[MamaJessica]

Hi! I want to see your thoughts on Weight Watchers being a lifelong "event." Do you think you can maintain this lifestyle change and counting points for life? I recently started WW and I really liked it - then, quit for a while and gained back what I had lost. I don't know if this is something that you think you can do permanently.............. Advice please!!!

[kidjng]

I don't think you need to physically count points but the program should give someone enough guidance to where they have a better understanding of how much food they can consume and what some of their triggers are for gaining weight (referring to food/beverage intake, not emotional).

With WW and with any weight loss effort one needs to commit to it for at least 4 weeks or more to learn to eat differently and see changes. I think once you learn the fundamentals (or re-learn them in my case) the lifelong change becomes natural.

[loserjulie]

Speaking as someone who's lost over 100 lbs twice now, knowing how to eat and live healthy day to day and actually doing it are two different things. I know how I'm suppose to eat and what the smart, healthy choices in life are. But maintaining this lifestyle the rest of my life will be a challenge. I feel like I deprive myself so much now during the week that after I weigh-in, I tend to go a little crazy for the rest of the day. Keeping the craziness limited to that one day is the challenge. Sometimes I just say to myself, "I've lost 127 lbs, I'm going to eat that peanut butter cup if I want to!" I really hope that this is the time the weight stays off.

[kaplods]

I think the strength of groups like WW and TOPS is the focus on strategies and a support system that it is assumed will be used for a lifetime.

I think the primary reason many weight management strategies seem unsustainable is that we're conditioned to think so. We don't compare our weight management strategies to all the other equally or more complex things we do every day without giving them a second thought.

I find it shocking that "support system - forever" weight management strategy hasn't become far more common in the last 63 years.

I can't imagine giving up 3FC or my TOPS group (and I've even thought of joining or even creating other weight loss/management/fitness groups, to get "more" of what's working).

[chubbybunny29]

I too have I mentally with the thought of forever. I find myself thinking "when I'm done" type thoughts. I think, for me, its that I haven't ever been happy with my weight, so I see that as a goal. But I know that I can't just go back to how I was eating just because I'm at my goal weight.

I have a friend at work who lost about 50lbs with WW. She doesn't count points anymore, but kind of knows what she can eat. She told me she does check points for a food she hasn't eaten before so she knows how to adjust her eating.

[RonnieAdl]

I have been in two different weight loss programs before this one. Both were very expensive.. I also had the when I am done with this attitude. I gained back all the weight I had lost then some.. Which led me to the next weightloss program, same attitude, gained it all back, which led me here. This is actually a more sensible way to lose weight without feeling deprived. This is something I can live with.. It is called NORMAL EATING.. I think I could eat appropriately now just from learning portion control and making better food choices. I still have my chocolate but not as much as I used to and it doesn't bother me a bit..
Ronnie

[124chicksinger]

This time around is the first time in 30 years of dieting that I finally have a grasp on "this is for the rest of my life."

The first time I lost 30 pounds (150 to 120) I didn't get it. That was a diet, it was done, I lost the desired amount of weight, and when I put a few pounds on, I did the diet again. The trouble with that was...the diet was ridiculously low calorie, restrictive, and hard to stick with. It was for weight loss, not maintenance, and I had not learned to maintain.

Sometimes, we lose when we don't want to (illness, divorce, depression over something traumatic) and food is the last thing on our minds. If that happens, its easy to forget we ever had a weight issue. However, when the crisis passes, if we are prone to weight gain, we gain. At some point, I realized I'm a gainer and serial dieter. Illnesses can cause weight gain as well, also medical conditions, and that adds another layer to trying get the weight off and keep it off.

I've been a successful dieter. I've never been a successful maintainer. FINALLY, I know now that what I'm doing in the moment I'll be doing tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. Rinse, repeat.

I have not yet reached my goal of 160 and I don't know when I'll get there. I know there are bound to be slip ups along the way, and also there are going to be times when I'm doing everything right and my body won't cooperate to my liking. I can wrap my head around that now, but in the moment it appears I'm "failing", I lose my cool. That is when I have to re-rally myself and talk some sense to myself. Having this forum helps during such times.

So, yea, WW for life, or healthy eating, or calorie counting or whatever food program is sustainable. If you asked liquid diet for life? I'd say no. Nutrisystem or J.Craig for life? No. Those, to me, are for weight loss, not weight maintenance--then again, having never followed those programs, I can't speak from experience what those who have done them .... do when they have reached goal, but I would imagine they have to relearn healthy ways to eat.

I need to teach myself how to eat, and really learn the lesson, in order to maintain a healthy weight. I'm learning that now. There will be days/weeks when I buckle down and do a sprint of restrictive eating to break a plateau or just "get there" faster and move some pounds downward to stay motivated, but basically I'm making healthy choices, avoiding temptation as best as I can, and not eating out of control or way over allotted portions.

So, healthy eating forever, if we want to get and stay healthy.

As to WW forever, that's why they offer lifetime status..... and a lifetime of weighing in and staying accountable without consequence -- unless you slip up, you pay the consequence of $ for meetings that would otherwise be free to you at LT status.

[loserjulie]

124chicksinger, you just said it all for me.

I feel the same way, I just needed to read it first. And after the day I've had (morning weigh-in following be eating whatever the **** was within reach, followed by guilt and disappointment), I was so ready to read that and take a huge deep breath. I may even sleep better now and start my day by coming back to read that again.

[Koshka]

I am a lifetime member of WW who regained. When I regained it was basically because I stopped doing the things that helped me to lose weight and I stopped going to the meetings.

I am not sure that I will count points for the rest of my life. I actually personally do 3 types of counting each day -- points, calories and net carbs. I'm not sure that I will do all 3 of them forever. Net carbs would probably go first. I find that if I simply follow some specific principles in eating then I stay within my range I want to have for net carbs so counting specific carbs is not that important.

If I was to choose between counting WW points and calorie counting I would probably pick calorie counting. I get more from that, really, than I get from WW points. It is possible that once I feel confident in my maintenance I might not actively count calories every day. I would probably look up calories at a new restaurant before going there or would look at calories on new foods to make sure I was staying in my basic range.

However, I really do plan to weigh in once a month at WW after I get back to goal. And, if I get more than 2 pounds above goal, then I would probably go back to counting everything very strictly. I think that the most important thing in maintenance (what I failed at before) is to measure your weight regularly (could be by fit of clothes and not just the scale) and catch any small gain early.

I am expecting that for the rest of my life I will have a lower metabolism than someone who was never overweight and I expect to be doing an hour or so of exercise every day in order to maintain my weight loss. If I'm not willing to do that then losing all this weight is pointless because I will regain.

[Lovely]

I'm going to pose a question/scenario before answering.

What's the alternative? Being on a yo-yo diet forever? Having "thin years" and "fat years"? Waking up one day when I'm very late in my life and looking over how I sure was able to lose 100 pounds over and over... but never able to keep it off?

Am I going to be a Weight Watcher for the rest of my life? I'd like to think so. I want to be one of those little, old ladies who goes to meetings each week to take in the support of the group and breath out the possibility of losing 150+ pounds and keeping it off for 60+ years.

That doesn't mean that I'm necessarily going to count points every single day for the rest of my time on Earth, or carry around measuring cups and a scale for food. Those things are going to have to find a balance when I eventually get down to my goal weight. BUT it does mean that I'm going to go to meetings when I'm able, enjoy the group support (online at their website and here on 3FC), learn to habitually exercise and grab healthier foods on most occasions. Take up the tips from other members. Learn to recognize hunger. Remember that food is not the center of any event I go to....etc, etc, etc.

Is this something we can do permanently? Yes. But, we're only able to answer if we're willing to do it permanently to ourselves.

Weight Watchers is like any program in that it works if you work the plan... but working the plan is sometimes one of the hardest parts of the plan.

I have to say that I just had a pretty good week after having an iffy week before. I could've gone many ways after having that "iffy week". I could've thought:

"Well that's it. I can't do this forever. I'll just eat whatever I want and start again in a few months when I can be perfect."

However, instead, I thought:

"Okay. I'm never going to be perfect. However, I know what I can handle. Stop this very moment. Get on the scale. Start writing down all your food, again. No matter what it is."

I bring this up to say that when people say to me "I can't do this forever", what they mean is they don't know what "doing this forever" entails. They think it's like any 'diet' where they just follow a water fast for 12 weeks, then go back to "eating normally" or quitting when they get to a rough patch.

Doing this forever means that there are times when we make mistakes. There are times when we say "Ugh, why did I do that?", but that we're never truly "off the diet". Poor choices were made. We accept it. We dust ourselves off and re-start with what we can handle.

Like any healthy person. If they miss a day, they don't quit they just continue. If they get bored, they change things up. If they don't like something, they find a way to make it a little more enjoyable or they reward themselves with positivity for getting it done.

And that's for ANY weight loss plan. Not just Weight Watchers.

Working the plan looks different for everyone, but if our true goal is to do this forever then the only thing necessary to do this permanently is to never quit.

[QuilterInVA]

I've been lifetime for 36 years so I vote for it is sustainable - if you really make lifestyle changes. If you do, you won't go back to your old eating habits. I don't always count