Hi girls,

I went from 138lb to 127lb in January by counting calories. February and two first weeks of March I maintained at 127 – 128 lb without counting or exercising. I was so happy to have this freedom not calculating, measuring and obsessing with planning the menu!

Then I saw 129 lb, then 130 lb…”it’s just the water weight!” I thought to myself. Well, water weight didn’t leave me; it is actually stuck for couple of weeks. Then 131 showed up…well today I am 132 lb…so basically in last 4 weeks my “water weight” went from 127 to 132

I am back on calorie counting today, but what makes me nervous is the following question: “Is that it? That is what my life gonna be? Glued to food scale and calculator?” I mean what is going on ? I lost 26 lb in 2000 after my second child. After I lost weight I never ever get back on any diet for the 10 years and I was 124 lb and didn’t go to gym , didn’t follow low carb or anything and I didn’t gained, so what is going on now with me? I lost weight and yet here I am, back again with extra 5 lb

Anybody else want to join my pity party or you girls are managing great without counting calories and not gaining lost pounds back?

I feel your pain! I'm closing in on maintenance, so I keep peeking into the maintainers' group and I do see people counting calories in there. What might also be helpful is to have a "red line" weight or weight range at which you need to diet a little or be more aggressive about your calorie allowance. For example, I want to get to 113 but will make 115 my "red line." So that if I weigh myself and see 115 for about 3 days in a row, I'll know I have to be more aggressive and get myself back down to 112 or 113 again.

But what you'll also see in the maintainers' group is a little bit more flexibility and just more mindful eating. Portion control, listening to hunger, and having "freebie" meals are all things I observe successful maintainers doing. That's where I failed before, personally. I got to my goal weight and then just ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and quit exercising. Well, duh, is it any wonder I gained it all back and then some? What was I thinking?

Sadly, one final note that you might not like: our metabolism slows as we age. I cannot get away with half the eating habits I had in my teens and twenties now that I'm 35. I just can't. I also can't eat like DH, who is two and a half times my size. I probably could have kept on like that years ago, but not now. Plus, as we get smaller, things like RMR and calories burned per workout get smaller, too. We need less food to function, but we also burn less through just existing and exercising than we did when we were heavier.

I think you'll get to a point where you won't have to actually LOG your calories every day, but you may still need to keep a running total at least in your head and/or plan your meals in advance. But it's not that you'll have to eat in deficit every day in maintenance.

I still count calories and plan my meals ahead of time. I prefer that to having to go back to shopping in the fat ladies shop.

thank goodness you caught it now!

Well I do roughly CC now, just an estimation. Most days I fast until 1pm and eat until 6, so it's pretty easy to quickly tab things up after practicing a few months or CC every crumb. If I were eating all day, I"m sure there would be things I'd forget.

I know I will weigh every day & CC for the rest of my life (if I know what is good for me & if I want to keep the weight off). It's just too easy to write weight gain off as "my clothes shrunk, it's water weight" etc. It's not that time consuming considering the rewards of staying thin. I'm sure you'll find a balance!

Thank you girls for support!

I know I will drop this weight in matter of couple of weeks, just need to find comfortable way of living without calculating calories and be able to maintain my weight.

Now that I am thinking about it , the only way of eating which actually worked for me (that is how I maintained for a while) is to have carbs (including fruits) only until 2 pm., after that only low carb meals. I didn’t count and I was not hungry and weight didn’t go up. Slowly I slipped into apple after dinner, banana for snack before dinner, pasta for dinner….you got the picture. Before I knew it my cravings where back and I was overeating - snacking all evening.

kat999 – you are right, I think 10 years ago, when I was 25 my body didn’t care carbs – no carbs, now it is so overreacting over every single peace of carb loaded food, I really need to adjust to the new me I guess.

MiniFluffy – good idea about the same plates and glassesto have portion control in place, I should try to do that too!

Pinkflower - I actually tried Warrior Diet, when I saw my weight started to increase. I would eat 1 meal a day in the evening and the rest of the day only berries, tea and coffee. I know now why it called Warrior Diet! I was so charged up and moody because I was hungry that I could definitely kick a$$! Any ways, that approach didn’t work for me, but I really liked the idea , it makes sense , glad it’s working for you.

I ate too many carbs this weekend and did no calorie counting. It was my daughter's bday and we had a big slumber party so there was simply no time or energy to count. However, I ran up and down 4 flights of stairs for days and the extra carbs shouldn't have made a difference but I weighed myself this morning and was up 1.5 lbs. Doesn't sound like a lot but I was only 2 lbs away from maintenance. Now I feel the same way. Doomed to forever weigh and count every nut and berry. UGH!!