I'm not even close to goal weight yet. But the week after Christmas I finally made it to a loss of 100 pounds. This week the scale moved 2 more and really got me thinking. What happens the day after I make my goal? In my usual over-analyzing, OCD ways I've managed to now start being paranoid about the day after I make a goal that I am still 28 pounds frm hitting I guess I'm just scared because it has taken me 4 years to lose this much weight and I only now feel like I'm getting used to this process and I'm afraid of regaining and probably more afraid of the unknown. I was just wondering if a few of you could shed some light on what it's like when you get there. Thank you in advance.

Hey Dawn, congrats on your amazing weight loss!! I completely and totally understand your worry. I was a 20 year yo-yo dieter, I could always lose weight, but I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS gained it back (and more weight!!). I dieted my way from a 140 lb high school sophomore to a 200 lb 35 year old.

I knew I could LOSE weight, but I could NEVER maintain weight loss.

In July 2004, I really sat down and looked at my "dieting" history to try to figure out what I did well and what I did poorly. I realized that I wanted to "diet" and then eat "normal." It took me 20 years to realize that when I stopped dieting and ate "normally" I regained all the weight I lost and more!

It's like a big lightbulb went off. My normal way of eating made me heavy! I had to stop expecting short term diets to have a long term result. I had to CHANGE NORMAL FOREVER.

I lost weight through a combination of eating whole foods and calorie counting - that is exactly how I've maintained my 70 lb weight loss for nearly three years. When I was losing weight, I gave up fast food, packaged baked goods, sugary soda, candy, booze and kept my calories around 1400-1600. Now that I am maintaining my weight loss, I eat around 1800-2000 calories a day (2200 if I work out). I allow the occasional glass of red wine and occasional treats.

I still food journal, still plan meals, still grocery shop 2-4 times a week, still make dinner every night, still pack lunches, baggie up veggies on Sunday night, still estimate calories everyday, still try to eat mindfully 90%+ of the time, basically everything I did to lose weight! I still eat mostly the same foods, I have just added 400 or so healthy calories every day - instead of having to choose between a snack of walnuts OR low fat Fage Greek yogurt, now I can have both!!!

You are really really smart to be thinking about maintenance now, just think about what you are doing long term! Handling food challenges, planning for vacations, dealing with pizza lunches at work, it just never ends! In some ways, it's MUCH easier to maintain - you probably have a ton of good habits you've built - just fall into your habits and let them help you! In some ways, it's much harder to maintain, because it's FOREVER and never ever ends.

I don't want you to be discouraged - I may still be "dieting" forever, but mainetance has allowed me additional flexibility to enjoy treats and be sociable and seem like a "Normal" person most of the time.

Hi Dawn and !

For me, the day after I reached goal was just like the day before I reached goal. Nothing changed. I went to the gym and exercised the same amount. I ate the same foods, in the same amount (it took me a while to play around with calories). I wrote it all down in Fitday. Seriously, nothing changed!

Like Glory, I had never maintained a loss in my life so I was clueless about what to do -- and we didn't have a Maintainers forum back in 2002! So I figured I'd just keep on doing what I knew worked for weight loss and hoped it worked for maintenance too. And it did!

One of the biggest lessons I've learned about maintenance is that maintenance looks exactly like losing, with a few more calories. All of the healthy habits, strategies, and skills that we used to lose weight are necessary for keeping it off. I don't think I've abandoned any of them: I still journal in Fitday, weigh and measure portions, plan meals in advance, eat the same foods, and exercise even more intensely.

So you see, maintenance isn't unknown to you after all! It's what you're doing every day, right now to lose weight. So long as you keep on doing what you've done so successfully for the past four years, you'll never regain.

Just another voice echoing the same message: maintenance looks just like what you've been doing! The world doesn't suddenly change, you don't change, and your great new habits which helped you get healthier shouldn't change.

Congratulations

Mel

Thank you all so much. I have read all of your amazing stories and am truly inspired After you support and definition of maintenance I feel much better. Hopefully, I'll be joining you all on this forum as a permanent member by year's end. Thank you again.

Dawn, why not join us now? The Maintainers forum is for anyone thinking about maintenance, which you sure are! You don't need to be at goal to post here and plenty of our regulars aren't. So stick around, OK?

I will thank you so much.

I am only a little over a month into maintenance but am doing as Meg and Glory have suggested... works for them .. should work for me. I am still eating the same way I did to lose, have added a couple of foods such as half and half in my coffee I also have an occaisional treat. I still count calories and log every bite and plan ahead. It is not that difficult and the payoff comes when I step on the scale .

Hi, I think one thing in maintenance, and I'm pretty new to it, is that it's not just maintaining a new weight and eating lifestyle but adjusting to a new view of yourself (not just the thinner one you see in the mirror but the one from inside). The journey to lose weight changed me and in ways I did not anticipate. All good, but it's a different me now and it's prompted me to make other changes in my thinking, behavior, etc. I did not anticipate this, just thought I'd straighten out my glucose levels and fit into some smaller clothes! I realized I had a lot of attitudes that led to me overweight situation to start with, and that they did not fit into the new way.

You are smart to be thinking ahead to your goal now when you have a lot of success behind you, I would add it's great you can give yourself time to evaluate how things might have changed for you along the way. It helps in integrating the maintenance process going forward. Personally, I've come to the conclusion I've gotten a second chance at life, losing weight just was part of it, and I think it's the process that did it, not just that I am thinner.

Maybe kind of too philosophical for so early in the day! OK, I'll be running off to the fitness center for my kickboxing class!

Hi Dawn,

Wow, you have accomplished so much already! Congratulations on losing 100 lbs!!!

Like a lot of the other maintainers, my first day of maintenance looked just like the day before. Actually I didn't decide/realize I was in maintenance until a few weeks in. I didn't have a definite number in mind, and a few weeks after I thought to myself "I think I'm about the size I want to be...in fact I have been for a few weeks...hmm, guess I'm on maintenance now." My eating looks very similar, except I get a few more calories which I try to use on healthy foods, but I do get occasional treats (I like Glory's example: "instead of having to choose between a snack of walnuts OR low fat Fage Greek yogurt, now I can have both"). My way of eating radically changed when I started losing weight, and I have learned to eat much more healthfully. I still work out 5-6 days a week. I still write everything down.

It it hard, but is do-able because I love how healthy my body feels when I nourish it with good foods and exercise. I'm happy with what I see in the mirror, too, but for me it's more about how good I feel inside.

I think it's great that you've started to think ahead to maintenance. It's natural, and smart, to plan ahead. You have worked so hard already, I know you will work just as hard and those 28 lbs. will come off in no time. Welcome to the maintainers forum, and congratulations!

Congrats on your loss so far!!! Add me to the group of people whose first day of maintenance looked just like their last day of losing. All I've really changed on a regular basis is that I now have three snacks during the day instead of two -- basically I added in another piece of fruit every day. I eat slightly larger portions and don't watch myself quite as closely, but ultimately the way I eat now is pretty much the same as when I was losing.

Actually since I had a regain due to getting married and developing a thyroid problem, the way I am eating right now is exactly the same as when I was losing!

Hey thinbyjune,
First and foremost Congrats to you on your loss already! That is AMAZING.

I will echo everybody else, the day of my maintenance was EXACTLY the same as my losing mode. Call it cautious, but the things that got you to lose your weight, will be the same things that keep you MAINTAINING your weight too.

Its is now 10 months maintaining my weightloss and eating healthy + exercise daily is key. Don't get me wrong I go off the plan many a days, but the important things is I ALWAYS go back to eating healthy again.

No worries, you've already been a maintainer from your very first pound lost, so I am sure you will do GREAT!

I spent today thinking about everything you all said and realized that I do need to think about it but I shouldn't worry about it. I stopped on my way home tonight and bought the book Thin for Life so I can have as much information as possible. Thank you all again for the insight.

First, let me say that I am VERY NEW to maintenance--I've been maintaining my weight loss for the past 3 months. I, too, would echo what others have said. Yet, I'd add some other ideas too.

I still write down everything I eat, still measure, still watch what I eat closely, still exercise daily. I also decided that the way for me to do maintain for the rest of my life was to set some goals and I posted those goals beside my bathroom mirror. For example, I listed things like "weigh daily", "If weight goes up 3 days in a row and it's not my TOM, return to weight loss plan" (I have a ceiling of weight that tells me "STOP!".

I also have picked up lots from the more experienced people in this forum. I have some quotes I have beside my mirror and I just picked up a new book that gave me my latest, and I think greatest, quote: "I AM UNSTOPPABLE!". I love that idea. I don't mean that I can't make mistakes, but I know that I can overcome them.

For good or for bad, I've also become a bit selfish. I work full time and have a family with two older boys (17 & 21) and a hubby of 27 years. They know that Mom has slimmed down and that I work out almost daily. I don't allow work or my family to stop my work out. I usually go straight from work to my gym. Most of the time, I work out by myself or go to an exercise class. It would take a great deal to make me not go to my daily exercise as I know it's one of the reasons I look the way I do. If I can't get to the gym, I have equipment at home and I have portable items for travel or know I can walk or use a hotel exercise room. Just as I would take it hard, and feel pretty guilty, if I didn't write down what I ate each day (I usually write it down once I've packed my lunch, snacks, etc, If I don't end up eating something I've packed, I cross it off later).

Again, I'm new to this too, but I think the most valuable thing I came to during my weight loss was that I didn't ever maintain a weight loss before for the rest of my life because I gradually went back to the "old way" of eating--I wanted to be normal. I definitely know that normal for me is weighing, measuring, journaling, and, my newest weapon in the arsenal--keeping in touch with this group of fine supporters