Are you in the 97%?

Since I've lost weight before, thought it was absurd that I would ever regain, and then did so after maintaining the majority of my weight loss for about 5 years, DOUBLING in gain what I originally lost, I've accepted that even the "success" stories you see sometimes end up as failures.

I'm in a totally different place now than I was back then, with myself and food. I feel ready to be a part of the small minority that keeps the weight off for good. But I've been humbled and I refuse to get all haughty again. I'll have to keep diligent for all my life. I hope that I do. There are no guarantees that I will.

This. Not quite a doubling for me, just somewhat more than 150%, but pretty much the same thing. I thought back then that I'd changed my lifestyle for life too. Hoping that humility and the added caution that comes from having what you thought you had all figured out come back and bite you helps.

This is why I cringe a little everytime I see someone on this board declaring that they'll NEVER regain the weight who hasn't even reached maintenance, or have but have only been doing it a couple months. Hell if you've maintained for a year or two and start getting cocky, I can't help but think you need to sit down and check yourself.

The overwhelming majority of people I see on MFP swearing that they've made a "lifestyle change" and will never go back aren't even qualified to begin to make that kind of declaration. As a long time maintainer who did regain, I'm not sure any of us who had past major problems with overweightness can afford to be so cocky.

I sure hope to be one of the 3-5%ers...I don't declare that I will never gain a Lb ever again, but I do feel like I have this pretty under control at the moment.

I personally never struggled with my weight until I was about 30 and graduated college and took a desk job. I had always been pretty active before and taking a desk job really slowed me down but I continued to eat the same...over the course of about 8 years I put on about 40 - 50 Lbs.

Having grown up playing all manner of sports and just being very active in general, it was pretty easy for me to get back into fitness. I didn't have to reinvent myself or anything. In fact, from the moment I started back in I was like, "damn...I really missed this." I have a passion for fitness, I just had to re-discover it.

In regards to my nutrition, I've never been a big junk food guy or anything like that. As I mentioned, I've been involved in sports and athletics for most of my life and I've always known to eat for performance. To boot, I'm pretty much a foodie and I enjoy quality food that is largely prepared from scratch ingredients to include a whole lot of nutrient dense foods...I've never really had a problem with nutrition or eating nutritiously. My biggest pitfall when I gained weight was the volume of food I was eating relative to my activity...and I didn't really fully understand that relationship until I found MFP.

It's only been a year in maintenance, but I have pretty high hopes for myself. Fitness is a part of my life and so is proper nutrition...these things aren't burdens...I joyously wake up in the morning to walk my dog 3 miles and feverishly look forward to my 15 mile lunch rides on my bike...without them I think I'd go insane. Tuesdays and Thursdays nights are wonderful because that's when I hit my little community gym and go rock some resistance training...Saturday mornings too. To me, this is all pretty fun...I have found joy in re-gaining my fitness...I love being fit and strong and healthy.

As I age, I'm sure I'll slow down somewhat...and I now know that I'll have to adjust my diet to compensate for that...but that's the big thing...I know it and I understand it. Knowledge is power.

I've been obese since I was a teenager. I lost 135 lbs, and ever since then, have been fluctuating within a ~15 lb or so range. That's been for about 2 years now. As far as I'm concerned, that's successful maintenance. So no, I'm not within that 97%.

I am one year short of being the 3% but since in fact my 50 pounds weight loss has been over the last 12 years, it all has been very gradual. I setteled for 140 pounds for many years than lost another 15 pounds with MFP in about 3 months. In those last years where I was prettu much maintaining.....I still lost a few pounds from year to year.

The key is pretty simple: make *permanent* changes to your diet and don't go back to your old ways.

This is exactly why I refuse to do anything to lose weight that I am not willing and able to do for the next 30+ years. Cut out carbs, sugar (yes, I know sugar is a carb), dairy, etc for 3 months to drop some weight is pointless if I'm not going to do that long, long term.

This is why I'm not going to start weightlifting or running...I hate both and cannot imagine doing it for life. I want to be strong-functionally.
I hope to become a 3% statistic. I already know that taking 9 months off MFP contributed to the 9 lbs. I gained in that time. I wasn't being accountable to myself or anybody else about those little extra treats. For the foreseeable future, I see myself logging and checking in to keep myself accountable.
I'm getting sick of the friends I've added who have posted asking for somebody to keep them accountable. They are on for a week, come back one day the next, and don't respond to messages I send, trying to do exactly what they asked for. Nobody can lose the weight for you. You have to want it bad enough to work at it every day.

I guess I'm in the 97% -

I was a pretty normal kid - hit puberty and got a few extra pounds (jr. year I weighed about 140) then lost it (Sr. year weighed about 119).

Got married - stayed around that 120 mark - had kids - bounced up and down due to pregnancy - then got back around 125 and stayed there - got divorced - got preganant and remarried - had another kid - went up and down during those times and then was doing pretty good - around that 125 mark again - and got lazy. Got a desk job and didn't exercise and crept back up to 153 - slowly losing again.......and now back to about 133-135 - trying to get back around 125, but we will see.

Seems most of my Yo-Yo was after kids - but some otherwise......

This is an interesting thread.

For me, I was never overweight as a child. But I was an active kid. Only after finishing college and working at a desk all day did my weight go up...a little in my 30's and a lot more in my 40s putting me about 50-60lbs over. And, the pressures of work and raising kids cut out a lot of physical activities. So maybe there is some hope of a permanent change that will keep me more-or-less on track; and a re-commitment to proper eating and fun physical activities no matter how much work wants to interfere.

I am not yet at my goal here, but when I get there, I mean to stay around there. I expect maintaining to be a lot harder than the actual weight loss. Especially since I should hit my goal weight before winter. Since I hate indoor exercise, this will be a challenge to start maintenance then.

Still, if one were to regularly gain 10lbs or so over each winter, and take that off every spring and summer as that person ramps up the activity level, I don't think that is unhealthy at all. Our ancestors probably had gain-loss-gain-loss cycles just like that. It is what the body is designed to do. Store extra fat when it can in preparation for lean or more active times.

3%. Since I was first here and went from obese to healthy about 4 years ago, I managed to stay within 5 or so lbs of 125. This year I decided to bump that down to 120 (noticing a trend to be in the higher range more often than not, hehe).

I like to be conscious of the times that I tend to gain weight: major eating festival months whether it be a string of birthday weekends or holidays. I try to offset those with weekend hikes, camping trips, and even taking my boys to the park more often (it's an uphill hike to walk there).

I just had one of those plus-eating months, a couple of birthdays, a graduation, and a few unexpected funerals. This post made me realize that I managed to maintain my current loss goals in the midst of all that. So thank you OP, been feeling kind of down this week and this gave me a little boost for the morning. :flowerforyou:

I'm curious to hear from 3% ers, and others on how they feel they are distinguished from the 97% that fails at long term health goals.

How long do you have to keep it off to make it into the 3%?