Maintainers weekly Check-in August 2017

Joan, age 58; height 5'4"
Total loss 31# over 9 months
Goal weight range -125-128#
Present weight 124.6
At goal one month
Struggles- night snacking
Successes- sticking to exercise routine religiously, cardio+weight training
Looking for mutual support for maintenance- New MFP friends esp women my age group- friend me if this is you

Name: Jen
Age: 45
Height: 5'2.5"
Total Weight lost:140lbs
Time it took to lose: 2.75yrs
How I lost it: My story (PhotoBucket broke my pics. Still working on fixing this.)
How long in maintenance : I declared it at 140 in January 2016, but that was too high for a petite lady. Redeclared it 4/14/17.
Maintenance weight range: Would like to stay under 123 at morning weigh-in.
Ongoing struggle: I still need to learn to trust my body cues, be content with eating just enough, and stop asking food to be more than just fuel. Life after work is just filled with getting steps and eating food to fill my evening. Really need to make peace with having fewer cals to work with. Contentment and an attitude of gratitude (and maybe a hobby, like sign language) are the order of the day.

January avg weight: 126.8lbs
February avg weight: 126.1lbs
March avg weight: 124.6lbs
April avg weight: 122.9lbs
May avg weight: 123.4lbs
June avg weight: 122.6lbs
July avg weight: 122.3lbs

Week of...
28th July: 121.8lbs
4th August: 120.7lbs
11th August: 119lbs

Successes of the week: Mostly stuck to my calorie zone, although I was very snatch and grabby and eating a lot of my food really early in the day, making for long afternoons and evenings.

Challenges of the week:
Fitbit is making me nuts! I gained weight because of it in April because it was crediting me with 60-100 cals for just walking for 15 min, and doing it several times per day. It seems to be doing that again. I made myself shorter on my profile to counteract the extra 300 cals it was giving me each day, and that helped somewhat. I can overwrite the bad data by logging walks through mfp, but I walk so many times during the day, it's a real pain. Overwriting may also have left me cutting too hard this week. I am trying to sort out my gross cals and weight trend. I may need to give up on net cals if I can't count on my Fitbit. (Will be contacting customer service, I think.)

Name: Stephen
Age: 57
Height: 6'2"
Total Weight lost: 78 lbs.
Time it took to lose: 12 months
How long in maintenance: 7 months
Maintenance weight range: 180-185 lbs.

January: 184.7 lbs.
February: 182.7 lbs.
March: 182.5 lbs.
April: 183.1 lbs.
May: 182.4 lbs.
June: 181.4 lbs.
July: 182.7 lbs.

Week of...
7th August: 184.3 lbs.
14th August: 184.2 lbs.
21st August:
28th August:

jemalme wrote: »

Name: Jennifer
.

Had my parents visit this weekend. My mom is a food pusher who loves dessert. They took us out to eat and insisted on treating us to drinks AND dessert - yikes! I didn't order dessert, but I did get wine. Why do I let her do that to me? I am 47 years old, but when my mom is around I act like I'm 10!

I need to faithfully track every day this week. That is my goal.

Sounds like you made a good choice despite Mom's pushing. :^)

Name: Kathryn
Height: 5'3.5"
Total Weight lost: ~70 lbs (I dropped about 10 lbs below original goal)
Time it took to lose: 10 months (to original goal of 135)
How long in maintenance: I called maintenance in July 2016, but I have continued to slowly lose so I'm not really sure.
Maintenance weight range: 120 - 125 lbs

Average weight recorded from January: 127.1
Average weight recorded from February: 126.5
Average weight recorded from March: 126.2
Average weight recorded from April: 124.9
Average weight recorded from May: 124.9
Average weight recorded from June: 122.8
Average weight recorded from July: 122.1

Week of...
7th August: 122.2 scale/ 122.1 trend
14th August: 122.2 scale/122.3 trend
21st August:
28th August:

Success/struggles of the week: Everything is about the same this week. I feel like I am finally finding a balance between food and exercise. And so far I am averaging around 122 for August which is the 3rd month at 122 so maybe I am finally maintaining and not still losing.

I'm away on a long weekend, so I won't be weighing and posting my update until Wed. We are getting in lots of hikes and beach walks.

jemalme wrote: »

Name: Jennifer
Age: 47
Height: 5'4"
Total Weight lost: 43
Time it took to lose: 8 months
How long in maintenance: 5 months
Maintenance weight range: 134 to 137

Average weight recorded from January: 140
Average weight recorded from February: 139
Average weight recorded from March: 135
Average weight recorded from April: 134
Average weight recorded from May: 134
Average weight recorded from June: 135
Average weight recorded from July: 136


Week of...
7th August: 135.6
14th August: 137
21st August
28th August

Success/struggles of the week: Well, things seem to be going in the wrong direction for me! Still within a good range, but I would like to be under 135 most of the time.

Had my parents visit this weekend. My mom is a food pusher who loves dessert. They took us out to eat and insisted on treating us to drinks AND dessert - yikes! I didn't order dessert, but I did get wine. Why do I let her do that to me? I am 47 years old, but when my mom is around I act like I'm 10!

I need to faithfully track every day this week. That is my goal.

joanreneepas wrote: »

Joan, age 58; height 5'4"
Total loss 31# over 9 months
Goal weight range -125-128#
Present weight 124.6
August 14th-124.4
Aug 21 -
Aug 28 -
At goal one month
Struggles- night snacking
Successes- sticking to exercise routine religiously, cardio+weight training
Looking for mutual support for maintenance- New MFP friends esp women my age group- friend me if this is you

lorrpb wrote: »

Name: Lori

We got in LOTS of walking and had a beautiful view from our room. We had a small kitchen so I could manage breakfast and lunch quite nicely.

Sounds like a great trip, and Yum to your sammich!

nichell88 wrote: »

Name: Nichell
Age: 29
Height: 5'6
Total Weight lost: ~50lbs
Time it took to lose: 5.5 months
How long in maintenance:almost 13 weeks
Maintenance weight range: 150-155lbs

Average weight recorded from February: 182.4
Average weight recorded from March: 173.5
Average weight recorded from April: 164.5
Average weight recorded from May: 156.4
Average weight recorded from June: 152.3
Average weight recorded from July: 150.35

Week of...
7th of August: 151.1, trend 149.4
14th of August: 152.3, trend 149.9
21st of August:
28th of August:

Successes- I've naturally started to develop a new system of habits with my routine. I continue to track daily, but I've been letting loose a bit on the weekends. Still tracking accurately but I'm eating more foods I enjoy, treating myself. I was so fearful of doing this for a long time, and I continue to have a lot of anxiety around some of these things, but if I can continue how I am now, slowly letting loose, I think I'll ultimately relax more. I've had ice cream, cookies, brownies, etc. on weekends lately, and I don't want to go too far, but if I can maintain my pattern where it is now, I think it'll be smooth(er) sailing

Struggles- Along with the looser diet, i think I'm also going to alter my workout routine. I'm a little bit worried about this because it's quite a bit of change all at the same time, and up to this point I haven't really altered my workout regimen in this direction. Effectively, it's been ~9 months at this intensity, so I'm having a lot of second thoughts. Originally, I was still losing weight, but since I've loosened my weekends, I may be able to maintain a bit better. So I'm having a lot of internal struggle about this decision.

For me the key to relaxing my food choices has been portion size and frequency. Doing it a couple times a month is one thing, doing it every day has undesirable results (for me).
How are you going to alter your exercise? More or less? If you loosen up your diet and cut back on your workouts, you are likely to end up with more calories going in and fewer going out.
I encourage you to also set a plan to monitor the results and decide now what adjustments you will make and what your threshold point is for taking action. This should help lessen your anxiety, because you will have a plan to deal with any issues and nip them in the bud. Hopefully all will go well!

vName: Chris
Age: 61
Height: 5'4"
Total Weight lost: 54
Time it took to lose: 1.5 years to reach original goal of 150, 5 months to new goal of 145
How long in maintenance: 3 months
Maintenance weight range: 137-140

Average weight recorded from January:153.8
Average weight recorded from February: 151.3
Average weight recorded from March: 145.8
Average weight recorded from April: 145.1
Average weight recorded from May: 142.6
Average weight recorded from June: 140.5
Average weight recorded from July: 141.5


Week of...
7th August: 139.8
14th August
21st August
28th August

Struggles: many, many birthday celebrations, too much cake. Frosting is a weakness.
Successes: limited alcohol, kept up exercise, increased strength exercises, back within new maintenance range Name: Chris
Age: 61
Height: 5'4"
Total Weight lost: 54
Time it took to lose: 1.5 years to reach original goal of 150, 5 months to new goal of 145
How long in maintenance: 3 months
Maintenance weight range: 137-140

Average weight recorded from January:153.8
Average weight recorded from February: 151.3
Average weight recorded from March: 145.8
Average weight recorded from April: 145.1
Average weight recorded from May: 142.6
Average weight recorded from June: 140.5
Average weight recorded from July: 141.5


Week of...
7th August: 139.8
14th August
21st August
28th August

Struggles: many, many birthday celebrations, too much cake. Frosting is a weakness.
Successes: limited alcohol, kept up exercise, increased strength exercises, back within new maintenance range Name: Chris
Age: 61
Height: 5'4"
Total Weight lost: 54
Time it took to lose: 1.5 years to reach original goal of 150, 5 months to new goal of 145
How long in maintenance: 3 months
Maintenance weight range: 137-140

Average weight recorded from January:153.8
Average weight recorded from February: 151.3
Average weight recorded from March: 145.8
Average weight recorded from April: 145.1
Average weight recorded from May: 142.6
Average weight recorded from June: 140.5
Average weight recorded from July: 141.5


Week of...
7th August: 139.8
14th August: 140.4
21st August
28th August

Struggles: Still too much food intense socializing. On Saturday I was at the same weight I was the prior week, but a carb dense Polish dinner out put me over for the beginning of the week. A birthday celebration last night did not help to get that extra pound off yet but working to get it off before Sunday when I will be going on a winery tour. This is just as hard as losing, constant vigilance.

Successes: Back on the plan, managed to exercise every day to ward off even more pounds I would have gained if I hadn't. Still technically within maintenance (do those little fractions of a pound count?) and lower than I was last month.

Nichell88
I totally agree with lorrpb.
like you, I am loosening up on foods and allowing myself more treats and have some anxiety around it. To balance that I am continuing my exercise routine the same and am continuing to strictly log everything. I'll see what happens with scale and make adjustments as needed. Still, I'm a little nervous about it. I have history of yo-yo ing and absolutely do not want that Ever again.

Name: Ingrid
Age: 45
Height: 5'4
Total Weight lost: 208 lbs
Time it took to lose: 3 years and 6 months
How long in maintenance: 4 months
Maintenance weight range: 128-135

Average weight recorded from January: 135
Average weight recorded from February: 132
Average weight recorded from March: 132
Average weight recorded from April: 132
Average weight recorded from May: 132
Average weight recorded from June: 130.6
Average weight recorded from July: 131.5

Week of August 4: 127.5
Week of August 11: 128
Week of August 18: 130

Struggles/successes of the week: Had my last test today to see if my liver donation is a go- it was a liver biopsy. I am glad I worked out this morning before the test (even though it was at 4:20am- workout, not test)! Right now I am super sore! Haha! Did really well with calories this week and have fallen in love with zucchini! Of course I see the scale go up this month and instantly panic, but then I see I am still down under my goal weight, but still I worry.

@CoachJen71 you are doing a great job of staying in your maintenance range. If you feel you've dropped a little more than you want to, add back a few calorie dense foods, hopefully with protein. Nuts & pb are great if you can have them. Protein shakes & bars. Extra bit of olive oil & avocado will add healthy fats. I'd rather do that than decrease my steps. I'm finding that maintenance is not linear, any more than losing was. It is a process of adjustments. Try not to get stressed about it.