I am a way away from maintenance just yet, but something that is really striking me about the maintenance stories I read and from TV is that they pretty much all gave up their previous jobs to retrain as a gym instructor of some kind. Now obviously if you go back to 100% of your previous life and habits then you regain the weight, but I have no desire (or physical shape!) to retrain as an aerobics instructor, and I'm a bit concerned that for those people who don't go on to change jobs so they are bouncing around all day long the weight loss is to be short lived.

Are there lots of successful maintainers out there who did not decide to retrain as a sports coach? I'm sure there must be, and if there are then how come they are not more prevalent in success stories? Read any 4 slimming magazine (generic as in about slimming, not Slimming Magazine specifically) success stories at random and you're going to find at least 3 who retrained in sports instruction and the other will have become a slimming club leader.

Are people returning to the rest of their old lives besides the nutrition and activity parts and going on to successful maintenance?

Wonderful question:
However:
Yes, life can go on even if you lose some weight. Charge forward, it's safe.

Certainly I have no desire to enter a career inside the Diet and Health Industry.
I simply continue to live my life, as do most others.

I hadn't noticed a large number of maitainers becoming fitness trainers. It is not necessary , you can keep the same job, spouse, kids etc and maintain your weight.

Same career, same desk job, different lifestyle habits otherwise.

As long as you're not a competitive eater, I'm pretty sure it could work. I even have read the story of a maintaining pastry chef.

Nope, I'm a dbl entreprenuer & not in the fitness field. Although both of my jobs keep me physically fit! I have been told I could be a fitness model, but nah- I will stick with my true passions instead of partaking in anything like that. Yikers!

I have noticed many maintainers run marathons, but running is not my cup of java either. Although I think it is pretty kewl when somebody has a passion for fitness & wants to instill their passion in others by becoming a personal trainer, etc.

IMHO, anybody can be a maintainer if you really want to be, regardless of your career path.

I'm a marine researcher and didn't change my career because of weight loss/lifestyle change. I think my healthy lifestyle helps me perform my job better, which is a nice plus. I do a lot of field work for my job, which includes loading/unloading heavy equipment, climbing around boats and running around the beach, being outside for 8+ hours in the Florida summer sun, occasional scuba diving... perhaps I would have gone into an area of science that was less physical if I still weighed 210 pounds, but really I think of my weight loss as helping achieve my goals in my non-fitness related career. I have many interests that aren't fitness related, but I added some new ones to the list in the years since my lifestyle change - fitness related and not.

You definitely don't have to work in the diet or fitness industry to be successful as a maintainer.

I do think it's great though that some maintainers have taken positions where they can share their knowledge and help others achieve their goals.

I don't think I have the hair to be an aerobics instructor or trainer, judging by the ones around my gym. What will I do?

Try reading different magazines: Car and Driver, National Geographic, AARP, Science Weekly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Stars and Stripes. There are successful maintainers in them too. I just don't know why Shape magazine keeps picking those maintaining fitness trainers to feature instead of sexy maintaining petroleum engineers... Rowwr.

I'm still on the staff of an IT consulting firm, but yes, my gym has become my home-away-from-home.

I see a lot of people with passions & hobbies who still keep working at jobs that have nothing to do with these other past-times.

So I think that can be done.

In my experience, I've observed that some people take longer to find their passion, or go through several that they aren't deeply passionate about, still looking, still wanting, still seeking a cause or something to commit themselves to, something that brings out their talents. Such people may be more open to a change in career to fitness & health, once they are finally in the grip of a passion.

And my other idea is more practical. A writer on a deadline for a magazine editor is looking for a fitness success story, and needs one soon -- where does she look? Why, a gym, of course. Other examples in other industries are too deeply undercover for a Brooklyn-based writer on a deadline. That person will not start calling around Woods Hole or Wall Street or Silicon Valley or local grade schools to find a person in another profession who's managed to keep off the weight.

I would love to become a PT! Actually I'd love to become a spin instructor. And there's no reason I can't. But that is only because those have become my passion.

However, my real job is going to remain my full time job. The above may remain only a personal "hobby".

I think it's just a matter of moving more no matter what you're doing.

I have roughly the same job I had before. When I started losing I was a grad student in computer science, and now I'm a software developer. I sit at a desk all day long.

I did consider changing to a health-related career, but just because I was so motivated and enjoy doing fitness-related things. Ended up not doing it, and I'm pretty satisfied with my job right now although I would rather not be at a desk quite so many hours a day.

I am maintaining 7+ months. Maybe this isn't long enough to reply to your question.

I will not enter the gym world. I am a home schooling mother and love the physical things I do. My life is incredibly satisfying and full. My healthy weight allows me to enjoy it immensely.

I don't think that most people who lose weight, choose career makeovers in health-related fields. Rather theirs "makes a better storry" to the magazine publishers - and those career choices also increases the likelihood of the person having a reason to share their story. I think people "going about their normal, everyday lives," don't contact magazines wanting to be interviewed. Rather the people who want the attention, are more likely to have a reason for wanting the attention, and one reason is promoting themselves as weight loss or health educators, or weight loss book authors.

Also, if someone does decide to be a weight loss educator of some type - they're going to be constantly reminding clients and potential clients of their success. It lends credibility to their image. Your average kindergarten teacher has no reason to constantly advertise the fact that she lost 158 lbs.

I've been a member of Weight Watchers and TOPS (taking off pounds sensibly), many times in my life and the maintainers, the lifetime members in WW and KOPS (Keeping Off Pounds Sensibly) in those groups weren't fitness instructors (I don't remember even one in a health-related career, or a career different than they started in). They were moms and grandmas, housewives, business women.... just "normal" women and men.

If you look on the tops.org webpage, you'll read a lot of success stories that don't end in "I became a fitness instructor."

I have a disability so there's no chance I'm ever going to be an aerobics instructor nor do I do aerobics anymore. Which isn't to say I don't exercise, of course. I've maintained a 100 lb. weight loss for almost four years.