PapillonNoire Member

It was helpful for me to start thinking of maintenance as a range instead of one specific number. As long as I'm within my 5 pound range there's no reason to stress or do anything differently. When I go over my 5 pounds, I know it's time to tighten up my eating habits. This mindset change eased my anxiety and frustration…

1) 5'7" 2) I maintain between 125 and 130 3) 32 4) Female 5) Not exactly sure but my best guess is around 23-24%. 6) Close to 7 years 7) Probably between 2000 and 2200 8) 0. I don't do any purposeful exercise. I do things to increase my NEAT and average 12 to 15,000 steps per day. On days that I'm completely sedentary I…

If I were hungry I would stop for lunch first. Not because it would cause me to stray from my list, but because hunger turns to hanger real fast for me. I'm irritated by people in the grocery under the best of circumstances, so being there while hangry is not a good idea for me. :)

16:8 is my natural and preferred way to eat; it's how I ate while gaining and losing weight, and still how I eat while maintaining (going on 7 years). In my case, I still had/have to consciously restrict calories. If I were to eat the portions I actually want to, I would absolutely gain weight regardless of IF.

Sure. Lots of people prefer to count their calories weekly instead of daily. I'm maintaining now but when I was losing that's how I did it. It gave more flexibility to my diet which was important to me.

I think a Fitbit would be helpful in your situation. I've found mine to be fairly accurate. And it syncs with MFP so you can easily see how many extra calories you get from exercise/activity.

Not at all accurate. I actually own two body fat scales. One consistently puts me at 30% and the other consistently puts me at 18%. I just go by what I see in the mirror at this point.

Yup- I had numbers slightly higher than yours. Losing 50 lbs. got everything back into the normal range. I didn't pay any attention to lowering carbs- I would say about 50 to 60% of my calories come from carbs on average. The weight loss alone did the trick for me- that and I'm far more active than I used to be. Best of…

I naturally eat in an 8 hour window and have done so long before I knew it had a label. My preference just happens to be eating breakfast around 11 am and I like to eat dinner by 6:30, so by 7 pm I'm done for the day. You still have to pay attention to calories with 16:8- it's not a magic diet. I both gained and lost…

This is certainly true for me. I've been maintaining about 7 years now and it really is just a series of me re-gaining and re-losing the same 5 (sometimes 10) pounds over and over.

I was way over on almost everything. I feel like I have a pretty good sense of actual calories in real life since I've been maintaining for 7 years and rarely log or measure. I suspect if the foods depicted were prepared by me (or the restaurants I frequent) they would have higher calories than listed in the quiz.

I started walking for maintenance purposes because I wasn't happy with the amount of calories I got, and I'm not someone who really enjoys most exercise. I average about 15k to 20k steps per day and it's added several hundred calories to my TDEE. Walking has made a huge difference in making my weight loss sustainable.

I've been maintaining for going on 7 years now. I don't do much in the way of purposeful exercise, but I have put in the effort to increase my NEAT significantly. On a sedentary day I only burn about 1300 to 1400 calories. I would find next to impossible to eat that little on a daily basis. I need at least 2000 to feel…

My sister in law refused a piece of bread with dinner because she wasn't eating carbs....she then proceeded to have three pieces of lasagna.

This was my thought as well. I most definitely have RBF. I've had many people throughout my life come up and ask me what's wrong or tell me I look miserable/upset/angry. And I have to explain that all is well, that's just my face.

I lost 50 lbs by counting calories and making an effort to increase my activity. I've been maintaining for almost 7 years now. At this point I'm able to fairly accurately eyeball what an appropriate portion is, so I no longer log or measure. I weight myself regularly so I can catch a backslide early and adjust. I guess I…

I don't follow the program, but I'll do the individual videos. I like to alternate Piyo with some of the T25 or Insanity cardio workouts. I've been doing this for about 2 months now and I feel like I'm seeing good results.

Most of the people I know who lost weight quickly ended up gaining it back. It takes time to establish good, sustainable habits. Faster isn't necessarily better. And as other posters already said, comparing yourself to others isn't helpful. Envy is a useless emotion.

My eating habits were terrible. Tons of pizza, Chinese food, fast food and ice cream all in large portions. I used to have an activity level that allowed for it, but when I got a desk job and started driving everywhere instead of walking I gained weight fast. I still eat pizza, Chinese, fast food and ice cream, but I do it…

As long as you are in a calorie deficit, you'll lose weight. Certain foods are more likely to cause water retention that can make it seem like you're not making progress, but it's only temporary and not something to get worked up about. If you're able to moderate pizza, by all means enjoy it!

Yes, I was presenting two very different statements to illustrate how important presentation/communication can be. They were meant to polarizing; there is obviously a whole spectrum of how it could be presented, and thus a whole spectrum of responses. In your example, some of the responses might be inferring something you…

I think there are certainly some people who simply want to deflect and dismiss, but sometimes it can be the way the experience is presented. If I say to my husband (or any other male in my life) 'I'm getting harassed by a guy on the street, at the gym, at work, etc.,' I'm likely going to get a sympathetic response and/or…

It's not that all men are pigs. I think it's more that the select few who are, are doing it often and to many different women. I probably walked by 100 men on my way into work today. Only one of them told me I'd look prettier if I smiled. I would bet he made that same comment to numerous women. So that 1% of men I ran into…

I average 12-15k steps a day, so if a company was willing to incentivize what I'm doing anyway, I'd probably be happy. On the other hand, I allowed Liberty Mutual to track my driving and I regret it. They gave a small discount just for signing up, so no downside yet; but based on my results, I wouldn't be surprised if they…

I fall into this category as well. I want to lose 5 vanity pounds...but not as much as I want that extra slice of pizza or second cookie.

Maintenance is a lifelong process. Not every day is going to be perfect. As long as you're on par with your diet most of the time, don't sweat the one offs.

I eat all of those foods regularly and I'm at the lower end of the BMI scale. I have been both overweight and underweight while including foods like that in my diet. It's the quantity that matters, not the foods themselves.

I have two BIA scales. One consistently put me around 18% and the other consistently put me around 30%. So no, I don't have much faith in their accuracy. At this point I just go by what I see in the mirror. If I'm happy with my reflection, than the actual percentage is not important to me.

I'm 5'7" and my maintenance weight is 125-130lbs. I can maintain eating between 2000 and 2500 calories depending on my activity for the day. I've worked to increase my NEAT so that I'm able to eat this much. I make an effort to get in a lot of steps and fidget at my desk. Prior to doing this, my maintenance was about…