"There are almost no scientific studies about how successful long-term maintainers have managed it, but there is one very good one - a study by Rena Wing and Suzanne Phelan called 'Long-term weight loss maintenance'. It looked at the experiences of 1400 people who had lost a lot of weight and who had kept it off. They found that the most successful ones continued, among other things, to eat a low-fat diet, to weigh themselves often (half of them every day), and to exercise a lot. This is my personal experience." 
- January 2015
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A bit about me
It's now 70 weeks since I decided to change my eating habits for good. I started at 23st 5lbs327lbs148.5kg, and in those 70 weeks I have lost 8st 12lbs124lbs56.3kg, with a bit more to go. When I started, I was 61 years old. I was taking three types of medication to control blood pressure, and statins to control cholesterol levels...
- February 2015
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A big meal
My version of portion control was the lower in calories something was, the more of it I ate. Lunch is a good example. I nearly always have a salad, and I eat it from a big bowl. It's a really big bowl...
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Starting to think maintenance
Although I haven't yet decided on a final target weight, it can't be far away, so I am thinking more and more about maintenance. One thing that bothers me is that if I go away for a couple of days, on my return I have always put on a kilo, sometimes more...
- March 2015
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What's my secret
Probably everybody who has lost a lot of weight is asked "what's your secret?". I usually start by saying "if I told you, it wouldn't help you", because we all have different bodies, and we all have different attitudes to things as well. But they still keep asking! So here are the first five of my ten 'secrets'...
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I'm a healthy weight
My BMI yesterday was 24.9 - I am officially a healthy weight!! So this would not be a good time to drift up again, especially as I have also now lost 9st 13lbs139lbs63kg, and I would love to reach this imperial measure milestone of a 10 stones140lbs loss (63.5kg). BUT...
- April 2015
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10 stones140lbs63.5kg lost
I woke up a couple of days ago to find that my weight had lurched down overnight (which happens occasionally, as we all know). It had dipped to 13st 5lbs187lbs85kg, which gives me a BMI of 24.8, and a total weight loss of 10 st140lbs63.5kg dead - 43% of my starting weight...
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The first week of maintenance
A week or so back I hit 13st 5lbs187lbs85kg, and decided (with a BMI of 24.8) that that was enough. Now - maintenance! I have blogged before that I wanted my maintenance to be my new eating habits, but tweaked a bit. So I'm following the advice on the Nutracheck site...
- May 2015
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Packed lunch
I usually work from home, but I do sometimes need to be out for the day, and then I take a packed lunch. It's pretty easy for me, because lunch at home is nearly always a big salad, so rather than putting it in a bowl, I just put it in a plastic box instead...
- July 2015
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In praise of walking
In my last blog I said that as I lost weight in the last couple of years, I managed to rediscover the great feeling of walking, which I had lost when I was very heavy. Almost immediately after writing that blog, Ann and I went away for three days, hoping to walk a bit...
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Maintenance - my first three months
I wrote in my last blog that someone was really surprised, now I am at my target weight, that I still have what she thought was a rather austere diet. She asked whether I was planning on eating like this forever. The short answer is yes...
- August 2015
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Maintaining on holiday
I am just back from a week all alone in a self-catering cottage in the Yorkshire Wolds, while Ann was a few miles away at a residential summer school. Apart from missing the love of my life, it was a great week, walking in that beautiful part of the country...
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Milestone
Today is a milestone for me - it's two years since I decided to change my eating habits for good. For 50 years I had followed 'diets' and, when the diets finished I went right back to eating what I had always eaten, and any weight I had lost soon piled back on, usually with a bit more...
- October 2015
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Diet creep after 6 months of maintenance
It's half a year ago that I decided I was at my target weight 13st 2lbs184lbs83.5kg. As I've said before, it's bobbed up and down more than I would like, but this morning I weighed 13st182lbs82.7kg. So far, then, there have been some slips, but I've stopped them becoming slides! I'm pleased...
- November 2015
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Keep it simple
There are still people I meet who ask me how I lost so much weight and, more and more, how I am managing to keep it off. Almost always they are disappointed when I tell them...
- December 2015
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Planning for Christmas
If you've read any of my blogs you'll know I am very keen on planning and measuring! So at the start of December, with Christmas now in sight, I've been thinking about my weight over Christmas and beyond...
- January 2016
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2015: What I learned
The first quarter of 2015 was when I finished my weight loss, and arrived at 13st 2lbs184lbs83.5kg - a loss of 44% of my body weight. The rest of the year was the start of maintaining and, after bobbing about quite a lot over the last nine months, today I weighed 13st 2lbs184lbs83.7kg. So the big headline is that 2015 was GOOD NEWS...
- February 2016
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Beer story
I was a late starter drinking alcohol. As I remember, I didn't have an alcoholic drink until I was about 18, but by the time I left University I was a confirmed (but not excessive) beer drinker. On average I probably had a couple of pints every day...
- March 2016
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Controlling the Yo-Yo
Some people seem to keep their body weight stable without trying. I don't know how it happens (maybe it's in their genes), but one thing I am pretty sure about - I have never been one of those people...
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Lifetime firsts!
Until I lost my 10 st140lbs63.5kg with Nutracheck, I had usually been very overweight. In my late teens and twenties I played a lot of sport, and I wasn't quite so heavy, but even then I was always at least 15 st150lbs68kg - and, no, it wasn't muscle...
- April 2016
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A year of maintenance
At the end of last March I stepped on the scales and they told me that I weighed 13st 5lbs187lbs85kg (BMI 24.8). In the previous 20 months I had lost 10 st140lbs63.5kg, and Ann and I decided that that was a big enough loss, and that 85kg was a good target weight...
- July 2016
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Keeping on keeping it simple
Of my 60-odd blogs, the one where I had the most positive feedback was about one from November 2015, called 'Keeping it Simple'. I said in that blog that quite a few people asked me how I managed to keep my weight steady, and that they were almost always disappointed when I told them...
- January 2021
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Resources
Steve and fellow Nutracheck-er Caroline co-authored a book about their incredible weight loss achievements - The Weight Maintenance Manual.
In the book, Steve and Caroline share their hard-gained experiences about preparing for life at a healthy weight, from the moment you start your journey.
* Weight loss is individual and your personal rate of loss may vary from any case studies shown on this website.
About Nutracheck
Nutracheck is a top-rated food diary App and website. We track calories and 7 key nutrients - carbs, sugar, fibre, protein, fat, saturated fat and sodium. Our mission is to give our members insight into what they are eating to empower them to make more informed food choices. We've been helping people achieve their weight management goals since 2005.
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