Maintaining Weight Loss

jlbattin

I have been a member for three years. The program has been very effective in helping me reach weight loss goals. Twice I have lost as much as 15 pounds over a year's period of time. Then, I note I stall. I read about the setpoint and wonder if that's not what is taking place. I notice that all of a sudden there is no weight loss for a few months. I get discouraged and wonder if I will ever continue to lose beyond this point?

Have others experienced this cycle? If you have been able to move on beyond it, what strategies did you use to do so? Thanks ahead of time for your thoughts.

L1zardQueen

How far are you away from your goal? Last few pounds are the ones that need to be a bit more precise when counting calories.

I have never had a plateau because my calorie counting is pretty on the spot.

jlbattin

I actually met my goal, but I realize that the closer I got to it, I let up on the discipline of counting calories. It was like I thought maintenance would occur on its own. I also can see that the initial goal was an intermediate one and that I needed to reset the next goal.

I want to move from it all feeling like work to a natural process of weight reduction and maintenance.

AnnPT77

jlbattin wrote: »

I actually met my goal, but I realize that the closer I got to it, I let up on the discipline of counting calories. It was like I thought maintenance would occur on its own. I also can see that the initial goal was an intermediate one and that I needed to reset the next goal.

I want to move from it all feeling like work to a natural process of weight reduction and maintenance.

For me, the essential piece was treating weight loss (especially the last stages) as maintenance practice, a time to experiment and learn the habits that would help me stay at a healthy weight long term. I think what those practices are is a very personalized, individualized thing, not something someone else can tell you. (I grant that others may have ideas for you to consider, but in the last analysis, it needs to fit *you*.)

Since I didn't do anything during weight loss that I wasn't willing to continue permanently, except for that sensibly moderate calorie deficit to create the weight loss, transition to maintenance was easy. I gradually added back a few calories to stop the deficit, and kept up the habits I'd established.

It seems like many people treat weight loss as a project with an end date, and IMO it isn't. It's certainly possible to use different approaches at different stages, but for someone like me, who stayed obese for decades, it seemed that I needed permanent new habits, not an end-dated project after which I'd "go back to normal". That old "normal" clearly wasn't working. I needed a new, happy "normal" I could live with, but stay thin.

So far, so good, in year 5+ of maintenance. I did experience some ultra-slow regain (maybe 3-4 pounds a year?) for a while, never got out of a healthy weight range. A bit over a year ago, I started an intentionally slow, gradual loss (less than a pound a month), and am now painlessly back in the weight range that feels best to me.

Find sustainable habits. That would be my advice.

jlbattin

Thanks for your input. Several comments hit home--"experiments and learn new habits to stay at a healthy weight long term, " "practices are very personalized," some treat as a project," the old normal wasn't working," "find sustainable habits."=---