Diet Fatigue

tara_means_star

Those of you who have been doing this for a while, how do you overcome diet fatigue? I've been doing this for a year but the last 3-4 months I've been maintaining and my motivation has seriously waned. What do you do to get back in the game?

arditarose

I take a diet break if it's that bad. Maintenance for two weeks.

jor3c

I am at the same place after doing this for 4 years or so ...and the last year has been rough with me too...
currently trying to get back to the place of motivation and determination I had at that point.
I won't say it is easy or that I have succeeded but each day I am trying to just log and make better decisions, so that I won't regress to point I was at when I started.
So far I have been pretty good at keeping it within "reason" on scale, but I know deep down I need to really get serious but for some reason it seems harder to do so.
Just trying to remember to take 1 day at a time and not overly stress as TOO much of that from external forces --- Hang in there!!!
WE are all just doing what we can at any given minute/day.

elisa123gal

I get disheartened when I read posts like this. I'll share what I have done. I just consider myself at maintenance already. What i'm doing now to lose is truly what I have to do when i reach my goal. Look at it as you are at goal right now.. and just don't gain. Stay where you are..and when you feel refreshed maybe go for losing another five pounds.. maintain there until you feel like losing another five. Good luck...you can do this!

wateryphoenix

Don't give up! I did. I burned myself out, and after not seeing any results for more than a year....I stopped working out and eating correctly. I gained back almost 30lbs of what I had lost. I about 9 months. It's hard for me to LOSE that in 9 months. So whatever you do, please do not give up! Try something new, and maybe you will get hooked on that for a bit.

Motivation does wane. It happens. Just keep on keeping on. If you don't....well...you regress. And that's the last thing anyone wants.

cmriverside

When that happened to me I ate at Maintenance and started looking for and trying new recipes. Nothing like finding some great dish that I can make even better by adding my own touch to it. I've added so many vegetables to my life since I started watching what I eat.

Rocknut53

elisa123gal wrote: »

I get disheartened when I read posts like this. I'll share what I have done. I just consider myself at maintenance already. What i'm doing now to lose is truly what I have to do when i reach my goal. Look at it as you are at goal right now.. and just don't gain. Stay where you are..and when you feel refreshed maybe go for losing another five pounds.. maintain there until you feel like losing another five. Good luck...you can do this!

This is where I'm at as well. I am at goal, but my doctor said I could still lose a few more pounds. I eat at maintenance (haven't truly figured that number out yet) for a few days, then drop it down to lose a half pound a week. As long as the scale doesn't go up, I'm content.

dutchandkiwi

I have been going for about three years now.
My way of dealing with it is to schedule some maintenace time (usually my holiday) and some days where I plan to be over (Christmas, Easter a special familiy occasion). By doing that on a regular basis I can look forward to some time off from deficit eating. I still log, but less strict (often no scale in sight) and savour those moments.
It has helped me not to loose focus

meritage4

Change up what you eat-but still stay within calorie goals. Try some new foods. add some new exercise. Remind yourself how far you have come.
Not a diet but a lifestyle change.

angreed65

I've been struggling with this as well. I'm at the lowest weight of my adult life, and I'm 51. I probably need to lose 20 more pounds, but I'm just trying to maintain right now. I'd really like to get to 100 pounds lost though ... that's about 10 more pounds.

danelutza19

Aww, diet fatigue is such a familiar feeling for me. For over 2 years I have experienced it often.
For me personally, it starts out with a sluggish feeling and a desire to do nothing all day. I have learned to recognize this state early on and when ever it occurs I give myself a vacation from calorie restriction. I eat at maintenance or slightly above for one or two weeks, I try and sleep more, take naps if I have too and definitely increase carbs.
The reason this is happening is because of hormonal imbalances and it's particularly obvious in women. When leptin goes down there are serious consequences.
To "treat" this condition try and have at least 2 days back to back of high carbs and low activity. Leptin levels are usually restored with 2 days of high carb.
I'm actually looking into a fat loss strategy with promising results: it's called ICR - intermittent calorie restriction. Basically diet 5 days with 2 days of maintenance a week or do 3 days calorie restriction, one day maintenance and repeat.
I have found that after I take these breaks, my mood is really boosted and my desire to be active is very high.
Best of luck!!!

Chadxx

meritage4 wrote: »

Change up what you eat-but still stay within calorie goals. Try some new foods. add some new exercise. Remind yourself how far you have come.
Not a diet but a lifestyle change.

This

nowine4me

Whatever you do, don't go backwards. FIGHT to keep your loss. It's so much easier to maintain than start over. Trust me on that one. You'll get your groove back eventually and it doesn't matter if that's 6 days or 6 months from now -- just don't give up!!

motivatekait

I can tell you in my experience, mini "diet breaks" have been nothing but beneficial for my progress. Of course it depends on the individual but for me, like once a month or so I'll just loosen the reigns for a couple days and eat whatever I feel and then the days following I usually eat lower than I would normally (1000-1200cals) for probably 3 days before I get back up to around 1400. Almost every single time I've had this pattern of untracked days(which always makes me want healthy food again) followed by a few low days, I hit my lowest weigh in by the end of the week. I do this whenever I find I'm plateauing or just mentally exhausted and it really just puts the spark back in me.

janekana

Cheat meals once a week is how I get myself through each day! It also makes me feel even more grateful and more satisfactory when I have to wait for my cheat meal, and when I feel like breaking out of my diet, I stop myself because I know I would feel really guilty afterwards. Just a horrible feeling to deal with.

You may also want to change your recipes, you could try cooking foods of different cuisines (with a bit of modification to lower calories, such as cauliflower fried rice instead of actual rice). It won't feel like a diet if it's filling and tasty right?

Changing up your exercise is also a good idea, perhaps something that gets you to lose a lot of calories so that you can allow yourself to eat more. I tend to push myself further on cheat meal days so that I don't feel as guilty eating the ice cream when I know I've lost 100 more calories than usual on the treasmill that day.

tara_means_star

Doing better, ya'll. I can't account for exactly what I needed but I maintained for 3 months and just recently got back into the "I'm ready to keep going" mentality. I'm proud of myself for maintaining and not gaining but glad I'm finally back in the right mindset and losing again.

ncfitbit

Great job, getting back into it. I needed this thread today so thanks for posting!

daworley

Interesting thread read, I am not there yet (this time), but have been in the past and these are all good ideas for the future me. Just an observation in myself: two events that seem to precede me falling off the wagon are a holiday when I have eaten too much or when my allergies are bad. I am post menopausal, and I am sure for most of us hormones play a big roll, as well. I have no insight into fighting diet fatigue, as I have lost the fight in the past, but thru your help and inspiration hope to win when it happens to me in the future. Good luck, hang in there and win!

KrunchyMama

I've been struggling with this all year. I'm finally on track again, but not by counting calories. What I've done instead is to pick something that I want to do that REALLY calls to me. Something that is really challenging that I know I can do, but only if I can manage to keep taking steps towards an active vegetable-filled lifestyle. For me, this big huge goal is the Niagara Ragnar next year. Once I decided I wanted to do it, it made me start questioning my food choices again. I still make poor choices, but I'm making a lot less of them because I want to do this race more than I want to eat. This doesn't really have me focused on a weight number, but rather on developing a body that will allow me to be active. The weight loss will inevitably be a side affect of that.

IremiaRe

When I get bummed out - I look at old pictures of myself. For me, that's all it takes to snap out of it.

Besides, I have already extended my life by decades. Even if I never lose another pound, I have done a lot of good for my health and my future quality of life.

I hope to see Onderland, someday - but, hey, 228 is a LOT better than 367.