once fat, always fat

blessingsfromabove721

Taking an excerpt out of one of the big posts trending on here right now (the one about the 800lb man getting kicked out of the hospital), somebody posted a story on that thread about a girl who was very large and lost some weight but not in the healthy way. Anyways, basically what she said was that most people who start off fat, even if they lose the weight, will always be fat...no matter how hard they try. And basically she made the assumption that even if you do manage to keep the weight off for any length of time, you will have to eat a very low calorie diet and you will basically be miserable, sick and tired.

My question is: do you think this is true? Do you think the majority of us will regain the weight and as she called "once your fat, you'll always be fat"? Or do you think it all comes down to being informed about weight loss and maintenance?

Sued0nim

Nope

jaqcan

Being informed about weight loss and maintenance!!!! You can't go back to previous eating habits (aka AMOUNTS) You'll always be eating less than you did at 250-300-800 lbs. You'll never be able to eat that way again. But you don't have to eat 1200 calories either. Lose the weight, eat less, move more. It's simple in concept, but harder in execution!

hugheseva

Just by judging on how many people are repeat users of MFP, I think that the majority pf people gain back the weight and are not capable of doing a lifestyle change, which is mandatory if one wants to maintain in a healthy range. I am seeing posts here where people are losing weight but complaining about how sometimes they are still binging on sweets or alcohol, or pizza, or processed food. If one doesn't start to dramatically change their eating habits, it's a lost cause in my opinion.

MondayJune22nd2015

I read that entire thread. It's all about ability, knowledge, & decisions! She wasn't doing enough proper things, to lose weight & keep it off & once she lost some weight, she didn't continue to because "crash dieting", isn't sustainable. It can be done but her way and/or the way of shows like: The Biggest Loser (they eat too little & move too much) because the viewers don't want to wait 2 years, for the contestant to lose all of the weight; the proper/sustainable way. It needs to be done much slower, otherwise it's just "crash dieting".

ARC1603

I think it's all down to people's attitude. I think a large majority of people who are over weight and lose weight aren't mentally prepared for what it will entail to keep the weight off.

To be overweight in the first place, your lifestyle is going to be unhealthy to some extent, be it lack of exercises and/or eating unhealthy foods. Most people don't approach weight loss as a long term change to that lifestyle. They do what they can to lose as much weight as physically possible as quickly as possible. Then go right back to their previous lifestyle.

People don't recognise that the best way to lose weight and keep it off is to make realistic changes to their lifestyle that can be maintained in the long run. I include myself in this because it has taken me a very long time to accept this as well. The weight is not going to drop off overnight by doing this, but it will gradually come off and stay off because I know I can do what I'm doing now for the long term.

SLLRunner

blessingsfromabove721 wrote: »

Taking an excerpt out of one of the big posts trending on here right now (the one about the 800lb man getting kicked out of the hospital), somebody posted a story on that thread about a girl who was very large and lost some weight but not in the healthy way. Anyways, basically what she said was that most people who start off fat, even if they lose the weight, will always be fat...no matter how hard they try. And basically she made the assumption that even if you do manage to keep the weight off for any length of time, you will have to eat a very low calorie diet and you will basically be miserable, sick and tired.

My question is: do you think this is true? Do you think the majority of us will regain the weight and as she called "once your fat, you'll always be fat"? Or do you think it all comes down to being informed about weight loss and maintenance?

Don't listen to that person. I was fat my entire life up into my early forties. I lost about 80 lbs total, but got into bad habits and gained 30 back. I am now at a healthy weight and no longer fat. It's because I have the tools to lose weight and keep it off if I so choose, and I choose to.

DeguelloTex

Y'all might regain. I won't.

nvmomketo

I would guess that is true for the majority. I hope it will not be tru for me, but it was in the past.

snowflake954

He who believes he can't do it---won't. My husband always says the battle is lost before it begins. First off, a positive attitude is necessary, then, persistance---just keep going and don't give up. All the tools you need are on MFP. Just use them.

jennifer_417

People regain the weight because they don't make any sort of plan for maintaining after they've lost.

Maxematics

Nope, it's just a half-truth. Partially because the industry wants you to believe you can't lose weight on your own and you need their products to help you and partially because people are uninformed about calorie consumption.

As many have already stated, the reason why many people gain the weight back is because they are not willing to make lifestyle changes. They think once they lose weight, they can go back to their old eating habits and maintain their weight and that's just not going to happen. Most people who are overweight are overweight because they do not have a healthy relationship with food to begin with. Instead of just focusing on a number on the scale, they need to focus on their overall health and wellness too.

When I first lost weight, it was 12 years ago and I was fresh out of high school. I was at my highest weight of 190 pounds. Between 8th grade and senior year of high school, I went from 120 to 160 to 140 then ballooned to 190. Why? My mom, being overweight herself, had no clue about nutrition and dinner was often Chinese food, McDonald's, or pizza. She never sent me to school with lunch, so my "lunch" was often Skittles and M&M Peanuts from the vending machine or two Sausage McMuffins from McDonald's. When I turned 18 I was able to branch out on my own and take care of myself. Within two years, I went from 190 to 115 pounds! Between then and now I've fluctuated between 111 and 140 pounds, but I have NEVER gone into the overweight category again.

Why did I gain any weight back at all? Periods of depression, inactivity, and not giving a damn about what I eat or myself. People say as you age, you can't lose weight. I'm 30 now and I weigh 118 pounds; my body looks the best it ever has in my life. Do I deprive myself? No. Yesterday I had half of a pumpkin spice donut, half of an apple cinnamon donut, half of a jelly donut, and a hamburger with BBQ sauce and french fries. I enjoyed every bite, but I know I can't eat like that every single day unless I'm willing to get the physical activity it takes to burn that off or maintain my weight. I still ended up losing two pounds this week when my goal is only half a pound per week. I didn't mean to, but I move around so much now that it just happened.

Getting a Fitbit also opened my eyes to how much I truly am able to eat per day. MFP tells me 1200 minimum, but when I wake up in the morning, I can only eat 990 calories or so to lose half a pound per week unless I move my butt! It doesn't even have to be that much, either, but I love getting physical activity now. Learning to get up and move/following an exercise program, combined with making wiser food choices, has helped me immensely. I finally figured out the source of my hives after eating after being misdiagnosed for 12 years, I cook for myself a lot more than I did before which saves me money, my depression is no longer present, and I wake up every morning looking forward to life. I'm not saying this will be the case for everyone, but it's amazing how much making lifestyle changes can help with weight loss, as well as other areas of life. As long as you are committed, informed, and take responsibility for yourself, you will not regain the weight. That's a fact.

Ashtoretet

I don't intend on ever going back to my highest weight. Yeah I won't be able to eat like I used to but I won't be starving and I will be a lot healthier.

seska422

Some things that jumped out at me:

Throughout college, I tried all of the trendy plans to little or no avail. My bookshelves are littered with South Beach, Atkins, and Zone manuals, Protein Power handbooks, and every form of the lie that the sensation of hunger is really just dehydration. (One month, I drank 5 liters of water every day. This must go on the record as my least favorite of any of the diet plans I tried.) Every time, the same pattern: about 10 pounds of initial loss, very quickly, great joy throughout the land, and then … nothing. Although I’d made no changes to my eating plan or introduced any new food, I would stagnate. I followed every rule to the letter but always got stuck.

And then, slowly, the pounds would begin to creep back on.

She didn't have persistence or patience.

When the initial "honeymoon" fast weight loss from a new diet slowed down and she didn't get constant positive feedback from fast weight loss, she decided that it wouldn't work long-term. Once she got "stuck", she probably relaxed her vigilance and didn't follow the diet closely and calories crept in here and there. That re-enforced that the diet wasn't working for her anymore (even though it would have if she'd stayed compliant) so she switched and started the whole process over again.

My grandmother’s cookies have 114 calories each and must be a rare treat.

Either her grandmother had the tiniest cookies ever or the author wasn't as good at calculating the calories in foods as she thought she was. If she didn't calculate her calorie intake accurately, that throws all of the other I only ate X calories references into doubt.

Ultimately, she didn't find what worked for her. She kept trying and trying things that worked for other people rather than experimenting with her macro balance and calories to find something that she could sustain long term. It's all about the long term.

Maxematics

seska422 wrote: »

Some things that jumped out at me:

Throughout college, I tried all of the trendy plans to little or no avail. My bookshelves are littered with South Beach, Atkins, and Zone manuals, Protein Power handbooks, and every form of the lie that the sensation of hunger is really just dehydration. (One month, I drank 5 liters of water every day. This must go on the record as my least favorite of any of the diet plans I tried.) Every time, the same pattern: about 10 pounds of initial loss, very quickly, great joy throughout the land, and then … nothing. Although I’d made no changes to my eating plan or introduced any new food, I would stagnate. I followed every rule to the letter but always got stuck.

And then, slowly, the pounds would begin to creep back on.

She didn't have persistence or patience.

When the initial "honeymoon" fast weight loss from a new diet slowed down and she didn't get constant positive feedback from fast weight loss, she decided that it wouldn't work long-term. Once she got "stuck", she probably relaxed her vigilance and didn't follow the diet closely and calories crept in here and there. That re-enforced that the diet wasn't working for her anymore (even though it would have if she'd stayed compliant) so she switched and started the whole process over again.

My grandmother’s cookies have 114 calories each and must be a rare treat.

Either her grandmother had the tiniest cookies ever or the author wasn't as good at calculating the calories in foods as she thought she was. If she didn't calculate her calorie intake accurately, that throws all of the other I only ate X calories references into doubt.

Ultimately, she didn't find what worked for her. She kept trying and trying things that worked for other people rather than experimenting with her macro balance and calories to find something that she could sustain long term. It's all about the long term.

Bingo. People who jump from diet to diet normally fail at weight loss because they have no patience. They expect to see unrealistic weight loss week after week, quit when they don't, then blame everything but themselves.

Duchy82

I've been at this weightloss journey for a long time, there have been breaks in it where i haven't logged due to medical reasons and gained weight back but i have never gone back to my starting weight of 107.6kg and have no intention of ever going back there. I tend to set myself mini goals but also max gain limits so at the moment I'm aiming to get to 80kg by christmas but i also have the rule that i won't allow myself to get above 85kg (82.5kg at the moment) if i were to take a break. That upper limit is constantly moving downward with my weightloss and will have an upper limit once i get to maintenance.

I was miserable at 107.6kg that is motivation enough never to get that big again a add to that my fear of developing type2 diabetes and i should be golden once i hit maintenance.

I think most that regain the weight make the mistake to follow a diet instead of a lifelong commitment to being at a healthy weight

SLLRunner

nvmomketo wrote: »

I would guess that is true for the majority. I hope it will not be tru for me, but it was in the past.

This is a good point, but I think those who gain weight back is decreasing because we now have tools to learn about what weight management is and is not about, and we use those tools. If you don't lose weight in a sustainable way, and if we don't use the tools, it's easier to fall into old habits we had when we were fat.

I won't gain weight back because I have great tools to keep it off.

tennisdude2004

It's an interesting question, I think a number of people that have come far on their journey and are in maintenance may keep it off.

The problem is continuing to action the tools we have learned. Life sometimes makes that difficult (not impossible, but difficult) and it can be a downwards spiral.

If you looked at the number of people that have passed through MFP, lost weight and then regained it I'm sure the number is probably higher than the current number of active members.

A lot of people have knowledge about what they should do, but a large number of them will not be willing to put in the hard work. At the end of the day, unless you are lucky, most of us will find it hard work.

Pawsforme

The majority? Sadly, yes. I don't see how anyone can argue with that unless they live in a bubble. Or don't have any friends, family or co-workers. Because it happens all the time.

But that does NOT mean that it's inevitable that all will, or that any one particular person is doomed to regain, or that those who don't are sentenced to live miserable, hungry lives.

What it takes to not regain is dedication and commitment and knowledge.

I lost over 60 pounds about 27 years ago and successfully kept it off through two pregnancies, menopause and various stressful life events. I didn't have to deprive myself or stay hungry all the time. So yes -- it is totally possible to lose and keep it off.

(In case anyone is wondering, the only reason I'm here now is that my thyroid crapped out and caused me to gain some weight. But with proper medication and following the good eating habits I learned when I lost weight before that weight is going away.)

cnbbnc

Hmmmmm.... Well, first off I think since she's had such a hard go of it that now she's got a nice defeatist attitude going, and attempting to drag everyone else down with her. Like...you're always gonna be fat anyway, so why even try?

I think that's a bunch of crap, but....I do believe that many MANY people do achieve their weight loss goal only to find themselves right back at square one because they couldn't handle the "it's a lifetime change" piece. I fall into that category as this isn't my first time at the weight loss rodeo.

I don't believe it has to be that way though. One thing that bothers me here is seeing people say "I'm just concerned with achieving my goal. I'll worry about maintenance when I get there." That's the thinking that will get you in trouble, and that's where I have to agree with her.