It is now 2 years since I reached my original weight loss target of losing 4 stone or 56lbs ( a little over 26 kilos if you want the metrics ). 12 Months later I posted again talking about keeping the weight off and how I had not only managed to do so, but was now at a weight of 164 lbs approx 74.5 kilos 11 stone 10 lbs.
That post about maintaining weight loss was a year ago today. My weight today, right after the weekend, is 75 kilos, so more or less the same. I have kept my weight in the same range for the last 12 months, and more importantly I have now kept off the weight I originally set out to lose for 2 years. I find my usual weight range these days is between 74 and 76 kilos. This weight loss blog will be 3 years old on New Years Day 2012. Writing my first Retired Dieter post back on January 1st 2009 I said I would never go on another diet again. I wanted to change my view of food, and weight loss. I was no longer going to deprive myself of foods I enjoy, or think in terms of good or bad foods. instead, I would simply focus on finding a way to eat less. If you have followed this blog for any length of time, then you will know by now that intermittent fasting , in its many different forms was the main tool I have used.
Losing weight is one thing, keeping that weight off , over time is something else. In the past I had lost weight ” on diets ” but of course the problem was as soon as the weight was lost, the diet was done, and I was ” off the diet ” and back to the same cycle. 2 years of maintaining a healthy weight, without cutting out foods I enjoy from my diet, confirms to me , that diets as they are sold to us, simply don’t work. The reason I was finally able to solve my weight issues, was because I finally understood the only thing that matters when it comes to losing weight, or maintaining weight loss….. calories in v calories out. Even now people still argue on this point, but after losing weight, and keeping it off, nobody can tell me it does not work.You can dress weight loss up in any form you like, but no matter what others tell you, it still comes down to the fact you will lose weight if you eat less calories than you need, and you will gain weight if you eat more calories than you need. So one way or another you have to find a way that works for you that enables you to eat less. In my experience viewing foods as good or bad or healthy or unhealthy won’t help. Thinking you can’t eat a pizza, or a cheese cake, because it’s not healthy or, not good for you only ads to the problems. I do think looking back , that so much of the weight loss and diet issues I had were mental ones.
I would have to say the key factor in the change for me, was just finally getting an understanding how many calories I need on a weekly basis to stay in the weight range I want to be. How those calories are made up is less important than making sure I am around the number. The diet industry is still selling more and more products, and people are still getting bigger, but it still just comes down to eat less and move more if you want to lose weight and keep it off.
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