My Top Weight Maintenance Tools 2016 with Pro User tips, most low cost or free

Weight Maintenance 2016 tools

The sun is setting on 2016.  * please note, my blog is non-commercial*. This post is NOT an ad, and the tools I use are often free or low cost or just cost a bit of time.

Or they cost several months of habit change.

4 years, 11 months into weight maintenance and it takes a lot of tools to maintain my weight. Just as being food sober still takes work.

I'm here to tell you my best tools are not expensive, but they do take time to learn and to keep habits sustained.





I still have to learn new behaviors. STILL. Weight maintenance is always a work in progress. You'll age, you'll get further into menopause or aging or post obese weight metabolism.

Weight regain post weight loss is real for those of us with certain genetics. Combine my FTO genetics with my extra ghrelin. BOOM y'all. Perfect storm for weight regain. My body fat wanted  to come backkkkkk in 2016!!!  My obesity metabolism is right there, lurking, no matter how careful I am with my food template, my workouts, my sleep.

I can cycle back to overweight in about 10-16 weeks if I'm not careful. I want it all, I want food sobriety, I want weight maintenance, I want good health, I want strong muscles, I want migraine free living, I want acne free skin, I want life without sinus infections, I want fasting and 2 hour glucose that is optimal.  I want my size 6's jeans   (really , I do!!) metabolic health.

It's not too  much to ask, to have had 4 decades of overweight, binge eating, and food addition to want to escape this stuff.

You're tools will be different. Take the time to pick wisely. Right now, don't wait until 2017. 

My Top Tools of 2016 Weight Maintenance

1. Abstaining from my binge foods. Yep! Costs nothing but the emotional pain of withdrawals (which is at a cost).

My best practices: Grain free, sugar free (excluding a small amount of 85% chocolate that doesn't trigger me), emulsifier free, tough, not moderate. Yeah!!!

Pro Tip, grab others who abstain with no excuses: Stop reading and following the sugar moderators. Great for them, but huge slippery slope for the rest of us.

I'm not alone: Millions of folks who are Paleo, Primal, Low Carb Higher Natural Fat, Ketosis, Nutritional Ketosis, NSNG,  or who seek to keep type 2, type 1 managed better and other diseases in remission. Plus, let's not forget the OA'ers who are out there in force. The folks over at NSNG, the 10,000 + in several Low Carb Keto support groups.

Come on now...

Abstaining from binge foods does NOT equal food restriction

Yo! Boom y'all.  Many need an abstinence based plan. So don't shy away. Stop repeating the binge eat, repent, repeat.

2. Daily Weighing on the scale with data recording.  Yeah, I weigh in once a day and record it and move along. I would have been overweight in 2016 without getting a fair warning in 2015-2016 that I needed to change.  Once you weigh in, record it somewhere. Paper, My Fitness Pal, notebook, diary. My best practice: record where I can graph.

 Pro User tips: Scale prices are inexpensive and scales can last many years. Calibrate by comparing with a known weight once and awhile. Toss a scale you can't calibrate after it is unreliable. Change your scale batteries from time to time.

Free/ Cheapest solution: weigh in at the doctor or at a CVS or pop-up  grocery store or drug store clinic. Many have scales just sitting around and you can weigh in often.

Long Term Weight Maintenance 2016, LCHF, Keto, and Time Restricted Eating Window for the WIN!

Here's what daily weighing looked like in 2016. 1 year of daily weighing. The small or large shifts gave me a warning I needed to change up what I was doing.  And evaluating weight loss sustainability is very key for me.

3. Recording my food in My Fitness Pal 98% of the time. Data is King and I can't manage what I don't measure. I'm a food addict in recovery so carb creep and "eating this because I was active today" can still take over my brain. 

Pro User Tip: My best practice: Total intake, macros, and having a food diary are all helpful tools. My app is free, my time is only about 2-3 minutes each day, because the database at My Fitness Pal is very good and is updated frequently.

Free tool- record on index cards, paper, an excel spread sheet. No MFP ads involved. Nice records, but not backed up for loss electronically unless you scan or photo graph. 

Psssss when I don't track in MFP maybe a few days a month, I don't eat off my food template. Just saying. Don't kid yourself. I don't kid myself and it lead to long term weight maintenance.

Typical LCHF Day in Weight Maintenance 2016

LCHF Keto breakfast 2016, weight maintenance

4. Time restricted eating window, Dr. Panda for the WIN!!

Basically, this is an intermittent fast or (IF) every day. I Fast for 17 hours and eat for 7 hours.

Pro users tip: Yeah, in 2016, I've lost 6-8 pounds by simply eating within a 6 am -1pm (approx) time window each day. I can tell I've not changed my total intake, my total carbs or my activity. But, hey, my back fat is gone and so is hip and thigh fat. yeah!!!  

Additional reading and resources: Doing the 14 week My Circadian Clock study out of the Salk in La Jolla, CA- Dr. Panda's lab was a real great intro to Time Restricted Eating. More info here on my post study update.  

Additional free tool. There is a new app that is free and is modeled after Dr. Panda's work via Kevin Rose - the App is called Zero. I'll review it soon. 

4. Glucose meter- spot monitoring for the win

I know my time restricted eating window is working great for my blood glucose. My balance was good before my 6am- 1pm window, but just as good if not better after

Pro best user tip: Get a glucose meter, eat to your meter, then monitor if you change your food template OR just to do some spot checking. I act as if I had type 2 diabetes (never diagnosed, but almost) and use food to control my readings. 

Cost is low $30-50 a year after you get started.  I can't change my genetics, I can modify the foods I eat to make sure I stay disease free. 

Low cost or free option: Eat very low carb and don't test.  Get once per year blood work. Go from there.

5.  Diving into regular life: Taking time for family, friends, hobbies, photography, walking, hiking, house projects, financial planning,  batch cooking, gardening, my cats, continuing education, attending seminars like Low Carb USA 2016, talking to experts, talking to people just like myself. Learning new skills on the job. Coffee.  

Food addiction used to keep me from fully diving into my life. Now I can engage in life fully and functionally. 

Yes, my shrink was right. My whole life is a lot different now that I've abstained from grains, most sugars, and emulsifiers. 

Here's to 2017 and another year of weight maintenance. 

Walking for Long Term Weight Maintenance 2016

What are your best tips or tools for 2016? What are you willing to habit change for 2017?