A Year of Maintenance

One year ago, I hit my goal of burning 60 pounds with Noom. Since then I have been on maintenance. The goal was to stay in a 5-pound range: 170-175. In practice it worked out to a 10-pound range 170-180, which with all that 2020 has thrown at me (and all of us) I am ok with. After the first few weeks of adjustment to maintenance I found a pretty good rhythm, I started working on my next round of fitness goals. I also found some new apps to support my post-Noom life:

• MapMyWalk 
• FitBod
• MoodPath
• Ten Percent Happier
• Lose It 
• Habitica 

Habitica helped us extend some of the habit formation skills we learned from Noom beyond issues related to food and fitness.

When I started tracking my walks with MapMyWalk I had a pace of 18'22" per mile. I have brought that down to 12'52". 

When I started working out with FitBod I could do two pull ups (which was an improvement already over none pre-Noom). Now I can do ten in a set. I have also hit my goal of being able to do handstand pushups (with balance support from a wall). 

MoodPath has helped me track how I am feeling day to day which has helped monitor bouts of depression.      
With the Ten Percent Happier app, I have logged almost 100 hour of mindfulness sessions over 400 days which has helped with my anxiety. 

We discovered Lose It which does a better job of logging food than Noom, especially since we can share meals logs between my wife and I over Air Drop. It also tracks macronutrients so I can keep an eye on my protein intake. It also lets us track water. For maintenance, the main thing we give up is the colors, but those are ingrained enough at this point that I just need to remember to keep up my veggies game. I would still recommend Noom for folks working on serious weight loss. 

Turkey Breast in Instant pot

We got a seven pound turkey breast from Rinella Produce that I cooked under pressure in the instant pot.

So far we have had it:
With Eggs;
With brown gravy;
With mashed potatoes and bbq beans;
Sandwiches;
On Salads.

We still have turkey.
Trying to figure out more things to try.

One year of Noom

In one year with Noom I lost sixty pounds in the first six months and maintained within a five-pound range with a few excursions.

I was quite concerned about how I would do in maintenance and experimented with a few different approaches:

• Should I keep logging? (I did)
• Weekly weigh-ins (tried it; didn't like it) 
• How do I set my new calorie budget?

Should I keep logging? 

I did keep logging. I could imagine stopping at some point. But it helps be stay mindful of what I'm eating and it provides realtime feedback of how my day is going calorically. I still don't trust my hunger signals, there are times when I am hungry right after I eat. But I think I am getting a little better at sussing out genuine hunger from mere snackiness. Some days I approximate more than others. It depends on if I'm in the middle of my range and having a normal sort of food day, then I don't sweat every last gram. If life is complicated, or I am above my range, I try to be more careful.

Should I go to weekly weigh-ins?

I tried it and didn't like it. The daily weigh in lets me know if things are ok, or need attention. And I like having the data. When I tried doing weekly weigh ins I felt more anxious not knowing if I was drifting.

How do I set my new calorie budget? 

By trial and error, I figured out that on the lowest weight loss setting (Turtle in iPhone) I needed about 200-300 calories over the max if I double counted my exercise (log twice as much as I actually did so the app would give me all the calories and not just half). Early on if I went above my range I would go full Noom immediately. And I would get back in range within a day or two. Now I am a little more relaxed and just try to be more careful with my logging and only count my exercise like normal and it usually corrects itself within a couple days anyway.

What's next 

I am very happy with the program, especially once I found the Noom facebook groups. I keep upping my exercise game. I got a set of dumbbells, then I needed a set with heavier weights. Then I got a weight bench from a friend. Now I use the FitBod app for my workouts. It tracks which muscle groups you use and how long they need to recover.

My wife and I also started using Habitica (app and website) which gamifies our task lists and helps with habit formation. This gives us a lot of the benefits of Noom but applied to other aspects of our life.

Each day is its own adventure.