Not new but new

melanierae_2009

I have used my fitness pal years ago and now I need to figure out why I can’t lose weight. For health reasons I need to. I have tried diets and used prescription and went to a dietitian and I lose 10 pounds and gain it back. I am desperate

csplatt

Have you used a digital food scale to calculate the number of calories you consume in a day?

AnnPT77

Hello, and welcome back!

If you lose 10 pounds and regain them, it sounds like you can lose weight, but that keeping it off is a challenge. Most people think keeping it off is the bigger challenge, honestly: That's the main reason that (sadly) most weight loss efforts fail long term.

Very often, it seems like people want to pursue fast weight loss. As a formerly obese woman myself, I get why that's so, believe me.

But pursuing fast weight loss often makes people fall for the weight loss myths in the blogosphere and tabloids, things that make us think we need extreme restrictions on eating, foods we should never eat, yucky "superfoods" that we must eat, or that it's essential to have some tricksy timing of our eating. On top of that, many add punitively unpleasant exercise, because "no pain, no gain (or loss, as the case may be)".

None of that is necessary, and most of it is counterproductive. My belief is that what's key is to take a hard look at current routine daily habits (eating and activity), and figure out new, relatively pleasant, practical ways to change those routine habits in a positive direction according to our goals.

That means eating in a practical way we can enjoy, and moving more in ways that are ideally really fun (or at minimum tolerable/practical). What those habits are will vary from one person to the next, so in my mind it's like a fun, productive individualized science fair project for grown-ups.

It's the daily habits on repeat that matter the most, not that one rare day I eat too much cake or work out for 5 hours. I need a good routine, one that can continue on autopilot when other parts of life get challenging, ideally forever.

This can be a mindset shift, compared to how many people think of weight loss. I'm not saying it's easy every second, but I think reframing the issue may be helpful.

For myself, I decided I wasn't going to do anything to lose weight that I wasn't willing to continue forever to stay at a healthy weight, except for a manageably moderate calorie deficit until I reached goal weight. I focused on experimenting to find new habits that aligned with my goals. Some of the experiments didn't work out, but that's OK: It tossed out things that weren't going to work, led me on to try other things. As long as I kept going with that mindset, gradual progress happened. I've been at a healthy weight for 8 years now, after about a year of loss, and 30 previous years of overweight/obesity.

I'm cheering for you to succeed: The results are worth the effort!

springlering62

Everything @AnnPT77 said.

I’ve been in maintenance about four years or so now. I still weigh and log everything.

Keeping the habit in place will be something I do the rest of my life because I can very easily rationalize slightly larger portions, and slightly above that, as well as convince myself I “deserve” whatever it is I’m craving at the moment.

You can’t slack off once the weight is gone, so make it a point to find foods you can enjoy forever and ever, amen. Ditto exercise. If it’s fun, it’s never a chore.