So, I will try not to make us this too long - but no promises. My story - I got up to 187 in 2007 - my highest weight ever, and a lot on a short girl like me. My fiance and I started doing WW at home for free and I started exercising and trying to eat better. I dropped 47 pounds between April 2007 and the end of January 2008. Feel great about it, and I've been trying to lose another 10 pounds since the end of January and I've managed to lose only 5 of the 10 pounds in the past 5 months. I keep going up and down and up and down on the scale, and slowly, ever so slowly getting towards my next goal of 130. I would like to be 130 for my wedding on October 12 but I'm not hog-wild dead set on being this weight - I would just like to be there, but if I don't make it, so be it.

The past few months I've been trying to eat around 1450 - 1600 cals a day (switched to cal counting from WW in March), and I'm exercising about 45-70 mins 4-5 times a week, with cardio and strength training (all in my basement).

I definitely want to lose some more weight and tone up more (it's hard when people at work comment on how tiny I am, because I know that even though I am definitely smaller, I still have a lot of belly fat to get rid of, and need to firm up all around - I am good at wearing clothes that don't cling to that area). But, at the same time, I am feeling that I wouldn't mind just maintaining where I am for the next few months. It's been SOOOO hard to lose the last 10 pounds these past 5 months, and now that I only have 5 more to go before I get to my next goal, I am almost at a mindset that I might be happy to stay here for a few months until after my wedding and honeymoon are over. I would like to continue my 1450-1600 cals a day, plus the exercise, but I'm not sure I would be that upset if I just stayed at my current weight until after my wedding/honeymoon is over. Sometimes I just get so tired thinking every day about "have I lost any more weight" and I would like a break from it for awhile. I don't think I could ever take a break from eating better and exercising because they are such a daily thing now, but I would kinda like to take a break from the every day thinking about my weight.

Has anyone here ever taken a break from the constant weight loss to maintain for a bit, then going back to lose the rest?

Sounds like it's a perfect time to maintain for a bit. Maybe you didn't dread the weighing and dieting as much at the very beginning of the process - if you take a break, you may come back to it with more energy and enthusiasm again, and it won't be such a drag. Life should be fun, and you've accomplished so much already.

I know some have found that when they decided to maintain for a bit, and increase calories a bit, they started losing again.

But especially with all the work and stress of planning a wedding, take a break if you think you'll be happier. You are already a success no matter what.

Yes, that is exactly what I did - except at the time I didn't know it was a break, I thought my body was "done losing."

I started at 200 lbs in July 2004. By March 2005, I weighed 140 lbs. I then plateaued for months. I tried eating less, working out harder, working out longer, the scale would not budge. I really wanted to reach my goal of 135 lbs so it was very frustrating.

In May, I realized that although my weight wasn't going down, it wasn't going UP either. For the first time in my 20 year dieting history, I had lost weight and had kept it off FOR MONTHS. It was amazing, that fact alone reenergized my motivation and commitment to a lifetime of healthy eating/habits.

I figured that my body had just finished losing and had settled into a comfortable weight to maintain. I was wearing size 10s, I looked great, I decided to transition to maintenance - by carefully upping my calories over a period of weeks from around 1500 a day to around 1800 a day. Every other healthy habit remained exactly the same - food planning, cooking meals, packing lunches, food journaling, portion control, weekly weighing and calorie counting (except now I estimate calories for the day).

By July 2005, I lost 2 more lbs to 138. I lost 2 more lbs eating between 1800 and 2000 calories a day with a weekly treat meal (dinner/wine/splitting a dessert at a nice restaurant). By the fall of 2005, I reached 135 and I have been between 127 and 132 since February 2006.

It is my pet theory (I am not a doctor, nutritionist or registered dietician) that my body just got tired and stressed after months and months of 1400-1600 calorie days. It reacted exactly the way I would want it to react if I were really forced to get by with fewer calories than I need to maintain on a long term basis - it held on to fat reserves, cannabalized muscle and lowered my metabolism. Basically, it held on to everything it could to keep me healthy and alive.

It is my own personal theory based on my experience, that slightly raising my calories allowed my body to feel there was enough food coming in and it could safely get rid of excess weight.

I know that was a long post, in short I think it's a GREAT idea to take a break and practice maintenance. Losing weight is a short term effort, you need to see if your plan will support your weight loss for the rest of your life and tweak and refine as needed to be happy and healthy.

Taking a break does not mean a return to old habits!!! It means living with your new habits!

Yes. I was maintaining for about a year and a half because it was getting harder and harder to lose anything. My thoughts were that if I maintained the 35 or so pounds I had lost that after a few months I could try again and my body might respond better. I still think it was a good idea, however I've come to the realization that I didn't intervene in time and now instead of maintaining, I actually gained and now have to re-lose about 15 pounds. If you decide to do this, do keep an eye on what you're doing. Don't fall back into any bad habits. Don't think that everything that you've lost will magically stay lost--it does have a way of creeping back on without you noticing.

I'm glad you asked 'cause I was thinking something similar
For me, it's actually only been a couple of weeks since I saw any loss but I had gotten really used to seeing that scale drop really steadily every single week - not huge but at least 1/2 a pound and some weeks as much as 2 lbs so I have to admit to being a little disappointed to have a hiccup in my progress. I've lurked around 3FC enough that I've gotten a little zen about the whole journey and not feeling whiney or rant-y or even really all that discouraged but was kind of thinking of turning my focus away from the losing part for a little while. You know, take a little mental break and maybe concentrate more on adding a new exercise dvd to my "library" and making sure I don't gain anything back. I'm really comfortable with my food choices these days - it's not really my "new plan" any more, just how I eat - so it would be kind of an acid test for me to hang tight for a month or two then try moving forward again before we get into that ever challenging Holiday Season

Hey, I'm also getting married on October 12th of this year!

Not that I'm in the living maintenance area, as I still have a ways to go, but I think it's perfectly acceptable to take a break from trying to lose weight and focus on maintaining for a while. I did that for the last two years and It does help you get some perspective on things.

I thought I would never lose the last ten pounds and wondered if I should stop at that point, but I stubbornly persisted altho it seemed like the scale was stuck. The day I stepped on the scale and saw I was at goal I was surprised, happy but surprised. I am now a few pounds below goal and happy where I am.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with maintaining for a bit... for all you know, you may still end up losing those last ten pounds by using a more "maintenance" like approach; heck, I did!

I thought I was done losing weight when I lost 40 pounds. My initial goal was 135, despite secretly wanting to weigh 125 like I did pre weight gain. However, getting out of the 140s was hard enough for me, so I thought maybe I should be happy once I hit 135... AND I was TIRED of eating 1200-1300 calories a day; it was ironically making me hungrier and hungrier as I got smaller. I increased my calories to 1500-1800 and watched the last ten pounds come off over the course of 2-3 months. Funny how life works, huh?

You have lost 47 pounds... be proud! That's a huge accomplishment in and of itself. Everyone will tell you that the last ten pounds are undoubtedly more difficult. Also, if you decide to truly maintain and then you switch to losing, you may be more dedicated and focused that you were before since you had a small break.

Definitely. I went into maintenance around January - after losing 65ish lbs over a 9 month period. I only recently (in the last 6 weeks or so) started losing again. I really do think that our bodies have "set points" where we just have to wait and sort of adjust to being lower weights. I have nothing scientific to back that up - just that a lot of us here went through the same thing!

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PhotoChick - It's not maintaining, it's the 170's 160's Bermuda Triangle of Weightloss.

You're not gaining, you're not losing even though you're doing everything right. It is a mystery and it is evil. When I get out of it, I shall celebrate. Good luck to you with your journey out of these treacherous waters.

Hahahahah. It SO is. Totally.

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I did it. I lost about 25 lbs, maintained for several months, and then lost another 12-14.