Lucille, I'm impressed with your weight loss. Just keep doing what you've been doing as it seems to be working really well.

Congratulations with your weight loss success, and thanks for the interesting link.

Years ago I was certified to teach a weight loss class based on the glycemic index of foods. What I saw over and over, after achieving their weight loss goals, people went off the eating plan and started eating any and all carbohydrates again. Not only did they regain weight, but even more important to note, their body metabolized the high-glycemic foods and carbs even faster than before. This had the secondary effect of blood glucose issues (diabetes, syndrome X, hypoglycemia, insulin resistance). Continue to minimize or avoid foods on the top half of the glycemic index of foods, and choose low-glycemic options. Have your cake, but make it with high-protein/low-glycemic almond flour or coconut flour, not wheat flour This seems to be an important step to continued success -- especially after working so hard to reduce hunger pangs and cravings.

Have you tried drinking 2-cups of water at least 30-minutes before each meal to help get you through the slump? Adding some MCT oil to your diet may also help.

Going back to eating "normally" is probably the biggest reason diets in general don't work. People gravitate to their old eating habits after reaching their goal weights. I did it myself--twice--after going to Weight Watchers when I was younger.

But when I made my last weight-loss effort, shortly after menopause, I've kept most of it off by following a modified version of the low-carb, low-saturated fat diet I tailored for myself to lose the weight.

You're doing great, Lucille!

There will always be plateaus. Try mixing things up. Maybe eating a heavier meal for lunch and lighter for dinner? Are you snacking, even healthy snacks, late in the evening? Exercise can help, but my personal feeling is to keep it separate from weight loss goals.

WW has worked for me. I'm a lifetime member and check in once a month. I get useful tips or product ideas from the other members. It has kept me accountable. However, since I have shrunk, I find my old goal is not cutting it and I am trying now to lose a bit more.

I think I am going to stay on the low carb for life. I did add some carb foods back in the way of beans (I love black bean soup, for instance) but I just eat small servings.

I've done this for a while. Fell off the wagon twice, once for a croissant sandwich and once for pizza. But went right back.

I'm concerned about one of the article's premises that the body stays in a lower metabolism mode for years once weight is lost, but not overly concerned, because the low carb way of eating generally keeps me satisfied and not hungry.

I read that article in our newspaper. One of the things that struck me was the rate of metabolism when a person is at rest. If one reads or watches TV a lot, it bodes well to get up and do some moving around to get the metabolism going again. That might mean getting a glass of water from the farthest spot. Something as simple as wiping off the dining spot (during commercials or at the end of a chapter) should be able to do some good.

I'm so proud of you, Lucille.

That was an interesting article. Obesity is such a struggle for so many people and is little understood.

The trick to keeping it off is to only eat the amount of calories you need to maintain your weight. And to NEVER go back to your old bad eating habits. I've been doing ketogenics (low carb, medium protein, high fat) since July of 2014. I met my goal weight of 150 in January of last year but still dropped another 5 pounds without trying by April of last year. I am still 144 - 146 a year later. This is the longest I've been able to keep my weight off with any way of eating. I no longer consider the way I eat a *diet*. It's a healthy way of nutrition (only real food, little to no processed foods). You can keep it off. Just don't go back to old habits.

Excellent ! Congratulations on your accomplishment.

Good for you, Lucille! Slow and *steady* is a win, but you know that.

DH and I had each ballooned twenty pounds by our late forties. I just stopped buying a lot of things. I stopped even entering the Poison Food Aisle at the grocery.

We became aware of the need to deliberately limit portions. Remember the experiment where people were given bowls of soup that were secretly replenished by tubing under the table? People kept eating as long as there was soup in front of them.

I realized that I was eating when I was actually thirsty. (I still don't drink enough water!) We cut down on salt and sugar. I stopped thinking DH needed 8 oz hamburgers or big steaks, and he decided to skip a bun or bread. He stopped drinking Diet Soda.

We've continued that way, day to day. We do still have some small 'treats', and we enjoy them more because they are special treats. Another boon has been that we don't need to eat out -- and are past our 'cruise ship' days!

Congratulations! Stay the course and it'll work out.

I lost 42 pounds (my method of choice was counting calories) 6 years ago and have kept it off. I still weigh myself everyday and continue to count calories.. I will never go back to the way I felt before losing the weight. It has become part of my life which I think is the hardest thing to do - to incorporate it into your life and as you say, it is a challenge but so worth it.

To I treat myself every once in a while, sure I do. I also give myself permission to eat everything I see on Christmas Day. :)

Lucille, keep up the good work. I lost 45 pounds but have gained it back, doing what someone posted 'going back to old habits'. I really regret it because now it's even more difficult!

But those difficulties are what the article I linked is saying. The odds are biologically stacked against permanent weight loss, it seems. I agree with Rhizo, there is a lot we don't understand yet. It isn't that somehow one isn't doing the right thing, your body wants you to fail at weight loss.

I lost 45 pounds by changing my food focus. It's stayed off for 3 or 4 years now, including during the forced inactivity of a broken ankle last fall. I've taken a low carb approach. I don't count points or calories, but aim to make most of my own food. There's so much hidden sugars in restaurant meals and processed junk!

In the meantime, I've read the NY Times article.

The big thing about the people in the Biggest Loser study is that these people were encouraged to go on starvation regimens in order to win. Of course the metabolism will change -- the body doesn't want to starve again. I don't think the body is specifically looking to regain the weight per se, as much as to keep reserves at hand, as many as it takes, to not have this starvation thing happen a second time. The woman who lost the least amount of weight during the contest is the only one still losing. Those who were close to her in weight loss have overall gained back slowly. (It is surprising how LONG the metabolism stays depressed after an event like that!)

I lost 45 -- and it stayed off -- but I never starved myself. If I was hungry, I ate. I refrained from stuffing myself, but I ate. Foods from my (modified Paleo) food plan. There are a lot of good things one can do to perfectly nutritious veggies and seafood that don't include sugar or thickeners (which are usually wheat or grain-based, thus fairly high-glycemic). Above all, I made sure I ate three good meals a day. (A few times, just two.) And I aimed to make it a food PLAN, not a DIET with an end-date. Which means, of course, something one can carry into the years, without a feeling of incessant deprivation. So, it took me 9 or 10 months...

I've since added back some of the starches I avoided (potatoes, rice and quinoa), and more cheese, but all within moderation. And yes, I'll eat some bread out -- if it is quality. I don't need buns on my burgers.

(I do want to lose about 15 more pounds, but I feel very much healthier now than I did four years ago.)

Losing weight is a struggle. Good for you Lucille!

Any weight loss is perceived by the body as starvation because that is what starvation is by definition. The body pulls out all the stops to keep it from happening just like in the article. It is an extremely difficult thing to maintain weight loss when your body fights it. No one wants to be fat and if weight loss was doable people would do it. It makes no difference if the weight loss is slow or fast the body is acutely sensitive to it.

ghoghunter, I'd like to see some studies on this -- slow weight loss where the person doesn't feel deprived. You may be right, but even when I was watching that show (You Tube episodes), I was thinking, there's no future at all here, not in this method!

I've read studies that linked underweight newborns to later weight problems. Because they are underweight, parents push food. My only personal knowledge of this is confined to just two individuals who were fat kids in grammar school and are fat adults today. Come to think of it, their mothers are also obese.

It's all a mind game. If you stick with a healthy diet for long enough, it will be like second nature to you. I've come to not like desserts that much , especially cake. Also I weigh myself every other day at the same time( after gym...lol) and if I go up a pound or two, cut back. I feel perfect at one weight and that's what I strive for.

chisue-

That's interesting insight about underweight newborns. Myself and my 3 siblings were all underweight, starting at 4 lb. 12 oz. (the oldest), 5 lb. 3 oz., 5 lb. 8 oz. and the youngest at 5 lb. 12 oz., and later I discovered this was probably caused from my mother's undiagnosed celiac disease. None of us were ever obese, in fact, it's the opposite. Our being small was our "normal", so we were not fed differently because of it. Maybe if only one of us had been underweight it would have been different.

Personally, I'm a stickler for serving sizes and have followed the old "Basic-4" eating program since the late 70's. The Food Pyramid, and now the USDA My Plate, all contain too many carbohydrates and total calories and we gain weight following those plans. By the late 1990's it's been low-glycemic foods (choosing foods on the lower half of the glycemic index of foods) since diabetes is rampant - and deadly - in hubby's family, as a way to try to avoid diabetes; and the last 3-years gluten-free.

Bread & Cereal (grains) - 4-servings per day

Fruits & Vegetables - 4-servings per day

Meat/Alternative - 2-servings per day

Dairy/Alternative - 2-servings per day

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/why-you-cant-lose-weight-on-a-diet.html?emc=edit_th_20160508&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57474085

I grew up eating healthy, but 'plain'. My mother was busy earning a living. My grandmother grew up poor, in a city -- no variety. I can follow a recipe to make something beyond 'plain', but food doesn't interest me much. I'm also LAZY -- the less 'clean-up' the better. (Maybe if I was only "Cook", but not also "Scullery Girl"?)

Neither DH nor I weigh ourselves often. DH does when he suspects he's over 180 lbs. At 75 and 105 lbs, I weigh myself hoping to have gained a bit. I'd like to be 115 again, but doubt the ten pounds would distribute 'evenly'. I see some reports that *elderly* people do better to be a little overweight; less well underweight.

Interesting article on weight loss, but it neglects to mention the role the human microbiome plays in obesity and the issues associated with it. As science learns more about the gut bacteria, I think it may find some interesting answers there to a more permanent weight loss.

45 lb loss is great! Don't knock it. If you can maintain that level, you have done well.

There is something called a 'refeed' where you eat more for a while. I had got stuck at a plateau, and some family celebrations were coming up, so I tried it. I boosted my calories and carb levels, got out of ketosis, for about a week. Then returned to my low carb eating. It worked, I am once again losing weight.

That's great Lucille! Keeping it off is always the hardest part for me. When I went to the doctor this week I had lost 23 lbs. I had weighed on our new scales at home and they said 22 so they are close. I am very happy with the weight loss I just don't like the stress diet. My husband has lost 30 lbs. All since April 18 so all in a month.

Keep up the good work Lucille!

Stress diet is right. I'm glad you are happy with your weight loss, Raven, but I shudder when I think of the horrors in the last few weeks you have had to endure. I hope things get better soon, you deserve better.

http://nypost.com/2016/05/22/biggest-loser-fed-us-illicit-drugs-to-lose-weight-ex-contestants/

Not surprised. I stopped watching BL after a few seasons because I thought they were doing a grave disservice to the overweight population. I've battled weight my whole life and I knew they were eating less than 1,000 calories. Plus, you can't take a 350-400 lb person and have them running on a treadmill for 45 minutes on the first day. You can't have people exercising 6-8 hours a day. Of course the lbs are going to come back when you return to your normal life because you cannot sustain such low calories and that much exercise if you have a job, kids, etc.

I would get so angry when the contestants and especially the coaches, who know better, would get ticked off if the week's weight loss wasn't in the "double digits." So the home viewer also feels like a total failure if they only lose a few lbs.

I've read other articles about horrible knee, ankle, foot and hip injuries because of all the exercise....too much too soon for mostly sedentary bodies.

Of course a show where the people lose the recommended 1-2 lbs a week with a 30 min walk 3-4 times a week or a low impact water aerobics class is not going to be exciting to watch and won't grab ratings and that's the bottom line for television. I think the show should be taken off the air. Maybe when more about the show is exposed it will be.