“Where the rubber hits the road” refers to the Moment of Truth of something.
The point at which the Theory is put into Practice. 
The point in a Process where there are Challenges, Issues, or Problems.

Most people understand that the process of Dieting to achieve a large weight-loss is difficult.  However, Long-term Maintenance of a large-weight loss is the real Point in the process of Dieting where the rubber hits the road.

26 years ago, (Dec. 1992) my weight was 271 lbs.  I’m 5’0” tall, so that’s a 52.9 BMI = Stage 4 obesity = Super-obese. After an open RNY gastric bypass which allows 100% of all calorie intake to still be absorbed, I lost down to 161 pounds, which is a 31.4 BMI = Stage 1 obesity, and maintained near there for a couple of years.

But then my weight began creeping up, and it became necessary for me to start dieting again to avoid a rapid regain. 10 years later, I was dieting to maintain my weight in the 190s, which is a 37 to 38 BMI = Stage 2 = Severe obesity, near the top border between Stages 2 & 3 = Morbid obesity. 

DietHobby’s “ABOUT ME” section provides a summary of my weight history details.   BLOG CATEGORIES, Status Updates contains many articles that share an ongoing record of my weight and calorie numbers.

13+ years ago (Sept. 2004)  I began logging ALL of my daily food intake into a computer food journal which provides me with a calorie count; and I used a scale daily to see my early morning weight, unclothed, immediately after urination, which I recorded immediately.  The chart below is a compilation of that data.

13 Years of Weight-Loss and Maintenance

The chart above shows my total daily calorie amount for an entire individual year, averaged out.  It also shows my total daily weight amount for an entire individual year, averaged out, and my corresponding BMI.  It also includes the lowest recorded weight for each individual year. 



This chart demonstrates that during the 16 month weight-loss phase, my body behaved just as one would expect.  My calorie average of around 1,200, led to a large weight-loss.

During the first two years of my maintenance phase, my body also behaved as one would expect.   A calorie average of around 1,400 resulted in a stable weight-maintenance.

However, during the third year of my maintenance phase the situation changed, and a new Pattern emerged.  I started re-gaining a bit of weight each year, even though I kept lowering my calories.

This pattern of an upward-weight-creep, despite consistent-very-low-calorie-intake, feels precarious. My Maintenance path has now narrowed to a point where sometimes I feel like I’m walking a tightrope, struggling to keep my balance in order to avoid falling all the way back into morbid obesity.

I’m growing weary of living at the place where the Rubber Hits the Road.  This is my current Reality, and the Truth about how maintenance is going for me at the start of 2018.

Many of my previous status update articles discuss details about my weight history, my food and dieting involvement, as well as specifics of this situation. For more detailed information about my current situation, see my recent status update: “Why Is This Happening? - October 2017” which goes into great depth about this issue, and provides many links to relevant articles posted here in DietHobby.