How Many Times

jdh419

How many times have you had to start over? I looked back at the last two years and I lose 7 pounds and then back up! Just seems impossible.

spiriteagle99

I couldn't begin to guess at the number of times I've lost weight and regained it. I did my first diet when I was in junior high, then high school, then every summer in college, then I got depressed and stopped eating for a while, but eventually gained weight again, lost 35, gained 40, lost 40, gained 45, etc. without counting all the little up 10, down 10 in between. TBH, it wasn't until I joined MFP that I realized that if I wanted to stop the yoyo, I couldn't stop paying attention to my calories. I've been maintaining now for at least 6 years. For me, the difference was logging every day, weighing a lot more often, and staying very active.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I don't know about "starting over," but I have to "go into deficit" several times a year in order to control weight.

quiksylver296

7635789, precisely! 😆

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve tried before. You always can have one more time.

Start with small sustainable changes. Baby steps! What is one small change you can do today? 10 minute walk, one less soda per day? Do that thing. Do it until it becomes a habit. Then make another small change. Rinse and repeat.

AnnPT77

Honestly, some of it is just definition. What constitutes "starting over"? What constitutes "sticking with it"?

Some people would consider losing/regaining 7 pounds to be "weight maintenance". (I would, as long as it all happened in what is for me a healthy weight range, and didn't force me to buy new clothes (I'm the weird/odd woman who hates to shop)).

Habits. Creating good, sustainable, enjoyable (or at least tolerable) habits. That's the only magic, and it isn't easy magic.

Different routes will work better for different people, and figuring out that good personalization (to each of our own individual preferences, strengths, limitations, etc.) is IMO really important.

If you don't want to be gaining/losing 7 pounds over and over, maybe just put in a narrower action range. Up 3 pounds and it hangs around for a week? Cut back a little until you're down 3 or 5 or whatever, and refocus on maintenance habits: Eating, daily life activity, exercise, maybe patterns of lighter and heavier eating days that work for you, identifying foods that fill you up at reduced calories when you need to cut back a little, routines that keep you eating more nutritious things more of the time (for some people it's prepping meals or packing lunches, but it needn't be that, can be whatever works for you).

Habits. Very possible. You have habits. Just keep tweaking them in a positive direction.

Best wishes!

nanastaci2020

I was on again, off again with weight loss from the beginning of 2003 until the end of 2013. At the end of 2013 I found out about calories, and calorie counting and that just made sense to me. I am a logical person, and thinking of my nutritional needs as a budget: that changed everything for me. Weight loss went from something that I had to work for to something I could understand.

If you can try to look back and think about what you've done and why you couldn't stick with it - perhaps you can find your own aha! moment and do something different to move you forward.

jdh419

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Honestly, some of it is just definition. What constitutes "starting over"? What constitutes "sticking with it"?

Some people would consider losing/regaining 7 pounds to be "weight maintenance". (I would, as long as it all happened in what is for me a healthy weight range, and didn't force me to buy new clothes (I'm the weird/odd woman who hates to shop)).

Habits. Creating good, sustainable, enjoyable (or at least tolerable) habits. That's the only magic, and it isn't easy magic.

Different routes will work better for different people, and figuring out that good personalization (to each of our own individual preferences, strengths, limitations, etc.) is IMO really important.

If you don't want to be gaining/losing 7 pounds over and over, maybe just put in a narrower action range. Up 3 pounds and it hangs around for a week? Cut back a little until you're down 3 or 5 or whatever, and refocus on maintenance habits: Eating, daily life activity, exercise, maybe patterns of lighter and heavier eating days that work for you, identifying foods that fill you up at reduced calories when you need to cut back a little, routines that keep you eating more nutritious things more of the time (for some people it's prepping meals or packing lunches, but it needn't be that, can be whatever works for you).

Habits. Very possible. You have habits. Just keep tweaking them in a positive direction.

Best wishes!

I need to lose 30 pounds. I only get down by 7 and seems impossible after that.

jdh419

nanastaci2020 wrote: »

I was on again, off again with weight loss from the beginning of 2003 until the end of 2013. At the end of 2013 I found out about calories, and calorie counting and that just made sense to me. I am a logical person, and thinking of my nutritional needs as a budget: that changed everything for me. Weight loss went from something that I had to work for to something I could understand.

If you can try to look back and think about what you've done and why you couldn't stick with it - perhaps you can find your own aha! moment and do something different to move you forward.

Yes I've actually been thinking back and I do see what worked for me. I just need to get passed the first 7 pounds and then I know I can do it. But I I plateau along the way so often!

Dogmom1978

jdh419 wrote: »

nanastaci2020 wrote: »

I was on again, off again with weight loss from the beginning of 2003 until the end of 2013. At the end of 2013 I found out about calories, and calorie counting and that just made sense to me. I am a logical person, and thinking of my nutritional needs as a budget: that changed everything for me. Weight loss went from something that I had to work for to something I could understand.

If you can try to look back and think about what you've done and why you couldn't stick with it - perhaps you can find your own aha! moment and do something different to move you forward.

Yes I've actually been thinking back and I do see what worked for me. I just need to get passed the first 7 pounds and then I know I can do it. But I I plateau along the way so often!

A lot of us plateau often. For example, I’m down 32 lbs with about 35 left to goal; I have mfp set to lose 1 lb per week. Some weeks I lose nothing, some I gain, some I lose 3. What often happens for me, is I’ll “plateau” for 2 weeks and then see a “whoosh” where I lose 2+ lbs.

Instead of letting the scale frustrate me, I use it as one of several tools. I also measure myself and go by how my clothes fit. The scale is just one piece of the puzzle. Losing weight takes patience, patience and more patience. Stop losing patience at lb 7. Use a food scale, measure and track, pick a sustainable rate of loss (30 lbs to lose, 1 lb a week is a good place to start).

DeterminedFee201426

Two times I've started over. Right now I'm on start over #2.

susanlee53

Patience (and I am not a patient person) is key to getting through plateaus. My plateaus last a month or more, and I just have to stick with my plan. After a while, the pounds start dropping again. Not sure why.

The philosophy is: if I stop measuring food and logging it and exercising, then FOR SURE I will fail, so I might as well keep the course. I am in no hurry, so the time factor simply doesn't matter.

For the record I am keeping the calories to < 1560 per day, net calories <1350 per day. I should be losing 1 lb/wk, but it's really shaking out to about 3/4lb per week over the last year. I'll take the win! I exercise almost every day