There comes a time in every dieter’s life when it’s time to stop dieting and start maintaining. I’ve always wanted to get to this point. I’m not at a weight I want to stay at but I’ve had to reach the conclusion that I can’t get any lower for the time being.
I’ve kept off the four stone I lost last year and added to the loss by a few pounds. It’s not as much as I wanted to lose but I’m tired of forever going without, counting calories, daily weigh-ins, remorse when I overeat and hunger when I don’t eat enough. Going to bed hungry and waking up in the early hours of the morning desperate for breakfast, wondering how early I can have it.
Enough already! It’s driving me mad. Seems whatever I do I can’t budge the weight right now. I’ve done well. I know that. Getting four stone off from weighing nearly 16 stone (100kg/224 pounds) to under 12 (75k/163 pounds). I wanted to get to 11 stone. I wanted to get five stone off in total or at least four and a half. I’m not there. I may never be. For post-menopausal women it’s much harder to lose weight and keep it off than for a woman half my age. Men too find it harder as they get older. We lose muscle mass and lay down more fat, especially round our middles.
I’m not in my late 20s or early 30s anymore when I could shed weight so much easier than now. My shape has changed too. I was never a pear shape but I’m even more of an apple now. I don’t like it and I know an apple shape is unhealthy but I’ve gone as far as I can for the time being.
We need treats
Christmas is coming and that means feasting and why the hell not!? God knows we all need a treat and with the darker, colder, nights on their way and the need to use as little heating as we can we’ve got to have something. Right!?
My fear about pausing my diet is that I’ll put all the weight back on again. And I very well might. I have every single time before when I’ve lost weight. Mine is a typical dieter’s merry-go-round of lose it, gain it back, lose it, gain it back. I do think this time is different though as I’ve never dieted before purely for health reasons. As I said at the outset of these newsletters it was Covid shocked me into doing something about my obesity and it worked. I feel so much better and I know I’m much healthier. My resting heart rate is lower, my blood pressure is right for my age and sex and my BMI is... well, it’s very nearly there.
It’s not dieting that makes us miserable
I’ll keep these newsletters up as I think maintaining a weight loss is as important as losing it in the first place. Diets work. We dieters know that. But they rarely work long term. Most dieters put the weight back on. It gets boring. It stops working. You tire of saying no to foods you long to eat. But the real killer for diets in my opinion is when you keep dieting but stop losing. And that happens to most dieters. They reach a set weight below which they find it impossible to go. So they give up, think what’s the point, I may as well eat and be happier than diet and be miserable. It’s not dieting that makes us miserable though - it’s the diet not working!
As I write this I am currently 11 stone nine pounds (74k/164 pounds.) My lowest this year was 11.7 and a quarter. I’d love to get back to that and I might manage it but if not, not. For now I’m happy to maintain, if I can. This is a big test. It’s much bigger than trying to lose weight in the first place. In a way that’s so much easier. The short term is a buzz as you see the weight falling off - which it does if you’ve been very overweight and decide to take yourself in hand. The longer term is a real slog. No one wants to be on a permanent diet and you shouldn’t have to be if you can train yourself to enjoy food but not eat beyond satiation. But people like us with a weight issue don’t just eat for survival. We eat for pleasure. Some choose alcohol. Some take drugs. We choose food. But learning to enjoy food and not gain weight is as vital for a dieter as taking the weight off in the first place.
I shall continue to chart my progress with these newsletters. Knowing I’ve made a commitment to write them is something that keeps me on track. I hope I can stay there.
More in November.
What is your maintenance plan Laura?
You’ve done brilliantly.
I’m in a similar boat to you though did get down to bmi 22 via 5:2. Have maintained for over a decade doing my own version of 5:2, which is basically to skip lunch and have no carbs (except veggies) two days a week. But sometimes I steadily overeat for emotional reasons, so I’ve tried other method. The low carbs, high protein, high fat, virtually no sugar approach seems to work best - and sticking fairly rigidly to not eating between meals. Cakes and pastries are always my downfall.