My weight control tends to be completely dictated by what my head instructs my hands to lift to my mouth, So far (fingers crossed), I go up and down on the scale according to my adherence to eating "right". When I'm calorie-counting, which is a very serious attempt to lose weight, I usually target the maintenance level of whatever it takes to hold the weight I want to get to for my height - historically in the 1700's.

Love the "trail mix" discussion. DH always excuses what he calls "trail mix" during hunting season as needing energy (to sit in a tree????). Uh huh.

Michele, I look at your stats and think I probably would want to kill you for your body, so it's all relative. Rant on - I get it!

saef, sleep is good! You've had a pretty intense roll for a long while and I know it's draining. I hope your new hire is a quick study!

TGIF. Only about 3 weeks more and things can get back to normal.

By the way ... we're at 466 posts. Need to start thinking winter themes for our 5-10 thread renewal!

Wishing the weight would leave this winter.

Hopefully a very long one. They were all complaining at lunch that the giant bags of M&M's were gone.

I got a reminder for an evite reservation that I signed up for. It is for a ladies party tomorrow night with different food and vendors. My immediate thought was-- I can't go-- I'll be too tempted to eat and I need to wrap presents, buy presents, etc! But then I thought-- I really need to socialize so I can go.... and I probably should.

Hey guys...

Andrea- Thanks for posting that calculator......

I spent a few minutes playing with it. According to the website my light activity dictates my TEE is about 2100. BMR is about 1375. Ive been averaging 1500 a day calorie cycling without any weight loss..and this month a slight gain....so I'm either over estimating my calorie counting by 500 daily or my body has that much less muscle to help burn the calories. 2100 seems so high.....

Since Thanksgiving I've been struggling to correct a slight weight increase. My low 1300 days have been causing hunger, head aches and fatigue. . ....its been hard this month....need to switch it up a bit.

dstalksalot, the whole issue of calculators, RMR and TDEE got started because I was gaining weight on what I thought was about 1300-1400 cal/day back in the summer and early fall: I then cut back to 1200 cal for about 3 weeks and didn't lose a single pound. As you can imagine, I was severely upset. The last few months have been a quest to figure out what I was suddenly doing "wrong" after being a successful maintainer for nearly 3 years. Those calculators are one of the things that has puzzled me, since I hadn't been eating at anything remotely close to my TDEE, yet wasn't losing weight. I still haven't solved that mystery completely but I think there are 2 factors that go a long way toward explaining the discrepancy. First, I think that like many folks, I was underestimating my calorie intake by a few hundred calories on many days, either by willfully failing to document indulgences or, more often, by doing "dissociative eating" - taking 3 handfuls of almonds but only consciously registering (and accounting for) the first one. The second factor is that it turns out that there is a HUGE amount of "flex" in your non-exercise daily activity, and that to a great extent, if you exercise more or eat less, you will unconsciously economize on movement the entire rest of the day to prevent weight loss (your body is in it to win it). The difference can be hundreds of calories a day, causing a TDEE that "should" be 2000 to be 1700. The 3rd explanation, and one which I am highly skeptical of, is that you can "wreck" your metabolism by eating at too great a deficit from TDEE for too long, and drive down your RMR by hundreds of calories a day. Most scientific/medical studies I've read on the topic say that this is BS, that you can't lower your RMR by more than 10-15% (and it takes actual starvation/severe anorexia, not just a moderate binge-eating disorder like I had), but there are a lot of smart people on the internet claiming that they've "fixed" a slow metabolism by eating more (a lot more) calories every day and putting up with a temporary weight gain. If you are interested, you can learn about it here (http://gokaleo.com/stop-dieting/) and here (http://eatmore2weighless.com/faqs/).

Michele, I laughed at your statement "I would kill for her body. Possibly literally." I had a vision of you as a body snatcher for a moment :>) I too hate the pretense of insincere self-deprecating comments - that teacher sounds just like girls I used to know in H.S. and college, though thankfully not so much these days.

As for the next iteration of this thread, I'm wondering if we should name it something more in keeping with its actual raison d'etre, like "maintainers' weight battles" or "maintainers talking about diet and exercise plans." This perpetual "5-10 pound weight loss" thing doesn't seem to be happening for most of us, and like Allison, the title of the thread itself is making me feel bad.

Thanks for the longer explanation Andrea. I am just starting to maintain my weight loss after two years of losing so these struggles are new but still a bit familiar. I have never been a yoyo dieter or binge eater.... just overweight. I'm assuming my metabolism is normal and my problems are human error related.

So it seems that the greatest variable is the level of activity we do versus the level that is defined for the calculators. I think non-exercise activity plays a large part in the variation - twitching, shaking, insomnia, different activity levels from one day to the next and so on make it hard for us to come up with a "right" number.

Good on you, Saef, for that positive attitude. At my end, I'm always trying to lose an extra 5 lbs, lol, so it'll never be this winter but will be a perpetual thing. Decades of trying to conform means I'm never happy with my body. Thought I'd cured myself of such negativity but no, it's still there in me. Sigh..

(Sorry, I know I'm jumping in this thread without so much as a by-your-leave! Hope no one minds.)

magical!

No need for a by-your-leave. It's good to have you here and hear what you have to say.

That goes for all you lurkers, too. Please call in and have a few words.

LOL @ "couch potato mix", truly. Yeah, when I was trekking in Patagonia I could eat and drink whatever I wanted. Trekking from my kitchen to my office? Not so much...

Quick maintenance update since there's talk of closing the thread. My goal was to maintain my 55 pound loss, which meant I had to lose a few to get back there. I've been diligently mindful of what I eat most of the time, although there's definitely room for improvement. I'm 4 pounds above my 55 pound loss, which seems like maintenance to me, especially since I'm on a current downward rather than upward trend.

I haven't participated too much in this thread because I'm so in awe of what you all have accomplished and feel like I don't have too much value to add. Hopefully as I get my sea legs under me, I'll contribute more.

Here are a few possibilities, Andrea's and some doodled by me in a spare moment. Please add and delete as the feeling takes you.

Maintainers' weight battles

Maintainers talking about diet and exercise plans

Maintainers battle bulges

Maintainers winning in winter battles of the bulges

!! Maintainers seek maintenance (winter) !!

Even though large tracts of my body and many old and famous Maintainers have fallen or may fall into the grip of weight gain and all the odious apparatus of the Standard American Diet, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in the gyms, we shall fight in grocery stores and in restaurants, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in our kitchens, we shall defend our health, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!

This is our finest hour. If we can stand up to it, we may be all freed and may move forward in our strong, sunlit bodies.

Sir Winster, as my sister's friend called him in friendly fashion when they were about three and he was about to have a state funeral. Such a great whisky-drinking, cigar-smoking man. His speeches and perorations will live forever in one form or another but we needn't emulate all his habits.

Whilst revisiting the Second World War, may I remind you that The Battle of the Bulge stretched from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945?

Maintainers Revisit the Battle of the Bulge

Night all.

"Maintainers Winning the Winter Bulge Battle"

Dagmar

HIT GOAL today. Got the last 3 lbs off in the past 4 weeks. Whooo hooo!!!! Will post pictures under a different thread.

I thought it would be harder. But with hubby working a lot of holidays (he's a pilot - busy time for him), I've actually been out less, so fewer temptations. The key thing was to keep the diet the same, keep up the exercise, and have plenty of fruit in the house when I was dying for a goody.

Best wishes to others during the holidays!

Oh I do like some form of "Battle of the Bulge" - especially since the Allies eventually won the battle after much effort.

Also like that the 'bulge' was eliminated in less than six weeks. Sorta appeals to my attention span, LOL.