Harder to lose weight trying for second/third/fourth time??

jendpositive

Just wanted to ask for people like me who have lost and gained many times, does it physically get harder to lose the weight with each new attempt?

SueInAz

It can over time especially if you are dieting with a very low calorie intake and then later gaining weight without lifting weights. Here's why:

When we eat too far under our maintenance calories over a period of time (the restrictive dieting part of the yo-yo cycle) our bodies think we're starving and won't have access to food any time soon. So rather than take all of the energy it needs from stored fat (what we want to happen) it will start breaking down lean muscle mass for fuel, especially if we aren't using those muscles aggressively by weight lifting. What we end up with at the end is a lower weight on the scale but a less lean muscle mass and a slightly lower metabolism. Now we gain weight (the other half of the yo-yo cycle) because we've stopped dieting and have returned to the way we normally eat. If we aren't lifting heavy weights while eating more calories than we need then all of those pounds being gained are going to be from fat. Now our body fat percentage is even higher than it was the last time we were at this weight and our metabolism is a little bit lower so we burn less calories each day. Doing this continually over many years will keep increasing body fat relative to lean muscle mass and it gets harder and harder to lose weight the next time we take that yo-yo out for a spin.

jendpositive

So the answer is to life weight to stop this happening?

SueInAz

jendpositive wrote: »

So the answer is to life weight to stop this happening?

I think it is, yes. I've ready plenty of information on the fact that it's mainly muscle loss that causes our metabolism to slow so much as we age. Most of us know that it slows, we've certainly seen the effects and have plenty of anecdotal evidence, until I started reading around I just didn't know why.

The only thing is, you can't really build muscle while losing weight. So weight lifting will help you to keep more of the muscle you still have while you're trying to lose weight but it won't build more. For that reason, I've actually been eating right around my maintenance calories while lifting so that I'm able to build more muscle. My weight has been pretty steady, although I have dropped a couple of pounds, but I'm definitely getting smaller and firmer. I've realized that's what I really wanted all along, not just a smaller number on the scale.

RodaRose

Lift heavy. You can lose weight.

kyrannosaurus

I'm actually finding it soooo much easier this time around. I have already got the experimenting out of the way and know what works and what doesn't, what my triggers are and what I need to do to be successful. All I have to do is put all this into action. Maintenance is where my challenge is going to be.