Living Maintenance - Getting my story straight

So I've always told my story as I lost 125 lbs in just under 5 years. But really that's not accurate at all, since there was a pregnancy and 50 lbs of gain with that which I'm not including. So I guess technically I've lost 175 lbs in less than 4 yrs (70 lbs in the 2 yrs before my son and 105 in the 2 years after). But counting the regained weight doesn't seem right either although it was still weight that had to be lost. Not that it matters, but how would you tell my story? When people aak it's too lengthy to go into all the details so just saying x lbs in x yrs is easier.

In reality, I've lost at least a thousand pounds in my life! Seriously. But I wouldn't say that because it might be a little confusing. :lol:

If it's relevant to a conversation, I just say that I've lost a lot of weight. I dislike talking about my weight loss and going into details, so I try to be as vague as possible. If I was talking to a doctor, I'd say 122 pounds -- the difference between my beginning weight and goal weight. :)

I will say I lose 175 , I got pregnant in my journey to , So I lose 20 and got pregnant , gain 13 in the 9 months , when my baby born I was at the same 155 that I was when i got pregnant . So no matter how i count then They are going to be the same , but if after you baby born you have 50 more pounds that when you got pregnant I will say yes you lose 175 ...

Anyways 125 to 175 is a lot girl , so be proud of you ... i know you were having problems whit the last pound , and look at you 5 pound under now and finishing you first half .... you go girl.

If you're talking about conversation, and because someone asked, all you have to say IMO is you lost over 100 pounds after your last child was born.

For myself, I think it's rude for people to ask how much I've lost. Those who knew me when I was obese might say "Wow, you've lost a lot!" and that's fine, but why do they need to know my numbers? So they can whisper behind my back, "She used to be 50 pounds heavier!" :chin:

Besides, I've gained some weight back, so what would I say? And again, who needs to know? Only me!

Jay

If you're telling your tail on here...explain away. :D

If you're telling real people in real time conversation, perhaps "I lost 125 pounds from my high weight over 5 years." That's all true, right?

That would mess with my mind too. ;) I understand. But as a bystander, you're making it too complicated. LOL!

tell them you used to weigh twice as much. It's kind of in the middle and definitly true. People don't need to know the exact numbers anyway

A statistician or your doctor or an obesity researcher would want that level of detail.

And we'd be curious to see it in your goal story: It might help some people who are benchmarking their own efforts.

But I agree: Elsewhere, no one else is as interested.

I tell people, "Feels like it could be 50 pounds, for sure."

The inanity of that statement doesn't leave much room for further questions.

And it leaves people feeling comfortable - making up for themselves the real number that's in their minds already. I discovered that if I tell people the actual number, 81 pounds, they want to start a debate about how I didn't look it and how I carry my weight well and it couldn't be that much.

I have pictures. I looked it. I accept that people love me and didn't necessarily classify me as their prejudice of "fat." So, I give them a vague answer and the problem goes away.

I first got to my weight loss goal in 2001, and then after some further losses it crept back on over the years. My original highest weight was 229lbs and the 2nd time it was just 5lb lower when I made the decision that enough was enough. It's been enough time that if someone asked me and needed to know the exact amount I'd lost, I would give them the more recent figure. People don't ask me that, though. They will just say something along the lines of 'you've lost a lot of weight' and I'll say something like 'yes, it was starting to affect my health' and leave it at that.

They will just say something along the lines of 'you've lost a lot of weight' and I'll say something like 'yes, it was starting to affect my health' and leave it at that.

Lora, I love that answer! I still have people wanting to talk about my weight. Maybe this will shut them up.

Guess I'm fortunate, in some ways, that I started my new way of eating at my highest-ever weight (260). Maybe it's tacky that I love having the opportunity to say, "I've lost 112 pounds". The novelty will probably wear off at some point, but I like the fact that having people notice gives me an excuse to say it again. :)

For people with pregnancies and other considerations that make their situation more complicated, I agree that it's probably best to have either a polite-shut-down answer or a brief-mostly-true answer, depending on their preferences.

I was wondering this too because I was trying to decide whether I qualified for the NWCR yet. (You have to have kept off 30lb for at least a year.) If I go by when I started dieting that would be 183 (which is what I put in my profile), and so I can't sign up until the end of December. But there were times before I started calorie counting when I'm pretty sure I was closer to 190. But since I was pretty actively avoiding scales at that point, or at least not looking at them closely, I could not swear to it. What do y'all think?