Next Stop: Maintenance!

Ejourneys · December 2013

Here's my curve of cumulative pounds lost, from 12 Sept. 2012 to 17 Dec. 2013 (462 days):

The graph shows drops in weight only, not fluctuations.

Weight loss goal set from the beginning was a half-pound per week. Actual weight loss was roughly three-quarters of a pound per week (.77), or a pound lost about every 9 days.

My longest plateau was 48 days, represented by that long, flat line spanning from approximately day 350 to day 400.

My starting calorie goal at a half-pound loss per week was 1650. As I lost weight, MFP lowered my calorie goal to 1430 and then to 1360. My maintenance calorie goal is now 1600.

At no time did I feel as though I were starving myself. Except for the first couple of weeks, I did not feel deprived at all.

Although I didn't take my starting weight until I had joined MFP (and didn't take my "before" picture until I had already dropped 9.5 pounds), I had begun exercising regularly on 1 Sept. 2012. My main exercise has been on a mini-bike. Over the course of those 473 days I've pedaled 4433.5 miles, taking 342 hours, for an average of about 13 mph.

Other exercise has come in the form of running (in place or on the road), walking (on the road or on a treadmill at a 10-degree incline), housecleaning (including toilet snaking), weed-whacking and other yard work, stepper machine + climbing 110 flights of stairs in the 9/11 Memorial Fitness challenge this past September, and weightlifting. Total exercise time among those activities totals 74.6 hours.

Since 1 Sept. 2012, total exercise time = 416.6 hours, or an average of about 53 minutes/day.

Over the course of losing 51 pounds I've gone down four pant sizes (8 waist inches). I don't have my starting percentage, but according to my Accu-Measure calipers I am now at 27.6 percent body fat, which is in the middle of the "ideal" range for a woman my age. My BMI is right on the border between "healthy" and "overweight," but I place greater trust in the calipers.

I've kept to the same eating habits throughout, described here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1095703-mfp-1-year-anniversary
I intend to keep those same habits, only with a higher calorie consumption.

I celebrated this milestone by updating my calorie goal and profile and by taking a victory run, since I was itching to get a run in anyway. Between my long absence from it and getting used to my "barefoot" shoes, I did a slow but very satisfying 1.41-mile jaunt in 17:50. My feet and leg muscles are getting more used to the Vibrams.

(The Vibrams are my reward to myself.)

Plans for 2014 include maintaining my weight and keeping up with running again. My last running event had been in 2002. It's time to end that hiatus.

I'm thrilled to fit into my old running clothes again, although I wore the cold weather version for my victory lap.

Diet_Soda · December 2013

Wow, wow, wow! You rock! What a great snapshot of your hard work. Congratulations, and welcome to the maintenance train. It is a bumpy ride sometimes, but totally worth the work!