MFP Alumni - just wondering...

7 years and a bit. It's the easiest most sustainable way for me to make sure I'm eating at maintenance. Some people choose to stop logging and use other methods to control their calories (IF, generally eating low calories foods, food limiting rules, reactive eating by eating more when you lose and eating less when you gain...and many other methods, whatever works for the individual). I like the calorie counting method because it gives me the freedom to eat anything I want and requires few rules other than balancing my calories.

It's too early to judge what would work for you. I find logging sustainable, but some don't. You may or may not decide to transition to a non-counting/looser counting method by the time you're at goal weight. Either way, the weight loss phase is like training wheels for maintenance. You learn new strategies, what works, what makes calorie management easier, what's sustainable and what isn't...etc. You'll gradually develop your own habits and strategies that work for you, don't get swayed by what others are doing.

I'm not quite an alumni but I lost weight and kept it off for a couple of years - I logged pretty much every day - I think I had a couple of walking holidays with friends where I didn't log but that was it. Then I got pregnant and stopped logging and I put weight on and I'm back here losing it again. I'm planning on logging every day forever when I finish this.

I don't think one is an alumnus until after graduation? I'm nearly in year 5 on MFP, year 4+ of maintaining (after 30+ previous years of obesity). I'm not planning imminent graduation: Sometimes, life as a perpetual student is good.

I've been logging on MFP since July 25, 2015. I still log most days, but do skip some days, if there are lots of novel or hard-to-estimate things (like if I eat at a potluck meal, or an Indian restaurant buffet, or something like that), or frankly even if I just don't make the time for it on the occasional day. I still log most of the time, as much for nutritional-tracking reasons as for calories.

I logged every day while losing as far as I can recall, and for a while beyond, because good data was key to figuring out my actual calorie needs and finding a good maintenance routine. If I'm trying to lose (and I'm trying to slowly lose a few vanity pounds right now), I'm a little more focused on the calorie side of it.

Logging is so routine now that it only takes maybe 10 minutes a day, and it's not at all stressful. It's among the most high-return minutes of my day, since it keeps my nutrition more on point more often, and keeps me at a healthy weight and feeling so much better (and with such better health markers) than I when I was obese. For me as a vegetarian, and a quite active 64-year-old, watching protein is especially important to me.

Can't think why I'd want to stop logging, personally. Not everyone wants or needs to keep logging, and that's fine, too.

I've been logging daily since January 2015. I lost forty pounds and have been maintaining since about October 2015. It's by far the easier relationship I've had with food in my adult life and I don't see any reason to stop.

Have been on MFP 'religiously' since Jan 2014 but this is my first post! Had been overweight and on diets most of my adult life and my weight fluctuated up and down by 5 stone or so for 30 plus years. Have successfully maintained my current 6.5 stone weight loss since early 2015 and I log every day. I know it can be a bit obsessive but it keeps me accountable and makes sure I'm not eating too much or too little. Personally I can't see a time when I won't log unless I fall off the wagon and can't face the music. Hopefully that won't happen but even after 5 years plus of maintenance, I'd never say never!

P.S. I see it says this is my 2nd post, I've no idea when the 1st one was!