so you're maintaining and gain a few pounds--how do you react? what changes do you make?

as a maintainer, i was wondering what strategies and plans you guys use to get back on track when you notice you've gained a few pounds. do you make dietary restrictions, go back to your weight loss intake until the weight comes off, exercise more, nothing?

i haven't really had this problem too much, but i took a look at my eating and exercising to see if there were any trends. I didn't really change much but tried to eat earlier in the day and get my BMs more regular because i thought that the infrequent BMs were resulting in scale gain.

However, for "real gain" I would suspect that more concrete plans and strategies are needed to return to your comfort weight RANGE. 

I allow myself a 4-5 pound range and when I get to the higher range I watch what i'm eating a bit closer and when i get to the low range I kind of ease up a bit.

Getting back on track is directly tied, in my opinion, to how often we weigh in.  After having read hundreds of posts on several different CC threads, I think loosely the opinions upon weighing-in fall into three schools of thought:

1) Weigh-in at most once a week.  Some people who weigh-in more than that get too obsessive and fretting if they notice their weights going up and down. 

My opinion about only weighing-in once a week.  I personally do not find that a very effective way to determine if someone is gaining unwanted weight.  For example:  I have gained and lost as much as 7 pounds in one day because of water weight and having or not having a BM.  If someone were to weigh once a week, and weigh during a time when the weight was at its highest for the day, that would not be a very accurate way to monitor one's weight.

2) Weigh-in only occasionally, not even once a week.  Some people apparently instinctively can monitor their weights and calorie consumption without logging anything about their eating habits.  I find this rather amazing, but I certainly admire it. 

My opinion about only occasionally weighing-in.  This would only work for a very small number of people.  For most of us, we would find, in my opinion, that weight gain hit us and makes it difficult for us to get it back off. 

3) Weigh-in daily.  "It's one of the few things we're pretty nonnegotiable about. You've got to weigh yourself every day for the rest of  your life."  --  Dr. Patrick M. O'Neil, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and director of the Weight Management Center at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston.  The majority of people, in my opinion, if they want to maintain their healthy weights, should weigh-in daily. 

My opinion about weighing in daily.  I agree with those people who say to weigh daily first thing in the morning after a BM if possible.  I do think that is a good method.  I strongly recommend that a person records his/her weight each morning.  (However, if the individual is one who suffers emotional distress when seeing a "bad" weight, then, of course, I don't recommend that person weigh daily.) 

Some posters seem to think my weighing several times a day is obsessive.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmm....based on what?  Since IF THEY DID IT, IT WOULD BE OBSESSIVE, then they assume that since someone does it, it is obsessive.  I weigh-in several times a day because I think my honest weight is an average of all the weigh-ins I have, not just one morning weigh-in.  I also have a lot of free time, I treat exercise and diet as a hobby, and I like playing around with spread sheets.  Obsessive?  Well, we could call people who love collecting stamps, or who love reading about baseball statistics of their favorite teams, or who love planting thousands of flowers on their property "obsessive."  One person's obsession is another person's hobby.

Note:  I crackers-jack myself up sometimes.  I put "flours" instead of "flowers" in the line a few lines up. 

Pilgrimdude: nicelý put. I agree about the once a week weighing...at first that was my method because I was recovering from an ED and too many fluctuations would have rocked my mind. Prior to that time I would weigh in every morning.

Now I do the daily weigh ins...sometimes I skip 3-4 days if I feel bloated and suspect a drastic inaccuracy but today just for the heck of it I weighed after eating a huge breafast and drinking abÔut 24 oz of liquid...I was 3 pounds up. Didn't bother me a bit though, I know that food has weight so of course I'd be heavier, it was just out of curiosity.

In terms of weighÞ gain that is unwanted...I tend to watch what I eat a bit more and more accurately log mý calories. I often get lax on condiments and low cal beverages so I start counting them. I do the same exercises just make it more intense. I don't increase the duration or the frequncy though. Within a few days it seems I'm back in my window.

1-2 pounds: Be very careful about diet, but not cut back, and wait a few days to see what happens. Could be water weight from salt or medication.

3+ pounds or the 1-2 doesn't go away: Immediately cut back until it's gone, then slowly bring calories back up to maintenance, realizing that my actual maintenance number is a little lower than I thought it was.

I weigh daily, but disregard fluctuations of 2 pounds or less as long as I return to baseline within a few days. It keeps me honest and keeps me on track. If I don't weigh-in, then sometimes it's easy to think I can sneak a little something and make it up later. If I know I'll be on the scale within 24 hours, I do not cheat.

well, after being on WW since Feb and surviving a very stressful year I am on 'maintenance' to learn how to stabilize my intake and output.  However I went on a vacation to the big city and our friends there do not cook - hardly at all.  Quite the challenge!  So I weighed myself there and I was the same as at home.  Then I went on another week's holiday and when I got home I was too (?) scared too tired, too out of routine to weigh in.  Woulda, shoulda.  Never again.  I promise to weigh myself every other day to get an accurate picture of how I am maintaining.  How else would you know>  Sure the small clothes still fit but my stomach seems to be able to hold more and at the same time seems to be kind of upset all the time.  Back on track-write everything down, go for several long walks, sign up for exercise classes.  All the same things that got me here in the first place.  It is so scary to think of all the people we all know who have been here and then returned to the old ways.  It will not be me.  I have worked too hard and you have all been there offering support and advice and I will not let my hard earned new habits be ignored.

Well, I had a great Saturday.  My morning weight was 170.4 and my late evening weight was 177.2.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...maybe I should not have taken in 5728 calories, huh, and drunk those 8 beers? 

How do I react?

Sunday (today) I plan to eat several meals of low calorie veggies and to do a lot of exercising.

I will do the same on Monday, and I hope I will be back in my maintenance window.

John: knowing you ...you will be well within your weight window in 2 days MAX!! you are so vigilant and you do a great job of tightening the reins!!

LOL Well, I was really tired apparently, after watching football all day on TV.  I finished watching my last game at 12:00 midnight in which a team drove the ball 99 yards to win the game by 1 point.  Then I woke up around 7:00 and took a rather long p * * and went back to bed.  When I got out of bed finally close to noon, I weighed 171.6, after having a BM. 

Chrissy:  You were correct.  I am down to 170.0 or so.