MAINTAINERS Introduce Yourselves!

Age 37

Before & after weight
SW: 230
CW: 136
Female, 5'6

Start & goal reached date Started June 20, 2012/Goal Reached July 2013

Best strategy for removing weight: Log faithfully. Don't take breaks and make excuses. Plan ahead for events involving food. Don't deprive yourself of things you love. Everything in moderation. I exercised, but not excessively. Started out with Wii Fit, sporadically did some walking/running and a bit of weights/elliptical. Did treadmill 3 times a week over the winter, and now take walks 3-4 times a week. Weigh in once a week.

Current strategy for maintaining the weight: Just started maintenance a couple weeks ago. Still trying to figure it out. Started myself off at calories set for sedentary and don't eat back exercise calories. Currently set at 1650. Going to see if I maintain or continue to lose and will adjust accordingly. Hoping I am able to up my calories a bit to maintain, but I'm happy at 1650. Lost the majority of my weight on 1200, then bumped up to 1450 and continued to lose. Continuing to walk 3-4 times a week, and just bought a bicycle. Looking forward to riding that! Still weigh in once a week, and will continue to log my food for life!

Wooo!!!

Age: 26
Ht: 5'4"
SW: 170 January 2012
CW: 130-133 since Oct 2012

Strategy for weight loss: Everything. Started as 1200 cal + Jillian Michaels DVDs, moved into hours on the elliptical, finally broke and realized I needed to eat more, ate about 1600 cal while lifting heavy and running.

Strategy to maintain: I just eat back all my exercise cals now. If I do nothing all day (i.e. Netflix on the couch) I'll burn about 1630 cal, so I stick w/ 1600 as my base and then just stay active and eat according to my FitBit. I'm training for a half-marathon right now, but I'm always looking for new ways to stay active.

I'm 35. Not really sure if I have a before and after weight because I've pretty much always been on maintenance. In the past my weight fluctuated slightly with pregnancies, but I lost the weight easily from resuming my usual way of eating and being active. I'd say I lost around 5-10 pounds over a year ago. But, I went down from a size 4 to a 00. Best strategies have been nutritious food, meeting my protein requirements (one gram per pound of LBM), counting calories on mfp, lifting weights/strength training and my usual lifestyle as a dancer. I've never been on a low calorie diet. I've always eaten at maintenance (above the projected guidelines for my size and activity level). To lose I would eat 100 calories less per day and get serious about my fitness. I'm 5'2".

YAY! With so many successful MFPers this new area is definitely needed. How about posting a before & after photo along with:

Age
Before & after weight
Start & goal reached date
Best strategy for removing weight
Current strategy for maintaining the weight

Just a suggestion...any inputs?

56 years old
SW 176 lbs.
CW 130 lbs.
LW 120 lbs.
Height 5' 3.5"
Start date: June 2010
Reached goal: March 2011 but continued to lose more while figuring out daily maintenance calorie goal

My strategy for losing: determine TDEE using Scooby Calculator, eat at a level to support 1/2 pound loss per week, exercise 6 days per week. LOG all food, the good, bad, and the ugly! Cut alcohol to only two drinks per week. Hit my daily macros.

My strategy for maintaining: determine TDEE using Scooby Calculator, eat at TDEE level, exercise 6 days per week. LOG all food. One alcoholic drink per day MAX allowed. Hit my daily macros.

I maintained for 2 1/2 years before gaining 10 pounds a few months ago. Many factors contributed to the gain such as traveling constantly, little control over nutrition (restaurants, fixed meals), and FAILURE TO LOG. Yep, the "not logging" experiment ended badly.

I also started the Stonglifts 5x5 program and training for a 6-day cycling tour that required me to fuel my body. Er, perhaps a little too much. I now find myself in a caloric deficit of 1700 calories per day and have set my goal at 125 pounds. This is more than my original maintenance weight but I've got a lot more muscle and I'm still rocking my clothes despite the weight gain.

More than anything, one must realize that maintenance is not static or linear. There are always ups and downs, adjustments to be made. And yes, it's more difficult than losing.

Age: 49
SW: 182
Original GW: 143
CW: 131
Joined mfp mid Jan 13
Reached OGW in May 13

Strategy to remove weight: Cut out sugar in my tea. Stopped eating chocolate, cake, biscuits. Set original cals at 1200 for the first couple months, then upped to 1400. Messed about with the figures for a bit but found 1400 was fine for me. Weighed everything. Didn't entertain ANY cheat days. Drank loads of water. Started the Couch25k programme in Jan and was running 3 x pw. Added 30 min walks for a short while and occasionally added stationary bike sessions (started at 5 mins and gradually increased to 30 mins over a few weeks). Ate 3 meals per day, smaller portions. Weighed myself religiously once pw.

Strategy to maintain: Haven't figured this out yet. I've kept loosing since I hit my target weight in May, even though I've upped my cals to 1600. I still try to run 3 x pw. Add the occasional stationary bike session. Still weigh foods. I'm considering not logging my foods to see how I go.

I now weigh less than I did in my late teens. I weigh the same as my 26 year old daughter but, as she has to point out to me, she's all muscle.

Before & after weight: SW - 168 CW -125
Start & goal reached date: Start - Jan 2013 End - August 2013
Best strategy for removing weight: trust the process and Jillian Michaels
Current strategy for maintaining the weight: not sure yet. Kinda nervous.

Age: 38
Before: 200 lbs (probably more, I didn't own any scales for ages!)
After weight: 136 lbs (goal weight was 140 lbs)
Start & goal reached date: Started January 2013 and reached goal end of July 2013

Best strategy for removing weight

Be consistent and be honest about what you're eating and when you're 'danger' times for snacking or over-eating are. That and aiming for little goals along the way - under x stones, a BMI of y etc. The big goal is off-putting until it's well within sight. I've also become a lot more active. I did the Couch to 5K program and now run several times a week. I also started swimming again as well as regular cycling and walking. Focusing not just on the weight loss but on you and your health really helps. I also did the 5:2 diet where you fast (500 calories) a day for two days a week and eat normally on the other five and that was good too.

Current strategy for maintaining the weight

Using MFP to track calories. Doing 6:1 (6 days of normal eating, 1 fast day). And keeping up the exercise. I cannot go back to my unfit, unhealthy ways. It's not an option. Am struggling with maintaining weight as it's early days and I feel a bit lost with it all - I think that's the other thing isn't it? You have to cut yourself some slack and allow your head to adjust to your new physical self.

31 years old
SW: 182
CW: 130.2
GW: 150
Started my lifestyle change on December 29th, 2012. I hit my goal weight of 150 on Feb 24th. Then by May 31st, I was 129.8. I think I've done pretty darn good with maintaining my weight this summer. I admit, I don't eat the healthiest but I have learned that one bad meal won't make me fat again. I don't do much for exercise except for the normal everyday things. I try to eat really well during the week when I'm at work and then I'm more relaxed about it on the weekends...seems to be working pretty well for me!

Age: 49 - 5'7"
SW: 178
CW: 126

I lost 20 pounds about 8 years ago and maintained at 155 or so until January, 2013 when I decided it was time to get the rest off. Honestly, it was pretty easy for me to take the 30 pounds off by logging everything I ate and staying at about 1300 cal/day. I think the hard part is going to be maintainig.

I probably need to start having 1 cheat day per week where I don't log, but I'm afraid NOT to log. I don't want to go back to my old habits.

YAY! With so many successful MFPers this new area is definitely needed. How about posting a before & after photo along with:

Age
Before & after weight
Start & goal reached date
Best strategy for removing weight
Current strategy for maintaining the weight

Just a suggestion...any inputs?

47
180 down to 130
August 2012 to May 2013
Weigh all food...input all food in diary...exercise
Weigh all food...input all food in diary...exercise! Yep...same answer for last 2 questions.

I know some people are against this but I weight myself every day. It keeps me accountable. I also still weigh my food (mostly) and input to my diary. I'm 30 days shy of logging in for an entire year without missing any days.

I don't know how to post pics but I do have a before/after side by side pic in my photos on my profile.

Age: 30 years

Before & after weight : Before= 214 lbs After= 120 lbs

Start & goal reached date= Started Dec 2007 and surpassed my goal Feb 2013

Best strategy for removing weight: For me it was- Quit making excuses, woman up, count the calories, eat the health food, and get a good workout.

Current strategy for maintaining the weight: No plan. Just going day by day and week by week.

Age:23

I've never really been overweight and I originally joined MFP because I wanted to maintain a healthy lifestyle in my adult life. I was heaviest in high school - which is where I first started to notice things like weight, and always struggled to stay below 130. In college, I walked to all my classes and joined the fencing club. I lost about a pant size a semester until I got down to a size 2 (i'm more proud of that than I am anything the scale tells me). I had some ups and downs involving my body image, self esteem and weight. It has only been recently that I would use words like 'good looking' or 'pretty' to describe myself. During one college summer, I got down to 101 pounds because I weighed myself everyday and let that number dictate what I ate for the day (if I was a pound up, I hardly eat. A pound down, I'd eat the same as the day before). Needless to say this was very unhealthy. If the only thing that ever made me happy was a weight loss, I was going to fade away.

After that realization, I went back up and would balance between 110 and 115 pounds. After graduation, I got a good desk job at a business that always has food and snacks around. I quickly got close to 120 and started using MFP as a way to watch what I eat and maintain. I find that if I am just eating well but not working out, my body is happy at 110 pounds. Working out, I feel better at 115, although my body fat percentage is usually the same, so I think that is more muscle weight than anything else.

I still have not mastered maintenance and have been at around 118 pounds for a few weeks now. I'm still trying to balance healthy food and fitness into my life. Recently, I started the Insanity videos in the hopes that they will provide me with a challenge that I can repeat over and over.

Sorry, that was super long.... but hi everyone.

Age 45 5 ft 2
SW 154 lbs started May 12
CW 134lbs May 14
Been maintaining around the 136 lb mark for over a year.
Starting stats chest 38/waist 31/ hips 40
Current stats " 34/ " 26 / " 35.5

To lose ate at 1400 and ate back half exercise cals.
Workout 5 days/ week strength training and jogging.
Maintaining on 2000 cals
By calorie counting and increased fitness with Fitbit keeping me motivated to average 15k steps/day

Before:
http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/s390/ruthc69/ref mfp journey/then 2009 to now 2014/d847ed44-6de4-44e6-a9f3-a0a9c70e216e_zps8b75e9f3.jpg

After:
http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/s390/ruthc69/ref mfp journey/then 2009 to now 2014/may2014_zpscdda5a0e.jpg

Age 38
Height 168cm/5'6"
SW 161lbs/73kg
CW ~140lbs/63kg

My strategy was "eat as much as I can and still lose." Even so, I was able to shed the weight in about 5 months. My Fitbit keeps me accountable in my walking/jogging, and I do calisthenics 4-5 days a week. Now that I'm "at" maintenance (I think...if 5 more pounds fall off or pile back on, I'm okay with that, too), I'm going to swap out the pushups and such for some heavy things (other than myself, lol).

I resisted the gym for a long time (I'm terribly shy and such), and was fortunate that the calisthenics and random YouTube fitness video served me well enough. However, I really do know and see from others that a proper weight lifting program is what I need in order to achieve and maintain the fitness level I want for myself.

So, from this point on, I plan on maintaining my Fitbit steps (min. 50,000 steps/week), and doing Stronglifts 5x5 or similar 3 days a week. Oh, and eating all the things with moderation and without guilt.