Hey all you happy, healthy maintainers!!

I'm hoping you all can give me some advice and/or encouragement.

I'm 42 years old. Female. 5' 2" tall. I've always been active but added vigorous, regular exercise in depth about 7 months ago. A combination of cardio and weight training.

Over about 14 months I went from 212 lb. to 167 lb. and then I got stuck. I've been stuck since early June, bobbing around the same couple of pounds.

I stayed on my program for about 5 weeks on my plateau, increased my workouts to at least 90 minutes a day, 5 or 6 days a week and becoming totally obsessed with the number of calories I was burning daily and with the number on the scale.

I then decided to cut back on my workouts and am trying to find BALANCE. One workout per day. Taking days off for recovery. I know 90 minutes of working out is something I'll never be able to maintain.

I spent most of my life hovering right around 170 lbs. My body's comfortable at this weight, but I'm still clinically obese.

This is my 2nd time losing weight. Last time I lost 70 pounds. (From 220 - 150) My lowest weight was 149. I weighed that for ONE DAY. Over 3 or 4 years I gained nearly all of it back because I got married and didn't keep exercising.

Have you been here? Scared that if you do go lower you won't be able to maintain it?

I'm not overly scared of gaining the weight back (not that I take it for granted either!).

But I do view my goal weight as rather flexible. I just won't know until I get there. It will be a combination of liking my figure, feeling that my body is just at where it should be for health (not fashion) [and I know that's a very vague criteria], and being a weight sustainable without constantly working at it (sutainable with "reasonable" diet and exercise).

That might be a different place than it was for me 10 years ago (which is what my listed goal weight is based on). Dunno yet .

Now, if I pushed it lower than that, trying to meet some societal ideal, yeah, I would be scared about not being able to maintain that. Worse, I'd be unhappy even when I was maintaining it.

Julie - Thank you for your response. Your pictures are GREAT!

Have you hit a plateau on your journey and thought to yourself, "Maybe this is IT?"

Yes, I did go lower than i could maintain and gained it back. I do have a tendance to do that. This time i am at a comfortable weight and it's much esier to maintain than what I've tried to force before.

And yes, I did at one point reach a plateau and think that was it. I still wasn't happy with my weight, even throught about taking ALLI, and finally just decided that I would stop looking at the scales so much and just continue what i was doing, eating healthy, exercising moderateally, and watching calories. and it worked. I woke up one day and decided to weight myself. And i was at my current weight.

90 min a day is a lot to exercise, and I know I could never maintain that. I don't know how many calories you eat, but you should be losing. Sorry I can't help you there.

I *have* slowed down a lot just recently! But no, I didn't think that this would be it. It might be that I have to change something, or it might be that I will just be slow from this point, or it might be a fluke that disappears next month. But it doesn't matter, I *will* get there, whatever it takes. It's not a negative thing - it's not as much about *not* being fat as it is about not settling for less than the best health I can give myself.

Now, I do believe that I can reach 130 (or 140 if that turns out to be the right place). I just do, because I've been there before. It would be much harder to have faith in getting there if I didn't really believe that. But I do realize that there might be more challenges in getting there than I am anticipating right now. Only time will tell, but I *will* face them one way or another.

Exercise (particularly weight training) tends to develop muscle, which weighs more than fat. You might be heavier in lbs but smaller in size for awhile.

You might also want to increase your cals by about 150-200 per day for a week or so and then cut back again. This might jump start your metabolism again if it has adjusted to maintaining at what you're eating now.

Dagmar

Oh!Yes , scared to death it will come back, but I am following advice from long time maintainers.These gals have lost a lot of weight and kept it off a long time.Obviously they know more than me because I have been through that lose and gain it back routine and I don't want to do it again.I have been at goal for 8 months and so far so good.

Mindy, over the years I've found goal weights to be worse than useless. As you've already discovered, if you can't maintain the lifestyle, you won't maintain the weight loss. I maintain a weight (ignoring for the moment the postpartum pounds I have on now) that is in the overweight range, because that is a lifestyle I can live with. For approaching 6 years now, I've been healthy and happy, and being overweight is sure better than morbid obesity.

Weight loss isn't all or nothing. Compromise is OK. Balance is an excellent thing to shoot for. The almost 45 pounds you've lost is very very good from a health perspective. If you decide you want to go and stay lower, you need to find a lifestyle you can maintain. Only YOU can make that decision. If you won't be happy where you are, you may have to find a way to make 90 minute workouts a daily thing. Or if 90 minute workouts aren't going to happen, you may have to find a way to be happy where you are. Or maybe you can find a compromise position at 60 minutes with one day off, or higher intensity shorter workouts or something.

Oh yeah, and plateaus have a way of busting when you least expect it, so hang in there if you do decide to push through.

Anne

Wise words from the chickies, especially from Anne.

I lost down from 204 to 176 two times and hit a massive plateau, got frustrated, gave up and regained. (I do not advise that strategy!) So this time when I got down to 176 I started to panic a little. I started lifting weights and then I realized I didn't know anything about lifting weights so I hired a personal trainer. Lifting weights, and changing my eating to support muscle development, blasted me past 176 and I haven't looked back (20+ pounds later!)

So, you could hang for a little while where you are. I think our bodies have set points. Let your body adjust to thise weight and then reattack the weight loss.

You could change up your exercise routine. Weight lifting, HIIT--both of those kept my weight loss going the way steady state cardio could not.

Go super clean. Focus on lean proteins, fruits, veggies, complex carbs. I was a calorie counter who worked in chips and chef boyardee and stuff. I'm not saying that I NEVER eat that stuff anymore, but I steer clear of most bagged and packaged stuff and try to eat food that is close to its natural state. Just cause I can fit a little debbie into my calorie allotment does not mean it will help me get the body I want.

Try measuring your body fat percentage.

Just some ideas. Good luck!

Hi, Op! I am your same height and while I don't know how you're shaped I'm thinking (at least this worked for me) is to move my goal to something I have actually been able to maintain without excessive influence. I wanted 130, but it was a full time job trying to stay there and once I "let go" I have settled at 140 which is 1000x easier to maintain than 130. I wouldn't worry too much about clinical obesity. That scared me into striving for weights that were TOO low and completely left me feeling frustrated. It's might be better to strive for something a little higher which you can can maintain rather than yo-yoing.