Does maintaining weight get easier after a year?

I did not find losing 70 pounds particularly difficult. Nor is maintenance. I continue to track on MFP and keep on keeping on. I think the deciding factor is your mental outlook.

Like others have said: losing weight is hard. Being fat is hard. Pick your hard.

I, after years of picking fat, decided to try normal weight for a while. Been maintaining for about 3 years. It's all in the attitude you bring to the effort.

Yes, choose ur difficulty and stick with it everyday, day in day out. I maintained for 5 years. It got more and more difficult. I chose to eat freely after those 5 years and gained the weight back plus some. I concluded I would rather be at a low weight and the difficulties of maintnance than have the health problems I began to have to face being overweight.

3+ years now in the process. I call it "process" because it is and always will be a process working through maintenance. As we age - and we all do, hopefully - things shift, change, health changes, hormones go haywire, and it is a constant endeavor to meet those changes and roll with the punches, so to speak. Weight may bounce back up a few pounds (or 10) and I know it is time to figure out what I'm doing different and make the changes. Things that did not bother me before, I have to work harder to meet. Easier? Yes, in a way. Because I can actually move more, breathe easier, bend over and tie my shoes, walk up the stairs without wheezing, and one of the biggest components of all this healthy eating and exercising stuff - I have not been sick with a cold or flu in the last 3 years -- well, there I went and jinxed it! I better get ready for a cold!

Thanks for asking this question! The answers you received are very helpful for when I start maintenance. Seems like I will need to 1) Learn what level of eating/exercising will maintain my weight, 2) Find an effective way to monitor my weight to not allow it to cascade out of my goal weight, 3) Watch for potential eating triggers (ex. vacations, stressful events, injury), 4) Relax and enjoy life

[quote="cwolfman13;36347688
People have difficulty when they have the mindset of being "done" once they've reached this arbitrary number on the scale...then they go back to old habits and lack the understanding that they're not done and in fact, they've just reached the starting line of the true race...there has to be a new normal and that's where people fail miserably. [/quote]
This is so true. You are not "done". In fact, when you begin the weight loss part, you are not even "beginning". You are on a journey and that journey takes you where you want to go and the path is the rest of your life. Maintenance and loss has been easy for me. 18 months now. Always a healthy eater and an exerciser, I fell down when it came to portion sizes. I ate way beyond what my body really needed. and didn't know it. Logging cals at MFP is what taught me a lot about how much I can eat and how to listen when I am full and when I am hungry. I can't remember the last time I was uncomfortably full. Once I realized how much healthier I became, life got easier. I lost 40 lbs, and that allowed me to get off my CPAP, lost my acid reflux problem, my numbers at my annual physical were all in normal ranges, among other things. I lost a father, a sister, and a brother at early ages - none of their medical issues were related - but it made me think carefully about maintaining a healthy weight because it really isn't about vanity - it's about living a long and full life. Yes, I wear a smaller size and yes, I am more fit and in shape, but above all, I look and feel younger and am on the path to a better life.

I would say that as your life and your interests change that maintaining can be a challenge. However, you'll also find that you have some built-in alarms and cues that let you know when you're starting to slip up. For example, once you hit maintenance you might go out and update your wardrobe. This new wardrobe will start feeling suspiciously tight if you go astray in your lifestyle for too long at a time, and this can often be your first clue that you need to get your priorities back in order.

It's never pleasant to start over from any point, be it 10 lbs or 100 lbs, but your body will thank you for all the hard work and effort you put into keeping it running in top shape.