She lost 10 kg in 3 months, then her body started fighting back: What was her diet lacking?

Weight loss gets celebrated. But weight maintenance gets ignored. That is a major mistake that my 34-year-old client made. Tied to a sedentary job, irregular hours and faulty eating, she started putting on weight and gained 10 kg in no time. Determined to be fit, she also shed it after three months of tailored diet and exercise plans. She felt good about her body again and would often boast about how her approach was structured and sustainable. Till the hunger craving returned and she binge-ate at times. She no longer felt energised but exhausted after exercise.

The scale started tilting and she tried harder than ever to maintain her weight. Food occupied too much of her mental space. This was not a motivation problem. It was a fuelling problem.

Dropping 10 kg is often treated as the finish line but biologically, it is the transition point. This is where the body stops cooperating and starts testing how serious the change really is. Many people regain weight not because they lack discipline but because they keep eating like they are still trying to lose. Maintenance is not a relaxed version of dieting. It is a different metabolic phase that requires different decisions.

During weight loss, the body releases stored energy. Hunger can be managed for a while. The scale moves often enough to reinforce behaviour. Even restrictive habits feel justified because results are visible. Once weight stabilises, the body shifts priorities. It wants consistency, not deficit. Hunger hormones rise. Energy efficiency improves. Small gaps in intake start feeling larger. People often say, “Nothing changed, but it suddenly became harder.”

That is exactly the problem. Nothing changed when everything needed to. Staying in a deficit mindset after weight loss is what creates burnout, cravings and eventual rebound.

The most common mistake is continuing to eat “light.” Meals remain small. Breakfast is skipped. Carbs stay restricted. Fats are still avoided. Exercise stays intense. Hunger is still treated as something to override. This works during fat loss but backfires during maintenance.

The body reads prolonged under-eating as a threat. It responds by increasing appetite, reducing spontaneous movement, disrupting sleep and making food more mentally dominant. Weight maintenance fails quietly before it fails visibly.

The first change we made for the woman was intentional calorie increase, not relaxation. Breakfast was reintroduced with protein and carbohydrates instead of coffee alone. Lunch portions increased to include grains and fats, not just vegetables. A planned evening snack replaced unstructured grazing. Training volume reduced slightly while daily walking stayed consistent.

Calories were increased gradually over several weeks, not all at once. Hunger stabilised. Energy improved. Sleep deepened. Cravings reduced. Weight stayed stable without constant monitoring. Maintenance started working once the body felt adequately fed.

A maintenance diet is not minimal. It is balanced and predictable. Protein intake often needs to increase after weight loss to support muscle mass and appetite control. Carbohydrates need to return in measured amounts to support energy and hormonal balance. Fats need to be included intentionally, not accidentally. Meals should feel complete. Eating “clean but tiny” keeps the body in a defensive state.

Skipping meals becomes counterproductive. Long gaps between meals increase the likelihood of evening overeating. Regular meal timing matters more now than during fat loss. Maintenance eating is about adequacy, not control.

Portions during maintenance are larger than during fat loss. This is where many people struggle mentally. There is a fear that eating more automatically means gaining weight. In reality, refusing to increase intake is what often leads to regain.

Portion increases should be deliberate and structured, not emotional. Slightly more grains. Slightly more fat. Slightly more protein. Not “back to old habits,” but not diet-level portions either.

Exercise during maintenance is no longer about creating a deficit. Walking remains one of the most effective tools for weight stability. Strength training helps preserve muscle mass and metabolic rate. Excessive cardio often adds stress rather than benefit at this stage.

When maintenance feels hard, adding more exercise is rarely the solution. Improving fuelling usually is. Movement should support recovery and regulation, not compensate for under-eating.

Weight loss changes the body. Maintenance changes behaviour. People who maintain weight long-term are not the most disciplined. They are the most adaptive. They adjust intake when hunger changes. They increase food when activity increases. They stop treating eating more as failure. The goal is not to eat less forever. The goal is to eat enough to stay stable.