How Do I Go From Weight Loss to Weight Maintenance?

Let me start by saying congrats! Losing weight is not easy and keeping it off is even harder.

The best way to maintain weight loss is to continue doing the same things you did to help you lose the weight in the first place. Eating properly, exercising and finding support to stay motivated. Your body needs fewer calories now that you've lost weight, so if you go back to eating the way you did before, you will definitely put the weight back on. Another key to weight maintenance is variety. The body adapts very quickly to change so it’s important to mix up your diet and exercise routine to keep seeing results.

Maintaining your weight is more of a challenge than losing all that weight in the first place. Try and follow the tips below:
• Make lifestyle changes. This is the easiest way in which you can keep off that fat.
• Weigh yourself frequently. If you see a rise in your weight, that’s a signal that you are doing something wrong. Get off it for a few days.
• Make a point to eat only when you are hungry. Divert your mind at all other times
• Having said that, don’t deprive yourself. Eat all foods, but in moderate amounts.
• Keep exercising and change the type every once in a while.
I got a lot of help from this site-www.aafter.com

Hi! Check out the Zone Diet (zonediet.com). I lost 100 pounds about 15 years ago and have been maintaining it ever since with the Zone. It's great, it's easy, and it really works. From the basic info you gave here, it sounds like your current diet and lifestyle might be very close to the Zone already.

As an AFAA Cert. Personal Fitness Trainer since 1995 and published author ("Transforming Body, Mind and Spirit" {Strategic}) on healthy living, I must warn you against concern about "pounds" and "weight" and direct you to focus on "body composition" , i.e., % of fat vs. muscle. As your body shifts into a more healthy, active mode, it will gain some muscle and as a result, your "weight" may stablize or increase slightly. This IS due to the gain in muscle tissue (muscle weights more than fat)and usually results in a need for more food (fuel). But this IS a good thing! Muscle ustizes body fat as one source of fuel during exercise. Get a cert. Personal Trainer at your fitness center to do a body composition analysis on you every so often. It's simple, easy and convenient. Then remember to "eat to live" (not live to eat!) by following the New Food Pyramid arvard School of Public Health. And don't forget to change up your workouts so your body does not adapt to a particular routine, resulting in "backsliding" your hard won results!
Best, DrDavidRobinson4Health.com

For me, as a weight loss (150 lbs) maintainer for 12 years, the things I did were:
- made the shift in my thinking from diet to lifestyle change
- kept up with the exercise
- continued to make good food choices
- weighed daily

I think it's really important to try and think of getting to a healthy weight as your goal, and not focus too much on the final number.

Congratulations on your success! It's good you are thinking about maintenance now.

I was not that overweight to start with; I dropped from 128 to 105, and have been maintaining for about 2 years now. Going on maintenance was scary and difficult. What help me was using the tools on Caloriecountabout.com. I weighed daily and kept a log of my eating (food and calories) and a log of my exercise. I joined a gym, worked out 3 days a week, and walk 2 miles a day 4-5 times a week.

When I went on maintenance, I thought I had things under control and stopped counting calories, plus started eating popcorn every night. I gained 5 pounds and didn't get it off until I gave up the popcorn and went back to counting calories. I also used a Maintenance support group (forum) on Caloriecount - that was helpful.

Now I still weigh almost daily, I garden instead of going to the gym, and I walk, and I am happy to say maintenance is working.
Good Luck!