Hi gang, just wanted to jump in with my "maintenance" experience. I'm 10 yrs post in June. I hit my main lowest weight about 6mths post surgery and stayed close to there for the best part of the first 8 years. (I lost a bit after a break up, but I don't really count that!) I never went well under my goal so never had the conundrum some of you do of having to actively eat more to maintain, so I'm zero help there.
However, I have gained recently (7kg total, I think that's about 16lb). Mostly the last six months, but up and down a bit the last year. I'm still not overweight, but I don't fit my clothes at all and that is an expensive nightmare you want to avoid!
Anyway, I have hindsight and so have these points to share (which like all of this will hit home for some of you and be totally off for everyone else!):
obvious, but bears repeating: try your best not to regain, it's a **** trying to lose it again (especially if, like me, you gain over 1000cal a day!)
if you were ever a snacker, don't use extra meals or snacks to up your calories - eating too frequently has been my main downfall (procrastin-eating)
don't push the boundaries of the guidlelines around bulky carbs/slider foods/larger meals etc to "just try them to see if you can". You'll be able to eat much more of them than you think and it's a slippery slope. Just stick to the rules which got you to goal.
I had two points where my capacity to eat bigger serves changed, first around 2 years and then another jump at about 6/7, so please re-read #3!
For those of you who feel a bit underweight and wanting to increase a bit, I'd suggest two options to avoid messing up your achievements long term. First option, don't do anything and leave it to the inevitable portion creep which will happen in a year or so. And don'y buy too many tiny clothes in the meantime ;) ; secondly, add a fatty cheat day/meal so the rest of your good habits are unchanged (I say fatty because sugary I think would be harder to keep in check). This option obviously means you'd need to be the sort to keep control of that, but it works for lots of people.
Sorry for the novel - hope it's helpful, ask me anything :)
