At what point did maintenance become really hard?

I'm almost 16 months out and so far (knock on wood) I lost the weight I wanted to and my body just seemed to settle down to almost exactly where I wanted to end up anyhow. I was overall a light weight and therefore got pretty close to my goal really quickly with only the last ten to fifteen pounds or so taking a lot of effort to lose. All I ever had to do was follow my nutrition plan and not cheat. I never really was able to do a ton of exercise due to needing two knee replacements so I was glad that the nutrition part was enough to get me to goal. It left me at goal since basically before I even reached the one year mark.  

So here is the kicker I'm having no trouble maintaining so far within a pound or two up or down at any given point (which has always been a normal amount of fluctuation due to water retention for me) and has settled there for awhile.

At what point did you notice maintenance getting to be more difficult? How far out were people when you started to notice the creeping on of bounce back weight? Do you think I'm still having much malabsorption? Is that why it's been fairly easy so far to stay where I'm at? Am I still in my honeymoon period?

I'm really happy with where my body leveled out at but I don't have any cushion for bounce back weight gain so I'm concerned that I'll end up ten pounds or more heavier than I want to be long term. 

I was just curious when everyone really felt that struggle started.

 

Thanks for for everyone's feedback 

 

Angel

For the first 3 years I maintained fairly effortlessly but after about 3 years I experienced the dreaded "regain".  Not terrible for me since I could afford to gain a few lbs but I found that I had to clean things up a bit to keep it from getting out of hand.

I won't say it's terribly hard since I still am satisfied pretty easily and I don't experience hunger like I used to, but it does require me to be mindful of what I eat and to plan out my meals and not to just eat whatever I want, whenever I want, in whatever amounts I want.

 

I am at the 25 month mark and it appears I am at the point where I am going to have to monitor very closely. Up until this point it has been fairly easy to just be mindful.

I lost quickly and stayed eight under goal until 30 months.  Then gained fourteen over one summer.  Now I weigh daily to stay at goal.

 

For me it was year 4-5 post op. My eating habits just fell off the wagon and guess what happened. 

Working on it now, every single day!

At this point you may still be not absorbing all your calories. I found at 18 months that changed. At three years I have to monitor my intake daily. I log everything into my fitness pal. I have regained 16 pounds and lost 5 of it. I will probably stay at this current weight hopefully but only with daily diligence

About 3-4 years out it got a lot harder for me. That seems to be the norm from what others post.

At 16 months out you are still in the honeymoon phase. Do not get complacent or think you are "cured". The people that have these thoughts tend to be the ones who eventually have huge regains.

At exactly 24 months, my weight loss stopped!  From that point on, it was a lot of hard work to maintain.  I did gain 12 - 15 lbs like 5 yrs out...then buckled down and lost 22 lbs and maintained that for 5 yrs without a lot of hard work, but jus****ching my diet and exercising moderately.  Now in the past six months (10.5 yrs out), I have gained 5 lbs and am struggling to get it off.  

 

JA

10.5 yr out (Lap RNY) - 100 lbs

Agree with others who say it's much harder after that 3 year mark. I used to be able to drop a pound easily, now it takes some effort. I have to watch regain. My body desperately wants to have 5 more pounds than I want it to have.

I stayed a few pounds under goal until about 5 years post RNY.  I had a back injury and was not active for several months and gained 7 pounds.  I am still at goal but my pants are too tight.  I've been trying for a few months to lose and it has been really SLOW.  I'm keeping a daily food journal, got any non nutritious snack foods out of the house, and ramped up the walking.  It is going to be Work to get these last 5 pounds off, but I'm keeping at it.  I've also started weighing and measuring since journaling food every day.  I'm also reading books on health, nutrition, cognitive therapy, etc. to help get my thoughts straight.

It was easy staying below goal for several years but now I know I have to work at it every day to stay at or slightly below goal.  Just gotta do it.

Penny