which is probably the best recipe for gaining back the weight that I don't want to regain!

Everyone loves it when the number on the scale goes lower and lower, but there is always a limit.

Basically, I would wait until my relatives, family members and friends compliment on my figure then I would weigh myself. The number on the scale would then be my maintained weight. :)

All I have to say is that toning up and  your general shape and measurements are what matter.   I went thru this exact same scenerio and although I weighed 117 pounds at 5'6" I still looked like a skinny fat person.  i could not get rid of my lovehandles, they remained out of porportion to the rest of my body even though they had shrunk along with everything else.  It got to the point where I knew I needed to exercise to see the results I wanted.  (I don't get how the infomercials on tv make it look like you can take their product and end up with these lean toned bodies from that alone, yah right).  I had no daily fitness routine that actually increased my heart rate (dog walking wasn't enough), so I started this six week military fitness program to see if that was going to help.  At first I actually started to put weight back on which of course got me all freaked out. I started contemplating whether I should continue cause I was scared of gaining all my weight back.  I decided to stick it out to the end and see what my body would do.  I hadn't even finished the full program and my sister who lives out of town commented on my arms right away.  I can tell you though my body looks noticeably more toned than ever before and my size didn't increase, I actually lost 2 inches off my midsection (my belly button even looked different).   I've now become an avid runner and don't feel bad anymore about those five pounds I gained.  I feels so much healthier and stronger now than before when I weighed less. 

Hope that helps !

This is exactly how I developed anorexia years ago - I joined a gym and it was harmless at first and I reached a great healthy weight for me but the problem was I did not STOP losing weight.

Focusing on specific numbers goes against nature; we cannot control or predict exactly what weight our bodies feel best at because that is in the future, how do WE know the answers to something that has not happened yet?

Anticipating an exact number can often set yourselves up to fail if you do not reach your goal or if you do not reach it within a time frame you have set for yourself

I think it is best to focus on being HEALTHY and developing the best HABITS and to let the weight loss happen naturally, as a result of your LIFE STYLE CHANGE.

It helps me when I think of my body in terms of how I can help it attain optimal health, and reaching a great natural weight for you goes hand in hand with constantly focusing on how to be your HEALTHIEST self, rather then only focusing on ONE aspect of health…

A healthy body is not one dimensional, you want great skin hair and nails to attest to your health along with a toned and slim figure!

There is no magic number, our bodies are such complicated systems that there may be several weights that suits our body best at different times in our life due to a huge variety of factors!

Common sense prevails though, if your BMI is low like mine ( 18.5 - 19) and you do not like an area of your body then you know it is not healthy to lose more weight, and therefore it is better to tone up which could even add more weight.

Thanks personal trainer. I think you are 100% right.

I am 5'6'' / 119...BMI slightly below 20 I think. Have gone from a 4/6 to a size 2. My brain tells me "this is it, time to stop losing weight" but something in me can't stop.

For the person who said stop when I get compliments..people have told me "this is the best you've ever looked" but I don't want to peak, I want to get even better...

PT again - I like what you said about thinking about obtaining optimal health. Within the last month, I have had a few more breakouts than usual, not much energy, very few BM / regularity, in addition to other issues. Do you think these are related to my weight loss?

I feel so torn between my desire to keep losing & what I know is right. Agh. Sorry for the rambling. I appreciate your input though.

It feels GOOD to lose weight, but you must learn to stop needing that same feeling; you need to learn to measure your success in a different way now. At first, weight loss was a good way to measure your success, and it feels GOOD when you achieve something, but logically you cannot keep on losing weight forever, as you said!

You have to learn to re direct the high you feel when you lose weight, to other achievements.

If you focus on eating as many healthy foods as possible through out your day then you can feel good if your skin becomes much nicer; if you start a weight training and become more toned, you can also get results that motivate you just as much as losing weight.

I think it is ingrained in our subconscious minds that it is good to keep going down on the scales because of the media saturation of the very thin body type, so we feel okay about the scale going down and down…we do not REALIZE the danger of it because the media image is venerated, so subconsciously we may think it is OKAY to look that thin

You HAVE DONE THE RIGHT THING: trust me, the fact that you posted what you did means that you KNOW that a problem could develop if you keep losing too much weight

A lot of people must have a part of them that WANTS them to keep losing weight because of that popular thin image, and the other part of them that KNOWS when to stop, and the sensible and rational part of them that KNOWS it is better to stop has to fight against their other urge to keep losing weight.

Ultimately you have to use common sense, a BMI of 19 can look good on some people, but it looks bad on others.

It will be hard to just STOP seeking that high that weight loss gives you, so you just have to practice aiming for OTHER goals that you can feel good about . You won’t feel any different straight away, but if you stick at it and practice telling yourself that “ I will learn to feel good about these OTHER GOALS” then eventually you WILL!

And once you DO reach other goals you will feel motivated and feel satisfied with achieving these new and different goals.

Thank you so much. I really REALLY appreciate your advice and I'm going to try to take it to heart. I have saved it to my computer for future reminders.

For some reason, I didn't really think about OTHER GOALS like you said. I think that is a really good idea, particularly the ones you named specifically (healthy foods & weight training). I don't focus on either of those right now, even though I know I should. If I want to be so intent on achieving certain "numbers", might as well be getting the right number of nutrients and fiber and everything...rather than just eating exactly 1200 calories of toast, granola bars, and diet coke (hence my username...).

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to respond like you did. It really helps. Happy holidays to you!