How'd you gain it back?

girlviernes

A few years ago I lost about 45 lbs. It came off fairly easily and I became overly confident that I would continue to lose or at least maintain without too much effort. In addition, I started intensive work on my dissertation which focused on the Health at Every Size approach. The more literature review I read, I actually felt some guilt over dieting and being pretty restrictive in my food choices, and it also undermined my belief that I could keep the weight off long-term. So I was stressed with my dissertation and undermining the mental part, and just gradually put on some weight, and then I moved cities and underwent an intensive clinical year and towards the end of it when I was getting ready to defend my dissertation that's when I went back to pretty extreme binge eating and put on about 25 pounds in a few months.

My takeaways are a) don't get complacent, this is important and will take ongoing diligence. b) be mindful of the mental aspect and where I am putting my attention. In some ways I am glad for the experience, because I think it prepared me well for weight loss this time around. I am not restrictive, I am willing to put in the work, and I have finally been able to reconcile my values of size acceptance, the realities of how rare weight loss is maintained, with my desire to lose weight and be healthy.

madcat444

I think, know I'm a yo-yo dieter. I lose weight when I have goals in mind like vacations etc and then it's all bets are off and I throw myself completely off the wagon!

Getting back on is the hard part, usually takes me a while but I need to be in the correct mindset to do it. On it at the moment as off to Italy end of May and hoping to have flicked a very well hidden moderation switch by then. Going well so far but time will tell................

.................never ending saga for me!

Brentm77

"Getting back on is the hard part, usually takes me a while but I need to be in the correct mindset to do it. On it at the moment as off to Italy end of May and hoping to have flicked a very well hidden moderation switch by then. Going well so far but time will tell................"

One piece of unsolicited advice. What has worked well for me on vacations is to only eat dinner (and sometimes dessert). It allows me to have a fabulous dinner and treat every day - which feels like I am on vacation and not dieting or missing out on local cuisine. Even if I stick to that for half the vacation, I usually don't gain weight, or only gain a little weight, which I can get off within a week. If I stick to it, sometimes I lose weight. For me, food is a very enjoyable part of vacation, so I don't want to feel like I am missing out.

Sorry to hijack the thread. Sticking to the topic now- I have found that my past gain-backs mostly occur because of the delayed response between eating food and gaining. In other words, I go off plan for a day and don't see the scales move too much. Mentally, this makes me think I can eat semi-bad and not gain. But I think there is a average at work that takes several days (maybe weeks if modestly overeating) to show. Overeating soon becomes frequent. Then I say, "ok, no more. I have gained 5 pounds and that is it." But the new way of eating has now become habit, so it sticks with me. Now up 10 pounds, I think I have drawn a line again. But within a day or two I always think I will put off being super strict until next week. That becomes two weeks. Then three.

I usually do finally find the resolve to stop from gaining all the weight back (with one exception about a decade ago). I do think that it is better to lose and gain than to just keep gaining. I think being on average much lighter, with a few bumps in the road, is better despite all the stuff written about yo-yo dieting. Ecspecially given that my blood work and other health has been great on average.

PeachyPlum

It was a period in my life that shall forever be known as "The Winter of Grilled Cheese"

Lounmoun

I lost weight before doing a diet that was not sustainable. I stopped that and gained the weight back.
More importantly, I did not know how many calories I needed, how many calories I was consuming and did not exercise regularly. So I wasn't eating whole pans of brownies, large pizzas or gallons of ice cream but I was eating too much for my activity level.

britt01any

I had always maintained a 130 lb physique, (exception = 2 pregnancies). Being 5'7 that was adequate. I quit smoking in December 2013, since then I have peaked at 157lbs. I have been up and down since then.(My current weight is 147).I have been back on MFP trying to lose that extra 15-17 lbs. I am not sure but I think age and mindset have a lot to do with my fluctuating weight. I don't have a strong network of support through friends and family, but I do visit this site daily and read these threads , they have given me the motivation I had been lacking!! So, thanks to all that share your stories!!

blankiefinder

I stress ate my way through a lot of baking including 9x13 pans of fudge and brownies

omma_to_3

Over the last 2 years, I've gained back about 10 to 15 lbs. When I look at my progress charts, it abruptly changes when my best friend died, and continued through my father's battle with cancer than ended last week :-(

So, stress, very clearly. I've been tracking and working out that entire time, but life got in the way. The funeral is this week so I'm hoping to get back on track next week and lose the weight I've gained.

runningagainstmyself

I lost 85lb., then gained 35lb. between Christmas and a 6-wk trip to SE Asia. Took about 15 of it off, then stopped taking care of myself while I was writing the first draft of my thesis. I ate what I wanted and drank like a fish. Put on 30lb over 5 months. Ta-daaa! Yeah, not doing that again.

blankiefinder

omma_to_3 wrote: »

Over the last 2 years, I've gained back about 10 to 15 lbs. When I look at my progress charts, it abruptly changes when my best friend died, and continued through my father's battle with cancer than ended last week :-(

So, stress, very clearly. I've been tracking and working out that entire time, but life got in the way. The funeral is this week so I'm hoping to get back on track next week and lose the weight I've gained.

Good luck with your journey, omma! It was actually my dad's cancer diagnosis that put me back on this journey. I knew I couldn't keep handling stress the way I had been. With a predisposition to two separate kinds of cancer my doctor told me the best thing I could do to lower my risk is maintain a healthy weight. So I turned exercise instead of food. Honestly it was probably just as effective if not more.

khaleesikhaleesi

Mine was stress! I turned to wine and my feelings were delicious.

AlisonKTrader

rabbitjb wrote: »

returning to a state of lazy and not paying attention with the smugness of 'I've done it, I look hot'

^ This

_tierachanel

I've been trying to lose about 50 lbs for the past 3 years. Up and down up and down. Definition of a yo-yoer. My issue was I would lose about 10-15 lbs then decide to celebrate my loss with a cheat meal (bad idea). That turned into a cheat day, cheat weekend, to a cheat week and next thing I knew I gained it all back. Months go by and my healthy eating habits are out the window. I'll get back on my health kick and do the same thing all over again. It's a learning process for me and I am learning to stay committed.

arussell134

I agree with those that said they needed to weight themselves daily. I know some people may criticize this as being obsessive, but honestly, it's a quick, easy habit to get into. I also give myself permission to stay within a certain range as I know things fluctuate.

I also think starting my weight loss last year how I wanted to eat forever helped. (Eating in moderation, not eliminating food groups, letting myself indulge in periodic social settings, etc.).

I think it's wise to consider why you previously failed so that you can take a different, more successful approach now. Good luck.

(PS I've maintained for nearly 5 months now - going strong!)

Bobbie8786

I was on MFP 2 years-ish ago and lost 44 pounds. Then I simply stopped logging on a daily basis until I didn't log at all and, even worse, I stopped getting on the scale. A year later I stepped on that scale and had gained 35 pounds back.

No real "trigger," I just got lazy and made excuses. I got back on MFP in January and so far have lost 23 pounds of what I gained. I can't say it will never happen again, but I know the most important thing I must do is get on the scale every day, it keeps me thinking about what I need to do.

trying4real

I had lost around 50lbs, then met my S.O and going out to eat for dates etc just put it right back on. Now we both have weight to lose. Definately ate a lot less when I was single lol

JPW1990

My priorities changed. I was sick (in and out of the hospital sick), stressed out by the medical bills, had no idea from week to week if I'd be able to work, too tired to be diligent about weighing things out, banned from doing any type of exercise, but didn't make any real effort to recalculate my maintenance number from active to bedridden.

There's no way to know exactly how much fat I gained back, I'd estimate somewhere between 60 & 100lbs over the course of about 2 years. The rest is lymphatic fluid. I'm back down 48lbs, but again, no idea how much of that is fat loss and how much is fluid loss (honestly, I'd be happy if it was all fluid, but I know it's not).

met42485

I was down to 230ish when I met my beloved. He has a super high metabolism and is a professional chef which meant loads of delicious food and portions that were well beyond what I should have been eating. 2.5 years and 40ish lbs later here we are lol. The good news is he's 100% on board with me since I wasn't the only one to gain the 'relationship gut' hahaha!

stsanche

I lost 17 lb in 2013 and I was pretty happy. My mom passed away November 2013. I bought a house March 2014. Moved July 2014. Noticed that I gained about 10lb over those months. I am back down a couple of pounds but have 7 left to get to were I was.