If you have lost alot of weight, how do you keep it off?

[Ohdoleavemealone]

Do you deprive yourself? Is it miserable?

I lose the weight and then it creeps back on, back to where I started.
I do it by eating healthy and exercising but the snacks always let me down after I hit my target.

How do you maintain weight and not feel deprived of yummy stuff?

I can’t speak for myself but I have a sister who spent decades overweight. She was around five stone overweight. Her husband died I would class him as a low level abuser, not overt but he affected her. She was within 18 months of his death a size 10 having been a size 18 and even a size 20 at times.. she ate her own misery for thirty years,

People either have deep seated issues and eat them or they just like food. If it’s the latter then it’s purely self control. I love food I always have but I just don’t snack and was brought up with the attitude that snacking between meals was unacceptable completely. So my poor sister felt extreme guilt as well with all her snacking.

When you snack is it the taste or more likely boredom or just a habit?

Exercise. After trying everything for decades, including gym session and classes, all combined with various diets that haven’t worked. I’ve discovered so long as I walk 20-25k steps, 5 days a week, I can eat what I like and lose weight. If I drop to 20k steps or less, I maintain my weight. Saved a fortune in gym/classes etc and at least I can get my steps in with my current job.

I snack for boredom, taste and occasionally because I am hungry.

Will power is definitley a problem for me.

By not slipping back into old habits. Staying active, generally being mindful of what I eat (i.e. not depriving myself but actively considering what I put in). Also stepping on the scales every morning/every other morning when I go for my morning wee - it's much easier to think "oh jeez that's a pound and a half more than Thursday, I'll be careful today" than it is to realise you've suddenly put on half a stone over the course of a fortnight.

How do you maintain weight and not feel deprived of yummy stuff?
Skip meals. Have fast days where I eat nothing. Or eat tiny quantities of nice food. But it’s impossible to eat satisfying quantities of yummy stuff and still be slim.

I've done this for yonks. 9st7 is optimum, always creep up to 11st then back down again. My advice is don't lose the weight super fast, aim for 1-2lb a week as this allows time for new habits, then when it comes to maintaining it my downfall is chocolate and sugar, what seems to work when I do it is to allow myself that treat (not too often as otherwise I get the sweet tooth) but eat more lightly for dinner or the next day. I think that's what most people do when they eat intuitively. Personally I also don't have snacks at home, apart from ones that are not that nice that I am likely to binge e.g. oat cakes, water biscuits, rice cakes, some types of nuts, as my will power is low. I do allow myself more treats at seasonal times but I try and plan them rather than do it impulsively...it is very hard when bombarded this time of year, avoiding going into supermarket and doing shopping online helps.

Well I lost mine (five and a half stone) when I had head and neck cancer,ever since I find it difficult to eat and everything goes down with a large glass of water, so picking becomes difficult.

So fast forward to last night, I went down to do myself a hottie and I pulled a quarter off a left over arancini ball, but whilst I was waiting for the kettle to boil it took half a pint of water to get it down, it wasn't worth the effort, it generally isn't.

So I would say before you want a snack drink a load of water.

I also don't think there is one right or wrong way, there are different types of eaters if you google it. I'm more of a 3 meals a day, healthy balanced diet type, I can't do anything that feels like deprivation unless it's a genuine fast because I had a huge portion of last night's cottage pie and vegetables and I'm not really very hungry.

Also eating whole foods- balances blood sugar and staves off energy crashes, and having good amounts of protein keeps you fuller.

I’ve lost 1.5 stone since June. Now it’s not a lot and not very fast but I’ve still been eating cake and doughnuts and bread and cheese and macdonalds and curry etc.
I’ve been doing some days of fasting. Some days of complete feasting and some days of being sensible. No routine to it, just seeing how I feel on the day. Cutting down portions of the naughty stuff, cut down in drinking etc.
I could eat like this forever as obviously not deprived of anything so if the weight slowly comes off over the next year of so I’ll be happy with that I think. And can keep up a day or so if fasting a week to keep it all in check.

Oh and I have been doing a bootcamp.

Lots of little things but the main one is calorie counting on My Fitness Pal, I did this originally to lose weight, I weighed all my food and even added oils. After a while you are able to eyeball your food and make educated estimates on how many calories you are eating. I also used a TDEE calculator to work out my maintenance calories and try and eat around that.

Other small things include being more conscious of how many steps I walk a day thanks to my Fitbit. Going to the gym a couple of times a weeks. Going on long walks at the weekends. I never used to any of this before I began losing weight

A range of things help me:

I have no off-button, so I don't have treats I like in the house. If it's not there I can't eat it.

Weigh every morning, easier to deal with a 2lb increase than half a stone that has crept on.

Make it easy to control portion size - instead of faffing about weighing everything I use easy measurements when serving (eg small measuring cup of porridge oats, 2 tablespoonfuls of cooked rice). I always eat off a salad plate so can't overfill it.

I occasionally allow myself some treats in moderation so I don't feel hard done by. But controlled. For example, I love Christmas cake, but instead of buying a big one (which I would eat all of!) I buy one of the mini ones and have a little bit of it each evening for a few days. It gives me the taste and treat sensation without going overboard on calories. And it feels more like a treat!

I've realised that having a bad day (or week) does not mean you've blown it and you just give up. Just start again the next day.

Fasting has really helped me. I've realised I will not keel over if I miss a meal. If my weight creeps up I do 5:2 until it comes back down again.

Exercise helps, but it doesn't have anywhere near as big an impact as the food you eat. So I exercise for fun/mental health but don't count any calories burned. That way if I have a day that I don't exercise it's no big deal and if I do exercise it's a bonus. Takes the 'burden' of having to exercise away.

Being accountable helps me as well. I post on one of the weight loss threads on MN and it helps me be determined to stick to it better when I've posted and told everyone what I've planned for my menu on a fast day. Lots of great advice and support from lovely people as well!

It is hard and I'm still trying to 'reset' a lot of bad habits I'd developed over the years, but I feel so much better in myself when I'm at a healthy weight, so I try to keep reminding myself of all the positive things that make it worth it all!!

Fasting, I eat whatever I want, I am a consistent size 10/12

I would agree with @Coffeeandcookies on that view of exercise actually . I keep generally active because I can physically and mentally feel the difference to my outlook if I'm not being active, whether that's a brisk walk, yoga/pilates, a run or a BodyCombat/Pump class. Exercise for me is mainly for enjoyment, the endorphin rush and the mental health/stress relief benefits.

I'd say it took 6 months of me being able to see (on the scales, not through clothes because of all the stretch that goes into jeans these days) that I could maintain my weight before I let go of the anxiety that I held around putting "it all" back on again if I had a bad day. I'm better able to contextualise my food now and I think reading about intuitive eating helped.

Mix of all the above. I lost 3.5 stone then since then have gone up and down but never by more than 1 stone over the lowest. I still use the WW app to track food but don’t stress when I end the week in debt of 50 points, just start fresh the next week. In the past that would have made me lose track for easily another month!! Lots of walking, having “healthy” treats in like watermelon, drinking gin and slim if having more than 1-2 drinks, taking my own lunch into work, apart from emergency jeans about about 3 work outfits I also threw/gave away my whole old wardrobe so that’s a big reason too!

Decent amount of exercise
Watching what I eat about 80% of the time
Treats occasionally and enjoy them
Portion control
I do the 18/6 fasting in the week as well
I think it's about moderation
And i certainly don't starve myself and am not miserable

Weigh myself each morning and if I notice an upward trend I do a few days/week or so of calorie counting using My fitness pal, to get it back under control.

Do 16:8 - so no snacking in the evening which was a major downfall of mine.

Allow myself a day 'off' each week so that I don't feel deprived. I don't find that I go mad and binge on my day off, but I just don't worry and that makes a huge difference in making the rest of the week feel doable.

I have changed my tastes so that I really enjoy fruit more than cakes and chocolate, and I really notice how I feel after eating stuff. I don't like the after sugar feeling which helps me to say no to it.

Limiting the treat stuff I have in. I like baking, but I know if I bake stuff I'll then eat it, so I limit this.

Fill up on veg and protein and whole grains - if I'm feeling full then I'm less likely to make a silly eating decision.

It took me a while to get over the feeling that hunger had to be immediately satisfied - it's quite liberating to realise that feeling hungry won't kill you and can be quite a good feeling - you enjoy the food more when you get it.

Running. I was overweight for all my adult life. Now I maintain a size 8 fairly easily and can eat what I like (within reason!)

Gallstones

I'm too afraid to eat

I lost 3 stone a few years ago and have kept It off, in fact I weighed myself this morning and I'm now under 10 stone for the first time ever in my adult life (another 4/5 lbs off since I last weighed a month ago). I maintained it for the first few years by still pretty much dieting: counting calories, exercising a lot (running, circuits, yoga), eating few carbs, and then having occasional weekly cheat days. Then in July I decided I can't do that for the rest of my life so I did a radical change to a paleolithic diet.
I had gained a few pounds back in lockdown and that dropped off, and a bit more.

I eat exclusively Meat, eggs, fish, veg, olive oil, some fruit, nuts. No dairy, grains, or sugar (except in occasional fruit)- at all. A lot of preservatives are ruled out and no junky or processed foods at all. I now eat absolutely tonnes of food, no counting or calorie tracking or macros, I'm running really well and looking really toned and fit. And my weight is still maintained, in fact is slightly lower than it was when I was first at target. I eat 2 or 3 big meals a day but no snacks. If I'm hungry, I eat a full meal.

It's probably been helped by the fact there's not really anywhere to go. And I do have to plan and prep food because there is not much I can grab while out or at a restaurant for example. I've been doing it 5 months now and I really don't think I would/could go back to how I was before.

No weight too lose just want to maintain my weight.
I’d say keep active and keep a watch on portion size.
Walk at least 10k steps, I like doing weights at the gym nothing too big dump bells kettle bells some cross trainer leg machines, you can get really toned doing these.
Weight weekly to keep on tract up exercise or reduce calories if any gains.
Cook from scratch get a couple of recipe books Pinch of Nom ones are good for calorific counting.
Good luck OP.

I used to cycle to work
I truly didn’t realise how many calories it burned
So I lost weight , then lived fairly normally but stayed slim

As you can
Imagine lockdown hasn’t been kind to me

So for me unless you want to live
On vegetables it’s exercise

Or eat And drink very very carefully

Intermittent fasting

I've lost 4 stone this year.

I'm keeping it off by sticking to 1500 calories a day and exercise 5 x a week. Treats on Saturday like a takeaway or a pudding and alcohol.

Heartbreak. Most effective diet on earth!