Weight Maintenance- Introduce yourself!

[gardengirlkp]

Welcome to Weight Maintenance!

Introduce yourself: Your name, how much you are keeping off, how long you are keeping it off, are you at your goal or break between losing weight? Any other disease states you manage while in maintenance

Anything else maintenance related

Remember
There is no weight maintenance absolute rule book
There may be common patterns, tools, adjustments
There will be shifts, trends, patterns, experiments, joy, frustration,
There is usually better health, but some of the time is spent dealing with past or current health issues
There is no one way, there is only what is best for you for the next 3-6 months.

Hi! I’m Karen

I’m keeping 71+ pounds off
I’ve been maintaining my weight loss 5 years, 9 months

I’m sitting just at the high range of my BEST goal weight
I could stand to lose 2-3% body fat (I range between 25-27% )
I am at a BMI of 21.9
I am really short, 5’1"
I’ve been in menopause 4+ years
I’m a single Mom
I had Hashimotos Auto-Immune Thyroid Disease in 1997
I have a cyclic wave pattern in weight maintenance
daily weighing is part of my maintenance
I make adjustments to my plan once every 4-5 days if I’m tending aka- falling out of my maintenance range

I binge ate from ages 6-46, so a good part of my maintenance tools are
abstaining from trigger foods, IF (17:7), Keto

[rustyk61]

I am not in the maintenance mode YET, but I will someday and I’ve very interested in all the ups and downs. Thanks for sharing your input and insight.

[Dread1840]

Hi! I’m at my goal weight (around 155), keeping 80lbs off. Right now aside from injury rehab, my goal is to increase lean mass and further reduce bodyfat. Current BF estimate is 13.9%.

[gardengirlkp]

Welcome, Rusty! I started studying weight maintenance in the last 20 pounds (of 70 lost). It really helped me transition from loss to maintenance. Mindset, food plans, etc.

Reading, planning, then experimenting once you arrive is all good. Plus, you’ll find maintainers that are much like yourself and you can ask more questions.

It took me 1-2 years to find other Paleo/LCHF/Keto maintainers. I was stuck in a pile of moderate SAD maintainers in 2012-2013. No fun. This should be easier- IMO.

[Jacquie]

As I mentioned in my previous post, supporting a new weight maintenance group, I’ve been away from the forum for a while. I was there in the beginning and loved the energy, knowledge and support. At some point, I was starting to feel that I couldn’t get the keto maintenance support that I needed on the forum, so I set out to see if that existed in the keto fb groups but didn’t have much success at all. Since keto has become so popular, there are lots of fb groups popping up with lots of newbies, who need support and that’s the group’s priority, which I totally understand. Also, a lot of us know the ‘quirks’ of facebook keto groups and why a forum works so well. The one fb group that does stand out as very positive is Daisy’s fb group, Kirckarse Keto Bitches.

My story is a bit longer than most, as I started lc in the mid-90’s with Eades’ Protein Power, then moved on to paleo, primal, and Whole30. I’ve been keto for over 3.5 years and have been at goal weight for over 4 years or so. I was never more than 10-15 pounds overweight but imagine my surprise when I was diagnosed as prediabetic when I had just gone from Whole30 to a small keto fb group that tested BG. I’m small (5’2", 110lbs, 20-23% bf, slight frame) and exercise regularly. I took to keto easily, as I love to cook and enjoy keto foods. My nemesis has always been sugar (mainly good chocolate and HD ice cream) and I’ve consumed lots over the years. I was lucky in that I never under ate, so I didn’t lower my metabolism.

I’m not keen on tracking macros but use tracking when I’m trying to problem solve. I do track workouts (Body By Science) with no problem. I walk a lot with Karma, our dog, and for fun juggle, fly stunt kites and slack line.

Since I came from a lc/paleo/primal/Whole30 background, I thought I’d join Mark Sisson’s fb group, Keto Reset. Love the whole foods approach but this was a real test for me, as I found myself leaning more and more towards keto and away from a place of going in and out of ketosis, which he refers to as metabolic flexibility. I do think the book is for folks coming from SAD or paleo/primal, who want to try keto, now and then. What truly turned me towards keto and away from Sisson’s view of keto was a long thread about Thanksgiving (it’s about to get much longer) and how most folks will eat SAD and then get right back into keto and ketosis (Mark’s 80/20 rule). A lot probably will but in that instant I knew where I belonged. Keto world!

What luck to check into the forum, which I do from time to time, and see a new thread about weight maintenance!

[collaroygal]

Hi I am Joell.
I am in my 7th month of maintenance mode.
I am 5’3" and my lifetime high was 190 lbs. I had started menopause at that weight.
I am healthy, no major health issues at all. I have just been battling my weight since I was 30.
I am a stress eater, each time my weight would go higher it was linked to some big stress in my life. First time I ever went over 115 lbs. was after John Lennon was shot. I lost weight, cruised for a few years, then my best friend died of AIDS along with several other good friends. My weight just continued to climb to its highest.

I started Keto, Atkins 20 foodie plan Aug '16 at 170 lbs. Started seeing good results, stalled out around Feb. '17, started learning about fasting and started doing IFing and extended fasting and I hit my goal weight (141) the end of April/beginning of May this year. I found the 2ketodudes podcasts and this forum about the same time I started reading about fasting. The combo is what I needed.

I am healthy, no major health issues. I have just been battling my weight since I was 30, I am now 68. But now I don’t have all the time in the world and my DH is T2D and I am his caregiver so I have to be good at cooking the right types of food for him. Plus keto/lchf is good for me too. So this is our lifestyle now. We have been together for 43 yrs.

I am thankful for the folks on this forum, the MFP Low carb groups, and all the keto podcasts by Megan and Jason for help getting here and hopefully, staying here for life.

[tdseest]

I’ve maintained for about a year, but now continuing my weight loss journey. Maintained weight for my heart and fasting regimen this year.

I wish all of you well, and hope none of you stall during your maintenance phase…

If you do stall during your maintenance phase, I offer coaching and ocean front property in Illinois…

[gardengirlkp]

I wish all of you well, and hope none of you stall during your maintenance phase…

If you do stall during your maintenance phase, I offer coaching and ocean front property in Illinois…

Tom, you are so funny. Thanks for stopping by and continued wishes for success on your next steps. Onward.

[gardengirlkp]

I love, love, love this!!! I remember the John Lennon shooting. Interesting how we have those moments frozen in time.

Best wishes on the caregiving (not always easy, essential to our loved ones) So glad you can provide good food to yourself and your husband. Thanks for sharing your story.

[collaroygal]

Tom, wishing you well in your next phase.

I offer coaching and ocean front property in Illinois…

[Annapet]

Not maintaining yet, but hopefully by spring!

Wishing you all the best!

[Ajax]

Not there yet but watching this forum with great interest and hope to see the numbers grow! As so many of us have a long, long, long history of being able to lose weight on any diet has been thrown to us - we also know that KEEPING IT OFF can be a soul crushing experience. So knowing that you maintainers are out there - and how you are doing it would be a valuable resource.

[gardengirlkp]

Hi Ajax!!! Glad you stopped into thinking about maintenance. I know some folks can very easily transition and maintain, but I’m not one of them.

Yes!!! knowing there are long timers out there, key to me not relapsing back to bing behaviors in long term Keto weight maintenance. Thanks for stopping by and I expect to add additional topics as time goes (and I get more vacation time from my real job soon!!!)

[Ashlee]

Hi I’m Ashlee and been in maintenence for one year. My goals with keto are energy and treatment of severe depression, anxiety, and ADHD. Its hard to find people who arent using keto to lose weight.

[gardengirlkp]

Hi, Ashlee, welcome to the group! Yes, most folks using keto are trying to lose weight. It’s different from maintenance, gain weight, or for medical reasons. Glad you are here and I know the maintenance support will grow in time.

[ClaraJTeixeira]

Hi I’m Clara. I started keto in April 2017 and dropped 40 lbs in 5 months. Been maintaining at 130 lbs for one and a half months and glad to stay at this weight. I tend to fluctuate from 129 to 134 depending on how much I’ve pigged out on keto treats. I plan to stay keto for life. Chronic migraines are gone along with a lot of the joint pain I was beginning to have.
I am also hoping to control the growths on my thyroid. Last ultrasound showed that it had not grown at all since going keto and it feels smaller to the touch and in appearance.
I do not fast. I tried once and felt so terrible so I happily eat 2 or 3 meals a day. I may attempt fasting again one day but I love to eat!

[Darlene_Horsley]

Hi Ashley. I wish I had known KETO when my youngest son was diagnosed ADHD 32 years ago! It would have saved us both heartache during his school years. Today he is KETO and doing fantastic!

[gardengirlkp]

Hi Keto Kelly. Glad you are here. My transition from loss to maintenance was a great time. Work; yet rewarding. Check in to ask any questions you might have.

[gardengirlkp]

Clara. Welcome. I used to have migraines too, and I don’t anymore as long as I stay hydrated. 30 years of migraines was pretty awful. I’m so glad that keto is helping you with your thyroid as well.

I can totally understand not fasting. If you are doing this for disease management it’s likely whatever you’re managing is better off without the fasting.

That’s a great maintenance range and kudos for you for staying in maintenance.

[farmgirl]

Karen, I just want to thank you for this post. I’m nowhere near maintenance, but as a life-long dieter I understand that maintenance IS the key to any new eating lifestyle. It’s tough to stick to a diet long enough to lose all the weight one wants to lose. It’s much tougher to keep that weight off permanently. After many, many diets, losses and regains, one becomes hopeless. Your post was very helpful to me, and I suspect many will be able to relate to the stories shared here. Thanks for this thoughtful post.