Right. Now for the hard part.
 

This morning, I hit my 175 goal. OK, so it was 175.6, but that's close enough for me to call it, I think, since that marks exactly 200 pounds lost, and I sort of like the sound of that.

During this last phase of sustained weight loss effort, I've been eating around 1200-1400 calories, and other than a horrendous stall from late May to the end of June, I'd been consistently losing about 5-7 pounds per month while doing that. The stall broke last week, and I've dumped the last four or five pounds since then. Since I knew I wasn't slacking, and that I was doing everything that had worked so far, and I really didn't have enough wiggle room in my calorie budget anyway for further cuts -- I'm six feet tall, insanely active, and I really do need to eat, at a bare minimum, 1200 calories per day just to have the energy to function -- I just stuck to it, and figured that eventually, my weight would start dropping again, which is exactly what happened.

So here I am, and I'd like to lose just a bit more, but if this is where my weight does settle, I will probably be OK with that. What I'm planning on doing for the next couple of weeks is carrying on exactly as I have, and see how it goes, but trending more towards the 1400 calorie end of my range, most days. Does this sound like a reasonable plan to y'all, for somebody who'd be quite happy to lose another 5-10 pounds while settling into maintenance, but really isn't terribly bothered if she stays approximately where she currently is? I have absolutely no clue what my final calorie budget is going to be, but I suspect it's going to be at least a few hundred calories higher than 1200.

Nice to be here. Hi!

Good Show
 

Congratulations, catherinef both for hitting the big 200 lost and for reaching your goal.

And Kudos for sticking to your plan without being discouraged that your body was taking its time moving out the last five pounds.

Seems to me that you're already onto the key to successful maintenance, "carrying on exactly as I have." Several threads recently discussed finding the exact calorie level for maintenance with the repeated assertion that each of us has to find a personal best level by trail and error. Sounds like you have just such experimenting in mind; Good luck.

Wow, your amazing achievement woke me up more than coffee ever could this morning -- 200 pounds!!!:carrot: Wow!!:cp:

I agree with Bill -- you have exactly the right mind set for maintenance. I think your idea to bump up by 200 calories and then see how your body reacts is a wise one. Please join us in our weekly chats and feel free to start a thread about anything that interests you -- and please be sure to keep us posted on how maintenance is going for you.

200 pounds -- wow!! :cb:

Oh my goodness, Catherine!!! TWO HUNDRED POUNDS!!! Fantastic. Fabulous. You are to be commended and congratulated.

Wow! Congratulations and welcome Catherine!!:carrot::carrot:
You are amazing. Looking forward to getting to "know" you.

Thank you, everybody! So far, so good on this end. :)

Yay, catherinef is here! Welcome, welcome. It's great to have you here.

What an incredible thing you've accomplished - 200 big ones gone, finished, history, over and out. CONGRATULATIONS!!! Gosh that sound lame considering the scope of what you've achieved.

Your plan for easing into maintenance/losing perhaps another 5 or 10 sounds like a good one. I know you are going to figure this all out.

Congratulations once again. :)

Congratulations! Wow! What a change!

Your plan does sound great, you will be just fine.

Heh. For all that, I haven't been quite able to bite the bullet, and jump to the top end of the 1200-1400 calorie range. I'll get there eventually, I think I'm still just a tad paranoid at the moment, and since my weight is bouncing around across a pound or two range, I think I'll end up dropping another few fairly soon, as that is my pattern. THEN I'll make the jump to 1400. ;)

But thanks, all!

congrats! you're an inspiration to everyone! keep up the good work of maintaining xx