Fluctuating a lot?

MelZweightlossjourney

Do you guys fluctuate with your weight a lot? I know I do..

Here's my story, so when I was a teenager I was always a heavier girl, I was depressed, didn't have a lot of friends, I drank a lot of soda and ate too much junk food. When I was 16 I moved in with my dad and we went to the doctor for a checkup and the scale said 222, I was so heartbroken and very upset so I started watching what I ate and I cut out soda entirely and started going to the gym with my dad, by the time I was 18 I had lost 50 pounds, I was 175-ish then about a year later I was up to 200 again then went down to under 170 when I had a couple of jobs where I was more active and now I'm back to around 190-200.. ever since I lost the weight as a teenager I've had a hard time keeping a stable weight.. I fluctuate from the 170-200 range, I haven't hit my highest weight again yet (knock on wood) just wondering if anyone else is like this too... Please share your stories, I'd love to hear them!

MelZweightlossjourney

melissajmeek35 wrote: »

Do you guys fluctuate with your weight a lot? I know I do..

Here's my story, so when I was a teenager I was always a heavier girl, I was depressed, didn't have a lot of friends, I drank a lot of soda and ate too much junk food. When I was 16 I moved in with my dad and we went to the doctor for a checkup and the scale said 122, I was so heartbroken and very upset so I started watching what I ate and I cut out soda entirely and started going to the gym with my dad, by the time I was 18 I had lost 50 pounds, I was 175-ish then about a year later I was up to 200 again then went down to under 170 when I had a couple of jobs where I was more active and now I'm back to around 190-200.. ever since I lost the weight as a teenager I've had a hard time keeping a stable weight.. I fluctuate from the 170-200 range, I haven't hit my highest weight again yet (knock on wood) just wondering if anyone else is like this too... Please share your stories, I'd love to hear them!

Cortneyrenee04

Hi Melissa!

Yes, I always did. My range was 185 - 200 when I was just living "normally" back then. For as long as I can remember, that's how it was. Then I went to the doctor once and I was 207 and somehow that really got me to realize this isn't okay for my short (5'3") body. When I started losing, it came of pretty effortlessly until I got to 185. I know it was a mental thing and I didn't understand calories yet, but I had to really work to push through. (Oh, and like you, I've lost 50 pounds in the past and it all came back.)

Fast forward a few years, and I'm fluctuating in the 130s and hoping I don't fluctuate like that any more. We'll see!

jennyi27

I have had episodes like that - all medically related. When I was 14, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. The most effective kind of medicine for controlling my kind of epilepsy has several unfortunate side effects, one of which is weight gain. This is not good for someone who already has a weight problem! I gained about 50 pounds in a short period of time, so they took me off that medicine. Eventually I ended up going on another kind of medicine for my epilepsy. It caused me to lose the 50 pounds, but it didn't control the seizures as well and it had some cognitive side effects. I stayed away from medicine altogether in my college years so I could get my GPA up and not gain so much weight. Not the safest idea, but my grades were much better. However, all of the beer and pizza definitely caught up with me and I put on weight again. I ended up going on birth control when I was 20, and suffered some major side effects from that. I had a severe blood clot in my leg and pulmonary embolisms. I was hospitalized for about a month and bedridden. A lot of that time, I was so ill that I didn't feel like eating. When I finally was able to come home, it hurt too much to move anywhere other than the bathroom, so I didn't really venture to the kitchen. I ended up losing about 50 pounds there. I had to take a semester off of school to recuperate from the ordeal. Once I was able to walk again, I was at home with nothing to do other than eat. So guess what...I gained about 50 pounds...again! Shortly after graduation, I moved abroad and met my future husband. We got pregnant, and we all know what happens then - weight gain! I started seeing a new neurologist after my daughter was born, and he put me back on the original medication that caused me to gain weight in the first place. I have been on that med ever since, because I need to be responsible and have it to control my seizures. I gained weight, so I went on Weight Watchers when my daughter was about 2 or 3 years old and lost some weight, but I have since gained it all (plus some) back. I have come to the realization that I need to make this med work, so I need to better manage the weight issue. Since taking this medicine, I never feel full. I always feel like I can eat more. It is a real struggle with self control, but I am managing. I am down more than 50 pounds since January, with a lot more to go...

GNRfan

I've been exactly the same and yoyoed between 150 and 200lb for the last four years (in 2012 I went from 200 to 150, and gained it all back over 2013. In 2014 I went from 200 to 160 and gained it back over 2015 and now here I am again, having recently realised that I'm back in the 190s). So I'm back in the weight loss game again. I had a blood test recently and they ruled out any thyroid problems so it's literally just me not being careful during maintenance and not realising when I'm gaining weight. I just hope I can push past that barrier and keep it off for good when I reach my goal this time! Fingers crossed for all of us in this dilemma!

pgray007

I've had the same problem in about a 20-30 lb range since high school (I'm now pushing 40). Looking back, the reason is very simple: I stopped logging and watching my weight trends. You've probably seen all the threads that just a few extra calories can easily be a couple lbs a month, and then you're up 20 in a year without really noticing anything, or eating like crazy. In my case it was the extra slice of pizza, beer, or helping of ice cream that I would "forget" to log, that led to a break in MFP and logging since "Hey, I'm not fat anymore." That thinking (for me) is just about as dumb as someone that needs glasses to see saying "Hey, I can see with these glasses, so I must not need them anymore!" MFP is my glasses.

For me, the simple (but hard to execute) mitigation is to log forever, and weigh in daily and watch my moving average. If it's trending up I'm getting lazy on logging and need to take action, otherwise six months later I'm wondering where the extra 10-20lbs came from. It's a better solution than waking up every 10-15 months and realizing I'm 40 lbs overweight.

DanyellMcGinnis

I am more of a yo-yo dieter than a fluctuator. I weighed 104 when I finished high school. (I'm 5'5" with a fairly small frame.) I gained about 25-30 pounds in college (not from beer and pizza but from not liking the dining hall food and supplementing with junk from 7-11; everyone was on a meal plan where I went and more than 95% of students lived on campus because it was cost-prohibitive not to).

Took that off doing I don't even remember what. Some exercise (I think Tae Bo was becoming big at the time). Giving up regular soda for diet (that was an effortless 10 pounds). Went back for a second bachelor's degree (long story) and gained most of that back. Didn't have time for a full-time job so I lived with my parents and they were going to Dairy Queen like 3 times a week. Got into grad school. Dropped my weight back down to 106 before I officially started by exercising and making sensible food choices (no dessert, no seconds, etc.). Somewhere in there was another 10 pounds lost from having braces in my 20s (hurt too much to eat and those dumb rubber bands took a lot of effort).

Came to grad school. Weight crept up. Tried a few times to lose it but didn't have much success. At the beginning of this year I was over 160, which was my heaviest ever.

So most of my 20s and 30s were spent gaining and losing (mostly gaining) weight. Hoping to break that cycle before I hit my 40s (coming late next year). This is my first time using MFP and so far, so good.

The low point of my range is probably a bit too thin (~106) so my goal weight for now is higher than that. The high point of the range, unfortunately, increased every single time I gained weight. First 135 was high for me. Then somewhere in the 140s. Then 155. Then I swore I'd never hit 160 and I went over. Etc.

MelZweightlossjourney

GNRfan wrote: »

I've been exactly the same and yoyoed between 150 and 200lb for the last four years (in 2012 I went from 200 to 150, and gained it all back over 2013. In 2014 I went from 200 to 160 and gained it back over 2015 and now here I am again, having recently realised that I'm back in the 190s). So I'm back in the weight loss game again. I had a blood test recently and they ruled out any thyroid problems so it's literally just me not being careful during maintenance and not realising when I'm gaining weight. I just hope I can push past that barrier and keep it off for good when I reach my goal this time! Fingers crossed for all of us in this dilemma!

Sounds like me, I never realize when I lose weight and when I start to gain it I never realize until it's too late. I also feel like after I know I lost weight my mind thinks that I can just eat whatever I want cause I'm smaller so then I gain again... It's like a never ending cycle. I'm trying to lose, or at least maintain the weight I have right now if anything.

GNRfan

melissajmeek35 wrote: »

GNRfan wrote: »

I've been exactly the same and yoyoed between 150 and 200lb for the last four years (in 2012 I went from 200 to 150, and gained it all back over 2013. In 2014 I went from 200 to 160 and gained it back over 2015 and now here I am again, having recently realised that I'm back in the 190s). So I'm back in the weight loss game again. I had a blood test recently and they ruled out any thyroid problems so it's literally just me not being careful during maintenance and not realising when I'm gaining weight. I just hope I can push past that barrier and keep it off for good when I reach my goal this time! Fingers crossed for all of us in this dilemma!

Sounds like me, I never realize when I lose weight and when I start to gain it I never realize until it's too late. I also feel like after I know I lost weight my mind thinks that I can just eat whatever I want cause I'm smaller so then I gain again... It's like a never ending cycle. I'm trying to lose, or at least maintain the weight I have right now if anything.

Yeah, I'm the same! As soon as I'm in the 150s/160s I just eat whatever and then wonder why I've gained weight a few months later! It sounds so preventable when it's written down like this but I genuinely don't realise I'm doing it