I've been thinking about weight maintenance. My weight has been stable for nearly ten years without active management. Dieting teaches us that active management is normal and necessary. If your weight goes up, you DO something. I remember I used to have a number I called my "oh, shit" weight. I was a happy eater unless my weight got above that, and then I'd restrict, but I'd call it a habit - like not snacking, not eating dessert, or going to bed hungry. That is NOT how it goes now, but I don't know that I've ever talked about how it goes. Basically, I don't worry about it. If my weight is up or down, there's good reason. I give my body the benefit of the doubt. It knows what it's doing when it comes to digestion, glycogen, water retention, fat stores, muscle building, and hormone regulation. I am a bumbling fool who needs to stay out of it. LOL
What I have observed is my body always correcting for whatever goofy thing I do. If stress, illness, or a busy schedule cause me to eat less than normal, it will make me hungrier afterward and that situation will correct itself. If I'm eating mindlessly, feeling celebratory, or I get Easter candy in the mail and eat a lot of it for fun, no problem. I'll naturally be less hungry in the following days and weeks, and find myself craving foods other than chocolate rabbits. It will work itself out without me having to make rules or take action. This is fascinating! Who knew?!
I don't have any guidelines about the scale anymore. I always used to weigh daily, or weekly, or never. That was a decision to be made, announced to the world, and followed. Now, it doesn't matter at all. I weigh or don't as I feel like it. Sometimes I get curious, intend to step on the scale first thing in the morning, and still forget for four days. Like it will be noon and I'll be eating a sandwich, realizing I didn't do it, didn't even think of it. I love that!
I used to track my weight in the Fitbit app and look at the little graphs. It would fluctuate a bit from day to day, but basically, it was a straight line for years. I thought the act of tracking it helped somehow, like it was stable because I was looking at it. Nope. Now, I tend to update my weight in the app once every year or so to keep the metabolic data reasonably accurate. I did that recently when I got a new Fitbit. It used to be that if your goal was maintenance and you were within a 10-15 pound range of whatever number you set, it would be green and say "Goal Met!" or some happy thing. Now, it apparently wants you to maintain one exact number. When I entered yesterday's weight, it said, "You need to lose 1.2 pounds" and I said, "F&%k you, Fitbit!" and turned that feature off again. LOL