Non-first timers -- what happened?

NYCNika

I see so many people "coming back" after losing weight and than regaining it all back.

I want my first time to also be the last, so I need to understand how this happens.

Did you just quit completely and eat just like before?

Or think you did not need to track anymore because you knew portion controls? (But than, did you also stop weighing yourself?)

What were your reasons?

Any tips on potential pitfalls?

Because this is a little bit concerning -- I understand that people who loose weight on fad diets and meal replacements are mostly bound to gain it back. But it should be different for those who lost significant amounts of weight over the long time, just by eating healthy and exercising.

SezxyStef

In to hear the responses..as I am a first timer here and wondered the same thing...

I suspect most are going to say...stopped logging but just curious myself.

rosieknowsme

shhhhhhhhhhhh it happens

NYCNika

In to hear the responses..as I am a first timer here and wondered the same thing...

I suspect most are going to say...stopped logging but just curious myself.

I imagine that if I stopped logging, I would NOT stop weighing myself. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would weigh myself regularly and if I saw I gained 5-10lb, would definitely get back to logging ASAP. Not wait until 30lb are back.

SezxyStef

In to hear the responses..as I am a first timer here and wondered the same thing...

I suspect most are going to say...stopped logging but just curious myself.

I imagine that if I stopped logging, I would NOT stop weighing myself. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would weigh myself regularly and if I saw I gained 5-10lb, would definitely get back to logging ASAP. Not wait until 30lb are back.

I don't own a scale. But I don't plan on not logging either...

diannethegeek

I only put 15 pounds back on, but I'm back for a second round. I let myself stop logging over the "holidays," which apparently lasted from November to April for me. Then I spent some time in denial about how much I'd gained, some time complaining about how long it would take to lose again, and some time finding other reasons not to diet.

Fortunately, I did learn enough healthy habits my first go around that my rebound wasn't so back. I'm back to counting again and I intend to actually transition into maintenance this time instead of just falling off the wagon completely.

grimendale

I was young and stupid and decided that I needed to lose weight fast. Since eating too much cause weight gain, I'd eat a lot less and exercise a lot more. In short order, I reached a point where I was eating about 300 calories a day and working out at least an hour a day. I lost a lot of weight, but I started feeling tired and run down. I got sick all the time and I was irritable constantly. After six months of this VLCD, I crashed and burned. I started eating like "normal" and saw a gain, even with small amounts of food (I didn't know about glycogen rebound when eating at maintenance, so the water gain freaked me out), so I gave up and ate everything in sight. I ended up gaining all the weight I lost twice over. It took several years, a dietician, and finding MFP to get me to a place where I could lose the weight in a healthy fashion. I ate a lot more this time around and have been able to sustain the weight loss. This is why everyone pushes for "eat more to weigh less". Yes, less food will equal more weight loss, but it isn't good for you. A small deficit and a little patience is all you need.

lavaughan69

This is my first time using MFP and I'm close to goal so I'm interested in the answers. Historically I've lost weight on other diets and my downfall has always been a combination of not tracking what I'm eating and I stop weighing in. For some reason once I've lost the weight I seem to have a grace period where I can eat what I want and not gain wait...or at least that's the delusion I choose to have, so I stop weighing in, assuming my body has figured out how to remain thin. That weight just sneaks up on you!!

4legsRbetterthan2

Like people keep saying, it is a lifestyle change, alot of people hit their goal and say woohoo I am done break out the cookies (not to that extreme but you get the picture) if you aren't going to keep to your new habits you aren't going to keep your new body

my advice would be to stay on here in maintenance mode for a while and make sure you know how to maintain before you leave, but I don't think you will have to use this for the rest of your life if you don't want to either

NYCNika

I was young and stupid and decided that I needed to lose weight fast. Since eating too much cause weight gain, I'd eat a lot less and exercise a lot more. In short order, I reached a point where I was eating about 300 calories a day and working out at least an hour a day. I lost a lot of weight, but I started feeling tired and run down. I got sick all the time and I was irritable constantly. After six months of this VLCD, I crashed and burned. I started eating like "normal" and saw a gain, even with small amounts of food (I didn't know about glycogen rebound when eating at maintenance, so the water gain freaked me out), so I gave up and ate everything in sight. I ended up gaining all the weight I lost twice over. It took several years, a dietician, and finding MFP to get me to a place where I could lose the weight in a healthy fashion. I ate a lot more this time around and have been able to sustain the weight loss. This is why everyone pushes for "eat more to weigh less". Yes, less food will equal more weight loss, but it isn't good for you. A small deficit and a little patience is all you need.

When you were eating 300 calories, was there anything anyone could have said to get through to you and convince you that it was a terrible idea?

Stage14

For me a large part of it was that I used a large calorie deficit last time, so I never really "got the hang" of eating healthy at a maintenance level. I also changed jobs after I lost the weight through diet alone and did not compensate for a large decrease in activity by either lowering my maintenance level or adding in exercise.
The weight went on FAST at that point, and I spent about a month on another low calorie diet and playing around with exercise while logging here on MFP before I got serious wanting a LIFE change instead of weight loss. Now, I'm eating at a small deficit, working on how I eat instead of just how much, and really concentrating on fitness rather than the scale.

stealthq

In to hear the responses..as I am a first timer here and wondered the same thing...

I suspect most are going to say...stopped logging but just curious myself.

I imagine that if I stopped logging, I would NOT stop weighing myself. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would weigh myself regularly and if I saw I gained 5-10lb, would definitely get back to logging ASAP. Not wait until 30lb are back.

That is what would make sense, but sometimes life happens and your weight becomes a distant second (or third, or fourth) priority.

BTW - it's not happened to me, I'm still a 1st timer. But I would imagine this scenario has happened to more than one current 2nd timer.

chandanista

After my first child, the weight just dropped off when I was done BFing, and did a lot of cardio activity etc. Eating less and moving more, never tracking intake...got a desk job and slowed down, gained up...ate less and moved more without tracking.Then I got pregnant again :laugh:

When he weaned I started up (on another website). Then I came here, liked what I saw, learned about BMR and TDEE and...so far, so good! Jury's still out on if I'll have a third baby, but if I do I want to stay fit through pregnancy and see if I can keep my gain to healthy minimums instead of eating my cravings and resting my elite baby-making butt, the way I did with the other two.

hnp1987

I only put 15 pounds back on, but I'm back for a second round. I let myself stop logging over the "holidays," which apparently lasted from November to April for me. Then I spent some time in denial about how much I'd gained, some time complaining about how long it would take to lose again, and some time finding other reasons not to diet.

Fortunately, I did learn enough healthy habits my first go around that my rebound wasn't so back. I'm back to counting again and I intend to actually transition into maintenance this time instead of just falling off the wagon completely.

This is exactly what happened to me. I quit logging all together for a long time to add to my denial. I had found a reasonably healthy lifestyle before I dropped off so badly over the holidays so that my come back now isn't so hard. I feel 3 times more confident and all I can do is learn from the past and not repeat those mistakes.

myprana

It's always a holiday that breaks me. Getting out of the daily routine of usual foods and exercise. I usually do my best to maintain normalcy during a holiday, but if I've been cruising along with weight loss I'll get in that "oh a short dieting break won't do any harm" mode. I'll even convince myself that a dieting break will be good for my emotional health and that the rest from exercising will rejuvenate my body. Bad decision every time.

shellma00

I started Dec 26, 2011 and lost 25 lbs by March. Then life happened....the last day of March 2012 my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer, April he had his surgery and a week later my grandfather died, all of this happened in my birthday month, then just 2 short months later my husband and I almost split up. Needless to say, I quit logging, ate whatever I wanted, lost focus, did not exercise.Gained it all back plus a couple pounds. Derailed by life. Most people say these are not good enough excuses, but these are the things in life that can make us lose focus.

So Dec 26, 2012 I restarted my logging, watching calories, exercising. It is now Sept. 25 and I have still only lost 20 lbs... It seems so much harder this time. I have worked harder, tried harder, focused harder and I cannot seem to see any results in the last few months. BUT ... I refuse to give up this time.. I will NOT quit... I want this because I do not want to have to restart.

Lizzy622

Started in 2010. I actually took a pause of about 6 months. Life happens and I wasn't close to being where I wanted to be. Now I am back and more determined that ever.

grimendale

I was young and stupid and decided that I needed to lose weight fast. Since eating too much cause weight gain, I'd eat a lot less and exercise a lot more. In short order, I reached a point where I was eating about 300 calories a day and working out at least an hour a day. I lost a lot of weight, but I started feeling tired and run down. I got sick all the time and I was irritable constantly. After six months of this VLCD, I crashed and burned. I started eating like "normal" and saw a gain, even with small amounts of food (I didn't know about glycogen rebound when eating at maintenance, so the water gain freaked me out), so I gave up and ate everything in sight. I ended up gaining all the weight I lost twice over. It took several years, a dietician, and finding MFP to get me to a place where I could lose the weight in a healthy fashion. I ate a lot more this time around and have been able to sustain the weight loss. This is why everyone pushes for "eat more to weigh less". Yes, less food will equal more weight loss, but it isn't good for you. A small deficit and a little patience is all you need.

When you were eating 300 calories, was there anything anyone could have said to get through to you and convince you that it was a terrible idea?

Probably. I had a very spotty understanding of how weight loss and nutrition worked. If someone had sat me down with the math and the science, I probably would have been convinced (but then, I'm an engineer).

dacspace

For me a large part of it was that I used a large calorie deficit last time, so I never really "got the hang" of eating healthy at a maintenance level. I also changed jobs after I lost the weight through diet alone and did not compensate for a large decrease in activity by either lowering my maintenance level or adding in exercise.
The weight went on FAST at that point, and I spent about a month on another low calorie diet and playing around with exercise while logging here on MFP before I got serious wanting a LIFE change instead of weight loss. Now, I'm eating at a small deficit, working on how I eat instead of just how much, and really concentrating on fitness rather than the scale.

My "story" is very similar to the above poster. The first hundred times around, it was all about losing fast using just about any means necessary (large calorie deficits, large amounts of exercise, low fat, low carb, low whatever the fad was at the time, etc.). Then I started going to bootcamps in 2012 given by my now trainer. It took me almost a year of going to those, cutting this or that food and yo-yoing up and down 5-10 lbs before I decided that it HAS to be a LIFESTYLE change and not another "diet" for it to truly work in the long run. Now I'm working on making healthier choices about food and realizing that food is for fuel, not comfort or joy or whatever other reason I had all those years. Also I'm making sure I don't demonize or eliminate a type of food from my options... that always leads me to obsessing about it and a failure in the end.

Good luck in your journey and I truly hope your first time will be your only time!

lewcompton

I suspect people get on here to lose weight and then depart afterward... I am here to create a healthy me... I realize that tracking for the next 50 years is essential to my health because I did weight loss plans in the past and when I got off of the plan I gained all the weight back plus some... This site I am treating as a tool to manage my health by tracking everything that I do I can work on improving my health. Those of us with weight problems need to realize that this is a lifelong effort to improve health that is impossible without staying accountable and tracking what we do. For those with less weight issues perhaps they can be successful without tracking everything all the time. For myself I know that I have to stay after it!

cardbucfan

Stress eating and not logging. I never left MFP and continued to workout but let the eating get out of control. There was also lots of travel involved which did muck up the exercising and made the food choices that much worse. I've reset my ticker and am back to eating at a deficit and am being diligent with my food choices and logging everything again and I have faith I'll be back to my maintenance range by Thanksgiving.

EvilSquirrel

I became obsessed, period. It happens to me with new things, and thinking about nutrition and calorie counting were new to me. I constantly thought about food, counted every last chewing gum, did an insane amount of cardio ( 3h+ daily) on too little calories. Surprise: I was completely exhausted after three months of this. I threw in the towel and ate everything in sight, gaining back all I had lost and then some.

I'm far more relaxed now and try to avoid extremes. Yes, I count calories, but I'm not beating myself up over it. I go with a higher calorie allowance, and cut myself some slack if I can't keep it up on some days. Some things in my life have changed, too, so I have less time to obsess about food - I'm busy with other things now.

kristen6022

August of 2012 I reached goal and surpassed it (goal was 157, ended up at 143). Need to gain a few back, so I treat it like a job and ate, but when the scale said 160 I got back on it. My aim is to get to 150, I was 151.2 Monday morning...

160 is my "ok, time to do something about this weight". It's easier to lose 10 pounds again than it is to lose 45!

cwolfman13

Most people I know who've had this issue, 1) stop working out and 2) go back to old eating habits.

A lot of people talk a good talk about "lifestyle", but that's all it is, talk...their fitness doesn't really become lifestyle...it's something they associate with weight loss...so when they're "done" they stop exercising. Most people, regardless of their "lifestyle" talk, treat their diet as an action verb...and focus far more on some kind of arbitrary "finish line" that doesn't (or shouldn't) really exist.

In my experience, your fitness is actually far more important at maintenance than it is while you're losing. It's actually pretty damned hard to gain weight if you're routinely getting your fitness on and pushing yourself to PRs and new heights all of the time. Your body goes to great lengths to use that excess energy up if you're rockin' your fitness. But people get lazy...they either quit altogether or they stop pushing themselves.

NYCNika

I became obsessed, period. It happens to me with new things, and thinking about nutrition and calorie counting were new to me. I constantly thought about food, counted every last chewing gum, did an insane amount of cardio ( 3h+ daily) on too little calories. Surprise: I was completely exhausted after three months of this. I threw in the towel and ate everything in sight, gaining back all I had lost and then some.

I'm far more relaxed now and try to avoid extremes. Yes, I count calories, but I'm not beating myself up over it. I go with a higher calorie allowance, and cut myself some slack if I can't keep it up on some days. Some things in my life have changed, too, so I have less time to obsess about food - I'm busy with other things now.

That is why when I see people go "I WANT RESULTS NOW!!!!!" and going way to low in calories, saying "it works for them" and convincing themselves they are not hungry after eating 700 cal a day I get frustrated -- because there is just no getting through to them, no matter what you say.

Athijade

I guess in a way I am a non-first timer. I started back in 2012 and was doing really well. Lost 36 or so pounds (first time I had been under 200 in YEARS).

What happened to me? My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 2012. I was her only caregiver. She was in the hospital nearly monthly for a week or more at a time. She passed in May 2013. During this time, I stopped thinking about myself. All my focus was on her and my last two semesters of grad school. I stopped logging, measuring, and exercising. I spent long days sitting in her hospital room (8-12 hours if I did not have a class). I ate multiple meals at the hospital and didn't have many options (though I sometimes tried). By the time I got home at night, I had no energy to cook so I often just picked stuff up. I gained 18 pounds back.

I have since lost 14 pounds since July. Some due to my own medical issues and some due to trying to make better choices again. I am on a very limited diet due to my health problems as many foods can make it worse.

prettyface55

I only have excuses! My current one is.. got lazy and stopped working out.. and got very busy with my kids.
Im back on track and this time im doing it the right way!!

gigglesinthesun

I think sometimes people replace unhealthy food patterns with an unstainable exercise pattern. For example only today someone posted that they only get 5h sleep a night, because 'they make exercise a priority'. Chances are though at some point they'll need more sleep or their health will suffer.

annaowen67

I am back at it but new to this site. I was using another one and I still like that site but this one is a little less busy which is good for me because I am VERY busy.

I had lost 75 lbs and gained most of it back. I had a knee injury. I really did okay at maintaining for quite a while. The better part of 8 months but then I had surgery to repair a torn meniscus, ugh. Also I switched jobs from being on my feet most of the day to a CSR sit at a desk all day job, double ugh. Anyway, stopped logging, stopped working out. Yada, yada, yada.

Just going slow now, logging, and working on getting to the gym.

Things like injuries can derail you. Just be careful and diligent.

bethannien

I'm a first time mfper but a long time "loser." I lost something like 30 lbs in the beginning of 2009 with careful calorie counting and regular cardio/weight lifting. Then I met my husband and I stopped counting, made reasonably good choices and steadily dropped another 30 pounds. By the end of that year, I had stopped working out almost completely and was skinny fat. Then I slowly stopped making reasonable food/portion choices. At first, it was just a little here and there but by the beginning of this year, I was back to regular binges and an all around careless attitude about food.

During this 4 year period, I had a baby. But I ate incredibly well during my pregnancy and gained the normal 20-25 pounds and had lost most of that within 2 months of giving birth. A lot of times, babies are an excuse but, if anything, having a baby kept me from gaining even more weight.

I have learned that logging is essential in weight loss AND maintenance.

JTick

For me, I missed one day of logging. The next thing I new, it had been a month. Then a year. And then I came back, 40 pounds heavier.

I have now logged in for 415 days in a row. I log in first thing every morning, even on days I don't plan on entering my food (Christmas Day, Thanksgiving, etc.). If I miss a day of logging in, I know I will quickly slip back to my old ways. Even on days I'm not perfect, I at least show up.