Disclaimer: this deals with calorie counting and binge eating. If that's a trigger for you, please do not read on and take care of yourself!
***
I have recently reached both a weight and measurements I am comfortable with. I'd love to maintain my results, but I'm afraid I'll gain back the cm/inches I lost with so much effort. Any advice?
[Here's the longer story - feel free to skip it!]
For context, I started seriously eating at a deficit in February 2020, steadily losing weight (about 2 kg/ 4.4 lbs a month, for a total of 9 kg/ 19.8 lbs). However, I gained most of it back because of binging and disordered eating in the last months of 2020. I started following my meal plan again in February 2021 and this time around it was harder, but I made it! Those last couple of cm and kg have been particularly stubborn, so it took months to lose them (from last summer to now, basically, but my caloric intake has stayed the same).
I'm happy with my current 22.2 BMI and I don't want to lose any more weight or cm/inches but I'm sticking to my meal plan because it would be awful to gain back what took months to lose. Also, while my meal plan was tailored to my actual BMR and TDEE as measured by a nutritionist pre-pandemic, now I have no idea what either of those are, because I lost a lot of weight and have been more sedentary since the pandemic.
If anyone asked me what to do to maintain their weight, I'd suggest adding about 100 Calories for a month or two and monitor weight and measurements so the body slowly gets used to more calories. But giving advice is so much easier than following it, even when it is sound advice! Besides, I don't really know how many calories I am eating, because I "track" everything except for vegetables (but I do count potatoes, fruit, beans and legumes). And I eat A LOT of vegetables, whenever I'm hungry (think second and third helping at meal times, veggie snacks, etc.). Once or twice I tried to estimate, but it was such a struggle that I gave up :)
I'm also slowly easing back into working out. For now I'm doing the short low impact cardio work-outs and warm-ups, whenever I've got those 5-10 minutes to spare. I would like to start following programmes like I used to, but I'm afraid I'd get very hungry. My brain doesn't exactly understand intuitive eating :) I'm an emotional eater, unfortunately, and I have a history of binging, so my fears are valid.
Do you have any advice? Can you share your experiences with eating and exercising for maintenance?
Advice for maintenance?
Hello Blenders!
Disclaimer: this deals with calorie counting and binge eating. If that's a trigger for you, please do not read on and take care of yourself!
***
I have recently reached both a weight and measurements I am comfortable with. I'd love to maintain my results, but I'm afraid I'll gain back the cm/inches I lost with so much effort. Any advice?
[Here's the longer story - feel free to skip it!]
For context, I started seriously eating at a deficit in February 2020, steadily losing weight (about 2 kg/ 4.4 lbs a month, for a total of 9 kg/ 19.8 lbs). However, I gained most of it back because of binging and disordered eating in the last months of 2020. I started following my meal plan again in February 2021 and this time around it was harder, but I made it! Those last couple of cm and kg have been particularly stubborn, so it took months to lose them (from last summer to now, basically, but my caloric intake has stayed the same).
I'm happy with my current 22.2 BMI and I don't want to lose any more weight or cm/inches but I'm sticking to my meal plan because it would be awful to gain back what took months to lose. Also, while my meal plan was tailored to my actual BMR and TDEE as measured by a nutritionist pre-pandemic, now I have no idea what either of those are, because I lost a lot of weight and have been more sedentary since the pandemic.
If anyone asked me what to do to maintain their weight, I'd suggest adding about 100 Calories for a month or two and monitor weight and measurements so the body slowly gets used to more calories. But giving advice is so much easier than following it, even when it is sound advice! Besides, I don't really know how many calories I am eating, because I "track" everything except for vegetables (but I do count potatoes, fruit, beans and legumes). And I eat A LOT of vegetables, whenever I'm hungry (think second and third helping at meal times, veggie snacks, etc.). Once or twice I tried to estimate, but it was such a struggle that I gave up :)
I'm also slowly easing back into working out. For now I'm doing the short low impact cardio work-outs and warm-ups, whenever I've got those 5-10 minutes to spare. I would like to start following programmes like I used to, but I'm afraid I'd get very hungry. My brain doesn't exactly understand intuitive eating :) I'm an emotional eater, unfortunately, and I have a history of binging, so my fears are valid.
Do you have any advice? Can you share your experiences with eating and exercising for maintenance?