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I think one thing to consider is that "giving up" pretty much for most of us, does not mean maintenance, but only weight gain (not only of all we lost, but some extra for good measure). Even if you decide this is your maintenance weight, you will still have to work very hard just to stay where you are. For many of us, there will never be a "just eat normally," monitoring our eating and our weight will be just as difficult during maintenance, if not more so because there will not the reward of seeing the scale move downward.
That is such an excellent point! It's true that "giving up" for me will never mean staying at the weight I am. Giving up means going back to bad habits and gaining weight.I think one thing to consider is that "giving up" pretty much for most of us, does not mean maintenance, but only weight gain (not only of all we lost, but some extra for good measure). Even if you decide this is your maintenance weight, you will still have to work very hard just to stay where you are. For many of us, there will never be a "just eat normally," monitoring our eating and our weight will be just as difficult during maintenance, if not more so because there will not the reward of seeing the scale move downward.
I'm at 172 and have been in this range (175 - 169) for a couple of months now. I know it's because I'm slacking off a bit and I need to get my act together ... but I also have proven to myself that I can maintain a weight in a 5-ish lb range for a period of time. And it's no easier than the dieting to lose/
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