I am always impressed by the weight loss success stories that I read about on 3FC and elsewhere. However, I am even more impressed by successful maintainers. I think it's because I have yo-yo dieted all my life, so I know how hard it can be to try to keep one's weight low and steady. So, I'm already planning ahead this time. I fully intend to make goal, but I also want to mentally prepare for what it's going to take to maintain successfully. The following article mentions some everyday, common sense aspects, including the "dull" part which I hadn't considered before: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-...b_3893827.html

Great post! I know exactly what you mean. I have so much admiration for maintainers - even maintainers that were never even overweight! I work with a handful of ladies my age (late 40s) and older, who obviously have lived well and taken care of themselves. They are normal weight and have minimal health issues. They have a bounce in their step and radiate clean living, if you know what I mean. As of late I have really been making a point to compliment them on their obvious decades of self control when it comes to food and also their above average active lifestyle, so your post is really timely for me. None of them are fitness and health fanactics; they are just testaments to moderation, and keeping one's body moving and grooving. Even though that sounds simple, I had no idea what "it took" until I started dieting over 6 months ago. They are great examples to the young ladies we also work with

That article is spot on! Maintenance is HARD and in many ways more difficult than losing weight loss. Weight loss is a few months/years. Maintenance is forever, which can be many, many years (for me hopefully at least 50!).

-striving towards a weight loss goal gives you motivation. Once that's met, you lose the goal-what's the motivation now? No more smaller clothes, no more compliments. Just a whole lot of the same. It's easy to get lazy and lose diligence. That's when bad habits, over indulgences and bigger portions start sneaking back in.

-most of us go into maintenance with some sort of 'plan'. But that's not real life. Plans never, ever go as expected In the next 5o years of my maintenance I will most likely have to deal with sickness, injury, family members becoming sick/injured (I've lived out of hospital cafeterias before with sick kids-good luck staying on plan with that one!), life changes that disrupt routine, body changes (menopause etc), stress, grieving, weddings, funerals, family get togethers, celebrations, vacations and 50 more thanksgiving dinners And when all that's not happening it's the mundane day in and day out that's constantly challenging us (what to get at Starbucks, do I super size my fries, one more cookie won't hurt anything etc etc).

So many fail at long term weight loss success and I think a big part of the reason is people don't have a realistic idea of what maintaining actually is. Going into it with eyes 'wide' open and knowing how difficult it's actually going to be, is probably the best thing you can do to be part of the 5% that actually do succeed at maintenance

I have to say that I found maintenance to be fairly easy until I got injured. When you can't walk very far without extreme pain, it just kills everything. Planning for maintenance is a good goal.

Thanks for posting that article. I've been maintaining for six months now and that mundane concept is good food for thought. It reminds me that we have to be kind and reinforcing to ourselves so that we are not dependent on others to keep the motivation up.

I find maintenance to be kind of hard, actually. Unless I keep setting new goals, my motivation wanes. When I wanted to get INTO shape, my goal was clear-cut. Maintenance is sometimes....fuzzy.

I do think maintenance is going to be harder than weight loss and I really do want to be successful at it. I want to be one of the few in the good statistics! The article helped me to realize that maintenance is a series of small gains and losses, that most people don't just stay at one weight, so I need to have a maintenance range. I figure for me that will be 145-155. I remember I felt very comfortable in my own skin at those weights and they are well within a healthy weight range for me. When I was younger, I might have wanted to pick the low end of 135-145, but I personally think older women look a little younger when they are a little plumper, not fat, just not super thin. At 52, I'm not looking forward to the wrinkles that weight loss will bring, so 145-155 will work just fine for me. So anytime I hit 155, I need to make whatever adjustments it takes to get back down to 145. I also need to continue to weigh myself everyday. Daily fluctuations don't freak me out so that's not a big deal. Plus I need to keep coming to 3FC. This site is such an inspiration and it really does help me to stay accountable, more than I realized. I also need to mentally prepare for the fact that once my friends and family get used to me not being overweight, they won't notice anymore. It won't be a big deal. That motivating factor will no longer be there, so I have to find a way to keep myself motivated. Oh, I don't mean I have to be "on" all the time, but I have to keep caring, and I have to not let the lure of food become more tempting to me on a daily basis than good health. I've done that for too many years. If anyone can think of anything else that I, and all of us losing weight, need to prepare for in order to maintain successfully, please share! And thank you 3FC Maintainers for sticking around and continuing to post, because you are an inspiration to the rest of us. Yes, we really do notice!

Hi Jacqui,
Maintenance has been, and is, easier than weight loss for me. I've kept my weight at 60kg or under for about twenty years and most of the time it means mostly sticking to a diet. So I like and know recipes for low cal breakfasts and dinners, lunches I mostly eat modestly and I have some chocolate with tea each day (half a bar typically) until I hit 60kg, then I get really focused on counting every calorie again, then after dieting for a while I go back to my maintenance which in fact is slightly too much, mostly because I go out with friends now and then so can't be rigid. But most of my life I'm not dieting, but when I want a new recipe I google a low cal version of whatever it is. So from one point of view I'm always dieting.

The older I get the harder it seems to be to lose weight though.

So maintenance is ok. Because you have a little leeway it doesn't feel like a diet so much. At least I find it that way.

Intotouch, congrats on your success! You are one of the very few long-term success stories! What you are doing is what I have come to realize. I will always have to diet. Luckily, I have found a diet I like. I just have to stick with it. My weight loss goal has changed because of that realization. I want to get down to 170 lbs and then I just intend to keep dieting, so wherever I land is where I land, but I must stay on my diet, which is not a drastic diet, so there's no reason for me not to stick with it!

Great article. Maintenance after I finish my weight loss is what I have been trying to work into my lifestyle as I lose weight.

I keep a chart as a tool to guide me as I 'reteach' myself to eat to be the new me. Its simple really. Along with my food log I track my calorie and fat intake and the chart tells me how many calories to maintain certain goal weights, to lose 1/2, 1, or 2 lbs, or gain weight.

So by the end of the week I can access if I am staying in my goal weight. It is working to retrain me to eat within a certain range within each goal weight as I slowly lose it.

I know that by the time I reach my end goal I will have to be able to be used to eating within that range.

Emotionally staying in that place is another learning process. Always on the lookout for ideas to practice, keep me motivated, and incorporate what works.