I Have Noticed Many People Returning, Having Regained Their Weight ...

Angie2822

I am back again after slowly gaining back 45 of the 55 pounds that I lost originally on MFP. The thing is that I have gained and lost weight for my whole adult life like this (not to that extreme though). I just wanted to be done with the tracking, and weighing and constant monitoring. It takes over my whole life, no balance whatsoever. This time that's my ultimate goal- to figure out how to balance this so it fits in with my whole life and is sustainable. When I get to goal this time, I will still be here logging, weighing and monitoring because that's what I know that I have to do.

callsitlikeiseeit

i didnt regain any of my lost weight. i maintained for well over a year. I came back to work on the rest of it lol

newheavensearth

I never left but I have slacked off. I kept bouncing from this to other plans. Then got fed up and binged up to over 1200 calories per day surplus. I regained up to 8 or 9 lbs. Next I kept using every last exercise calorie instead of half and put myself on maintenance. So now I'm back and smarter about things. Using less exercise calories and preplanning. So far down 5 lbs.

soldiergrl_101

I got to my goal weight, it was wonderful. My mom got diagnosed with cancer, I took care of her and not myself gained all the weight back and now I feel like *kitten*. The end

JaydedMiss

Its alot harder to say no to delicious foods when im skinny...so a yes turns to more yes and worse food decisions >.>

SCoil123

I wasn’t on MFP when I lost the weight initially. I increased my activity and watched portion size. I lost almost 90lb that way. After maintaining for 3 years my lifestyle changed. I had been working at a camp where I walked a lot and had a free salad bar available every day for lunch. They also had Insanity classes that I attended twice a week at work for my break time. Now I’m at a desk job with an hour commute and am married to a chef. Life changed and I didn’t adjust.

Now I’m finding ways to get back to goal weight with my life how it is today. MFP helps with that. I had gained 30lb back and depending on fluctuations have lost 20-25lb since joining

MissyCHF

jennifer_417 wrote: »

I went a really difficult time and just stopped caring for a while. Tbh, I'm not sure I'd do anything different. But it does suck that I have to do all that work all over again.

Me too. ^

Joel_518

Great feed....glad I'm not alone. I tracked diligently for years and felt good. Thought I could "intuitively" eat and got flabby. I know tracking helps me maintain macros but WTH...what did caveman do before mfp?? Hahaha

Graelwyn75

Wow, I did not expect to see this thread of mine resurrected.
Glad to see so many more responses and glad people are finding it insightful.

kitaemma

I lost 30 pounds that I gained after the death of my finance, then had to have spine surgery and gained another 25 back, finally ready to just focus on getting myself healthy and now I’m about 15 pounds from my goal, here’s hoping it stays off for good!

shaunshaikh

For me, I had a good routine going, but when my lifestyle changed through promotion at work, doing MBA part time, getting married, having kids, I abandoned the routine rather than adjusting it. I've now created a routine that fits my current lifestyle.

RUNucbar

I would not have changed anything!! I regained because of the antidepressants I was taking and because I couldn't log while sectioned after a suicide attempt. It was what I needed at the time so I'd change nothing.

timtam163

It's great to see others on here. I have been yo-yo-ing for years, sometimes with the help of MFP, and I think I did several things wrong: stop logging and get defeated when I'd slip up, eat at too high a deficit and then binge, get in shape for other people and not for myself. I am developing more maturity and patience, both of which are necessary for long-term change... I won't say I have it all figured out, I'm stressed out and have been plateaued for a while, but even during this period of stress/depression I have managed to maintain so I would definitely count that as an improvement.

Edit: I would also get more restrictive with my diet over time, transitioning to vegan or paleo or gluten free... the more permissive/flexible I am with my food intake (while still retaining lessons learned from those diets about what is and isn't important to me) the more likely I am to stick with it.

youngmomtaz

For me it was excuses. My thyroid went wacko when I was 5 lbs above where I wanted to be, I was totally trashed as far as energy, could barely walk a straight line or form complete sentences after only 6 hours at work. I used my insane fatigue against myself. “I need food to get some energy”, “too tired to work out” I was actually a safety hazard to myself while even walking but the food was a huge issue. Sporadic tracking, preplanning meals and then eating off plan. Refusing to step on the scale. Soon enough I was up 30lbs. I maintained at 175lbs for a year and have just recently got my head right again. Down 15 with 15-20 to go!

Now I preplan meals, get motivated by my trackers calorie burns even if I don’t 100% trust them, and make sure I am doing everything with a focus on health.

AutumnDraidean

So in 2009, way before fitbit I did South Beach, got down to 150 and was maintaining well enough. Then I took a job I never ever should have taken and was miserable. Ate all the food, gained all the weight and more, quit the job, got a better one. Last winter I got a fitbit and started using MFP. I got down to 170 and then MFP and Fitbit stopped syncing and I was way too irritated to fix it. I threw MFP off my phone and got lazy. Up 20 pounds we went. So about 6 weeks ago I got mad and got serious about it. I was doing ok, but getting irritated with fitbits sad sad food database so I loaded MFP back up to my phone. I expected a struggle but it sync'd perfectly and I am logging food again. If I can keep to my goals I will be happy, I'm owning the idea slowly that this diet is forever.

MissMaggieMuffin

I lost 65 lbs around 17 years ago through Weight Watchers. Then, I got sloppy with my food and beverage choices. Still was very active but 'they' are correct when they say you can't out-exercise a crappy diet. Fifteen years of having a glass or two of wine, telling myself 'it's just another 5 lbs', or 'I ran 10k today so I can have that huge steak' netted out to gaining back 50 of those 65 lbs.
Now within 5 lbs of my goal and, hopefully, both older and wiser in sticking with a good maintenance plan.

HDBKLM

I thought this might deserve a bump for New Year's resolutioners?

LivingtheLeanDream

I didn't regain...
Been here since 2012, in maintenance since 2013.
Logged my food for around 3 years but now only occasionally log it to see how my macros are doing.
I made lasting changes to how I ate and worked out and it stuck

bisky

suzesvelte wrote: »

I have lost lots of weight many times, and gradually re-gained some of it over time, everytime. I am not a "crazy" eater gorging on junk food and sweet drinks - never really have been - indeed what I eat is very healthy. It always was mainly based on food I prepped from scratch with lots of fresh ingredients and my intake has been even better quality over the last few years because I was given a terminal cancer diagnosis and decided to use diet and health to extend my life expectancy. I take that very seriously and eat very well.

However we live in a society where food is easily available, and "treats" are piled high almost everywhere we go, so eating within a calorie target takes constant vigilance. I can gain weight by simply eating out once or twice a week, snacking on a few sweet things now and again and adding "too much" oil to my cooking. It's not much but its enough to gradudally pile the pounds back on.

Using MFP to re-focus awareness of portion control and how small a protion of fat has to be to keep calories under control is working for me again. I really WANT this to be the last time, so I am being very serious about learning how maintainers manage to maintain. What the "best" maintainers in here seem to do is KEEP ON IT -> keep weighing yourself regularly and keep monitoring your intake and crank it up if you gain a few pounds to keep on target far more easily than gaining huge amounts before you start again. Basically you cannot stop.

Now that seems like a shock, and rather tedious, but I reckon we have to do that, and realise that THIN people actually do that too. They may not talk about it, but they will have little techniques they use to moderate their intake and compensate for over-indulgence. They might even lie about it, they might say "they can eat anything" - but that is nor true for many people. There might be a few outliers with faster metabolism, etc. Same as some of us maybe have slower metabolisms, but basically in our culture of abundance, being slim requires constant effort.

I have also been reading the Beck Diet Solution which was recommended in these forums. This author is a doctor who helps many fat people. She really gets into the head of a fat person and shows you how "thin" people think and manage to stay slim. I strongly recommend this book if you want to change the way you THINK about food and eating as a maintenance as well as a loss thing. It is very helpful to realise that THIN people DO exert vigilance, even if you don't notice that they do. This book is teaching me to "think like a thin person" .. and it is very enpowering. Most of my "bad" habits are based on faulty logic and a sense of "unfairness" about how hard it is to stay slim. Giving up that sense of injustice might be my biggest step to successful loss and maintenance.

I hope so!

Thank you for posting that. I will have to read the book.