It's my one-year anniversary of maintaining my goal weight! (thank you, MFP!)

IrisFlute
IrisFlute Posts: 88 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I reached my goal weight of 135 almost exactly a year ago. Today I weigh 132. I feel relieved and glad that maintaining the weight loss has been possible. (I'm 5'8", female, age 60, and I started out originally at 161 lb. I dieted by eating 1200 calories a day, super-healthy low-ish carb diet. I get light exercise each day and I didn't change that while losing weight. I also totally ignored the whole "drink lots of water" thing, which I personally did not feel was necessary. )

Each person approaches the maintenance journey differently, but here's what works for me:

My biggest luxury when I reached my goal weight was putting away the food scale and no longer logging calories. I was anxious at first about regaining weight, so I still did a bit of mental calorie-counting but that faded out after a few weeks. Instead of calorie counting, I let hunger be my guide in maintaining my weight. I allow myself to get actually hungry before I eat, and I stop eating when I feel satisfied. Even if that means leaving food on the plate in a restaurant or throwing away the uneaten half of a muffin or sandwich I just bought.

I used to drink fruit juice before I went on the diet. When I was losing weight, I couldn't fit the calories into a 1200 per day diet. I have not resumed drinking juice. (I never drank soda.) Now the only things I drink are tea, coffee and the very occasional glass of wine. I don't drink much water and I have never come anywhere close to 8 glasses a day.

I don't worry about fats, and I eat mostly pure whole foods and lots of nuts. I eat very small servings of desserts and treats, and not much white bread or white rice.

Anyway, I just wanted to let people know that (for me, at least) maintenance can be intuitive. My blood pressure, which was borderline high when I was at 161 lbs, has dropped to low-normal -- which was my whole motivation for the weight loss. I have avoided the need to go on a blood-pressure medication.

MFP was a giant help while I was losing weight - I could not have done it without MFP -- so I just wanted to check back in a year later. And to thank the community here.

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Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    Well done, Iris! That is fabulous!
  • samlovesthesnow
    samlovesthesnow Posts: 173 Member
    Congratulations on your success and thanks for the inspiration! I've just hit my goal weight and am quite anxious about how to avoid weight gain. I'm not ready to stop logging yet but it's nice to know that it can be done in the longer term!
  • ggeise14
    ggeise14 Posts: 387 Member
    Congrats to you!
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
    Congrats! One year is awesome.
  • starfish235
    starfish235 Posts: 129 Member
    Maintance is difficult for most people. I work at it and have done so for 15 years. More power to you. People think that once we lose weight we don't have to worry any more. It is more difficult than losing in my view. I say you did good and wonderful work.
  • PegMoffat
    PegMoffat Posts: 24 Member
    A year ago yesterday, I reached my goal weight. I'm 5' 9", age 65 and went from 176lb to 160lb on 1480 cal/day. I slowly dropped another 5lb while eating 1800 - 2200 cal/day and finally levelled off. I've been maintaining at 153-155 and couldn't be happier with my MFP results.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Congrats to all of you on successful maintenance! Can't wait til I'm there. Nice to see that others my age are maintaining.
    SW 301
    CW 181
    Gw150
    18 mo
    60 yo
  • AsISmile
    AsISmile Posts: 1,004 Member
    Congratulations! Such a great job. It sounds like you figured it out :)
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Well done! I'm a bit envious that you can eat intuitively, I have to be mindful all the time, lol
  • Digbysmom
    Digbysmom Posts: 36 Member
    Well done! I've just stared maintenance after a similar loss of 33 pounds at age 66. It's so inspirational to see someone close to my age, albeit younger, having such great success. Congratulations! You're an inspiration to all of us.
  • bmayes2014
    bmayes2014 Posts: 232 Member
    inspiring! I am currently at your starting point weight. Thanks for sharing
  • charliembarber
    charliembarber Posts: 1 Member
    Congrats to you for reaching your goal weight and keeping it off! Your story is inspiring to me and I appreciate you sharing your experience and how you approach keeping the weight off. And thanks to everyone else for sharing his or her comments!
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    @IrisFlute that is awesome. We all know losing is the easy part and maintaining is very hard. Thanks for your encouraging post.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    @IrisFlute that is awesome. We all know losing is the easy part and maintaining is very hard. Thanks for your encouraging post.

    Gale - nope not all of us.
    I found weight loss hard and maintenance easy.

    Iris - well done young lady.
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
    Congrats!
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited December 2015
    well done on maintaining pretty effortlessly :smiley:

    I find maintenance easy too, love having the extra calories and been maintaining my loss for 2+ years :smile:
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Those extra calories are an illusion :s They really don't add up to that much; the difference in caloric need between maintaining and gaining is minuscule. (This is good, though, because - conversely, we don't need to implement a a lot of big changes to lose again.)
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
    Congrats! Very inspiring!
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    Congratulations!
  • jimskelton
    jimskelton Posts: 13 Member
    This is good to hear, and thanks for your pointers. I'm still trying to figure out how to enter maintenance and I'll have to consider what worked for you (don't drink juice, small deserts, get hungry before eating, etc.)
  • Billy60s
    Billy60s Posts: 1,566 Member
    Congratulations, hope I can say the same
  • FitRoberta
    FitRoberta Posts: 73 Member
    Congratulations and thanks for sharing!
  • pbiflygirl
    pbiflygirl Posts: 4 Member
    That is so wonderful! Congrats to you! I added u as a friend, am looking for some MFP friends that are dedicated........I've been logging on for over a year faithfully....many of my friends dropped off.......thanks!
  • JohnONE29
    JohnONE29 Posts: 101 Member
    Great read, thank you for sharing
  • StacyChrz
    StacyChrz Posts: 865 Member
    Congratulations! Keep listening to your body, it's clearly working for you.
  • basesteel
    basesteel Posts: 9 Member
    Congratulations! :)
  • Noot30
    Noot30 Posts: 54 Member
    Congratulations. Thanks for sharing.
  • brenn24179
    brenn24179 Posts: 2,144 Member
    I have gained and lost so many times, usually around 2 year mark I start putting it back on. With MFP, I have had my weight off for three years this Feb but have gained about 10 pounds back, I am ok with that because I lost 40 lbs. Hope to get this off. Done better with MFP than WW or anything else. Maintenance is definitely a life style and I have surprised myself how I have learned to eat better and healthier.
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
    brenn24179 wrote: »
    I have gained and lost so many times, usually around 2 year mark I start putting it back on. With MFP, I have had my weight off for three years this Feb but have gained about 10 pounds back, I am ok with that because I lost 40 lbs. Hope to get this off. Done better with MFP than WW or anything else. Maintenance is definitely a life style and I have surprised myself how I have learned to eat better and healthier.

    10 pounds isn't that much so you'll get those off in no time.
  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
    Congratulations! A year of maintaining is awesome.

    I've maintained my goal weight for a number of years and it's great not to have to monitor every bite I take. I do continue to watch what I eat and log on a regular basis, albeit somewhat more casually. I lost weight on 1500 calories a day. I'm also usually very active. However, over the past three months I've been pretty sedentary due to recovering from a number of injuries and it was nice to weigh in at my doctor today to find I only gained a pound, which puts me at 3 lb below the low end of my range. Everyone has different bodies and metabolisms, and what works for one person may not work for someone else, but everyone has the potential to succeed. The other thing to remember is that chronological age is not an indicator of anything.

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