So, as I posted here before, I hit my WW goal weight of 185 on Saturday. The previous Saturday I just missed hitting goal weight because I weighed in at 185.6. Last Saturday, I had a good drop and even with clothes on at the meeting weigh in my weight was 183.2 pounds. Since Saturday, my weight on my home scale has dropped even further and I imagine that my next WW weigh in (which isn't until January 8 because of holidays) that I will be 5 or 6 pounds UNDER 185.

Now, the problem:

I'm told that to achieve lifetime status, I need to be within 2 pounds of my goal weight after 6 weeks. I assumed this would mean that I couldn't be more than 2 pounds over my goal weight. I'm told, this isn't accurate and that I can't be two pounds under it either. My WW leader said that if after 6 weeks I was more than 2 pounds under it, that my lifetime membership status would be on hold until my weight was within the 2 pound range. Basically, she is telling me that I'll have to GAIN weight to get the benefits of lifetime status. This doesn't seem right to me. The WW leader I have said that the goal is to learn how to maintain a goal weight and that if I was still going to lose weight I needed to set the goal weight lower and start the 6 week clock from that weight.

UGH. I worked really hard to be as healthy as I can be and I was really looking forward to lifetime status. I know I'm not going to deliberately gain weight, so my only option really is to change my goal and start again. However, what happens if I pass right by that goal again? My strategy has never been to stay at a particular weight. My strategy is to be as healthy as I can be and that might mean being at a lower weight or it could possibly mean being at a higher weight if I've added more muscle and lowered my body fat percentage.

Its just frustrating.

Well that's annoying! It seems like common sense that the 2 lb range would mean not going over your goal by more than 2 lbs. Why should it matter if you go under since the number you picked as a goal weight is basically an arbitrary number within a healthy recommended weight? Isn't it? I can understand WW not wanting people to get to a point where they are underweight, because that can be just as problematic as the other end of the spectrum, but still.... I doubt that routinely happens. Why are there so few free-thinkers in this world???

This may be where your goals as a person diverge from those of Weight Watchers as an institution, and where you have to decide how much importance you place on some tangible evidence of the institution's approval.

I understand that this goal has offered you tremendous motivation, but I'm wondering if you might not even need it any more.

Maybe they try to encourage people to stay around goal weight because it is their ideal weight? I don't know how they pick your goal weight (o rif you pick your own) but it might just be out of concern so a person doesn't develop an eating disorder or something?

What were to happen if you changed it to 180?

You pick your goal weight as long as it is in the healthy BMI range. Someone 6'2 could pick a goal weight anywhere from 150 to 194.

If I change my goal weight to 180 (which is what I'm going to do at the next meeting), I'll have to be within 180 pounds after weighing in after 6 weeks. As long as after 6 weeks I weight from 178 to 182 I'll have lifetime status. If over those 6 weeks I'm under 178 then I'm SOL again and will have to lower my goal further and start another 6 week clock.

When I reached goal many years ago they didn't have that rule. My goal was 125 and when I reached lifetime 6 weeks later I was at 119. In my case, it was an anomaly...I had jaw surgery (for reasons not related to weight) and my jaws were wired shut for several weeks.

At that time all they cared about was if you were more than 2 pounds over goal weight. And that is still the case for someone who actually received lifetime membership. Once you do that then you are free to lose well below your goal weight as long as it is in your healthy range.

That said, I do understand the theory for why during the 6 week maintenance phase you are to stay within 2 pounds of your goal weight. The purpose of the maintenance phase is for you to learn how to maintain weight, neither gaining or losing. Many people have spent their entire life either on a diet losing weight or not on a diet and gaining weight. Many people have no clue how to simply stay the same, how to not be on a diet trying to lose weight while at the same time not gaining weight.

If you think about it, the skills and mindset needed to maintain are different from those involved in losing weight. Lots of people can lose weight just fine (and can gain weight just fine). Staying the same weight and not maintaining is not something that they know how to do or have experience doing.

One of the reasons that I'm no longer at goal weight was that I essentially flunked maintenance. Due to my jaw situation, maintenance was very easy for me. I continued to lose weight throughout maintenance. When the wires came off, there I was a lifetime member well below my goal weight. And I wasn't very good at learning how to just keep that weight steady.

So, I would encourage anyone to take the maintenance period which is only 6 weeks as a time to work on learning how to maintain. Once that skill has been learned and lifetime membership is attained then one can continue to lose weight.

I think it is almost always a shame if someone reaches goal on WW but doesn't complete maintenance to obtain lifetime membership. Apart from just the personal feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction (which may or may not matter to the member) there are substantial financial benefits to lifetime membership.

A lifetime member who is no more than 2 pounds above goal weight can forever attend meetings free. If you place no value on attending meetings or weighing in periodically this doesn't mean much. But, for most people who have gotten to goal on Weight Watchers it is a significant financial benefit to have this option even if meetings are not regularly attended. Also lifetime members are entitled to receive the membership materials free of charge.

Even lifetime members not at goal get a substantial financial benefit. If a non-lifetime member misses meetings then the member must either pay for missed meetings or if several meetings have been missed pay a registration fee to rejoin. However, as a lifetime member, even when I am above goal weight I never have to pay a missed meeting fee. I can choose to attend any meeting that I want to and only have to pay for that meeting (of course, if at goal I wouldn't pay at all).

Yes, this. I think you need to take some time to figure out where your body is going to stay, and if that means continuing to pay for meetings because you enjoy the support of weight watchers, so be it. Or you can decide to stop going.

Yes, this is true once you reach lifetime status. Once that happens, you can continue to lose weight as long as you are not more than 2 pounds above your goal weight and you can change your goal weight as long as it is in the healthy BMI range. The problem is that getting lifetime status requires you to be within 2 pounds during the initial 6 week phase.

Sorry 19Deltawifey, I responded to your earlier post before reading your more in depth post. Everything you wrote is how I understand the situation.

I talked to my WW via email. I'm probably going to lower my WW goal to what I weigh in next time and then try to stay close to that for at least 6 weeks. With my wicked slow rate of weight loss, I'll probably be within 2 pounds without much trying.

Matt - as much as I believe in honesty and integrity about one's eating plan and exercise plan, I have few qualms about responding to bureaucratic Dilbertisms. A strategically placed 1 kilo gold bar in each rear pocket would not be noticed and would give you 4.4 pounds ballast.




[Not to mention a nice $97,504 reward to yourself for achieving goal.]

Sneaky...I kind of thought about that....we will see

Heck, that's what I'd do if they were giving me BS about it.

But I've already made lifetime and am hoping to get back there, and then breeze right down past it.

At the same time, trying to maintain for 6 weeks is also good for your body. Letting it reset the hormones and such, then after you've maintained, let yourself drop a few more, slowly and with less stress.

That's something to consider.

Congrats

WW corporate policy is you have to be within 2 pounds of your goal weight. If during maintenance you drop under that but are at 2 pounds of the goal at the end of 6 weeks, that is okay. I've been lifetime for over 30 years. Setting a goal weight that is more than 2 pounds from where you want to maintain is giving yourself license to gain and gaining more than 2 pounds can set you on the road to big time gains. Maintenance means keeping the status quo, not changing.