How long have you kept the weight off?

robinhager3998

I lost 140 pounds twenty years ago, but gained it all back. How many of you have kept your weight off for more than five years? I want so much to lose the weight again, but I'm afraid of failing like I did before.

KrunchyMama

I lost 35# a couple years ago, then gained back 25#. Working on losing it again, but this time I addressed the reasons why I was binge eating to begin with. So I think I'll have better odds of keeping it off this time.

Are you able to address the reasons why you regained, and take the necessary steps to stop it going forward? You can do this! And you will be stronger for it.

SafioraLinnea

Not me but I'm interested to see others talk of their success. I lost 40 pounds 5 years ago but gave up long before reaching my goal.

Gained it back over a 4 year period and added 15 more due to pregnancy. In the last 7 months I've lost down to below my previous lowest weight. I've got 30ish to go and I'm going to succeed this time!

middlehaitch

I lost 30 lbs between Christmas 2008 and Christmas 2009.
So that is 7+ years that I have been maintaining within a 5 lbs range.

My problem was more that I was moving less, rather than eating more, and not adjusting for it.

Once I had lost the extra lbs I just made sure my activity level and calorie intake were in line.

Sorry I have no great revelation for you.

Cheers, h.

Healthyoliviakate

I lost 42lbs over 20 years ago and have never put on more than 5lbs.
1. I always knew I really wanted to be a specific weight and I reminded myself of it on a daily basis
2. I got a PT (although I'd always been highly active) did a fat-burning 30 day challenge to kick start a routine, and most important found a weight loss coach
3. I too my time to change my habits - 6-12 months. It takes 66 days to develop a new habit on average. It's a change for life without deprivation eating real delicious food.

If you'd like any more advice, please get in touch. It's my passion helping others get slim and stay slim forever.

ElvenToad

I lost 142 pounds between feb 2014-july 2016. This month marks my one year anniversary of maintenance and I no longer worry about putting any weight back on. I know how to balance my CICO and continue to weigh my food, log accurately, and exercise daily. I worked very hard to be successful at this and set out to prove that I could do it (and I did). AND set out to prove that I am going to be part of that 5% that keep their weight off (because I will)

After living 20+ years of my life morbidly obese, yeah I have no desire to ever go back to that. I will log for the rest of my life because its quick and easy and it works.

DJMayes2016

Started at 110.7 kg / 244 lbs; dropped to a target weight of 75 kg / 165 lbs last September. Have maintained since then between 70-75kg; presently 72.7 kg / 160 lbs.

I have not bothered logging food during maintenance. I had been at it long enough to have an idea of what a good/bad day is. I just keep an eye on the weight and adjust food/exercise for a few days depending on where it's going.

lbcgirl25

I lost 120 lbs and have kept it off for 8 years, even between pregnancies and miscarriages. Right now I'm trying to get down about 20 more pounds over the next year, to reach my final goal. One of the biggest things that helped was actually understanding why I became obese in the first place. I cannot recommend this book below enough, I have no connection to this or anything, but it changed my life.

Prior to doing this workbook, and understanding that the compulsive eating and other behaviors I had are actually an eating disorder, I just was always focused on my "willpower" and being determined to get weight off. I was either on or off. The problem is, when stressful times would happen, then I would say screw it, and weight would come right back on. Enter this workbook. Life changing. I no longer am captured by the fear of gaining weight, I'm no longer obsessed with the scale and obsessed with every single piece of food. Losing weight does things to you. This helped me heal.

Don't Diet - Live It Worebook by Andrea Watcher and Marsea Marcus ( I bought a used copy on Amazon for $7)

Best of luck to you!

Geocitiesuser

I've been bouncing between 180 and 190 for about 4 months now, maybe 5. It's sort of unintentional b/c the goal is to lose more. But the bulk of the weight has been gone for a while, and even though I'm technically slightly "overweight" BMI depending on the day I am in very good shape from all of the weight lifting and high protein intake.

bfanny

Almost 9 years (Nov)

calatheauk

I lost 100lbs in 57 weeks in 2005-2006, from 260lbs to 160lbs (at the upper end of the "healthy" BMI range for a 5'8" woman). From 2006-2012 my weight was stable in a range +/- 5lbs from goal and I kind of patted myself on the back a lot. Now, at almost 11 years out, I can more cautiously say that I have kept off MOST of the weight MOST of the time since I first hit goal.

This is because more recently, several things happened that changed my weight that weren't under my control. In 2012 I gained and then very quickly lost again about 30lbs after I developed thyroid disease and had treatment. Just as my weight was stabilizing back in my preferred range, I was hospitalized and then diagnosed with another much more serious and life-altering illness that resulted in me being put on high dose steroids (prednisone) for the last three years. Weight gain is an extremely common side effect of several of the drugs I take, especially prednisone, and especially when combined with an illness that left me mostly housebound and too sick to do even do basic exercise.

By this spring, when I finally started to get better, I was up about 25lbs from my original goal at 185lbs, even though I was very careful with the things that I could control (calories in, mainly). Despite this gain, I have been very lucky in this respect -- it's not unusual for people to gain 50-100lbs on the mix of drugs I currently take. I do think that being accustomed to managing my weight helped me keep the gain down to "just" 25lbs. I am now working on getting back to my preferred range. I have about 18lbs to go.

In the 12 years since I first started losing weight, I think these are the 3 most important things I've learned:

1. The thing that worked above anything for me was trying out different things, and working out which of them had the potential to be PERMANENT changes. Not "Ugh, I'll put up with this for now while I lose weight but then I'll stop", but "I'm willing to eat like this forever, starting now." That meant, basically, learning what and how I really wanted to eat and then eating like that. So, these days, I eat the same number and types of meals whether I am losing weight or maintaining. I eat, broadly speaking, the same foods, just more or less of them. I made some big changes in 2005-6 when I initially lost weight, and I put my ability to maintain down to the fact that although they were big, a lot of them turned out to be changes I have been able to sustain for over a decade.

2. The ideal maintenance range for you is whatever weight you like and can maintain. Not the number in some calculator on the internet. Not what your mother thinks you should weigh. Not what some random person on a website says. The weight YOU like, and the weight YOU can maintain. For sure there are women the same height (5'8") and build (large, based on my wrist and elbow dimensions) who weigh a lot less than me or want to weigh a lot less than my personal ideal weight range. However, I have to be honest: I am pretty sure if I had to work really hard at just staying the same weight I would very quickly get tired of all that effort. I like 160lbs, it's within the "healthy/normal" BMI range for my height (just barely) and above all, it's a really easy weight for me to maintain. I'll take sticking at 160lbs easily over struggling to maintain and/or yo-yo-ing up and down around a lower number every time. Only you can decide how much effort you're willing to put into maintaining over the long run.

3. When you think about the long run, you have to acknowledge that sometimes things are going to happen and your weight is going to be affected, and that's OK. Some of those things are out of your control: e.g. I got sick and ended up on a drug that causes weight gain. Unless you lead an incredibly charmed life, you are going to have difficult, stressful or upsetting times, and then things that ARE under your control can start to slide. When I'm maintaining around my preferred weight, I do hit the upper end of my weight range (around 165lbs) sometimes. For me, personally, I am probably always going to struggle not to eat my feelings. I am probably always going to struggle to make myself go work out when I'm stressed rather than lying in a pathetic heap. The only thing I can do is try to recognize when that happens, stop if I can, and start again from wherever I ended up. You can't hate the pounds back off -- self-loathing will not make you thinner, it will just make you miserable.

lorrpb

Awesome thread!

middlehaitch

Well all I can say @calatheauk is - you don't post often, but when you do, you are awesome.

Great post, and great insight into hanling long term maintenance, with set backs etc.

Cheers, h.

robinhager3998

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories! I am inspired by how well you have done! I think we need to ignore the naysayers that say we will always gain it back. You have shown that success can be a life long achievement!

ccruz985

It's five years this year that I lost 140lbs. I gained back 41 last year but at this juncture, I've lost 36 of those 41.

clayelliott847

It should be a lifestyle change, instead of just diet.

cityjaneLondon

I lost 57 lbs over 18 months and I've maintained it, within a couple of lbs, for 3 and a half years now. I log everything, every day and do a LOT of exercise. My BMI is now 23.8. I love to cook and to eat and have the occasional drink, but I always come in at, or under calories.
I feel fit and look good. I am 67, nearing 68, so it is never too late.

cmriverside

It took me 8 months to lose the first 50 pounds and nine months to lose the last 20. That was in 2007-08. I've kept it off, even lost a few more pounds.

I used to gain and lose 5-10 pounds every winter/summer right after my initial weight-loss, but that has evened out in the last three years.

I still log food. It's a mini-disaster when I don't. Ask me how I know.