Question About Maintenance Midway Through

This will probably be a little long, TL;DR at bottom.

First, some stats: F/44/5’7” SW:196, CW: 148. GW: 130ish.

I won’t go into all the years of my weight saga but basically this May after seeing a photo of myself I kind of flipped a switch and started working hard to address my slowly creeping weight. I am not going to lie, my eating has gotten somewhat disordered and although it worked for me in the weightless department, it’s making me fairly miserable, mentally. I’m working on addressing that and have recently been eating more and trying to break through some of my weird mental obsessions with intake. I also go to the gym and lift about 4-5 times a week with some cardio as well. The increased gym activity is making me feel better mentally and physically and also forces me to be even more dedicated to fueling my body properly.

For the past month or so, I was in a pretty solid stall. I blamed it on my attempt to up my calorie, work out too much, got totally freaked out, etc. etc. I told my friend (who is also my trainer and who I recently told about my disordered eating) that I was considering taking a break over the holidays, not tracking, and trying to eat intuitively at maintenance for a couple of weeks. I had recently read and heard that it’s often good to take a maintenance midway through your weight loss to give your body a chance to adjust. I thought by doing so I could a) give my body a break b) enjoy the holidays and c) maybe loosen some of the mental issues I’ve developed around food and tracking. I currently eat OMAD and follow a keto diet, and am also vegetarian. I would, during this time (theoretically) eat at a less restrictive schedule (2MAD or 18:6, 16:8) and reintroduce beans/legumes and other whole carbs back into my diet. I know this will cause an initial gain due to inflammation, which I’m prepared for.

Funny enough, right after making that decision and setting a date for beginning next week, my weight suddenly dropped 3 pounds. Go figure. Anyway, I’m still considering doing a couple of weeks of maintenance for all the reasons mentioned above. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts about this technique?

TL;DR What are the pros and cons of mid-loss maintenance phase and what are your experiences with it?

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