Posted on the MB by accident (Maintaining before reaching goal)

I have been for-all-practical-purposes "maintaining" at 180lbs (give or take 179-181 depending on the day) for several months now. I don't call it a plateau cause to be honest I have not been diligent about my food and exercise but I am being what I'd consider moderately healthy and moderately active.  Some major events have come up in life that have taken my focus away and I can't seem to stay "on track" i.e. "perfect" for more than a few days at a time. I have a really ideal restriction level though so I'm not tempted to overeat cause I am satisfied on very little still.  So, maintaining is easy, yay! But I really do want to make it to my goal of about 155. 25 lbs... shouldn't be hard after doing 90+ but of course the last are always the hardest.

I don't really have a point to this. Mostly wanted to ask if others reach a point where they have "band fatigue" and can accept maintaining for a bit even if you aren't at your ideal or goal.  Some days I feel sooo far from where I want to be but a lot of the time I feel great and can't really find a good reason to keep going. Arg...

Any advice? Any motivation? There seems to be no health reason whatsoever for me to lose the final 25lbs, it would be purely asthetic at this point.

It's not even losing those extra 25 pounds but also maintaining...

I don't know how long you have been chubby or heavy set if it was since childhood or as you got older .. kids or no kids..

In my opinion.. my life will always include birthday cake, mexican food, ****tails or happy hours ... weekly NO not always.. Monthly at least a combo of the three.. but the rest of the time 80% of the time I make great choices and I work out and I'm still losing.. tho not huge numbers as I when I first had surgery but I only have approx 40 pounds to go..

Not 40 pounds to goal of 150 pounds but 40 pounds to goal of 173 -180 depends where I land... I have been heavy my whole life.. I wore a size 28 in one point in my life I didn't have surgery to be a size 5.. that was never MY GOAL.. my goal wasn't to be quote on quote "thin" my goal was to be normal.. I wanted to feel like a normal person in social settings not the biggest person in the room tho I was nice and everyone liked me .. I was quite heavy..and I struggled with thoughts constantly am I going to fit in that chair or in that movie theater seat or airplane seat..

Thank Jesus I don't I have those worries anymore but I would like to be in safe range of below 200 pounds and I'm okay with having more muscle and less fat even if I the scale shows a higher number than I would like if I'm a size 14 (not plus) I can care less. what the scale reads...

I think the only person who can answer your question is you.. are you happy at the size you are at? Would you like to be a size smaller?

Thank you so much for your thoughts, you really inspire me.  To answer some of your questions so you have a better idea where I'm coming from, I'm 27, been morbidly obese since I was 14 or so and obese, overweight, etc. before that - NEVER normal. No kids.  And yeah, I also wanted to have the surgery not to turn into a stick figure but just to be able to do what I wanted in life without having to worry about if I was going to fit into the fill-in-the-blank. What you said about not being the largest person in the room...same for me. I ALWAYS had been and now not so much.  I'm very competitive with myself, very perfectionistic, and always wanting to be a step better than I am.  But you're right, my life will always include dinners out, birthday parties, vacations, and stuff where I enjoy food. When I get down on myself for not losing more I have to remind myself that prior to a year ago, I couldn't lose 10 lbs without practically killing myself and when I stopped the starvation diet I'd gain 15 back. Keeping off almost 100 for a few months without spending hours at the gym is progress. 

aww thanks...

Some might think I'm "not the norm" we should all strive be 130-150 pound and be in the BMI healthy range.. but I don't. My doctor is thin and athletic and he is not in the BMI healthy range ..

I'm going to be smart about this.. can I maintain a 150 pound body for X amount of years.. that mean less indulgence and LOTS of maintence meaning my gym membership will be used almost daily.. Who needs that kind of pressure I don't..

I don't want to work my ass off to lose weight then 5 years down the road gain 20 pounds back (ps I gained some weight back and it been hell to get it back off)

Like you said with miminal effort more good choices than bad.. a few extra hours working out here and there you can lose a few more pounds maybe not in ONE month but in a couple.. who isn't to say you might lose an additional 10 pounds before the year end.. but your in a really good range right now the range I want to be when i'm at my quote on quote goal...

I will say this.. beside my temp weight gain ... I kept my 100 pounds off with minimal efforts never in my life have I lost that much weight and to maintain that weight loss was an accomplishment in itself... I usually lost 30 pounds with WW or Medi fast, Jenny Craig, the cabbage soup diet and I would lose it and gain it back plus more ..To be honest if you asked me at 26 if I was going to be a size 16 at 34 I would of laughed my butt off.. I think at that point in my life I would of been happy at a size 20 .. and here I am a size 16 I'm estatic.. you should be too!!

You need to pat yourself on the back band buddie.. your are successful your not perfect but your successful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wise words from the nail saloon... (this article I found while I was getting a pedicure.. I keep on my facebook to remind me)

don't try to mold yourself into something you are not. Stop trying to attain this unnatural state where you're skinny and plucked and shaved and waxed and Botoxed and have no hips- it's stressful for your body and mind, and it's not going to make you happy either. Believe ME! I see it all the time these days: Women like that come to my office because none of it is feeding their soul - Julie Holland MD a psychiatrist in New York and author of Weekends at Bellevue

Here are my thoughts --- for what they are worth.

For me -- getting to my 'goal' weight was about finishing something that I started - and had never attained before.

I did Medifast for 26 weeks straight several years ago, and I stopped 12 pounds before I got to my goal weight -- and I went straight up from there.

Now - I have revised my 'goal' a few times --- started out thinking that 'below 200' would be wonderful.
Then, thought that 175 would be acceptable --healthy (although still overweight).
When I got there, I decided that I could continue to lose -- so I set a Weigh****cher's goal weight of 155. 

I don't know your height --- but there ARE multiple health reasons to move from 'overweight' to 'normal' bmi -- in terms of risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc.

That does not mean that your goal weight of 155 is a healthy weight for you --- especially if you have been overweight most of your life.

Does your doctor (Bariatric or PCP) have an opinion about a goal weight for you?

Thanks for your input, as always :)  I'm 5'7" so my BMI is around 28 now. Not sure what studies you're looking at but I've actually read that mortality rate is lower and diseases like cancer are too for people in the "overweight" BMI than for people in either the normal or obese/MO categoris ("Rethinking Thin" by Gina Kolata cites data to that effect.) So from what I can tell, the health benefits to me of losing weight are at least as good now as they would be at a BMI of 24.9, if not possibly better.

Moving on, yeah, getting to the goal is more about just GETTING there cause I set out to do it. I don't know what, if anything will actually be different between now and "there".  I can shop in normal stores, normal sizes, wear size 10 jeans for the first time in my life, feel healthy, menstrual cycle is normal for the first time in my life without medication, BP is way low (used to be 120/70 ish and is now 100/60 ish)...

My surgeon is ecstatic with where I'm at. I don't think he'd care if I lost 0 more or 25 more lbs. His office had set a goal of 143 for me (on paper, they have a print out you can get at each visit) but at some point that print out changed to a goal of 155 and I have no idea why! Either way, 155 has become my "ideal" because it puts me just on the edge of normal and not where I view as unacheivably thin.

I am also maintaining prior to reaching my goal.  My original goal was 160 (at that weight, I'm a size 6 - no idea why - my mom weighs less than that but wears a 12....guess my weight distribution is kind to me, LOL).  Anyway - that was my original goal....until I saw on the BMI chart that would still put me in the overweight category....so in order to get to the highest end of "normal", I need to be no more than 155.  I'm about 4-5 pounds away from that and honestly - I'm not trying real hard - this seems to be a comfortable weight for me.  Before surgery - I was skeptical that I would ever get back down to a 6 (after kids and all, LOL) (and honestly, I would probably have been okay with being a 10/12) - but I'm here and it's not difficult to maintain, so I'm no longer killing myself and obsessing about everything I put in my mouth these days....