Maintenance weight goals

Not every weight goal is a journey. Some are a home.

What maintenance mode is

A classic weight goal moves you from a start toward a target. A maintenance goal does the opposite job: it helps you stay where you are. You pick an anchor weight and a comfort band around it, and Step Step quietly watches your trend. Stay inside the band and the app stays out of your way. Drift outside it and you get one gentle nudge, early enough that a small correction is all it takes.

Maintenance is a first-class goal: it lives on your Goals tab and Home like any other goal, and it counts as your weight goal (one active weight goal at a time, on the free tier too).

Setting one up

Go to Goals → + → Weight Goal.
At the top of the sheet, switch from Target to Maintain.
Pick your anchor weight. It starts at your current trend weight, which is usually exactly right.
Adjust the comfort band if you like. The default is about 2% of your anchor (72 kg gets ±1.5 kg), which is wide enough that normal daily wobble never triggers anything.
Optionally set a Maintain until date. Leave it off and maintenance simply runs until you end it.

Why the band watches your trend, not your scale

A salty dinner or a long flight can move the scale a kilo or two overnight without an ounce of real change. Step Step judges your band against your trend weight, the smoothed line that averages out daily noise. That means the app only speaks up about real movement, never about water weight. You can read more about how the trend line is calculated in the app's article "How we calculate your trend line" on the weight screen.

Reading the card

The maintenance card swaps the usual progress bar for a level-style gauge:

The lit segment is your comfort band, with a tick at your anchor.
The marker is your current trend. Inside the band it wears the goal colour; outside it turns amber.
The pill in the corner says it plainly: In the zone or Drifting.
Underneath, a simple duration line: "Maintaining 72 kg · 5 weeks". It counts time since you started, and it never resets. Maintenance is the calm goal type; a holiday week should not wipe a counter.

Drift alerts

When your trend crosses outside the band, Step Step sends one notification, then goes quiet. It will not nag you daily while you work your way back. Once your trend has been back inside the band for three days in a row, the alert re-arms, so a future drift gets one fresh nudge too. You can turn drift alerts off entirely in Settings → Notifications → Maintenance alerts.

After a weight loss or gain goal

This is where maintenance shines. When you complete a target goal, Step Step asks one question: "Maintain this weight?" One tap starts a maintenance goal anchored at the weight you actually reached. Your goal history then reads as chapters: "Lost 6 kg, completed" followed by "Maintained 72 kg, 8 weeks". Research on weight change is clear that holding a new weight is its own achievement, often the harder one, and Step Step treats it that way.

Ending maintenance

Timed goals: if you set an end date and your trend is inside the band when it arrives, the card offers Complete Goal. Completing celebrates and counts toward your weight medal, just like finishing a target. If you drifted, the card simply asks whether to keep going (the goal becomes open-ended) or end it.
Open-ended goals: end whenever you like from the goal's edit screen. The archive records it neutrally: "Maintained 72 kg" with the dates. Stopping maintenance is never marked as a failure.

Quick answers

Can I maintain body fat or waist? Not yet. Maintenance is for scale weight, where the trend line makes the band meaningful.
Does drifting reset anything? No. The duration line keeps counting and nothing is lost. The amber marker and one notification are the whole consequence.
Do I need to log weight for it to work? Yes, the trend only moves when weigh-ins arrive (from Step Step, your smart scale, or anything that writes to Apple Health). A weigh-in reminder pairs well with a maintenance goal.
Is it a paid feature? No. Maintenance is part of the standard weight goal, free tier included.

Mechanics current as of August 2026. Questions? support@step-step.app