11/22/2025
Maintenance is misunderstood.
It’s a range of calories.
It’s a range of body weights.
It’s the space where the more you eat, the more you move, and it all balances out.
Eat less than your body needs and you lose fat.
Eat more than your body can use and it stores fat.
The middle is maintenance.
People get confused about what maintenance really is. They picture a fixed calorie number and a perfectly stable bodyweight. That’s not how it works.
Your weight should move within a range that fits your life.
Almost no one can eat without limits. We all need to check ourselves at times. If you have a weekend with too much booze, you might not drink for the week. The same idea applies to food. A high-calorie weekend needs a few steadier days to level things out. Ignore that and things drift.
Below is a side-by-side of and my twelve-month weight charts from Apple Health. Which one is which? haha
They look very similar and very stable, and they are, but each has about an 8lb swing. If you look closely, we both spike in September. We came back from Greece and the daily ice creams had done their job, so we spent the next couple of weeks getting back to normal.
That’s the difference. We saw it and corrected it with routine eating and regular movement.
Patti’s actually came off quicker than mine, I should add...
Regardless of your approach, Keto, flexible dieting or a GLP - if you don’t change your lifestyle the weight will return if you just stop.
You’ll always need to work on your health, but maintenance is where you get to live your best life.