Introducing myself - ready to officially declare myself to be "in maintenance."

Hi there!  I had my surgery just about a week shy of 1 year ago, and I am very excited and thrilled about the success I've had.  I have lost almost 120 pounds since that day, and almost 140 since my consult weight of 290.  I am still losing very slowly, but my intention is to be maintaining where I am at.  I don't seem to have found that magical number of calories that I need in order to maintain my weight yet, but I'm sure that part will come.  I still seem to be losing about 1/2 to 1 pound a week, so things have slowed down considerably, but the scale has not leveled out just yet, nor has the scale started going up. 

I am very dedicated to MAINTENANCE, and that is the part of this whole journey that feels the most foreign to me, so that is why I joined this group.  I need as much information as I can get.  It looks like a lot of you weigh in daily, which is not something I have done.  I usually check my weight a couple of times throughout the week, but officially weigh in once a week on Monday mornings.  Can someone help me understand the importance of daily weigh-ins for maintenance?

Any other thoughts any of you can share on how maintenance has worked for you and what you've done that has been successful (as well as not) will be appreciated.

Congrats on reaching goal and welcome to the Maintenance Group!  My weight continued to drift down for months after I started maintenance, but it did eventually level out about 10# lower than I intended and I've continued to maintain there.   I've happy about that - still well within normal BMI and everything fits, so it's all good.  I'm getting used to myself being truly thin and it's starting to feel very very 'normal'.  

Many of us do weigh daily, but it is not required!  The general thinking is that for most of us it gives us the high level of accountability that we need because things get 'looser' and there are a lot more shades of grey (not 50!) in maintenance.  We are still looking at trends, which can still be achieved with a weekly weight, but for me personally, I like to weigh daily. to stay on top of things and to more fully understand how things affect me.   I remember reading more than once that the 'best practice' is weekly weighing in weight loss and daily weighing in maintenance.  I was one of those people who avoided the scale when I was 'bad'.  Weighing daily has helped me to get over that and to better understand the consequences of my behaviour.  

But no rules here, we're glad to have you join us!!

Hi Linda -

Thank you for the warm welcome!

Interesting - I guess I've seen that elsewhere, too, just hadn't really thought about it a lot yet.  It almost seems counter-intuitive, but I totally get what you're saying about the fact that my most dangerous moments are when I go for long periods of time without stepping on the scale because I don't want to see what it says.  So, I'll take that concept into consideration - weighing daily for maintenance purposes.

I also won't mind one bit if I trend downward just a bit - I'm pretty open to seeing where my body wants to settle.  But, at the same time, I'm pretty content with what I've done so far - I'm already almost 25 pounds below the original goal I set for myself.  Now I'm tickled to say I am in a "normal" BMI range - how awesome is that?  But, I don't feel the need to go further with it.  So, hopefully the slow down and settle in is coming. 

Thanks again!

Paula

Welcome to maintenance, Paula!!!

Thank you!  It's a place I can honestly say I've NEVER been before, so it is exciting uncharted territory for me!

welcome to our group. It was started 4 years ago because many of us had reached our goal but felt we had a whole new set of issues and wanted a place to share them .  I don't remember how the daily weigh in thread started but some of us find it easier to keep a routine with respect to keeping weight off. For me its the first step in the daily ritual of eating properly and keeping bad habits away. My doctor thinks its a good idea in maintenance even though he says don't weigh daily during weight loss phase.  I think it helps to know what your normal fluctuations are and to reexamine your habits if there is undesired weight gain.  Over the next year you will develop your own maintenance routine. Read through old posts to see what some of the vets think are the most important maintenance habits. Lots of gems in here.  diane

Welcome!  I have found maintenance to be harder than losing, like so many others.  My best advice is to keep the healthy habits you developed during the honeymoon phase.  I still have several of mine and they are lifesavers.  There are others that have slipped for me and I wish I would have been more diligent in keeping them.  Good luck!

Hey, everyone. I am in maintenance for about 1 year and 5 months. Just within the last 5-6 minths I noticed my weight starting to inch up. I will admit that have had an alcoholic beverage or 2 along the way and have eaten more carbs that I should have. I own all of the weight gain as mine! 😀 But now it is 10 pounds and this is getting serious. Is there something ya'll know about that would jump start my weight lose again? Maybe going back and drinking the protein shakes or somethig. I don't want to do something stupid but rather within the guidelines of what others in this VGS group knows is a good thing to do. 

Thanks,

M