Crash dieting

fatboygavlar

Hi guys, I need some help!

Over the last 6 years my weight has fluctuated between 11 stone 8lbs at my lowest and 15 stone 5lbs at my highest (which I’m at right now.)

I was wondering if there are any tips on how to maintain my weight when I reach my goal? This is the 3rd time in 6 years on this app.

I’m very lucky to say that I don’t struggle to loose the weight. In fact I feel better exercising, experimenting with new recipes and cooking betters foods. My metabolism is very kind to me, but now I’m 30 I know this won’t last forever!

I think I might loose the weight too quickly? I eat 300kcal approximately less a day than my calorie intake advises, I exercise every day, cardio only and I use additional ketone supplements to help along the way. I’ve seen myself loose a stone and a half in 5 weeks in the past.

I think I’m to strict also when on my diet, I don’t allow cheat day, I stick to water only. I cut out a lot of things that my body is normally used to.

My wife thinks I ‘crash diet’. I achieve my goal to quickly and then after a while my restrictions are eased. Before I know it the cupboard is full of sweeties and fizzy drinks again and the pizza guy is at the door! 😂.

Does anybody else have the same issues? Does anybody have tips on how to maintain my weight when my goal is achieved? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Keep up the good work everybody 😀

Gavin

cupcakesandproteinshakes

Slower weight loss, eat all foods you enjoy in moderation, listen to your wife.
Spend some time thinking about the long term and what is a sustainable way of eating for the rest of your life.

sijomial

Your wife is right. Aren't they always?

Crash dieting just teaches you how to crash diet, it doesn't teach you how to eat sensibly (and hopefully enjoyably) for life.

With each cycle of crash dieting and weight regain you are harming your health. As my wise old Dad used to say "don't dig your grave with your teeth". Maybe if your goal was long term health rather than purely weight loss it might help?

Make sensible and sustainable adjustments rather than testing your ability to suffer. Great you can deprive yourself and suffer for a short period - shame that's not a particulalrly useful skill when you need endurance not sprinting ability.

When you next get to goal weight don't think "job done" because it isn't - it's just the start of a new phase.
Set an upper limit that triggers action when you breach it, keep monitoring your weight. Learn to eat pizza and sweets in the appropriate amounts if that's your path to success.

amusedmonkey

By crash dieting you're treating the symptom and ignoring the cause. You keep regaining weight because your current habits support maintaining a higher weight. This won't change and you won't start maintaining the lower weight you want unless you learn strategies that support maintaining your desired weight. This can't be achieved by deprivation and ketone supplements. You'll need to train yourself in the art of weight maintenance by learning how to handle the foods you tend to overeat, social situations, sweets...etc. You're putting yourself in a deprivation bubble and not giving yourself the chance to practice what you could do when you're exposed to the foods you cut out.

Diet in a way you see yourself eating after you're done weight loss, lose weight slowly, and think of it as training wheels for maintenance.

PAV8888

Well... you say you don't have a problem losing weight... but you do and you know it!
Because the true goal is keeping off the weight we lose!

The beauty of failure analysis... is that we can improve our odds a bit!

What things that you do while losing weight... do you stop doing when failing to maintain your weight.

Let's start there.

If it won't work at maintenance... it is of very time limited use to the whole endeavour, right?

You do, potentially also have a secondary issue. Your numbers absolutely do NOT support that you're creating ONLY a 300 Cal (or 300Kcal, they are the same) deficit.

Your weight loss numbers are probably somewhat confounded by water weight loss and regain.
This is because, probably, you're going on and off keto and depleting and replenishing glycogen.

And you're, probably, just off in terms of your perceived vs actual activity level. i.e. you probably should be in-taking more calories than you have been while losing weight.

A 300 Cal weight loss is not one that can provide consistent scale rewards. If your scale is changing consistently with no hick-ups then your deficit is very likely to be more than 300 Cal.

OR, you're only looking at short periods of time, which tend to highlight the losses from water weight changes due to the short span.

So. Your tools:
--what are you doing during weight loss that you're willing to continue doing for FIVE YEARS after you reach your goals?
--weight trend application or web site. Any quick changes that don't track over 3 weeks are noise. Initial transition to keto (say first week to 10 days) can probably be thrown off the calculations. Similarly any regains when adding carbs on any particular day or week or time frame--assuming that you continue trying to do keto if you're not willing to continue eating that way indefinitely.
--expect MUCH MUCH slower and less impressive results. hopefully doing things you're willing to do in the future.

LOG your food. Possibly with the goal to maintain. Just log it.

See what if anything you think was not a good enough value for the calories it gave you. Value is subjective. It is value to you today. IT could be satiation. It could be nutrition. It could be satisfaction. It could be whatever you want it to be. But increasing value for the calories is usually a good strategy for most of us!

mtaratoot

I agree with what's written above. It needs to be a long-term commitment and lifestyle change. I won't add to their suggestions to take it slow and think about what you can do not just to "diet," but to CHANGE your diet. I'll just focus on:

fatboygavlar wrote: »

This is the 3rd time in 6 years on this app.

This time when you get to your goal weight, whether you heed the good advice given above or not, don't stop using the app. Update your goal to maintain your "current" weight. Then just don't leave. Keep logging. That will get you to stay where you want to stay. Simple? Yes. Easy? Hell no.

You might even dink around, and you probably already have, with what your calorie allowance would be at your goal weight. If you simply start eating at that level, you WILL get there. It will be slow, but you will. Eat less - you will get there sooner. But slow down as you approach that goal and start slowly adding back calories. Then keep logging.

This is a journey that has only one end point. That's when you quit breathing. So enjoy the journey along the way. See the side attractions! Have days you eat over your goal, but not too often. Make your weekly goals for sure. And after you've enjoyed the side attractions, get back on the path and continue this fabulous journey. And stay in touch!

AnnPT77

Successful weight loss, IMO, isn't weight loss. It's healthy-weight maintenance practice.

I think you're screwing that part up, frankly.

amusedmonkey

PAV8888 wrote: »

A 300 Cal weight loss is not one that can provide consistent scale rewards. If your scale is changing consistently with no hick-ups then your deficit is very likely to be more than 300 Cal.

OP may correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I read it, he eats 300 calories under his already given deficit (probably 1200 in this case).

PAV8888

amusedmonkey wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

A 300 Cal weight loss is not one that can provide consistent scale rewards. If your scale is changing consistently with no hick-ups then your deficit is very likely to be more than 300 Cal.

OP may correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I read it, he eats 300 calories under his already given deficit (probably 1200 in this case).

Ooopsies! I think you're right.

So they are probably sticking sedentary, 2lbs, getting a number and then going -300.... so that would be a 1300 Cal predicted deficit.

21lbs in 5 weeks would be 4.2lbs a week or 2100 Cal a day deficit--if it was weight lost because of an energy imbalance as opposed to the manipulation of water weight via keto and via reducing volume of food.

Both seem a bit on the aggressive side

spiriteagle99

I used to be like you. I could lose weight, but couldn't keep the weight from coming back. That was because I was either on a diet, and very strictly depriving myself of all the foods I loved, or I wasn't on a diet, and I was eating all the foods I loved, and then some.

Fortunately, I finally figured out that the on a diet/off the diet mindset didn't work. I had to work on how to eat over the long term. MFP helped me there because I decided not to stop logging once I had lost the weight I wanted to lose. I still log every day, even though I am not dieting. It keeps me from eating a lot of extras that I don't need or really want. I have to make choices, based on my calorie allowance. I also didn't stop weighing myself. Before I would stop weighing myself when I started eating more, because I didn't want to know. Now I do. I have a 5 lb. window that is my target and I stay within that window. If I go up a pound, I don't worry about it, because weight fluctuates. If I go up 5, I start cutting out some of the extras. When I am at the bottom of my window, I'll eat a bit more to keep from getting underweight.

TommysMum15

I could have written this myself. I can lose weight fast, feel great but then I’m terrible at putting the weight back on and have always had an ‘all or nothing’ approach. This time round I’ve resolved to eat all the calories MFP advise and allow myself treats within my calorie allowance so I don’t feel so deprived. Eating in moderation is still a very tricky for me to master as I have a tendency to binge and have done all my life!
I wish you luck in your goals