What has been your biggest struggle with losing weight in the past?

Mine was always having no real goal. Sure, I wanted to look better, but when that faded so did my dieting. The weight only really came off when I had the strong desire to take care of myself and live my best life.

Replies

Rowood101

Interesting topic. I think I have many struggles but I think they can best be described as consistency. Consistency in terms of exercise, food and logging.

Montepulciano

For me...it is figuring out how to avoid bored eating. I find if I am busy and focused on things, than eating is just fuel, but when I get bored, then I just want to graze through the kitchen.

tillysmum0308

alcohol is mine. I do great with the food but after a couple of wines I'm all "what the heck, lets have a few more" and blow my target

Timshel_

Attitude or mindset. Like most, I looked for quick ways to lose weight, and in cases I was able to actually lose I gained it back just as quick.

I finally realized I didn't get overweight in just a few months and I sure wasn't going to lose it all that fast. Were weight slowly piled on over years I would slowly and consistently lose it over years.

no_day_but_2day

Montepulciano wrote: »

For me...it is figuring out how to avoid bored eating. I find if I am busy and focused on things, than eating is just fuel, but when I get bored, then I just want to graze through the kitchen.

^^This

no_day_but_2day

tillysmum0308 wrote: »

alcohol is mine. I do great with the food but after a couple of wines I'm all "what the heck, lets have a few more" and blow my target

^^ This too. haha
And then I'm also like, heck, I already blew my target so let's raid the kitchen out of pure boredom. ugh

Moxie42

tillysmum0308 wrote: »

alcohol is mine. I do great with the food but after a couple of wines I'm all "what the heck, lets have a few more" and blow my target

Same here

I battle between knowing that I'm more likely to make bad food choices when I drink, and feeling like there's nothing wrong with enjoying a drink after a long day.

The biggest struggle though, has been not beating myself up when I make a bad decision or when the scale doesn't budge in the right direction, and being patient. In the past I've always gotten frustrated and basically sabotaged myself by making excuses. I'm finally learning to have a positive attitude which has been SO key in staying on track, but when I hit an obstacle or have one of those days when my goal feels sooooo far away, it's really hard not to zap back into negativity and not believing in myself.

kommodevaran

Losing weight has always been easy for me. Keeping it off... oh, I already gave that away

I believed in so many myths and half-truths. So many do's and don'ts on what, when and how much to eat. And I felt sorry for myself, because of all those do's and don'ts that I tried to live up to, but of course I couldn't. So I just said fukit! Let's eat all the things! And then there were all those saboteurs. Like I'm not the one to decide for myself what, when and how much to eat. Likewise, I believed I had to work out like a maniac. So when I couldn't go to the gym anymore, it meant I was doomed to get fat again.

This time it finally clicked - weight loss is about calories in/out, but what I eat does influence on how I feel and how much I'll want to eat. I am in charge of my own diet. I have to find out what's right for me. I have to say NO sometimes, and that can actually feel empowering. No exercise is necessary, but it feels good to move.

Lenala13

Time management. Making it exercise and healthy eating a priority, regardless of how busy I get and what else is going on in my life. Eating mindfully versus snacking mindlessly when stressed or bored.

STEVE142142

kommodevaran wrote: »

Losing weight has always been easy for me. Keeping it off... oh, I already gave that away

I believed in so many myths and half-truths. So many do's and don'ts on what, when and how much to eat. And I felt sorry for myself, because of all those do's and don'ts that I tried to live up to, but of course I couldn't. So I just said fukit! Let's eat all the things! And then there were all those saboteurs. Like I'm not the one to decide for myself what, when and how much to eat. Likewise, I believed I had to work out like a maniac. So when I couldn't go to the gym anymore, it meant I was doomed to get fat again.

This time it finally clicked - weight loss is about calories in/out, but what I eat does influence on how I feel and how much I'll want to eat. I am in charge of my own diet. I have to find out what's right for me. I have to say NO sometimes, and that can actually feel empowering. No exercise is necessary, but it feels good to move.

This sums it up for me. Well said.
Simple matter of CICO.

newereveryday

TIME! During my past attempts to lose weight, I was in school full time and working full time, plus either planning a wedding or an out-of-state move. It made the thought of squeezing in exercise or cooking into my jam-packed day seem unbearable.

Siouxcreek

Im tired of being tired. I want to feel this blast of energy everyone talks about. Pushing on..my day will come

Bghere1

tillysmum0308 wrote: »

alcohol is mine. I do great with the food but after a couple of wines I'm all "what the heck, lets have a few more" and blow my target

Exactly, the neighbors show up, and the party is going to wind up. Next thing the grill is getting started, and chicken wings, and burgers. GRRRRRRR

letsgolindsay

It's always social pressure. When I go away for school during the year, all my friends ever seem to do is party,drink and eat! I always give in... :'(

Cheesy567

What has helped me most this go-round has been logging in MFP and seeing patterns that emerge. Over-eating because I become over-hungry, or because of boredom, or because of habitual eating. Seeing the patterns helps me set new goal behaviors. New strategies for dealing with binges has transformed this process for me.

Losing the shame has really helped facilitate losing weight, too.

hypodonthaveme

My biggest struggle is the mental part of it. I enjoy exercise. I enjoy the foods I eat. But, telling myself I am worth a healthy life. I am worth caring for. Was the hard part. So for me it's mental state of mind.

Feistycat

Keeping it off.

Veryana

I had too many problems weighing far more in scale than how I look or how much I weigh. Depression, constant exhaustion from hypothyroidism, money problems, anxiety and no proper treatment to any of those. There was just no way to deal with my weight when there were things far more exhausting and burdening and being obese was one of my smallest problems those years. Now that I got rid of everything else I can focus on losing weight.

tryett

Plateaus, I am fine til I hit a plateau, usually around 208-212.

rankinsect

My biggest problems in the past:

1. Being too aggressive, and then falling off track as motivation inevitably wanes
2. All-or-nothing thinking
3. Not having a real plan on how I was going to reach my goals, so I'd end up with no calories left and be only halfway through the day

JennieMaeK

My biggest struggle was my all or nothing way of thinking. As soon as I had a bad meal, I figured that the rest of my day (usually the rest of my week) was ruined. I can't count the number of times that I had great intentions on Monday, went over on Tuesday and said, "I'll start again Monday". Once I got over that mental hurdle I saw some real results. One bad meal or day isn't going to mess up my weight loss goals in the long run, it's how I react to that one bad meal/day/week.

MissusMoon

Mine was not learning how to incorporate anything I wanted, including booze unless it was a "cheat day". So of course maintenance was a free for all. Every day was a cheat day. Which is why I'm here after many years of regaining the weight and then some.

No more cheat days, plenty of on-track treat days.

It's Friday! I just enjoyed a delicious ribeye (oil, butter, seasonings included and meticulously weighed), a mountain of broccoli and a glass of wine, and I have enough calories left to nibble later or keep working on the wine. I'm not even near getting into my exercise calories yet. I feel like I could eat this way forever. I'm eating like a normal human and losing weight.

willburpeeforcookie

For me it has always been a struggle feeling as though I didn't deserve to be fit/healthy or that I wasn't worth the time and effort. I had to change my mind before I could change my body.

junethon

My issue is once I reach my goal I forget that it is a lifestyle change not just a diet. I start eating as I did in the past, I forget to watch my calories, I exercise less, then I start to regain. At this point I get frustrated with myself and I eat to feel better. NOT THIS TIME!

Nachise

My biggest issue was right between my ears! I used to see my dietician once a week to weigh in, and that created a lot of anxiety for me. We switched to once a month, and that has worked splendidly. I came to dread that weekly weigh-in, and started patterns of disordered eating that disturbed me.

JeromeBarry1

It was the fear of repeating what I did the first time I tried to lose weight 40 years ago. I did lose weight, with very poor nutrition leading to immune weakness and I contracted pneumonia. My mother's home doctoring nearly killed me. She was abusing the primitive medical system at the time to have 4 different doctors unknown to one another prescribing the same group of strong medications to her. The doc who saw me recommended "rest". Mom prevailed upon me to take one of her sleeping pills. I insisted she break it in half, as I knew the extent of her addiction. That half of one of her pills put me to sleep for 2 days. I woke up, felt better, and went out to get a 20" deep dish pizza. Thus my lifelong fear of being thin and undernourished. With mfp, I finally found a way of knowing what I needed and knowing how to get it. The fear is gone. I'm ok.

angfirst

My biggest challenge was banning certain foods from my life. While in theory it should have helped me eat less, it actually caused me to eat more when I binged on those banned foods!