Goals and maintenance - things I learned on the way (60 lb) down and worries for the future.

I'm 60 lb down at the moment. I've hit a plateau and it looks like I'm going to be here for a (little) while.

My weight loss journey started 2 yrs and about 60 lbs ago. I'm 5'5" 54F. I was an active 210-220 lb (still running the occasional 5k etc.), but clearly my CI exceeded my CO. I was obese.

After yo-yoing several times over the last 20 years, I quickly lost 20 lb due to stress about 2 years ago. (so stressed I stopped eating). This put me under the magic 200 lb. At that point I made the decision that the source of the stress (a person) was not going to beat me (figuratively) and that I was going to 'weaponize' my survival instinct to become the best version of myself.

I did not count calories. I had bulimia as a teenager and was not going down that route. Instead, I attempted to relearn my body's signals for appetite, hunger and fullness. ( I doubt that this was a conscious thing, but I distinctly remember recognizing "oh, this is hunger" and "oh, I think I may be full" again all a sudden.) I believe that the initial "fasting" period helped shrink my stomach so feeling full happened faster than it otherwise would have.

It helped that I hate shopping. It also helped that my kids moved out, because that meant that food in the house was limited. My favorites (cheddar cheese filled jalapeno poppers and potato chips come to mind) were not allowed in the house. I ate when I was hungry, but I didn't eat anything just because it was there. Sometimes I would fix a meal, take few bites and walk away. Full yet? If I was still hungry, I would eat more a minute later. I carried granola bars every place I went. I was a medicated diabetic and was always prepared for a bout of hypoglycemia.

To my surprise I found that I needed to eat a whole lot less than I thought. My portions became way smaller.
(Between the kids moving out and me eating less I saved SO much money!!!). This is how the next 20 lb came off. I was at about 180 lb at this point and quite pleased with myself. I was also 2 sizes down and need to buy new clothes! Yeah!

I think it was at about this point that I started running. I hooked back up with a running club I used to be a member of and ran, once a week at first, then twice. I started adding movement wherever I could:

1) I listen to music a lot these days. I am constantly moving my body, tapping a foot, a hand or a finger.

2) Stuff at my house used to live at convenient places: Pens everywhere, scissors, brushes - I had them at every place I may need one so I didn't need to move. Now I was changing that. All things got a spot (in the basement!). Now I have to walk to the basement for every item I need.

3) I stopped combining walking trips - "I'll take this later when a second one comes in" became "I'll take this now and I'll take the other one later"

Soon the 180 lb pound plateau made room for the 170 lb plateau.

I added more purposeful exercise at this point: I'm swimming 1-2 times a week, running 2-4 times. In addition, I started biking to work. I evaluate every trip for potential to move more. I walk to the store. I park further away from the entrance. I started dancing.... and I am starting to realize that I have made a lifestyle change. I am still not counting calories, but I eat when I am hungry and I stop just before I am full. I will have small portions of ice cream occasionally, and very occasionally (monthly?) I drink alcohol. Nothing is forbidden - even though I still don't trust myself with cheddar filled jalapeno poppers.

Bye-bye 170 lb - hello 160 lb!

At this point I am 4 clothing sizes down. My diabetes is in remission (A1C is 5.9 without meds!) I am moving and exercising about as much as my schedule allows. I am eating reasonably well - lots of fruits and veggies, relatively reasonable portions. Am I at goal? What is the goal?

Should the goal weight be a weight that I can maintain (i.e. that fits my lifestyle) rather than a prescribed number?

This is what my issue is now:

The numbers say that I am not at goal; I am still considered overweight at 160 lb. But losing more would require yet another change. I can exercise more or eat less. Question is, can I maintain whatever I lose? Is that feasible for my life - and me? Exercising more is a time issue, so eating less is probably the solution for this plateau.

Problem is that I am happy but not really happy at 160 lb. (I mean, I'm happy, but I'm not.) I want to run faster than I am running. Losing weight will help with that. I'm worried that I am starting to reach the slippery slope of the eating disorder again. It worries me that I was happy at 180 lb and I am not happy at 160 lb. That can't be normal. I feel like I should start counting calories just to see how much I am actually eating. But I am hesitant to do so.

I know, silly problems...

I guess I just need someone to tell me to relax and it will be OK.... or something...

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Mom is trying to lose weight for sister's wedding in January 2020. She started working out hard and counting calories in April. She's been meticulous and has only lose 10 lbs and has plateaued for a month.

She's very frustrated. Weight loss calculators said she should eat about 1300-1400 calories a day to lose weight. She's eating 1000-1200 calories a day as shes never hungrier than that. She struggles to eat more, which is fine, don't eat if you aren't hungry. She also does cardio and does weight lifting (high reps low weight). She's been going hard and she feels better and is never without energy. However she's lost only 10 lbs since middle of April, her goal was 1 lb a week.

Anyone know what's going on? She's very frustrated and I am telling her to keep at it but words of encouragement only go so far.

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The more posts I read on this sub the more I realize how different the attitudes on weight are across cultures

It is so interesting when you guys share your stories because different cultures have different attitudes towards weight on what is perfectly fine in one culture as weight and considered healthy is considered fat and ugly in another. It is also interesting to read about some cultures enabling obesity and wow.

Like as an Eastern European I often get surprised by people who didn't know cereal had a lot of sugar and how much sugar certain foods were and I was like what? You were surprised, I knew this since I was a kid. (In a non judgy way).

What is interesting though is that as an EE, I found that my culture shares more similarities towards fatness wtih Asian Countries than with Western ones. Like my weight has fluctuated between 60 kg and 72 kg (height is 158 cm) and was called morbidly obese, the fattest person in my family (being a shame), not being allowed to wear tank tops and shorts by society, but also being laughed at if I wear jeans in the summer and etc. And this affected me. Especially because the biggest insults came when I was at 60 kg. I was 60 kg when I moved to Germany and I used to be able to fit into S and M sizes in shirts (my problem is my ass) and when I used to say to people how fat I was regarding my waitress uniform and how I need an L, people used to look at me like a crazy person and it was so crazy. I let myself go since I started an office job, it's surprising how much you burn as a waitress honestly and gained a lot of weight. I am now at 63 KG and I know for a fact that my culture has affected me in that my goal weight is 50 or even bellow if possible. Because I remember people calling girls who were 170 and weight 57 kg fat.

On the one hand I appreciate that my culture didn't allow me to go into morbid obesity but on the other we also have screwed up and somewhat unhealthy views on weight. Because frankly, I might have been fat at 60 kg, but morbidly obese I was not (if anything I am a pair with arms) and making me feel like I was disgusting and don't deserve to do the things others can do, didn't help. It is also interesting that in Eastern Europe this shit applies to women, while men have this beer belly and that's totes fine.

What are your culture's weird attitude towards weight loss.

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How to support a partner during weight loss journey?

My husband in interested in losing weight and gaining muscle, whereas I am very content with being overnight. In the past year I’ve had some mental health challenges that lead me neglect my overall health, and put on some pounds(we are talking 30lbs). I want to support my husband during this journey, however I don’t want to participate myself (besides the cooking, I can make some pretty tasty healthy meals). What are ways I can show support, and help my partner succeed during this process? I’d hope to join him soon enough, however I want to do it in my own time and when I truly working from a place a love, rather than hatred. Any tips would be appreciated :)

Don’t know if it’s relevant, but we are both in our twenties, and moderately healthy otherwise.

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So close to onederland, and yet so far

"205" I say to myself, "I'm getting closer to onderland!" as I fill a crepe full of cherry whipped creme, topped with sugary syruped cherries.

"204..." I say to myself a few weeks later... "It must be the muscle I've put on from walking back and to work each day. That's 4 miles of walking, so that's going to slow down my weight loss," I say, as I make spanish style chorizo migas, with a pound of fried bread mixed in with 1/4 a cup of olive oil for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next few days. "That's got to be why I'm slowing down."

"205 again! Hmm!" I say to myself, the next week, while munching on a bag of buffalo pretzel chips.

It's so easy to slip back into bad habits! It's so easy to rationalize a cheat day into a cheat week! I'm not shaming myself but proud of myself for recognizing something as it was starting again before it was too late! You can't. Outrun. A diet. It doesn't work!

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An apology to the community, I broke a promise...

Hi all,

It’s been a while since my last post, so I figured it was time for an update! For those of you that don’t have the time to pull up my last post here are the quick facts: I am a female, currently 26 and my starting weight was 320.

I was a lurker. I visited this subreddit three to five times a day, just desperately seeking motivation —all while slamming a bag of flaming hot Cheetos. I’ll keep this one quick, ole cheesy fingers here decided to get off the couch one day and love herself, and honestly it did start here—and as a thank you I was going to give back to the community the only way I felt I knew how: progress pics—but only when I reached my 100lb weight loss mark! I promised myself (and all of you) that I would have the balls to face a sea of strangers with my lowest low, 320lb me.

Well, I broke that promise. And I’ve been breaking it for about two months now if I’m being completely honest. Because I wanted to give you guys a little more—onederland anyone? Your girl weighed in at 198.4 this morning. 121.lbs lost.

I owe you guys (and myself) these damn pics. Hold my seltzer ya’ll—they are coming!

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I’m 10% of the way there! (and what i’ve learned about myself so far)

I know it isn’t a huge deal, but I think posting like this will help me keep myself accountable!

I use happy scale to track my weigh ins and was extremely happy this morning to see that I have reached my first milestone. All of my weight loss attempts in the past year or two have been short-lived and non sustainable (maybe losing 5 lbs max and then giving up). I even posted here a few months ago for motivation to get on the scale because I was terrified to face the numbers (thank you to those that motivated me to get on that scale).

For some reason, this time it just feels more real. I’m almost one month into my journey, and while I haven’t been perfect, I have logged every day no matter what and stayed under my calorie goal probably 90% of the time. I think in the past I was always wanting a quick fix. I finally came to terms with the fact that if I want this change to be sustainable, I need to take it slow and be patient. I have been only worried about CICO and getting my 10,000 steps a day and it’s been surprisingly easier to adjust than I thought.

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