Maintained weight for well over a year now

dwayneb2020

Using FitnessPal as my primary tool, I lost about 45 lbs well over 18 months ago now. Maintaining weight has always been a challenge in the past, but feel pretty confident that I now know how to accomplish that.

The main difference this time was during the weight loss phase, spending a solid 1 1/2 years tracking every single calorie that I consumed every day, for every meal and for every snack. By doing this for a long time, you eventually know instinctively how many calories you are consuming in any given intake - you no longer need to maintain a diary because you are doing it automatically. Plus, over the course of a year, you have retrained your body to adapt to a normal caloric intake.

For weight loss, I needed 1700 calorie per day was need to lose 1/2 to 1 lb per week. For maintenance, I increased to around 2000 calories a day. Took a long time to determine these setpoints with accuracy.

Lessons learned over these 2+ years of weight loss and maintenance?

It's pretty simple for me. Right-sizing portions and meals and avoiding calorically dense foods, which generally means little/no fast food or restaurants, and minimizing but not eliminating snack foods and rich desserts. Essentially realize that you aren't eating for entertainment or pleasure, you are eating to fuel your body in a sustainable healthy way.

sofrances

Really inspiring! I love hearing maintenance success stories. Good luck for the future.

cparsons_60

Congratulations to you! I lost 50 pounds and kept it off for two years by eating intuitively as you are doing. Over another two years I've gained half of it back. I just stopped being quite as careful, stopped making good decisions most of the time. I'm back to tracking and have started in losing what I regained. This time I'm resolved that, after I reach my goal, I'll check in with tracking one week per month or so to keep myself honest and committed.

Tracking again is a bummer, but I'm glad I only have 25 to lose (23 now) and not the whole 50.

SummerSkier

Congrats Dwayne! I think that being a successful maintainer requires that you don't throw ALL the tools away. You can lift restrictions on maybe one or two (like you have with tracking) but if you don't track cals, I think it's important to weigh frequently. I am the opposite. I don't weight frequently but I like to track cals. And of course I have to throw on my jeans every week or so to keep an eye out there as far as size. So mostly I maintain by staying active (I love to run!), tracking my calories and staying engaged in this app. It sounds like you have figured out a good program for what works for you and that is the most important thing!

kgirlhart

Congrats on your loss and your maintenance. I think the key to maintaining is finding what works for you. When I started maintenance 4 years ago my problem was I kept losing. So I kept logging until I finally got my CI to match my CO. I think I will always log what I eat. I do have a pretty good idea of how much I am eating so if I need to guess I do. And since I always know how much I am eating i can work in treats and fast foods and I eat out a lot too. The way to maintain is to find the balance between CI and CO. But how you find that balance will differ from person to person. Some will always need to log and some won't.

GBO323

Kudos man...well done!

rosiekin

Well done on reaching your goal... and staying there which IMO is the hardest part!
I've been maintaining for about 6 years now and while I haven't weighed myself for over 2 years, I do track religiously, well almost religiously. I think everyone has to find out what works best for them and if it's working, stick with it.