Anyone maintaining overweight?

MommaLovesToLoseIt

Hi I'm just wondering if there are people out there maintaining while still overweight? I want to get down to about 200 pounds and maintain there, even though I will still be considered overweight (I'm 5'9"). I know from the past that is a reasonable size/ weight for me (roughly size 12). I'm also wondering if anyone out there has experience with eating intuitively as opposed to logging everything. Thanks!

sijomial

I effectively maintained overweight for 20 years after a sudden weight gain - fat but fit.

Most of my life completely intuitive eating has meant weight gain, either slow or fast.
I can maintain without logging by being food and exercise conscious plus daily weighing. To lose weight I do need to log.

After my initial weight loss I maintained in the overweight BMI range for a while using the well worn excuse "I've got some muscle so BMI doesn't apply to me". Until I realised I really was still overweight/over-fat.

I'm 5'9" and 198lbs was my start point. I'm now 164lbs.

Nothing wrong with maintaining for a while to get used to your "new you" and then reassessing if you want to push on.

ALG775

I am close to maintenance and I suspect I will end up at 26 BMI. I'm planning to either wait until I stop losing and find out what my maintenance will be, or another 12 pounds. Whatever comes first.

I think I will log for some time to come... Intuitive eating didn't work so well for me.

bspringer544

Starting January first I started logging absolutely everything. I began my journey at 5'8" and 218.6lbs. By March first I was down to 195 and decided to maintain for a while to give myself a bit of a break and reward. I logged for another two weeks then quit counting entirely for two months. In this time I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted (keeping in mind the portion sizes that counting taught me) and managed to lose an additional 10 pounds. I'm returning to MFP now because old habits were starting to catch up to me, however. If you're asking if intuitive eating is possible for you my answer would be another question; Why did you chose to start counting calories in the first place?

BernieMBurke

I think age is important. too! My doctor doesn't really want me going below 170 (5'10", male, 58, 165.8). My BMI is 23.8. My doctor says us "older" people need to have a little fat so we can fight off infection (and wind up losing weight) if that happens.

amyk0202

I intended to maintain while still in the overweight bmi--150 lbs, which for my height of 5' 2.5" is a 27 BMI. I was so nervous about increasing my calories though that I've actually lost another 8 lbs in while I was working my way up. Now I'm 142 lbs & only 4 lbs away from being in the "normal" BMI range. I bumped my calories up more this week. I can't decide if I'm going to try to regain some of that weight--maybe back to 145 or go ahead & lose the last 4 so that I can be a normal BMI. If I can get over the mental mess of eating to gain weight, I'd like to go back to 145 I think.

Intuitive eating does not work for me. Intuitively, I'm a morbidly obese person. I find it much easier to rationalize my choices & lie to myself when I am eating "intuitively". It's much easier for me to tell myself that those extra couple of chips or nuts or pieces of whatever are OK & won't make a difference when I'm not adding them all up to see the actual caloric consequences. At my height, I don't have that much wiggle room--that stuff adds up really fast when you don't have much body to spread it out on.

allyphoe

I unintentionally started maintaining (eating more plus moving less) about 8 months ago. I'm about 8 pounds away from a BMI of 24.9. I'd prefer to be down 10 pounds from where I am, but apparently I wouldn't prefer it as much as I prefer eating.

MommaLovesToLoseIt

Thank you for the replies. Food for thought. I am still not exactly sure where I want to be weight wise. And to answer the question about calorie counting, I have always used it to some extent to lose weight. I would like to be able to successfully move away from it and eat intuitively, but also agree that I have always gained weight when I have done so.

OlyCapitalChick

I most definately will not hit the doctors charts weight ranges. I dont care enough to do those CICO numbers and would need surgery to deal with extra skin.
So I am messing around with maintenance calories (plus dealing with post 4th bloat) but really only want to lose 27 more pounds I think.
I just cant see past that 160 as a long term lifestyle? Even though I am only 5'4"
Maybe that could change? Dont know though.

jrwms714

Please know that those BMI ranges do not fit everyone. Many articles talk about how athletes would be considered overweight when they are mostly muscle. For me, because I have very stocky/muscular legs, I have never fit in the BMI category well ... my internist told me not to worry about BMI as much as waist circumference and that was helpful. I am a size 6 Petite in most clothing, and yet the usual BMI calculator puts me at 26.6, which is overweight. I lost 40 lbs., and workout almost daily. Try using this calculator. It may help. Itntakesa more things into account as it calculates. According to this one, I am at 26.6, also, but it is a healthy weight and not an overweight one. http://www.smartbmicalculator.com/why-sbmic.html

cwolfman13

At 5'10" and 180 I'm technically overweight...but I'm also 12% BF which is relatively lean.

I don't know about "intuitive eating", but I don't log...I do all kinds of other things though to keep my calories in check so I don't really consider that "intuitive" and I also keep a reasonable tally in my head as to where I am calorie wise.

godlikepoetyes

I plan on maintaining--180-195 pounds. I'm 5'5.5", so almost in obese range, but I feel comfortable at this weight. I may lose more in the future as long as I can do it comfortably. After weighing 270 last year and losing the weight pretty easily, I refuse to make myself miserable just to lose more. I know that I will never be in the healthy weight range (would mean wearing 154 at the most) and I don't care about that. I'm 51 and if I lose much more I'll look haggard and gaunt. I look awesome. I have perfect blood pressure, my RHR is in the 50s. My energy level is through the roof. If you feel great at your weight, then just ride the wave!

devil_in_a_blue_dress

I am 5'3 and 140 pounds, though I've recently lost 10 pounds -- I've stayed around 150-158 pounds for nearly a decade and was totally fine with it - my doctor was also totally fine with it because I wasn't over fat. I was a US size 10, proportionate, with significant leg muscle, so most people wouldn't have even realized I was over weight.

12Sarah2015

No I want to be healthy

GaleHawkins

MommaLovesToLoseIt wrote: »

Hi I'm just wondering if there are people out there maintaining while still overweight? I want to get down to about 200 pounds and maintain there, even though I will still be considered overweight (I'm 5'9"). I know from the past that is a reasonable size/ weight for me (roughly size 12). I'm also wondering if anyone out there has experience with eating intuitively as opposed to logging everything. Thanks!

@MommaLovesToLoseIt I lost down from 250 to 200 and have maintained that intuitively for well over a year eating 2500 calories a day on average with a macro of about 5% carbs, 15% protein and 80% fats. If I drop another 25 pounds that would be fine but just continuing to recover my health is fine too. At the age of 65 I do not plan to enter any beauty contests.

MommaLovesToLoseIt

GaleHawkins wrote: »

MommaLovesToLoseIt wrote: »

Hi I'm just wondering if there are people out there maintaining while still overweight? I want to get down to about 200 pounds and maintain there, even though I will still be considered overweight (I'm 5'9"). I know from the past that is a reasonable size/ weight for me (roughly size 12). I'm also wondering if anyone out there has experience with eating intuitively as opposed to logging everything. Thanks!

@MommaLovesToLoseIt I lost down from 250 to 200 and have maintained that intuitively for well over a year eating 2500 calories a day on average with a macro of about 5% carbs, 15% protein and 80% fats. If I drop another 25 pounds that would be fine but just continuing to recover my health is fine too. At the age of 65 I do not plan to enter any beauty contests.

"recovering health" is a pretty solid goal. I too am doing this and building muscle as my alternate goal, and I likewise will not be entering any beauty contests lol.