"Maintenance" isn't a number
We, as Americans, are great at losing weight. It’s maintaining weight that we suck at. And it’s no surprise. The entirety of our food centric environment is set up for us to fail with a multi billion dollar diet industry just waiting to swoop in and help us lose those same lbs over and over again, selling us on a new hack to do the same thing. However, we keep failing. Over and over again. If we can’t seem to maintain the weight we lose then we risk losing the motivation to continue to try. Our health and our fitness are at risk. Therefore it’s paramount that we learn to maintain weight loss in the face of an ever growing obesogenic environment.
I am not a fan of the term “maintenance”. It conjures up visions of inaction, passivity, stagnation. Yet maintenance is a dynamic state. Our bodies are constantly up and down regulating mechanisms of metabolism to ensure that the body stays a stable organism. Stability and homeostasis are kissing cousins. When I hear the question “what will my maintenance numbers be” I cringe. We are looking at this the wrong way. We are looking for where to stop. We should be looking for how to grow. The solution is the abundance model.
If we can create a buffer in this dynamic world of maintenance we have a much higher likelihood of long term success. Yet the current models of weight management are pushing people to live a life of restriction in a world of abundance. If we live our lives in constant resistance to the forces of environment we set ourselves up for inevitable failure. Every day becomes a struggle. Yet we don’t have to fight every day. There is a better approach.
The abundance model is about increasing calories, creating an energy flux that utilizes more calories in to drive more calories out. It’s like adding kindling to a dying fire. But why was the fire dying?
As we diet, our firewood starts to burn down. Less calories means less fuel to burn. Our bodies are smart, they will turn down the heat to preserve those coals. We slow down. Unconsciously park a little closer at the store. Sit a little bit longer. Take fewer steps. We may even blink less. But we can reverse this process by adding more wood. Slowly we will start to bring up the fire. All of those little mechanisms will begin to restore. The fire will grow. And now, we can increase the intensity of our fire through exercise, no longer worried that it will eat up the last of our coals. Workouts get better. Personal bests start to fall. We lift more, run further, pedal harder. And we need more wood.
Hyperpalatable foods aren’t going anywhere. We aren’t getting rid of pizza and burgers and chocolate chip cookies. Nor should we. We also shouldn’t have to live life in constant fear of these foods. Afraid that one meal will put us on the path to regaining all of the weight we’ve worked so hard to lose. And we don’t have to. There is a better path. The path of more, not less. More movement, more exercise, more food. The path of abundance.