By Lynn Haraldson-Bering
I really don’t have a lot to add to the question, “Is Maintenance Possible?” because you all reiterated my thoughts in your insightful and thoughtful comments.
Maintainers ARE different than most folks. We’ve embraced, or are working to embrace, the fact that we can’t “diet” and go back to “normal” (loved that comment!). I did that for 30 years, and until I figured out that I had to change my entire relationship with food and my body forever, not temporarily, I could not be a successful maintainer.
I want to address a few things Barbara said in her response. First, she asks the question: “Do we regain weight because we simply fall back into bad habits or do we regain because we have a physiologic disorder that encourages – even demands – that fat be reaccumulated?” Barbara believes that yes, when something has gone wrong with the body’s innate calorie mechanism, that it is more likely that a person who has accumulated large amounts of fat over their lifetime will have a more difficult time keeping weight off.
This makes perfect sense to me and is what makes me a more mindful maintainer this time around. Speaking as a person who has accumulated and unaccumulated large amounts of fat over and over for 30 years, I know my body well and even the slightest increase in caloric intake in a few days time will guarantee a gain, especially if those calories are carb-based. My daughters – both of whom grew up without a weight problem – eat balanced diets, but they also eat greasy foods once in awhile, white bread, desserts (things I choose to avoid because I know what they’ll do to my body ) and they don’t gain weight. They also usually only eat when they’re hungry and stop eating when they’re full, something I didn’t do as a young adult.
I suspect that being 24 and 25 with fairly young metabolisms help, but by the time I was 25, I’d lost my first 100 pounds. I ate similarly to how they eat now and my body got fat. Ergo, I can’t eat the standard American diet unless I want to gain weight again. This was lesson #1 in maintenance.
I’ve been criticized by people losing weight and by people who choose to maintain at a higher weight for eating what to them seems like a small amount of food every day. They say they could “never” eat so few calories in a day.
People losing weight often are disheartened when they find out I consume 1200-1400 calories a day and do not eat the calories I burn exercising. Sadly, they look too far into the future and assume that they, too, will have to do EXACTLY what I do in order to maintain their weight loss. This fear of not being able to eat more food has unfortunately caused many people to stop losing and ultimately start gaining again.
My critics who are maintaining at higher weights readily admit they work out more than two hours almost every day just so they can eat more food. I like food. God knows I do. But I will not be a slave to it. Having said that, my approach to maintenance is just one of many, and if working out two hours every day works for someone, that’s great! As Barbara also said in her response: “…the answer to maintenance lies in finding a formula that avoids putting stress on that weak point. Once the formula is known, success comes from constant attention to this very individual plan…One person’s formula will not be the same as another’s…”
I do believe whole-heartedly that maintenance is possible and, as Barbara said, “obesity is not destiny.” But it does take a complete and honest examination of our wants, needs, and desires in terms of what we want to look like and feel like, and what we can commit to doing for the rest of our lives in order to achieve those goals.
Thank you so much, all of you, for participating in this blog the way you do. As Barbara and I mark our one-year blogging anniversary this month, we’re continually amazed at the commitment to and philosophies of maintenance that you share with us. Here’s to another year of growing in understanding of what makes maintenance possible. For me, without this kind of support, I know maintenance would be more difficult.