Ep #49: How to Maintain Your Weight Loss

You are listening to the Strong as a Working Mom podcast, Episode #49. What do you do when you’re happy with your weight loss and you want to maintain it? Let me tell you how to keep what you’ve worked so hard for.

Welcome to the Strong as a Working Mom podcast. If you’re balancing career, family, wellness, and some days sanity, you are in the right place. This is where high-achieving, busy, working moms get the tools they need to eat, move, and think. I’m your host, physician, personal trainer, and Certified Life Coach, Carrie Holland. Let’s do this.

Hey, how are you? What’s new, what’s good? So, what’s good here, we are going to talk about weight maintenance. So far, in this podcast, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about how to lose weight and build muscle. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about, essentially, being in pursuit of something or trying to change something. But now, I want to address what happens when you’re there. When you’re at a place where you feel good in your body, you’re happy with your weight, the way you look, how you feel, and you want to maintain it. You’ve reached your goal, and now you want to stay there. That is maintenance.

Some of you have asked about this, and I want to go over what you do when you’re ready to be in a maintenance phase. We haven’t addressed that before on the podcast, and I thought this would be a good time to address it.

So, when I think of weight loss versus weight maintenance, I think of intensity. There is a certain level of intensity and intentionality required to get into and then stay in weight loss mode. You may be finagling with your calories and experimenting with different foods and ways of eating in order to find what works best for you. And there’s a certain level of intensity to that, it takes energy from you.

Now, contrast that to maintenance, where you are still most definitely intentional, but by nature of the word, you aren’t looking to pursue something more. You’re looking to keep what you have. You’re continuing what you started without increasing or decreasing the intensity. You can think of it as a steady state.

Weight loss maintenance is a steady state where your weight or your physique is not changing, you’re neither gaining nor are you losing. And we’ll get into more details about this in just a couple minutes. So, you can also think of this as you would the gas pedal of a car. If you’re in maintenance mode, you’re not taking your foot off the gas and decelerating, but you’re also not flooring it. It’s kind of like cruise control, you’re holding steady.

When you’re in a weight loss phase, you have to keep your foot on the gas. There is a certain level of gas and intensity that you have to put forth in order to continue to lose weight. And to be clear, it is not about the speed, okay? It’s not about the speed. But instead, it’s about the intensity and direction you’re moving.

Now, when you’re in maintenance mode, you aren’t changing anything, you’re continuing on just as you have been. And there are some important things to note about the difference between being in a weight loss versus a weight maintenance phase. I want to make this less complicated for you so that maintaining your new lower weight is easy. So, let’s dive into this today.

Here’s what we’re going to cover: We’re going to talk about what weight loss maintenance is. We’re going to talk about how you do it and how you know you’re in a maintenance phase. And then, most importantly, we’re going to cover maintenance from a three-pronged approach, eating, moving, and thinking. Because you know I’m biased.

I firmly believe that in order to live in the body you want, it is essential that your eating, moving, and your thinking are aligned. And this is true, whether you’re trying to lose weight or maintain your current weight. I do not believe it’s possible to have wellness without all three of these. So, we’re going to talk about how you optimize your eating, moving, and thinking to stay in a maintenance mode. All right? Let’s go.

First, let’s talk about your eating and what that will look like once you’re in a weight maintenance phase. So first, think about what you did in order to lose the weight. First and foremost, you established a calorie deficit; you ate less calories than you burned. And it may have been that you had to continually adjust the amount of calories you were taking in until you got to a weight that felt good to you. And how did you do that?

For most of you, you likely established a calorie deficit by decreasing your processed food intake, less eating out at restaurants, and less takeout food. Maybe even less alcohol. You may have practiced crowding out; one of my most favorite concepts. That’s where you change the priority order of the food you eat and choose real, whole foods, first. Before you reach for processed foods like cookies or chips.

You may have increased your intake of high-volume, low-calorie foods, things like fruit and veggies. And you may have increased your protein intake. So, whatever steps you took to get into that calorie deficit, make note of them. Because whatever level of calories it took you to get to your goal weight is the level of calories you will need to maintain in order to stay there.

And this is assuming that you’ve already adjusted for the metabolic adaptation that happens when you decrease your calories. What I mean by this, is as you decrease your calorie intake, your body will then decrease its energy expenditure to match it, because your body likes to be in balance. That’s fancy medical term is “homeostasis”.

So, as you lost weight, you may have found that you had to decrease your calories even more, in order to keep losing weight to get to your goal. That’s metabolic adaptation. And that also explains why someone who lives at a weight of, say 150lbs. for example, without dieting, will likely be able to eat more calories than someone who started at a higher weight and had to diet down to 150lbs.

That person who dieted down is likely going to need less calories because of the impact of dieting on her metabolism. Yes, it is annoying, but that is the biology that we’ve got. And if you’ve experienced this change in your metabolism, you’ve likely had to slowly but steadily decrease your calorie intake and maintain it for a long time in order to see the weight come down.

And once you’ve done this for long enough, and with enough consistency, you will hit your goal weight. If you want to review on this, on how calories work, and review on metabolic adaptation, go back and check out Episode 6, where I totally nerd out about all this, okay? But my point here today, is to say, whatever calories got you to your goal weight, after your metabolism adapts, that’s the amount of calories you will need to maintain in order to keep the weight off.

So, find out what amount of daily calories got you to your goal weight and kept you there, and just keep doing that. I know, I hear you, this sounds so simple, right? Whatever you did, you just keep doing it, right? And while it sounds simple, let me make a big deal out of it for just a few minutes.

Because this is what I most commonly see. You will work your tail off to get to your goal weight. You will be precise and plan out your food and eat the foods that you plan out for yourself. You moderate yourself and stick to a largely whole foods diet with minimal junk. You limit how often you go out for restaurant and takeout. You control how much alcohol you drink.

And then, once you see that goal number on the scale, you think to yourself, “I did it, I’m done.” Here’s the thing, you’re not done. At the risk of being a huge Debbie-downer here, I’m going to tell you that you’re not done. There is no finish line. In fact, you can think of your goal weight as the starting line, and the beginning.

It’s the beginning of your maintenance phase. Because at the risk of oversimplifying, think of it this way. Whatever got you there, is what will keep you there, really. Whatever calorie count, whatever behaviors, modifications, and dietary changes that you put in place to lose the weight are the same behaviors you will need to keep up in order to maintain that weight loss.

If you get to your goal weight and decide that you’re done, and you give up those behaviors, or even if you get loose with those behaviors, the weight will come back on. I’ve seen this happen to a number of you. And why is it so important? It’s important because it means you’ve got to find habits that are sustainable. I cannot tell you how essential this is.

If giving up all carbs is not something you can sustain for the long haul, even if that’s what got those last five pounds off, it’s no good. Because the second you start eating carbs again, if you haven’t adjusted your calories, the weight is going to come right back on.

Or if you swear that intermittent fasting was your magic bullet and it got you to your goal weight, but then you got there and realized that you really missed having breakfast and you put breakfast back into your plan without adjusting your total calories, you will gain weight.

Or if you got to your goal weight by swearing off alcohol, and once you got there, you start to drink again without adjusting for your calories, the weight is going to come back. This is frustrating, but it’s biology. It’s energy balance.

Take in more than your body needs, and the weight will pile right back on. This is so important to understand: Choose behaviors that you can uphold and maintain for the long term, so that weight maintenance is not a constant uphill battle.

This is not about giving up all chocolate, and strongarming yourself just until you hit your goal weight, only to go off the chain, resume eating nightly chocolate, and start regaining the weight. No, that’s what yo-yo dieting is made of. Yo-yo dieting is a result of system plans and fads that are extreme and not sustainable. They’ll get your weight down, and as soon as you stop the weight comes right back.

But I get it, the fad diets are sexy because they promise fast results. Of course, you’ll lose weight fast if you cut out an entire macro group like carbs. Of course. But if you can’t continue that it’s not the right plan for you. Do not be wooed by fast results that don’t last, they wreak more havoc on your metabolism than they’re worth.

Instead, if you want your weight maintenance phase to work and to be smooth, find a way of eating for you that is sustainable. Find foods that you enjoy eating. And experiment with them in various amounts and proportions, so you get into a steady calorie deficit and then stay there.

Literally think of it as unpacking your bags and living there. And if you’re going to unpack your bags and live there, it should be comfortable. Whatever you are doing to lose the weight has to be something you can keep up. Don’t fool yourself into thinking, “I’ll just do this until I get to my goal. And then, I’ll figure something out.” No, that’s going to be unpleasant, and it’s not going to work for the long term.

So, the other thing I see happen, is that you get to your goal weight, and then you get a little looser with your eating. You lose the precision and planning that got you to that goal weight. You stop making decisions ahead of time and let surprises derail you. I’ve had this happen with a number of clients who’ve achieved their goal weight, high-fived themselves as they should, and then proceeded to undo it by having a few extra glasses of wine here, an extra doughnut there, stopped weighing themselves.

And often, these changes in behavior come preceded by a justification. You may tell yourself, “This one big meal, it won’t matter. I can get back on track after this weekend. I earned this. I’ve got some wiggle room.” And if you do that enough times the weight will come back. So, I urge you to be honest with yourself and be onto yourself, in a kind way so that you don’t justify yourself right back where you started.

That leads me to an important point. When you get to your goal weight, one of the most important decisions you can make is how much you want to keep it up. If it was very, very difficult for you to get to your goal weight and eat at whatever level of calories it took to get you there, you have to decide if it is worth it for you to keep that up. And what I mean by this, is you’re in charge here. And if you decide that eating a little more, and having your weight go up a little is okay with you, then you take that authority and do it.

When I have clients who get to their goal weight, I will talk it through with them and ask them to look back and tell me what it took from them to get there. And as we debrief, one of the key things I want her to think about is how she’s going to keep it up.

So, sometimes a client will have a specific weight goal for a big event, and then she’ll get there. She’ll really like the way she looked, felt awesome in her outfit, and she’ll be thrilled with the results. But then, we have to get really practical and look at what it took to lose that weight. And if the habits it took, to fit into that fancy dress, are not the same ones she can sustain, we have to make some adjustments.

The same is true for you. When you hit your goal weight, you have to decide if you’re going to keep it up. It may be that you decide to give yourself some space to eat more. And as a result, you may weigh a little more than your goal weight. You have to decide what it’s worth to you. And again, this goes back to choosing habits.

The whole point is to choose habits that you can sustain, that feel easy and automatic, and do not result in you feeling deprived or restricted. If you have to restrict yourself all the way down to your goal weight, and you felt miserable all the way, they’re no good. That’s not going to last for the long term.

But on the flip side, if you’ve done the work and have made real true legitimate changes to your lifestyle that you can uphold for the long haul, you’ll find that keeping them up and maintaining your goal weight is easier. Yeah, it’s effort for sure. But it’s not an uphill battle where you are constantly trying to strongarm yourself into a calorie deficit. That is the key piece to understand.

Alright, to review, when you eat for weight loss maintenance, you will need to eat the same level of calories that got you to your goal weight once metabolic adaptation has occurred. Remember, whatever got you there will keep you there. And once you see what it took to get you there, you may decide to adjust your goal weight.

You may decide that you feel better eating at a slightly higher level of calories and live at a little bit higher weight. Either way you approach this, the underlying theme here is that the habits you practiced to get to your goal weight are the same ones you will need to keep up if you want to maintain it. And that is why it’s essential to choose habits and a way of eating that are doable for the long term.

Alright, next. So now that we’ve covered eating, let’s talk about moving. What does moving have to do with maintenance? A lot. Okay, so here’s the crazy thing I want you to understand. You know, I say this all the time: Do not use exercise to lose weight. Okay? So, why do I say that? Why do I repeat that over and over and over again? Because exercise will not cause you to lose a significant amount of weight.

It does not have the same effect on your weight loss that your diet does. Time and again, the literature backs this up. There’s a very modest effect of exercise alone on weight loss. And there’s even less benefit when exercise is combined with calorie restriction. I know that sounds crazy, but again, the literature shows this repeatedly.

Now let me throw a wrench in the system here, and talk about the utility of exercise and weight maintenance. So, even though the literature does not overwhelmingly support the use of exercise to help you lose weight, there is a solid body of literature that supports the use of exercise to maintain weight loss. That can be cardiovascular activity, strength training, or ideally, a combination of both.

So, you know I’m all about strength training. And this is just another place where strength training has an impact. When you strength train, you are working to mitigate the inevitable loss of muscle mass that happens when you lose weight. Remember, when you lose weight, you don’t get to control where it comes from. And while the majority of your weight loss will be from fat, you will most definitely lose muscle mass too. And the best way to control for this is to start or continue with strength training.

The other thing I want to mention is this, remember when we talked about what happens when you’re in a weight loss phase and you decrease your calories. When you decrease the total number of calories you take in, your body will then decrease the amount of energy it puts out. Meaning, your body will burn less calories in order to keep your systems in balance.

When you are in weight maintenance mode, by nature, it means that your energy input and your energy output match up. The number of calories you eat is about equivalent to the number of calories you burn. And the net result is zero weight loss and zero weight gain. Then you can tip the balance in your favor with exercise. Do you see that?

Exercise will increase your total energy expenditure and help you to maintain that equivalent energy balance. That is why exercise has a potentially more important role in weight maintenance than it does for weight loss. What I will say about this, however, is that many of these studies point to an exercise duration of 60 or more minutes in a day, in order to maintain your level of weight loss. And that may not be reasonable or sustainable for some of you.

Here’s the bottom line. I share all of this to say, one more time, as I say it often, do not use exercise as a means to an end for weight loss. Okay? When you view exercise as a way of getting you to a certain weight and then keeping you there, that’s a really great way to build resentment to exercise. When you put unrealistic expectations on exercise, and the impact that it will have on your weight, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

I had a client swear to me over and over again, that if she could just get up to running a few more miles, her goal was to be able to run six miles, she believed that if she got there, the weight would melt off and she could resume eating whatever she wanted. No, that’s not it. That’s not it at all. Exercise because it is great for your body and even better for your mood. If you are looking to exercise to help you lose weight, you will be disappointed.

And while there is data showing that exercise will help you maintain weight loss, I don’t want you to use it as a weapon against yourself. Do not think that unless you can get in 60 minutes of exercise daily, it’s hopeless. That is not the point here. While there are benefits of exercise in regard to your weight maintenance, please do not use it for that purpose. Okay? Exercise because you love it, not because of an expected outcome. I cannot stress this enough.

So, one other thing I want to hit on, while we’re talking about maintenance as it relates to moving, I want to talk about maintaining muscle. A few of you have reached out and asked what you do, once you’ve gotten into a solid strength training plan and have put on muscle, and now you want to maintain it.

Similar to the approach with weight loss, when you get to your goal physique, and you have the body composition and muscle you desire, turn around and ask what it took to acquire it. What did it take to get that shoulder cap? Or what did it take to get your biceps or your booty? What did it take to look the way you want it to look?

Strength training is like any other form of exercise, it’s use it or lose it. In order to hang on to the muscle that you worked so hard for in the first place, you’ve got to keep lifting weights. But that doesn’t mean you have to lift to the level of intensity that was required to build the muscle in the first place. Okay?

So, let me explain this a little bit more. We’ve talked about progressive overload on this podcast a number of times. Progressive overload is the foundational principle to building muscle. Progressive overload means that in order to build muscle, you have to subject it to an increased stress over time. You have to continually challenge yourself.

And that often happens by increasing your weight, increasing the number of sets, increasing the number of reps, or decreasing your rest time. You have to manipulate one or more of those variables in order to achieve progressive overload and build muscle.

Once you’ve lifted for progressive overload, and you’ve built muscle to the point that you’re happy with your physique, then you maintain it by continuing to lift weights. But the difference now is that you’re not necessarily going for progressive overload. You’re still challenging yourself, but you’re not manipulating those variables to stretch the muscles in the same way.

So, you might stick with the same weight, the same sets, and same reps for a number of weeks, or even months. And the idea here is that in order to maintain the muscle you’ve built, you lift at a weight set and rep scheme that is comfortably challenging; the stress applied to your muscles remains constant.

What that means is that you’re not looking for a new PR, you’re not maxing out on the bench press. You’re not going to muscular failure. Okay? You’re not going easy, but you’re going with comfortably challenging.

The other thing I want to point out here is this. In order to maintain the gains that you’ve made in strength, you’ve got to keep showing up. I use this example often and I’ll put it in here again. If you have a goal, for example, of doing unassisted pull ups, and then you get there, you do your first set of unassisted pull ups?

Awesome, you high-five yourself. And then, you keep doing pull ups. If you want to keep being able to do unassisted pull ups, you have to keep practicing them.

The sports medicine and personal training literature suggests once per week, at minimum, in order to maintain the strength gains you made, okay? It’s use it or lose it; keep doing the pull ups.

Okay. All right. So, last and most important, let’s talk about your thinking. In order to maintain your weight loss, and to keep the habits you put in place to lose that weight, you will need to maintain your thinking. On a practical level, what exactly does that mean? It means you continue to manage your brain. Remember, your brain is going to think for you, whether you control it or not. So, how about you choose to control it and practice thinking in the way that got you to lose that weight in the first place.

I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and I’ve boiled it down to four things. From a mind management or thinking perspective, maintaining your weight, in my opinion, means you manage your urges to overeat. You don’t use, or you no longer use, food or alcohol to cope with your emotions. Your way of eating is habit, and food takes up less space in your brain.

So, let’s go over these. First, when you’re in weight maintenance, you are managing your urges to overeat. I just talked about it last week, but I want to reiterate it here. Managing urges is one of the most important pieces of obtaining long lasting, permanent weight loss.

If you’ve practiced sitting through your urges without answering to them, and you’ve proven to yourself that you are just fine if you don’t eat that cookie, or have a second glass of wine… If you continue to do this and realize that you are okay, a few things will start to happen.

One, your desire for those foods will decrease. Remember, desire is a feeling that is created by your thoughts. So, the more you practice thinking in a way that does not cause over desire for foods, the less urges you will have for those foods. And the less you will feel deprived when you don’t have those foods.

Remember that urges and feeling deprived come from our desire, and where does desire come from? It comes from your thoughts. So, when you think, “I really want those M&Ms, you are creating the feeling of desire. And when you over desire those M&Ms, you will create the feeling of deprivation when you don’t have them.

But if you can sit through that urge and not have the M&Ms, without all of the attached drama, and you get through that urge without responding to it, you’ll see that the M&Ms are not as powerful as you thought. Food starts to lose its power over you. And that’s what I want you to practice.

You are human and you have desires, but if you can stay focused and connected with yourself through an urge to overeat, and recognize that your urges for certain foods are fueled by over desire, which is created by your thinking, and you control your thinking, there it is.

It’s when you make those connections and truly believe them, and then put it into practice by not answering your urges, that’s when overeating stops, and you will lose weight. This is an essential skill that you will continue to practice, even in your maintenance phase.

And along the same lines of managing urges, another key piece to weight loss maintenance is that you don’t eat or drink to deal with your emotions. When you are in weight loss maintenance you manage your emotions by feeling them or by processing them, instead of eating them. You do not buffer your emotions with food.

When you are able to experience the highs and lows in your life and manage them without reaching for food, then you’re onto something. You don’t look to food or alcohol to take away your pain. Food is no longer an escape. It’s just food, when you’re in maintenance.

Another key piece to being in maintenance is that the way you eat is habit. The way you eat is simply operating in the background. It’s more automatic, and you don’t have to think so hard about it, essentially. The way you eat, it’s just how you do. It’s how you roll. And it is not complicated, it’s efficient.

You know I’m all about habit. And my goal is that you find a way of eating that feels natural and right to you. And then, you practice it. The more you do that, the more it becomes automatic, the more it becomes habit.

Remember what are habits. Gretchen Rubin said it so well. And I love it and I will say it again here: Habits are the invisible architecture of your life. So, in relation to food when you are in maintenance, if you’ve done your mind work, the way you eat should be easy. The way you eat becomes natural for you. It’s not forced. You’re essentially on autopilot when it comes to the way you eat. You’ve practiced it enough and have made it easy enough for you that it requires little energy from your brain to execute.

And when you’ve established your way of eating as habit, it should not take a large mental load to eat in maintenance mode. You’re saving your brain space for more important things than food.

That brings me to the last piece of this. When you are in weight maintenance, the amount of brain drama around your food has decreased. And most notably, when you have done the other pieces of mind work like managing your urges, learning to process emotions, feeling your feelings instead of eating them, and engineering your habits, you should find that food takes up less space in your brain.

For my clients who have done this work with me, they often tell me that is the best part about doing this work. You don’t find yourself constantly thinking about food. You stop bargaining with yourself about the meal you’re going to have out with your friends this weekend. You don’t have an argument with yourself about whether or not to have cupcakes from your breakroom. There is no drama around food anymore.

You eat food that tastes good and fuels you, but food isn’t the center of attention. At the same time, you can also have an occasional meal or treat that is indulgent and fun. And you have that enjoyment from that meal, but then it’s over and it’s not a big deal. It’s food; you eat it, and then you get on with your day, you get on with your life. Your brain is not making food more important than it needs to be.

You can be around food, even foods that used to be trigger foods for you. Things like chips or cookies or chocolate. And it’s not a big deal. There’s no freakout. There’s no loss of control. There’s just you, and there’s food. There’s no drama inserted into this relationship. And that is powerful and it’s peaceful. I know there are two different adjectives, they both apply here.

When you are in maintenance, and you’ve done your work on eating, moving, and most importantly, thinking, you will be empowered around food, and you will be at peace with food, because you are in control. All right?

So, there it is. We just went over how you get into and stay in maintenance mode through the framework of eating, moving, and of course, most importantly, thinking. To put this all together, so far, over the course of this podcast, hopefully you’ve walked away with a number of tools and concepts that have helped you adopt habits that get you closer to your weight and physique goals. I’ve given you loads of ideas and suggestions for how to pursue change.

But beyond that, more than anything, I hope you realize that in the process of making those changes and obtaining your goal, whether it’s to lose 20lbs., have a shoulder cap, run a 10k road race, or something else that you are seeking, the most important piece to this is your thinking. None of those goals matter if you don’t have the brain, and the managed mind, to back it up. Without the thinking piece, your results won’t last.

So, think about it. Eating and moving, our actions, they are an outside job. But thinking, that is an inside job. Your eating and moving are a reflection of your thinking. If you take care of your mind, by practicing your thinking and practicing feeling, sticking to your eating and moving, as a result, getting to your weight loss goal will be much easier. And staying there, in maintenance, will also be easier. Because it starts with your thoughts, always. All right?

And if you want to talk about this more, let’s go. So many of my clients have found me because they were tired of starting and stopping their habits over and over again. When you coach with me, we look at all of it. We work on your mind at the same time as we work on your nutrition and exercise, so that the habits you put in place stay that way. Once you have those habits established, we work on maintaining them, so they’re with you for the long haul.

So, if you want help with this, check out my website. Go to www.CarrieHollandMD.com/contact and tell me where you’re getting stuck. And then, let’s get to work to change it. All right?

Thank you for hanging out with me and I will catch you again next week.

If you like what you’ve been hearing, please review the show. I would love to get your feedback and ideas. Your suggestions have inspired episodes and will help me make the show better for you. And share this podcast with a friend, text a show link, share a screenshot, or post a link to the show on your social media. Be sure to tag me @CarrieHollandMD on either Instagram or Facebook, so I can follow along and engage with you.

This is how we get the word out to other working moms who want to feel strong, inside and out. If you know someone who wants to feel better or eat and move differently but she is too tired or too busy, it is time to change things up. And you know, making that change starts with how you think. And that is what we do here on the Strong as a Working Mom podcast. I’ll see you next week.

Thanks for listening to Strong as a Working Mom. If you want more information on how to eat, move, and think, so you can live in the body you want, with the mind to match, visit me at CarrieHollandMD.com.