10 stones 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 85kg, which gives me a BMI of 24.8, and a total weight loss of 10st dead (43% of my starting weight).

Ann and I had a serious chat, and we decided that that would do. My weight has only been this OK once before – for two years at the height of my sporting life, and that was in 1974/75, and it feels fantastic. I could carry on losing weight, but I am now looking a bit scrawny, and we both reckon that if I could stay at 85kg for good, then that would be fine. So now the difficult bit starts!...

...Maintenance! I always knew that I was in this for the long haul, and so I have been trying to change my eating habits for good. I've had some success at doing that, so I don't want to start doing anything very different from the last 18 months. That means that maintenance is basically no change. I will carry on weighing myself every day (not popular, I know!), and if I see my weight going down, I will adjust for a day or two to take it back to 85kg. I'm not going to adjust by eating calorific things I have lost the taste for (cheese or pasta, for example), but rather by eating calorific things I still like, or have learned to like (nuts or salmon, for example).

What if I see my weight going up? Hopefully I have just spent the last 18 months learning what to do about that!