JeanneTops Member

Congratulations on your successful loss! It seems to me that for maintenance you just keep doing what you've been doing - you've learned a new way to eat that works for you. No reason to change, is there? If you think you're continuing to lose and it's too much then just up your calories slightly.

Something my husband and I have discovered during the pandemic is that we cook a lot better than most of the restaurants we were going to. We like to eat out as well but I think we're going to continue cutting out the majority of the restaurants we used to go to and focus on eating out for the taste rather than the…

What nobody tells you about maintenance? You have to start working on it on Day One of the diet. If you're able to control your eating fairly regularly while dieting, if you have been able to backslide a little and then stop and go back to losing weight, if you don't get easily discouraged, if you enjoy working out…

I've had those same thoughts in the past and, I'm sorry to say, did indeed gain it all back. So I no longer think I have any advice to give anyone. Someone else here though said something I do agree with: Think of maintenance as having to lose those last pesky 10 pounds. I will not change how I'm eating now. My weight loss…

Thank you (and @annptt77) for sharing this. As great as all your achievements are, I have to say that what I find most inspiring, are the times when you gained some weight back and then stopped regaining and re-lost the weight. That is a story very few people can ever tell and certainly not one I have ever been able to. In…

I'm going to chime in on this because, once again, I'm at my lowest weight. I started MFP ten years ago and, in two years, lost 100 pounds. It wasn't the first time - I'd lost 50 to 80 pounds at least three earlier times in my life and then gained it all back plus some. Eight years ago, at my lowest weight, I swore I was…

So glad you dropped by! You were one of the first posters I started following when I joined almost four years ago. Your sensible approach and advice was a big help to me when I was an MFP youngster. It helped to confirm that I was on the right path at last. I'm glad to see that you're still visiting MFP! For those of you…

I used to weigh 60% more than I do now. It took me 18 months to lose it and I've kept it off for two years. I've lost this weight at least twice before and started regaining it within six months. I believe I can beat the stats this time. Here's how I did it: I skipped the diet and started on maintenance from Day One. It…

It starts with how you gained the weight in the first place, for how much and for how long you were overweight and how many times you lost and failed to maintain the loss. And how old you are now. For example, if you put on 10% of your body weight while in college, you're still in your twenties now and you lost it fairly…

This is where I am as well. I've been on maintenance for two years at a weight I have never maintained for longer than six months and, at 61, weigh less than I did in high school. Now I've been weight training for six months and even "problem areas" are changing. I've worked very hard to stop seeing myself as fat. But, as…

After two years of maintenance, and watching others go through maintenance, it's not uncommon to lose more weight and sink below your goal weight. It's as if your body is still revved up and still dropping weight. Don't be too quick to rev up your eating right away. Time will take care of that for you. Vacations,…

Two years. I think it depends on how overweight you were and for how long. For me, oh, 90 pounds for 30 years. The way I see it, after 30 years of maintaining a 90 pound weight loss, I can start thinking about not counting calories any more. Course, I'll be 92... Jeanne

Hm, maybe. But that's just biological. The bigger problem is psychological - I was overweight for 40 years. That's a lot of time with poor eating habits and bingeing behaviours to overcome. No, I still have a lot of changes to make in how I see myself before I feel comfortable at maintenance. I don't mean "not seeing…

I loved your story. I didn't even need to see the pictures, I could tell from your story that you must look like a happy, healthy person now. The pictures are just the icing on the cake (hm, maybe not the best of analogies - the hummus on the carrots? the salsa on the cucumbers?) Congratulations on building a new life for…

My maintenance weight is actually a 2lb range. I weigh daily but only look at a once-a-week "official" weight. Being at the top of the range for two weeks is a trigger to change an eating behavior. Two weeks below the range calls for a reset of the range. Of course, right now I'm 3lbs over the top of the range and have…

Thank you all for the positive comments. And for resurrecting my old posts! I don't hang out much around the Message Boards anymore because my interests have changed from losing weight to long term maintenance issues. I was very happy to see the Maintenance Board go up and strongly encourage anyone who is on maintenance to…

5'6" I shouldn't forget to put that in because I always want to know other people's heights. J.

Thanks! You were one of my original inspirations and still are! You lead the way and I'm just following in your footsteps.

I have found that the commitment and dedication I had while losing the weight was not easy to maintain over time (I've been on maintenance for two years now.) Because once I was back in a good place with my weight, then there was always a "special occasion", a holiday, and just plain tiredness that would lead to the "just…

As long as the downs = ups, yes.

Maintenance is not only harder than losing, it's different. Maintenance is about a lot more than counting calories. It's about how you deal with what life is going to throw at you. Many, many people will tell you that they started gaining the weight back because of a life change - marriage, divorce, lose a job, start a new…

Successful maintenance depends on how you gained the weight in the first place, how long you were overweight, how much you've lost and how long it took you to lose it. If you just recently gained weight, if you spent as much time losing it as you did gaining it, if you didn't have to lose much, then probably your eating…

At last, a forum for maintainers. Age: 61 Height: 5'6" SW: 242.5 (December 2009) CW: 152 (reached August 2011) Strategy for removing weight Didn't do anything I wasn't willing to do for the rest of my life. Focused on one day at a time. Logged in everything, did an hour of cardio 6 days a week. Kept my calorie level at my…

I lost 95 pounds in 20 months and have been maintaining for 16 months. This is my 3rd MFP anniversary. I'm 5'6", I weigh between 145 and 149 and I'm about to turn 61. I track what I eat every day faithfully as I eat it. I either run, swim, bike or elliptical every day for at least an hour. How you maintain has a lot to do…

Tami, Happy 1001! You are everything that's good about MFP - dedicated, committed, persistent, honest, successful, supportive and giving back to the community. Few have shared their ups and downs during maintenance as much as you have. You have done a great service to yourself and also to all of us who need to believe that…

Tami, I'm sorry I missed your anniversary yesterday, life circumstances got in the way. Super congratulations on your two year weight goal anniversary!! You've been my inspiration all along on MFP, from the days when I was just starting and you were struggling to lose the last few pounds. Your determination then was a…

What's hard for us to accept is that how other people treat us really has nothing to do with us. It has to do with how they feel about themselves. What's even harder to accept is that, how we think other people are judging us has mostly to do with how we feel about OURSELVES. Sometimes its can be as simple as something…

I'll offer myself as another example. I joined MFP in Dec. 2009 when I was 58. I used the tools to figure out what my maintenance calorie level would be once I hit my goal weight. I figured out how much I thought I would actually exercise on a daily basis. My daily calorie level was 2000 and my exercise calorie level was…

This is my favorite kind of success story. Because it's the kind that's going to last. Congratulations! Jeanne

I say you only need this 1 rule: follow a consistent caloric deficit (aka diet) that you're willing to follow for the rest of your life. Otherwise, you're just going to gain the weight back.