This is probably the most important question I will ever ask...

Let's say I drop these 81 lbs. next year and I reach my high goal weight of 150 lbs. I know that I have to stop for awhile and maintain this because at 150 lbs., I will have lost 135 lbs. I am looking for safety and no regains. How do I maintain that weight and for how long do you all think I should maintain that weight before I go back and lose the rest? I used to weigh 116-118 lbs. in the past. I might settle with 125 lbs. and just call it quits. I turn 49 y/o next month and a 120-125 lbs. on a 5 ft 5 in tall small boned female frame is safe and not too unreasonable I think.

I don't fully understand your question. Why would you maintain at 150, and then pick up your weight loss at a later date? If you are losing weight at a steady, but not too rapid, pace (1-2 lbs per week)--and if you are making permanent changes to your lifestyle and diet--why not just keep going until you hit your goal?

Maintenance is all about being able to live with the lifestyle changes you've made. You can't just go back to old habits once you've dropped the weight.

As for maintenance specifically as a calorie counter -- eventually you get so good at estimating calories that you don't have to log your food choices as frequently. And never underestimate the importance of creating good habits.

Okay...

There is no reason to stop partway and maintain, and then go back to losing again.

Honestly, I would stop worrying so much about what is going to happen 4 months, or 2 years from now-and take it day by day. Don't focus on what is going to happen 50 or 100 pounds down the line-focus on your food, and your exercise, and improving yourself TODAY.


Also, it is VERY hard to say where your goal weight should be, when you still have such a way to go. You really won't know where in the range of 115-150 pounds you should be, until you start getting in that range. You might find that once you hit 148 pounds that you look good/feel good, and decide to stop there...or 132 might be the number where you feel/look best, and are able to maintain at that level. You won't really know until you get there.

As of now, you don't know what you will look like at 120-125 pounds-just focus on today, and decide more on where your goal weight should be, when you get closer to that range. Goal weights are not set in stone, many people change them up or down a bit, as they get nearer to them, and can see how they actually look and feel.

I would say that there is also no reason why you can't lose weight in chunks, stop and maintain for a while, then start actively trying to lose weight again. I've done that a couple of times and am doing it again right now. Losing a substantial amount of weight takes time (2+ years for me), and I personally have needed to take a break from constantly trying to lose.

I agree with Aphil about your goal. For now, I wouldn't get so focused on what your goal will be. I just picked a number from the sky when I first started losing weight. I'm about to get to that number, but I realize, as I'm closer to it, that I will want to choose a new goal once I hit this goal. ALthough I'm much happier now that in the past, I'm still not where I want to be. I do think that our goal weight has to be adjusted, either up or down, as we get closer to it.

Good luck!

I understand needing a break, as you have on your journey-but my point was more along the lines that there is no need to plan a maintenance break at such and such point...WAY ahead of time. You know?

I agree--as someone who took a break, I'd say wait until you get closer to your goal to think about whether you want to do it or not.

I had always had 155 as my first goal, but I didn't actually decide to stop there awhile until I was almost there. I took a break--meaning that I did maintenance--because I was going to be moving and because after losing for months, I felt depleted.

Jay

Here is my experience from the last time that I lost weight (94lbs) and this is from someone that gained back everything plus.

There is no reason to stop mid way. What you don't see right now is that most likely your weight loss is going to signficantly slow down at some point. Even when you are doing everthing perfect on your plan, it just comes off alot slower. I am at that point right now 60lbs came off like clock work and the last 10lbs have had a mind of their own and I still have 50+ lbs to go. There are somethings I can do to shake up my plan but the average 2-3lbs per week that I could easily lose in the beginning is just not going to happen.

The reason that I gained the weight back had nothing to do with leveling off or not and is not due to the fact that I thought I could do or eat anything. I got caught up in a very stressful work situation at a toxic company with lots of promises and no action from Senior Management. This is my number one trigger for eating and making poor food choices. To quote Oprah - I forgot to put the love for myself first. I should have walked away sooner.

Lori

You know reading some of these post I started to wonder if this might be a really good idea. Say you take a break and work on maintaining for a couple of months, when you were ready to start for "round two" would the weight loss be a easier again? I wonder if there are any studies concerning this topic. I don't plan on taking any breaks, but it did get me wondering about the science of it all. Then again if you were eating like you plan to for the rest of your life (like I am) then a break is a moot point because it happens when it happens.

It probably depends what kind of break you take. Losing weight can be hard on the body and if you have a lot to lose, I'm sure it can become exhausting. If you do it like Jay and keep exercising and keep counting calories then I don't see why it isn't a fine thing to do. If your 'break' involves giving up exercise and reverting to your old eating habits, then that will be a problem. On the other hand, if you're not able to maintain your weight during a short break from losing, that's a sign that you're not approaching maintenance the way maintenance needs to be approached.

But Nurse, you have a long time to go before you have to face these kinds of questions. Just stay focused on the next 5lb and you can worry about your final goal weight when you get into that neighborhood. I don't think it helps to worry about such problems so far in the future.

I will be losing 135 lbs. to 150 lbs. weighed and figured that at that weight it would be safer to maintain for a few months. The reason why is this... weight loss is hard on the body. You can eat well and have good lab numbers but there has to be a point where the body maintains. Just to give it a little break with good for you foods but more calories to get its equilibrium. This was discussed at work (I work in ICU) with the Heade Dietician who felt to get off that much weight and get to high goal, I should consider this so that my body doesn't get drawn and where the organs start rebelling. Also, the body learns that it isn't in "starvation mode". That made sense to me.

I have weighed 120-125 lbs. It was fine. I had lost more and remember I was 18-20 y/o when I weighed less than 120 lbs. and exercised a lot! Also ran track and I don't think I would be doing anything other than going to the gym 3x/week lol.

I'm no dietician, but I've never heard of the body going into starvation mode unless you eat less than 1200 calories. If you are eating enough food (1200-1800 calories for a woman, depending on where you are height/weight wise) your body won't shut down because it's still getting enough food. I'm a voracious reader and I've never read anything that documents organs shutting down, etc, for people who are losing weight while eating enough food.

I am with JellyDisney on this one - I am also a big reader and have never heard of starvation mode if you are eating enough calories. As for the 1200 calorie limit - I believe that is the limit at which most people agree that your diet is not nutrionally sound it is not a setpoint at which starvation mode begins.

Lori

I was very curious what everyone's thoughts were on this because I was a little confused as to why this Dietician was VERY aggressively talking to me about getting down to 150 and saying stop right there. Her stance was very direct. She said that the body will weaken with over a 100 lb. drop, will understand it has been forced into letting go a lot of weight even with the best planned diet but when you maintain for a few months the equilibrium of fluid and fat gets level again and when you decide to lose and finish the journey, you are in a sense starting over and you get that drop in weight initially and then get the whole process started all over again. Also, weighing 150 lbs. is not being in a harmful weight range. Being that I've been losing weight at a pretty good clip, I figured why not ask the questions now and at least get an idea of what I need to do to understand what I'll be wanting to do later on. Also, I wanted to have options.

Lord knows I'm no expert, but I certainly think some of what the dietician says has reflected my own experience. I mentioned above that I have taken a couple of maintenance breaks. One of the breaks was a purely "mental" break. I just needed to not focus on weight loss for a small period of time. The other two breaks (one which I'm in right now) were because my body seemed to be telling me that it needed time to catch up with all of the changes. I had come to a point where I was plateauing for long periods of time and feeling tired of the weight loss process. I felt like it was a good time to practice maintenance. My experience has been though, that when I started back trying to lose weight, I was still losing very slowly. I didn't get that nice first couple of weeks big weight loss that your dietician mentioned.

One thing that I do disagree with your dietician is planning to take a maintenance break at a certain time. Like Aphil and Jayell, I say take it when and if you need to. If you don't feel like you need a maintenance break, don't take it. If you feel like you need one at 170 or 140 lbs instead of 150, do it when you feel like you need to. When you have substantial weight to lose (like I did), it's daunting to think that you can't stop until you have lost it all.

Tammy is right-when YOU feel like you need a maintenance break during your journey-that is the correct time to take one, not when the dietician says, at a set particular weight.

The dietician cannot, just as even our own selves cannot, tell how we are going to feel physically and emotionally, 100 pounds from now. Some people never need a break...others need more than one during their journey.