Fat Loss vs. Ongoing Maintenance - how does NoS do it?

[Ariel King]

Hi all,

I feel sort of dumb asking this, bc I'm not even doing NoS (though I've been considering it for some time... sigh). On most fat-loss eating plans, the regimen changes once the desired amount of fat has been lost and equilibrium (maintenance) becomes the new goal. I was just wondering how NoS deals with this. Reinhard, since you are not currently trying to lose (right?), have you had to adapt NoS at all? If so, how? Do you just eat slightly larger meals than you did while losing?

My main reason for asking this is that I can't figure out if I really need to lose fat or not. I'm 5'7" and usually weigh around 143, but most of the weight sits on my hips and thighs, and it really bothers me sometimes. Of course I've never had a body fat percentage test, so I can only guess that it's probably in the high 20s or so. In some ways I'm in a worse position than really overweight people because it's not entirely obvious how much fat I need to lose or how much danger I'll be in by not losing it. It doesn't help that my husband insists I don't need to lose weight -- he isn't against the NoSdiet or me doing it, but he is unsympathetic (at best) when I complain about my thunder thighs.

Anyway, this post is long enough, but the upshot is that I'm on the fence about NoS for myself. I'd like to do it, but haven't yet because (a) I don't have a huge reason to do it (literally) and (b) I have a severe weakness for sweet things, particularly ice cream. The cravings for these things hit when I'm bored and/or frustrated, which I apparently am often. I suppose those are the real problems that need to be addressed.

How does this relate to the ongoing maintenance question? I guess my question boils down to, what if someone does NoS when they don't really need to lose weight? Probably such a person would just lose less fat, if any, because it would be less of a significant caloric reduction than it would be for a really overweight person. STOP RAMBLING!!!

Any thoughts appreciated.

[navin]

The maintenance takes care of itself. THe diet is the SAME for losing weight as it is for maintaining. That's why so many other diets fail... you can't bear to stay on them forever, and their maintenance plans, if they exist at all, ar pretty much an afterthought... or are not much less difficult to stay on than the diet itself.

No-S is about controlling overeating. If you kick the habit of overeating, you'll probably lose weight at first, and then stablize over time as your body reaches a good, healty weight.

I don't forsee myself changing anything once I reach a desired weight.

[gratefuldeb67]

Navin wrote:
I don't forsee myself changing anything once I reach a desired weight.[/quote]

You better change your socks mister!
Hee

I assume you will change pants too!

Yay Navin and yay NoS!!!!

Hey Ariel, you should *never* feel dumb about posting any question, no matter how dumb it is!
Look... NoS is really really really simple.. You are overthinking all of this Ariel... Just give it a try for a few months and see how you feel.
If you are already a lovely and slim 143 (I feel like strangling you for being so slim LOL)
You are really not that overweight to begin with... What, you want to lose 10 pounds? 15? Well, just by cutting down on my son Richard's sweets since last September, and trust me he still has plenty to be satisfied with right now, he has taken off about 2 or 3 inches from his "starting to get husky" nine year old belly, and looks WONDERFUL!!! Pictures will soon follow, I promise.. Including his before picture... Me? That's another story...
I need some more months to post a photo, but it will happen..
So with Richie and NoS this was the deal, and I think you will be inspired by his success...He never overate, he just oversweeted last year. He does a 80% version of NoS... he is doing great...I allow him some healthy after school snacks, which we really think of as a small meal, because when he gets home, after a very active third grade day, complete with gym class, and recess running around, and generally having a high metabolism, much of the time he is famished, and possibly has skipped his lunch, if it's something yucky on the menu... But for us adults, we need to really stick to the guidelines with Reinhard's classic
"comical strictness" (Reinhard you should probably TM that catch phrase, it's great!) Then NoS really works...Slowly but surely, it really does work. So try it out!
Remember one thing..
NoS also stands for
Not Stupid!
This plan does the thinking for you.. You just obey... before you know it ,you won't really feel like you are dieting at all, just eating like a normal person..And then, you don't have to worry about "going off it" because it's just a normal way of eating that you can do your whole life! You may change interest in your food choices and get creative with trying new things.. It really is a flexible and life friendly tool... And when I say it's normal, I mean REALLY normal, not "diet culture, healthy choice, weigh and measure your portions till you hate food, or count your neurotic fat grams until you are sick of science" normal..
Just plain old normal...
The way food is supposed to be...
Enjoy NoS!
I'm tired so more to come in future, with regards to advice and more stupid questions explained with more stupid answers...

Yay Ariel
Love,
Deb

[Ariel King]

Thanks so much Navin and Deb! What you said makes perfect sense. I kinda figured the maintenance stage would just take care of itself on NoS because it's such a simple, reasonable way of eating. But I wanted to hear about it in full gory detail, if possible, and as Deb pointed out, I tend to way overanalyze things. I do think I could probably do this. But since I'd already started SG I figured I'd take it one life change at a time so as not to get overwhelmed... Anyway, thanks for the encouragement Deb! I may have more stupid questions, but I do NOT think your answers are stupid!

[reinhard]

Hi Ariel,

I have nothing to add to what Navin and Deb said. That's it, really. Maintenance = loss. If you treat them separately, you're going to be in for a nasty surprise when it's time to stop losing. I've maintained my current weight for about 2 years now, and I don't consciously eat any more than I did when I was losing. Human beings are resourceful creatures, our systems are not that delicate. If you eat at meals like you're supposed to instead of snacking all day long like so many of us do nowadays, the body can handle the fine tuning of going from loss to maintenance without conscious intervention. We're talking about a move from "way too much" to "about right." Get to "about right" and your body will take care of the rest. Really. If it were otherwise, Lions in the savanah would be running around with calculators. Life would have never made it past the primordial stew. Don't worry, you are not going to have to take drastic action or distintigrate into nothingness!

[Ariel King]

Thanks Reinhard. As always you have a very logical take on this. I'm not really surprised to hear that there is no conscious "shift" from losing to maintaining on NoS. After all, the NoS approach is all about being in touch with your body and trusting it to do the right thing, when you do the right things for it. I'm glad to hear your weight loss leveled off naturally and easily. And I really wasn't worried about me (or anyone else) disintegrating into nothingness by doing NoS. Mainly I just wanted to hear someone's personal experience of using NoS for NOT losing (or rather not gaining) as well as for losing. Thanks again.

[BrightAngel]

I found this to be an interesting and useful post.

[JillyBean]

Thanks for pulling this one to the front, BA. I agree, it is interesting and useful.

[wosnes]

One of the great things about No-S is that once you have the habits under control, you're doing what you'll always do.

[Mavilu]

You better change your socks mister!
Hee

I assume you will change pants too!

Heehee!, when I first got into these boards, I went through every page reading this or that thread, as soon as I read this today, I knew this was a very old post!.

Good thing you brought it back, BrighAngel, until now, I wasn't sure if it was okay to bring back old posts; some forums have a policy against that.