Maintainers' Weekly Check-in

October 2025

Name Lesley

Age: 75

Height: 153 cm (5’ 0.5”)

Total weight lost: 22.5 kg (approx. 50 lb)

Time it took to lose: 9 months

How long in maintenance: 6 years!!

Maintenance weight range: 48 – 51 kg (106 – 112 lbs)

Average weight recorded for July 48.5 kg (107 lb)

Average weight recorded for August 48.4 kg (107 lb)

Average weight recorded for September 48.0 kg (106 lb)

Average for the year so far 48.9 kg

Oct 6th: Away on holiday

Oct 13th: 48.7 kg (Trend 49.6 kg)

Oct 20th: 48.3 kg (trend 49 kg)

Oct 27th: 48.7 kg (trend 48.9 kg)

Successes/Struggles:

We had a day out during the week – went to the theatre in Bath. The day involved a lot of sitting – car, train, theatre, train, car – and finished with dinner in a Chinese buffet restaurant. The next day my weight popped up by a kg (2lb+) but it is coming down again. Normal fluctuations, that’s what maintenance looks like.

November 2025

Name Lesley

Age: 75

Height: 153 cm (5’ 0.5”)

Total weight lost: 22.5 kg (approx. 50 lb)

Time it took to lose: 9 months

How long in maintenance: 6 years!!

Maintenance weight range: 48 – 51 kg (106 – 112 lbs)

Average weight recorded for August 48.4 kg (107 lb)

Average weight recorded for September 48.0 kg (106 lb)

Average weight recorded for October 48.9 kg (108 lb)

Average for the year so far 48.9 kg

Nov 3rd: 48.3 kg (trend 48.6 kg)

Nov 10th:

Successes/struggles:

I finished October at goal weight after a fortnight away on holiday, that was a success.

My daughter came for lunch on Tuesday bringing Cornish pasties (she had a few days in Cornwall with her children), I intended to leave most of the pastry on my plate but ate all of it. Delicious but the high fat and carb load had to be compensated for over the next few days. It was worth it.

Age: 78
Height: 5'4"
Total weight lost: 50 lb.
Time it took to lose: Over years with ups/downs
How long in maintenance: at current weight ~7 years - Was on maintenance for 8 years at 125 lbs.
Maintenance weight range: 115 +/- 2 lbs.

Average weight recorded for June 113.0
Average weight recorded for July 112.7
Average weight recorded for Aug. 111.4
Average weight recorded for Sept. 110.5
Average weight recorded for Oct. 112.9

Week of:
Nov 3: 113.5
Nov 10: 114.4

Struggles and Successes: I am going back to my original calorie goals. I might go over a little a first to use to cutting back. One week at the time at this point.

This is my first check-in because I recently determined that I have reached "GOAL." Numerous people, including my dietitian, have suggested I'm at a healthy weight/size despite my BMI being over 25. I feel such satisfaction, it's like losing another huge weight. It feels as if I have focused on losing weight for my entire life, since childhood. I just turned 63 on Sunday, and at last, I'm comfortable in my own skin.

At my last physical a month ago, I was measured for height and was astounded to have lost half an inch! I knew people "shrink" with age and compressing disks, but me? No way! Sigh!

I'm 5'4" (now) and weigh 151.5. My lowest weight in the past year was 144, for a day. In 2020 I went from 215 to 155 in a year. In 2024, I was back up to 174 and had stage 3 kidney disease, so I was referred to a dietitian. She does not adhere to BMI numbers; fewer professionals do lately, in my experience. Because of meds, losing weight was a slow pound or two a month—a MONTH—but after a year, I was at 155.

I wanted to keep going, like almost everyone who's on a roll. I had a vacation to look good for. I got to 147. After vacation, I became ill over the summer; I gained and lost weight dramatically.

I averaged my weight for the months I had been struggling to lose beyond 155, and I found that my weight averaged 152.5. I had a moment of lucidity and realized my health care professionals know what they're talking about. A good, healthy weight is an individual number; more than that, it's a feeling. My dietitian suggested I give myself 5 pounds either side of my comfortable weight, and that's my goal.

Reaching a goal is emotional. Maintaining a goal, you let go of those emotional triggers that might make you either pig out or starve yourself. The high is the satisfaction you feel with yourself…loving yourself as a healthy you. I'm not a lightly built, petite woman. I have curves everywhere, a little belly, ample limbs. I'm not muscular, but I'm fit.

My husband suffers from an illness that has resulted in his physical wasting. He is skin and bones now after being a strong armful for so long. When I hug him, I wish with all my heart that he had more to him, that I wasn't feeling his ribs and hip bones but flesh. His illness is sobering for me. Being thin is no longer my desire. Staying fit is.