NYT Ain't Got Nothing on Us: Maintainers Roll Call!
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I've been maintaining a 50 lb weight loss for about a year. I'm currently 14 weeks pregnant and have only gained the recommended amount. Plan on 'maintaining' a healthy body weight throughout pregnancy and getting back it my maintainence range ASAP after. I have either been losing or maintaining for a total of 2 1/2 years though as I lost my weight slowly and carefully. When I hear stuff about maintenance not being possible I am not going to let that stop me from eating appropriately and exercising.5
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Maintaining 45-pound loss for about two years now. I don't track my calories in maintenance now, but when I did, I found my TDEE to be pretty much what the calculators predicted for someone of my age, height, and weight. I have not noticed the large drop in metabolic rate that the researchers found in The Biggest Loser people in that article.6
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I have been maintaining my 100lbs loss for 10 years! Now I am doing body recomp (which is so slow, but I can already see progress). That article is all over my facebook page. I am so tired of seeing it.
NewDay16,
You are my hero! I want to be posting that I maintained a 90 lb weight loss for 10 years in a decade! Please share your story. Forgive my ignorance, but what is body recomp?
-K3 -
Maintaining weight for almost 2 years now (20 months), lost 121 pounds.
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I'm a maintainer. I lost about 45 lbs the first year, 15 the second year, maintained for 8 months then lost another 7-8 since last September. Maintaining again. I lose on 1600 - 1700 cals a day and maintain on 2000-2200 and I'm 66 years old. I've been doing this since Sept of 2013 and plan on continuing logging, exercising, wearing my fitbit and weighing the rest of my life!
I've been switching back and forth between maintenance and fat loss for the last year and a half.
For me, having a goal of health and fitness as opposed to a number on the scale did the trick!8 -
Thank you all so much for sharing! I have just started trying to lose 30 pounds, after seeing my weight creep up a few more pounds this year. I've lost these 20-30 pounds before and gained them back, and have made multiple false starts where I lost 5 pounds and then relapsed. The NYT article was really discouraging and had me wondering why I'm even bothering, but then I read this chain and now I'm motivated again. Thank you!5
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This thread is very inspiring. I've yoyo'ed a few times but I'm hopeful I'm figuring out what I need to do for long-term maintenance. (I've recently reached maintenance again.) A few things that have helped the times I've maintained for a few years are:
* weighing in regularly and going back to a deficit if I go above my maintenance range.
* keeping carbs at a lower level (I know this isn't necessary for everyone but for me with my health issues, it is) long-term. And using a lot of my carbs for veg.
* working out regularly.
Also, medication issues have been a partial cause of my weight gain twice. I'm not on either of those meds anymore.4 -
Maintaining since Oct 2014. Lost 60 lbs in about 9 months before that. I put on about 10 lbs from my lowest, 5 now gone since changing my diet to get cholesterol under control, but stayed the same size.2
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Starting month 5 of maintenance here. I always remind myself that I'm part of the 7% of smokers who stopped smoking (10 years this month), so being part of the 5% of successful weight losers is easy.
Zyxst: I could have written your post. I, too, am 5 months into maintenance. I am also part of the 7% of smokers who stopped smoking (10 years last August). Ha!
I will easily be part of the 5% of successful weight losers. My epiphany was when I realized I needed a tool EXACTLY LIKE MFP to guide me every day and help me manage and monitor my overeating tendacies.
I'm female, 54, 5'6". I lost 48 lbs in 7 months and maintain a 153-155 lb range. I work out 5-6x per week, 30-45 min a day using kettlebells. I average 1800 cal a day and log daily (and always will have to, at least 90% of the time). And I'm really good with that!1 -
Lost 168 lbs overall. Took about 2 years and have been on MFP since April 201. (Other accounts)
Maintaining now for 3 + years.
Started late 40's, menopausal since op. at 28. Now at 53. Just over 2 years ago I was diagnosed with Lupus on top of having CRPS (since 1997) and have gone through a lot of life changes that I was told would be beginning of the end for me and I was sure to gain all the weight back.
I'm on long term steroids (2 + years) plus other meds. notorious for weight gain but it hasn't happened. I run a tight ship and log on here to make sure I'm getting good nutrition due to the fact that unintended weight loss is a constant issue.
It sucks I can't exercise like I used to be able, have developed osteoporosis and fractured my back twice, so my ways of getting mobile and maintaining strength have undergone many transformations and those setbacks have taken a bit of getting around but honestly even with disability and ill health there are ways of making the situation you are in work for you.
Best wishes to everyone.
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Closing in on 20 months at maintenance. Trying gain some more muscle, maybe lose a little fat, but I'm GOOD!!!
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Thanks everyone so far for chiming in! Keep em' coming!0
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Great idea! I used to think it was impossible, and if I had read an article like that, I can't imagine how discouraged I would have felt
Anyway, 2 years maintaining, 118 pounds lost. I carried this weight (268 pounds) for almost 20 years, and was 50 years old when I started losing it, so those of you who are a little older like me, it is still very doable.10 -
I too wondered how many would be discouraged by that article. I've been maintaining at 70LB loss for a year (other than a mini bulk and cut which was intentional). A year still feels like nothing so it's so great to see so many who have really maintained long term!5
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Maintaining 115 pound loss for nearly 11 months, my anniversary will be in mid-June.5
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I'm 61 years old & lost almost 40 lbs over several months, and have been maintaining for 18 months now. I was VERY afraid of the maintenance phase, but have found it to be relatively easy by just continuing to plan ahead and log food/exercise. Logging became part of my daily life, so no problem for me to continue. I wonder how many people have already given up their weight loss journey due to the NYT article -:(4
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HippySkoppy wrote: »Lost 168 lbs overall. Took about 2 years and have been on MFP since April 201. (Other accounts)
Maintaining now for 3 + years.
Started late 40's, menopausal since op. at 28. Now at 53. Just over 2 years ago I was diagnosed with Lupus on top of having CRPS (since 1997) and have gone through a lot of life changes that I was told would be beginning of the end for me and I was sure to gain all the weight back.
I'm on long term steroids (2 + years) plus other meds. notorious for weight gain but it hasn't happened. I run a tight ship and log on here to make sure I'm getting good nutrition due to the fact that unintended weight loss is a constant issue.
It sucks I can't exercise like I used to be able, have developed osteoporosis and fractured my back twice, so my ways of getting mobile and maintaining strength have undergone many transformations and those setbacks have taken a bit of getting around but honestly even with disability and ill health there are ways of making the situation you are in work for you.
Best wishes to everyone.
With everything you go/have gone through, there is no way that no one can say that they can't maintain.3 -
KarenHatch1 wrote: »I have been maintaining my 100lbs loss for 10 years! Now I am doing body recomp (which is so slow, but I can already see progress). That article is all over my facebook page. I am so tired of seeing it.
NewDay16,
You are my hero! I want to be posting that I maintained a 90 lb weight loss for 10 years in a decade! Please share your story. Forgive my ignorance, but what is body recomp?
-K
That would be a very long story lol. I will sit down this weekend and type up my story and post it here on the site. Maybe it will help someone!
Body recomp is changing body composition. I had back to back injuries three years ago. I broke my foot one year and then then right after it was healed I was in an accident which messed my knee up. In this time I maintained my weight but I wasn't able to be as active and my fat % went to poo. I didn't like the way my body looked and I lost a lot of strength. I started weight lifting and eating at maintenance to a little above in hopes of building a little muscle and losing fat.4 -
KarenHatch1 wrote: »I have been maintaining my 100lbs loss for 10 years! Now I am doing body recomp (which is so slow, but I can already see progress). That article is all over my facebook page. I am so tired of seeing it.
NewDay16,
You are my hero! I want to be posting that I maintained a 90 lb weight loss for 10 years in a decade! Please share your story. Forgive my ignorance, but what is body recomp?
-K
That would be a very long story lol. I will sit down this weekend and type up my story and post it here on the site. Maybe it will help someone!
You are a true success story! I am positive there are many people here who would love to hear how you have done this for 10 years against all odds. An amazing accomplishment, and you are a hero to everyone that is going through this.
It gives us all hope for achieving the same. Looking forward to reading your story. Thank you in advance for taking the time to tell it!2 -
KarenHatch1 wrote: »I have been maintaining my 100lbs loss for 10 years! Now I am doing body recomp (which is so slow, but I can already see progress). That article is all over my facebook page. I am so tired of seeing it.
NewDay16,
You are my hero! I want to be posting that I maintained a 90 lb weight loss for 10 years in a decade! Please share your story. Forgive my ignorance, but what is body recomp?
-K
That would be a very long story lol. I will sit down this weekend and type up my story and post it here on the site. Maybe it will help someone!
Body recomp is changing body composition. I had back to back injuries three years ago. I broke my foot one year and then then right after it was healed I was in an accident which messed my knee up. In this time I maintained my weight but I wasn't able to be as active and my fat % went to poo. I didn't like the way my body looked and I lost a lot of strength. I started weight lifting and eating at maintenance to a little above in hopes of building a little muscle and losing fat.
Gotcha! Sounds like recomp is a probably slowish fat loss/muscle gain while maintaining weight? Sounds like a great way to stay motivated on maintenance. Looking forward to that. Looking forward to your story, too!0 -
In a healthy weight range (126 - 127 lbs) since February 2015 and successfully maintaining a 51-52 lb. loss. I lost slowly but consistently over a 15 month period. I'm 5'2.5" and 66 years old.
My metabolism has not been damaged by yo-yo dieting and being overweight for years. My TDEE and BMR is spot on with the calculators. I've changed my lifestyle and way of eating to balance my calories in / calories out and exercise moderately by lifting weights and some cardio. Maintaining on 1,750 - 2,000+ calories with the exercise.
Will I have to lower my maintenance calories as I age? Of course I will, because my exercise routines will have to change as I age. I understand this and have a plan to stay active into my very old age.
I still log every day and will forever. That keeps me honest about what I'm eating. I control the food, the food doesn't control me. No excuses.
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I'm maintaining an 80 pound loss for 3 years with ease! I'm the smallest I've ever been in my entire adult life and I feel so amazing and full of energy!
I feel better at almost 40 than I did for most of my 20's and 30's. I get angry with myself sometimes for all the years I wasted sitting on a couch and eating, but after living this healthy, new life I'm not going back!
Very inspiring posts. Keep up the good work maintaining everyone!8 -
Maintaining 3 years + .... and it's been a breeze 5
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Maintaining for 18 months. I, too, read the article, and think they have NO IDEA what they are talking about, and that this is horribly discouraging to those people checking this forum and to anyone attempting weight loss anywhere. Even those people on The Biggest Loser that they followed are not failures - they have maintained some of their weight loss, which is better than a total regain. The Biggest Loser show is just fortunate that they have never had a major medical tragedy with how they do things - losing all that weight that quickly and getting in shape that quickly with that much weight on ... that's a recipe for disaster. Those of us who are in maintenance - and many have been there a whole lot longer than me - know that it takes much time and concentrated effort to change not only your diet and fitness regime, but to wrap your head and heart around a healthy relationship to food and fitness. Maintenance is entirely possible, and does not need to be a white knuckle process. I know what to eat, I am never hungry because I don't consume empty calories, and if I go beyond the range I set, I just go back to weight loss calories for however long it takes to get back to that range. I allow myself some things on maintenance that I never would while losing. This article does not take into account the part that empty carbs play and the addiction process that goes along with that. Also not sure about set points or metabolism change. I think you are genetically programmed to have whatever metabolism you have (not a doc, just an opinion), and you learn to work with that. (Good article to read: Dr. Berkley's Easy Keepers, on her site: www.refusetoregain.com MFP Weight losers and Maintainers Unite! We know what to do and, once again, the media gives inappropriate information!6
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Lost 110lbs.
nearly 5 years in maintenance.10 -
(Good article to read: Dr. Berkley's Easy Keepers, on her site: www.refusetoregain.com MFP Weight losers and Maintainers Unite! We know what to do and, once again, the media gives inappropriate information!
^^Thanks for the site.
Also, not enough information re: the article, even though it was lengthy. A lot left out.
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Lost 40 pounds. Maintaining for about 18 months.6
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I'm new to maintenance - only been working at it for a couple months, and to locate the right calorie level for maybe a month before that. But I thought it was worth reporting for reasons soon to become obvious:
I lost 60+ pounds in 2015, while 59/60 years old, and hypothyroid. I have absolutely no sign of metabolic damage.
In fact, one reason my maintenance calorie level took some time to find is that I seem to be maintaining at 300+ calories above what MFP and various web calculators predict for my age, weight, and activity level.7 -
I would love to know if they actually tried to do anything to maintain their weight loss. Monitored calories, upped exercise, etc. It does sound like there were some thing going against them, but I don't see anything that means they couldn't have kept the weight off if they had the tools most of the maintainers here have. This thread is awesome and should give people that want to be hopeful, plenty of hope.5
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makingmark wrote: »I would love to know if they actually tried to do anything to maintain their weight loss. Monitored calories, upped exercise, etc. It does sound like there were some thing going against them, but I don't see anything that means they couldn't have kept the weight off if they had the tools most of the maintainers here have. This thread is awesome and should give people that want to be hopeful, plenty of hope.
I was wondering the same thing. How many calories were they actually eating and how much exercising. Pretty important part of the study I would think, in order for the information to be useful for publication.
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