Reality Check: Maintenance Weight

Yeah, I'm pretty comfortable in my food routine now and I don't feel deprived so I should probably just keep going and see what happens.

I know, I know. Part of me is terrified though. I mean have they really seen EVERYTHING because I don't even like looking at MYSELF naked in the mirror. What if they say there's nothing they can do, that I've completely destroyed my skin forever? *laughing* Totally irrational, I know. I think I first need to call the insurance company to see if they cover anything. I just have to make myself do it. I guess when I'm ready, I will. It seems so stupid, I know, but I don't feel ready, but I don't know why either. LOL

*makes note for this week's therapist appointment*

Candy,

I'll share my own experience with you.  Picking a goal and a maintenance point was a real head game for me.  The Insurance Chart Ideal Weight for me is 171.  Everyone agreed that would be too skinny.  My surgeons goal for me was 200.  I decided I wanted to go to 190 to get a "Normal" BMI.  Why do all of this to still be overweight, right?

Everyone would tell me that I would know when I got to the right weight.   How would I know?  It cant just be feeling because I already felt better that I ever had in my life.  That always puzzled me.  I am a very quantitative guy - There had to be some objective measure.   I looked into all sorts of things, body composition, etc.  The truth is my body did tell me - my weight loss slowed to a crawl.  At 600 calories a day I couldn't lose an ounce.  I was suddenly ravenous.  I was ALWAYS hungry.  I declared "Goal" and started upping my calories while maintaining my exercise level.  I had gotten to a place where i was comfortable.

Know what - I suck at maintenance.  I rocked weight loss, but I suck at maintaining.  Once I declared goal and took the pressure off myself - another 10 lbs melted off without even trying.  I had surgeries, couldn't exercise - weight continued falling off.  Today I am at 172.2 - I never intended to be this low.  I am in the position of having to gain to get back in my maintenance range (178-188 now that I had 7.5 lbs of skin removed).

From the weight loss side it looks like setting the goal is the big challenge.  From the other side, learning the new skills of maintenance is the big challenge.  I found that I have to kind of change my point of view.  While losing, every time I saw the scale go down I would thrill - it was affirmation.  I find that I still do that.  I have to refocus my affirmations now.  I also have to learn to trust myself to maintain - and that just takes experience.  Proving to myself that I can adjust my diet and exercise to keep a stable weight is my new task.

Honestly, My advice would be the same as you have seen me give newbies a million times - listen to your body.  Another truism from weight loss - Focus on what you can manage and let the scale do what it will.Try to decide when you feel comfortable, happy, and at peace with where you are.  You body will settle where it will settle.  Focus on being healthy mentally and physically.  Nail those two and the body composition will follow naturally.

Dammit, Rob. Shut up. LOL ;) See, I'm a numbers girl too. Data. Information. Graphs. Trends. Dude, I own a bookkeeping firm in my real life, ya know? I need a number. LOL! My husband thinks I'm a freak because the up/down doesn't bother me, I just think the trends are kind of cool.

Sigh. That's part of the problem is 175 has always been "my number". That was it, that would mean I'm done. But, I'm coming to realize that while I could probably maintain there, I don't want to stay there. Kind of ticks me off. I'm supposed to be done now.

I think you guys are all right though. I think I'll just know. The plastics is a whole other ball of wax I need to tackle, but the weight loss stuff, yeah - I'm just going with the "I'll know when I'm done". I just know I'm not yet.

Oh and maintenance scares the bejeesus out of me. I've always been an expert at losing weight, I can lose 20-50 pounds easily. Keeping it off... not so much. LOL

This last 10-25 pounds or whatever is going to be hard though. I can already feel that. But I've battled it this far. May as well go for the prize.

Thanks for rambling with me... xoxo, my "normal" BMI is 155, but dude, I was probably that in 5th grade. LOL, I cannot fathom weighing that now. Heck, I still can't fathom the fact that I woke up at 177 this morning.

My therapist is totally buying a very large boat by the time we're done with all this. ;)

First - you're doing great!

I went and had my body fat tested - that gave me at least a clue as to what was still rolling around in there.  I'm now at my initial goal, and I feel like i have 10 more to lose, based on jiggly-ness :)... I'll keep going and see what happens, but get my BF tested again to see if it's tracking accurately - if so, I'll have a very good idea as to what is possible...

I thought about that, but I can literally see there's still too much, so I'm going to keep going. I also need to get back in the gym, but that's a whole other problem. But yeah, I thought I might do that as I get closer to feeling like I could be done. Thanks!

If you do it, you do have a little more "objective" sense of the quantity that would be realistic - at least within the limits of the test accuracy.

I'm a number-head too - so having a "good" number to shoot for was important for me... I picked my original goal (175) with the idea of just getting into the "normal" BMI range. I'd prefer to be in the middle... and with the BF measurement, I think it's possible... but it will be slow going now.

Yeah. The fancy scale says 38% body fat. I haven't gone to the fancier one at my gym yet (cuz that would mean I have to actually GO to the gym). My goal next month is to get there at least once. Small steps.

Yeah. My appt with my doctor is next week, so I look forward to talking to him a little too. Ah... a normal BMI range would be awesome, that's 22 pounds away :)

Don't forget that you have fat cells in your stomach that are never going away no matter how much you diet. They can make it seem like you still have fat to lose in the pani when you don't really.

As for your goal, I would say continue to do what you are doing until your body stops losing weight and that's your goal weight. I think of this as the happy weight. The weight you can maintain without driving yourself mad and living on a completely restricted diet for the rest of your life.

Yeah, these are definitely not empty cells LOL, but eventually they will be so I know plastics has to come if I want it gone eventually.

Yeah. I'm just going to float along. Hell, I never thought I'd get HERE much less be thinking about going further...

I have just been through the same struggles as u. I had thought that I had to get down another 30 pounds from where I am at now (181) because the traditional BMI had me at 28.5% body fat. I had a bod pod done on 12 November and it showed me to be 17.5% body fat which on a traditonal BMI scale would have me go down to 115  which is defintely too thin!!. I work out reguarly at a gym which may also explain the low body fat too. I also had plastic surgery on Sep 28 to take in the loose skin. It is rougher than the weight loss surgery but the results are really worth it. If you want to talk with me more about what I went through, just shoot me a personal message or e-mail me at [email protected]. Hope I can help.