How I’m Maintaining Weight Loss Without Feeling Restricted
(My 2025 Journal style Update): These three questions can help you create the perfect weight loss and weight maintenance strategy for your life! For more weight loss diary entries, click here
It’s officially been 2 months since that last fitness /bikini show, and I’m up a few pounds more than my target weight gain. So, it’s time for me to bring intention back into my tracking. Not necessarily to lose weight, but so I can stop gaining weight!
I’m in that space of feeling sorry for myself because it feels like I’ll never be able to stop tracking food. I want to be OK with that, and I really don’t mind tracking. And the tracking I did to lose weight I shared here that it was totally WORTH IT to track all my meals! But at the same time, I get stuck in the thought that it’s not fair that I have to track food just to not GAIN weight.
It seems like when I give myself an inch of flexible eating, I justify taking a mile and overeat! It’s not easy for me to stay in the middle. It’s like I have this mindset that I have to be losing weight, or I’m gaining weight.
BUT I truly feel like I turned a corner this past week. I’m determined to make it maintenance a success this time. I have a plan to maintain my weight loss, and also build muscle.
Find accurate maintenance calories are for me.
The first thing I did was I tracked accurately for a few days with MyFitnessPal, without changing anything. After 3 days of eating what I’ve been eating, I found I was eating over 2500 calories, before I stopped tracking for the day. What an eye opener! Generally, I stop tracking once I hit 1200 calories, so I had no clue how much OVER 2000 calories I was actually eating. The crazy thing was, I wasn’t overeating, and I wasn’t eating junk food! Yet, each day I was eating over 2500 calories. No wonder I couldn’t stop gaining weight. I’m 5’0 tall and 51 years old. That’s definitely more energy than someone like me needs. And I should mention as well, I never stopped exercising either. So, even with exercising, 2500+ calories is unnecessary.
This three day experiment taught me a few things though:
- It’s hard to eat at maintenance or in a deficit without intentionality. Our food is too convenient and too packed with calories to make it intuitive any more.
- And second, tracking to find out your current intake is invaluable!
- There’s no “broken metabolism” or mystery around why I can’t stop gaining weight. In fact, my body works exactly the way it was designed to. I should be grateful for that! I think when we aren’t accurate or honest with our calories, it’s easy to think weight loss is impossible, or that there is something wrong with us.
So, in an effort to not get back to my pre-weight loss weight, and fit into my jeans more comfortably, this is the plan I am creating!
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Designing a Plan
A few days ago, I was listening to a podcast episode by Fit Body Lifestyle called “The 3 questions” Their discussion truly resonated with me! I thought about so many areas of my life where this could apply. The questions were:
- What do you want?
- Why do you want it?
- and What are you willing to do to get it?
Here’s how I’m using those questions to design the perfect maintenance diet for me!
Q1) What I really want!
Answer: I want to maintain my weight loss while being flexible!
What flexibility looks like:
- I want to Not feel restricted: I want to enjoy baking for my family, going out to dinner, and eating local food on vacation. I want to eat the meals I’m in the mood for, or what’s in my pantry.
- I want balance: I want to eat from all the food groups (I’ll never ‘cut carbs’ or stop eating bread for example. And I know I don’t need to in order to reach my goals. I have always been a fan of the balanced plate method for healthy eating. Not only do I live by it, I’ve actually been selling an ACTUAL plate since 2008!
- I want to stop using food as distraction. I want to eat when I’m hungry, and listen to my body. My problem is, I generally use food to avoid something, and some days that is happening all day long!
- I want to have small indulgences and NOT GAIN WEIGHT. Haha. Of course.
- I want to be able to eat a cookie, and get right back on track the SAME DAY. I can’t let a silly cookie derail me, or lead to 10 days of 57,000 cookies. In other words, I want a treat to fit into my calories for the day and keep tracking no matter what.
Q2) Why do I want it
Answer: Because I’ve worked hard to lose the weight. I don’t want to go back to the beginning!
But diving deeper into the why:
- I feel better at this weight. I have more energy, I feel comfortable in my clothes, and like how I feel in my body.
- I’m more confident. There’s no question that I feel more confident at the right weight for me. I do get self conscious when my clothes are tight and my face is puffy. Just being real here.
- I’m more productive! This might sound strange, but when I’m not fixated on my next meal, I actually GET MORE THINGS DONE! Snacking all day is surprisingly time consuming and leads to me getting nothing done.
- I like feeling like I’m in control of my appetite, rather than my appetite controlling me. I hate feeling out of control. I hate feeling like I want to eat everything not nailed down.
Q3) What am I willing to do to get it
Answer: I’m willing to track my food to stay aware, no matter what the total calories are at the end of the day. I’m also willing to journal my thoughts when I want to avoid tracking something.
- Tracking Keeps Me Honest: When I don’t track, I have no clue what my true calorie intake is and why I’m either gaining, losing or maintaining.
- Mindful Indulgence: I’m willing to plan treats, like baking cookies for my family, and tracking them to fit within my overall calorie balance. And if it causes me to go over in calories, I’m STILL going to track it!
As I’ve practiced this mindset, It’s actually been working! When I think I don’t want to track something I’ve eaten, even when it means I’m going over in my calories, I think: “But Amy- you said you are willing to track EVERYTHING to get what you want: which is maintaining your weight loss with flexibility. And all you have to do is track that extra piece of toast you ate mindlessly.”
Your Turn! What do you really want?
Whether you’re at the beginning of weight loss, or you’re trying to maintain it, I want you to try answering these questions and HMU with your answers!!
- Knowing what you really want (flexibility, balance, and control)
- Understanding why it matters to you (health, confidence, family, enjoyment)
- Decide what you’re willing to do to get it! (tracking, mindful indulgence, and staying active)
THE RESULTS: After 1 week of tracking at 1750 calories, I stopped gaining weight! WAHOO!!! I’m anxious to discover what my TRUE calories are for maintenance. It’s going to be so informative if I want to cut a few pounds. But for now, I’m trying to maintain while building muscle- THE ULTIMATE GOAL, am I right?!?
(And considering this is more of a diary style post, here’s a recent photo of a trip to Las Vegas for our 28th anniversary! We drove down to see Nate Bargatze. It was so much fun!
Knowing what you really want (flexibility, balance, and control):
I really want flexibility. I don’t mind tracking for the most part as I eat the same foods over and over again, but weight can really creep up quickly if I’m not careful. I’m barely 5’2″ and fluctuate between 111-113, but I prefer to be around 110. As many people in the comments have said – being short, even a couple of extra pounds is very noticeable. I’m close to my “goal weight”, but I know I have a lot of room for improvement by getting rid of some unhealthy habits. If I continue these unhealthy habits, my weight is going to go right back up where it was last year (120 lbs).
Understanding why it matters to you (health, confidence, family, enjoyment): Unfortunately there is a portion of weighing 110 that is pure vanity, but I also feel healthier/more energetic at 110. The only time I start to feel lethargic and unhealthy is if I get to around 102-103, which I have no desire to get to.
Decide what you’re willing to do to get it! (tracking, mindful indulgence, and staying active): It’s been raining a lot here in CA so I need to work on getting my steps in more. I’ve been slacking with that. I can also cut out alcohol (wine on the weekends) and a couple of sweet treats I’ve been leaving around the house. I think if I do that for a month, I should be back at 110.
Maybe we can all keep each other accountable?!
Katie! I honestly had to re-read your comment a few times because I thought I was the one who wrote it!! Haha. Seriously, replace CA with UT and I related to EVERYTHING you wrote! And yes- Let’s get an accountability group going some how! I do have a private facebook page we could possibly use, or a reddit community under my brand name. I’m open to any ideas!!
Amy! I have longed for this maintenance post for so long. Like you I’m a petite women who has dieted hard to hit a low weight goal only to find it vanish almost overnight as my usual hunger hormones kick in as a return to what I consider “normal eating”. Fact is IDK what normal eating even looks like anymore . When I put my stats into the TDEE formula it always comes out close to the 1200 danger zone and below it for any kind of deficit. I don’t train quite as hard as you but I do train but it’s never enough to keep me where I want to be. Truth be told it is hard not to take bites, nibbles and tastes as I cook for my family which are the hardest to manage as I relax out of the diet mentality but it’s scary that the weight piles up so quickly when it took months to lose even 5-7 lbs. UGGGH. Appreciate you being so real here and honest about your experience and now realize there is no such thing as intuitive eating for me without consequences so if I “want it bad enough” I have to track the good, the bad and the ugly LOL! Thanks for all your wisdom!
DAWN!!
I feel this message to my BONES! hahaha
The good thing that has come from tracking “the bad and the ugly (and the unconscious eating), is that it TOTALLY makes sense why It’s so easy for me to gain weight. Because it feels like I’m not eating that much food (lots of unconscious nibbles), but the reality is it’s over 2000 calories consistently! (and Tuesday- I was in a super bad mood and it was actually 3000 calories! I’m shocked that I could even admit it to myself enough to actually TRACK my snacking out of frustration. LOL .. Normally, I bury my head in the sand when I do that. LOL
Anyway, even though it’s not fair that we have to keep the calories lower than what we deserve, that’s our reality. LOL
Thank you for this much-needed wake-up call, Amy! I KNOW that tracking is the answer, and I’ve been telling myself it’s not necessary if I just eat high protein and avoid sweets and such. But I think I’m over-eating on random snacks like cottage cheese and yogurt!
What: I want to lose this extra fat from the holidays! I want to maintain the fit body I know I can have! I want to do that flexibly and still be able to enjoy my life without focusing on food all the time.
Why: I want to feel confident and like the way I look when I walk past a reflective surface or see photos! I don’t want to waste mental energy wishing my thighs were smaller.
What I’m willing to do: I’m willing to track my food, or journal my thoughts when I’m avoiding doing that.
GINGER!!
Thanks for responding! I love this for you. And like I said, I wasn’t binging, I was still exercising, I wasn’t eating junk food, and I STILL managed to eat 2500+ calories. LOL. It’s so hard to stay in a calorie allotment with our food culture and access to EASY calories! !
Hello Amy,
I was surprised to read that your height is 5′. I was that height my entire life, until a certain age (don’t remember the exact one). I am now 73 and my height is 4’10”! The reason for my comment here is to ask you what you weigh because I’ve been between 108 and 110 mostly my entire life, but never happy with my body. I’ve never had a flat stomach – always a pouch. I’d love to have a flat stomach and be able to wear a size 2 petite instead of a 4 petite.
I’d love to know your weight and clothes size if that isn’t too personal a question! Also, when you buy pants, are they too long? Thanks, Amy.
Hi Sally!!
I’m sure 4’10 is in my future, as my grandma definitely was under 4’10 by the time she passed away.I usually hesitate to share my weight, because I don’t want anyone to think i’m being too nit-picky! But, you would TOTALLY understand, because just a few pounds on a small frame can make ALL the difference!
My heaviest I was 150+ (although I didn’t weigh in at my heaviest, so I write +) 150 was the heaviest I ever got on a scale for.I spent MOST of my adult life between 123-130.When I finally lost weight for the first bikini show, I got to 103lbs.My IDEAL weight for me is 110.My current weight is 115.
I will say, I’ve effectively been able to put more muscle on over the last 5 years, which makes a HUGE difference in what my baseline weight can be without bulging out of my clothes. I’ll share a post soon for my lean muscle measurements and losing fat while gaining muscle!
And yes, my jeans are ALWAYS too long!! I wear shoes with a HUGE sole though.