Is there anyone here that has maintained their weight loss?

[lisa30]

Hi i would love to hear from people that have sucessfully lost weight and kept it off.....particularly yo yo dieters that have finally cracked it.....

I personally think the hardest thing to do is to get started and then weight loss maintainence..

[oldpjams]

Several people here have. I've been below my target for about four years.

[lisa30]

Well done to you!

Did you ever struggle with food in the past?

You strike me as a no messing kinda guy, who just gets the job done!

[oldpjams]

I don't know if I struggled with it -- I just ate and didn't care until I was 60-70lbs overweight. I brought my weight down more than once through exercise, or low-fat, or a combination but that wasn't sustainable for me.

[lisa30]

So may i ask why it is sustainable now?

[oldpjams]

I think SBD is fairly well-balanced and far easier to sustain than low-fat (poor satiety) or low-carb. I take liberties with SBD. I eat "real" sweeteners, don't limit fruit, and other small things that make it work for me. At this point there really isn't anything that I wouldn't eat on occasion if I really wanted it, and there are many things that SBD limits or eliminates that I don't agree with...but I think that the basic premise is pretty solid. I guess the simple answer is that it's sustainable because I'm happy with what I'm eating, never deprive myself, make up the difference with exercise if I have to, and I'm living the life I want to live.

[lisa30]

I feel the same about the SBD......but i still have to battle with my demons! Maybe it takes time to master?

At the end of the day there is no magic wand, only me and a simple choice to make.

I find my mind plays tricks on me, just so i can have my cake and eat it.......but not without repercussions

[DaniellaBella85]

I lost 75lbs on SBD and maintained for for about 6 months, then I got pregnant (so I guess it doesn't really count as not maintaining)... back on the SB way of eating to lose the extra lbs from the pregnancy.

[RedRox]

I've been maintaining for about the last 3 years. I wasn't a yo-yo dieter though. I just gained steadily for 25-30 years and then got rid of it.

What did you want to hear?

I agree that maintenance is a continual challenge. I think starting is actually very easy. People start all the time. I think being committed to making fundamental changes in how you live your life day after day is much more difficult than simply getting started and much more difficult to implement and follow through with on a long term basis.

[Kimboroni]

I was a yo-yo dieter for years. You can lose weight on just about any plan. It won't necessarily be a healthy weight loss, and then it doesn't stick anyway, and you end up worse off than when you started.

I've maintained this weight (which isn't skinny, but it's a pretty healthy weight for me) for about 3 years, I think. I don't want to go back to where I was before, so that fear keeps me very motivated. SB really has to be a food makeover rather than a diet or it won't "work" either. Everything else I did was only a diet and not sustainable, as Pjams said. Rather than teaching you how to eat for the longterm, they taught you to deprive yourself for the short term. That doesn't work.

[lorka150]

Several people here have. I've been below my target for about four years.

Ditto.

[coral-lea]

I was a bit of a yoyo dieter and when I lost 15lbs the first time on SBD I wanted to lose MORE because I didn't feel like I looked good enough - but I am at a very healthy weight now and have been for years. Right now I have managed not to regain that weight for about 3 years.

if I get up a couple or a few pounds then I readjust, realize that I am not eating too SBDish and either do a few days of P1 followed by watching my whole wheat and such or just pull in the reigns by watching what I eat more carefully and getting a bit more exercise.

It's so doable but I must say that the first time on SBD do p1 fully without cheating for 2 weeks and do p2 for as long as you can properly. Now if I have to do p1 I may do it for a week or so and then feel abck in control - I know my body better now.

The mind is tricky. I, for example, never thought I looked great. people would see pics of me on here and be like what the...!? but i work more on taming the self talk more than anything else. If I can do that first then I can see what I really am like and go from there.

I wish more people would talk here about how they changed from a fat mind set to a skinny one because that is over half the battle there.

[oldpjams]

The people I know that are truly thin and fit strike me as constantly vigilant and conscientious about food and exercise...to me that is a thin mentality.

[coral-lea]

I think that's a part yes, but I also think that it has to do with how you see yourself especially after you have lost all the weight you want. A person that thinks thin can't be fat. I really agree with that but a person that lost all the weight can easily gain it all back again if they are not seeing themselves as thin and fit and thinking accordingly. I believe that too.

I just think that the brain has more to do with weight loss and healthy living and the ability to keep it off than we really discuss (I don't mean simply willpower btw) and it's too bad that people don't talk about when it changed in their brains that they were not fat anymore and they were going to start being vigilent and thinking skinny. I don't know if I am making sense here, it could be a bit of a rant...

ps. do you still have those abs oldpjams?

[oldpjams]

I still have abs I suppose. My "fitness focus" these days is somewhat different than it was a few years ago. For a long time I was primarily interested how I looked and now I'm more interested in competitive sports.

I think that there are times when I am at a peak of fitness (and thinnest) and at those times I have a "thin mentality" but there are times when you need to back off and recover...ease up...and then I have a "fat mentality" for a while. It ebbs and flows.