Why do people gain all their weight back?

Spiderkeys

Must be the same as quit smoking.

I quit for a month, then decided to go immediately back to regular smoking, my thought was "I can always quit again, no problem.", I thought now i'm in control, I meant I proved a can do it if need to be, big mistake, two weeks later I attempted to quit again, but that only lasted 2 days. My will-power wasn't as high as the my original attempt.

Too afraid to make the same mistake with my diet, and of course i'm still a smoker, but I been on restrictions for 2 months and lost over 14kg.

ninerbuff

Mainly because people go on diets that they aren't going to sustain for life. For weight loss yes, but not for life.

That's why I never tell clients to diet, but just to reduce calories. Since I've done this, the regain percentage has been reduced substantially.

Anyone can diet and lose weight if they follow it. Staying on that particular diet is the problem.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Cindyinpg

Loss of motivation!
Personal matters that make you never wanna get up and live!

Its just mistakes we learn from and make us better the second time around

But good luck!!

Motivation will always wane. 100% of the time.

It's impossible to maintain "motivation" for something all the time long-term.

Motivation is not what you need for long-term weight loss success. You need the discipline to keep doing it anyway even during times your motivation has left the building.

I agree. After a while, it's about discipline, not motivation. This was one of the first posts I read on here. Still one of my favorites:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818701-the-myth-of-motivation-and-what-you-need-instead

cafeaulait7

Lots of reasons!

I went on a long trip and wanted to eat and drink with gusto, so I did. Got back and took a little while to get back to the gym. Found out I couldn't exercise anymore and was like wtf?

Spent a long time waiting for the doc to tell me it was safe to exercise again (had to go on a medicine for that).

I still ate with the appetite of someone with the different LBM and TDEE that came with my training. And after a fairly long while, I was back at 30 lbs up.

It didn't help that my new lifestyle change had me losing more weight than I wanted when I reached goal. I knew I had to eat a little more to maintain instead of lose, but I didn't know the right level before all the other changes took place. I did it really slowly, too. I didn't expect to keep on losing.

ingraha

Discipline and education and understanding of all the factors. If I want the ice cream I won't eat the pizza

upscalelifedownscalebutt

I met a man who loves huge portions of food, and thought that I was the one who was weird eating so little. Then I started believing people who told me I could eat more and still maintain. That averaging under 1400 calories was "crazy" and "unnatural". That my weight would stabilize.

Yeah. No.

I also had fluctuations due to pregnancy, illness, and injury, but those were largely short lived.

littleburgy

People treat it like a phase or something you can switch off and on. There are certain decisions that have to be made for life.

I think often people have a very unbalanced approach to it. Dieting in such a way they feel deprived, or trying to do it in quick and unhealthy ways and reverting back to what they consider "normal" -- you have to find a new normal!

QuilterInVA

The keys to maintenance, according to the National Weight Loss Registry, are to keep journaling every BLT, continue to eat the way you did when you were losing but increase the portions slightly, as soon as you gain 2 pounds, go back to your weight loss phase, and finally exercise every day for a minimum of 30 minutes to include at least 2 session of resistance training a week. Losing weight is making permanent changes to your lifestyle. You can't go back to eating as you did in the past without gaining weight.

iechick

There's lots of variables that make up the 95% failure rate for long term weigh loss success. This is my first time in maintenance and I've set up several checks and balances to keep me on track to be part of that small 5% that do actually succeed. I also know things will come up in the next 50 or so years while I'm maintaining, that I'll have to deal with appropriately to keep maintaining and not gain. Sickness, injury, family emergencies, life changes, body changes, holidays, vacations, family get togethers etc are all going to hit me at some point and having those checks and balances ingrained deeply into my life will hopefully help me navigate through successfully.

froeschli

For me, it's seasonal depression. I can lose whatever I want in spring, summer & fall, but come winter, I will put some weight back on. Not everything, but some. At least I am working out and eating healthy, and since over the course of the year I lose more than I gain, that's ok with me.

wild_wild_life

http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/ajpregu/301/3/R581.full.pdf

This bears repeating.

iechick

For me, it's seasonal depression. I can lose whatever I want in spring, summer & fall, but come winter, I will put some weight back on. Not everything, but some. At least I am working out and eating healthy, and since over the course of the year I lose more than I gain, that's ok with me.

Have you had your D level checked? That can have a real affect on your mood, especially in the winter time when you're not exposed to the sun as much. It's a simple blood test.

keem88

maybe people get comfortable with what they can eat and slowly start to lose track again?

cwolfman13

Most people talk a good talk about lifestyle and making a lifestyle change...but they ultimately don't make any substantial lifestyle change. For the most part, they fail to even understand what that means...even here, so many people talk about lifestyle and calorie counting being the "lifestyle" change....they're missing the boat. People fail to actually learn proper nutrition, moderation, and how to properly fuel their bodies...that is the "lifestyle."

Ultimately, people reach some arbitrary goal weight and that's the finish line...they're done, and they resume "business as usual" eating habits...they fail to realize that there really isn't a finish line. Fitness and nutrition are lifetime endeavors and most people simply do not grasp that concept.

Also, people often fail in their fitness when they reach their goal weight...they so closely associate exercise with needing to lose weight, they fail to see how necessary it is for maintaining weight and just for general health. I mean how many times do you see someone here on MFP say, "what's the point of exercise if you eat back your exercise calories?" See what I mean...complete and total fail. Not only are there numerous health benefits of exercise outside of weight control, but really, exercise is far more important in maintenance than it is for losing...losing weight is about 99.9% diet. Diet for weight control; exercise for fitness.

TLDR - People fail to make a lifetime commitment to nutrition and fitness.

PinkNinjaLaura

Must be the same as quit smoking.

I quit for a month, then decided to go immediately back to regular smoking, my thought was "I can always quit again, no problem.", I thought now i'm in control, I meant I proved a can do it if need to be, big mistake, two weeks later I attempted to quit again, but that only lasted 2 days. My will-power wasn't as high as the my original attempt.

Too afraid to make the same mistake with my diet, and of course i'm still a smoker, but I been on restrictions for 2 months and lost over 14kg.

I've never been a smoker, but that sounds like a good analogy. For some people overeating is an addition - thus the group Overeaters Anonymous.

I yo-yo dieted for years, lost anywhere from 20-40 pounds on most of those diets (using unsustainable methods), and always gained it back plus a few bonus pounds. I asked my doctor why the weight came back so fast (sometimes just a couple of months), and part of it is gene memory. Kind of like muscle memory, but for fat. For people who have been overweight for a long time, that's what your body is used to. It's doesn't resist that weight coming back on because it was already there.

There's a thread on here somewhere about a study showing how people who have lost weight need to eat less to maintain that weight than someone of comparable size who was always thin. Once I get to my goal weight I will need to eat 200-300 calories less a day to maintain that weight than someone my height & weight who was always my height and weight. That's not forever, but it was for a pretty long period of time (a year maybe). I wish I could remember what the thread was called so I could go find it. It was interesting reading. Losing weight more slowly, or actually taking maintenance breaks during your weight loss, can help offset that.

I understand that maintenance can be very challenging. You get there and think "oh wow I'm done!" and then slowly those old habits that made you overweight in the first place come back.

rwc70

Personally, I just got burned out. I was deep into training for marathons (counting calories, closely watching my diet and running a lot) I did that for about a year and a half. In my peak running condition I was around 145 pounds. Now, mind you I am 6-3 so this was I incredibly underweight at that point, but again I was training 1-2 hours 7 days a week. In December I injured my knee and took an extended period off from running. During this time, I subconsciously decided to take time off of everything - diet, calorie counting etc. I began to just eat and drink whatever I wanted and at that time, it felt really good not having to be so anal about things. This went on for about four months and in that time - thanks to drinking and eating poorly- I gained around 50 pounds. Once I reached that point, I simply could not take how I felt or how I looked anymore and decided to get back on track. I have since dropped about 20-25 pounds and I am very close to my current-weight goal. It is just "easier" not to care about things but there comes a point when you have to decide whether the life you're living is the one you want. I realized it wasn't and needed to make a change

bethannien

Most people talk a good talk about lifestyle and making a lifestyle change...but they ultimately don't make any substantial lifestyle change. For the most part, they fail to even understand what that means...even here, so many people talk about lifestyle and calorie counting being the "lifestyle" change....they're missing the boat. People fail to actually learn proper nutrition, moderation, and how to properly fuel their bodies...that is the "lifestyle."

Ultimately, people reach some arbitrary goal weight and that's the finish line...they're done, and they resume "business as usual" eating habits...they fail to realize that there really isn't a finish line. Fitness and nutrition are lifetime endeavors and most people simply do not grasp that concept.

Also, people often fail in their fitness when they reach their goal weight...they so closely associate exercise with needing to lose weight, they fail to see how necessary it is for maintaining weight and just for general health. I mean how many times do you see someone here on MFP say, "what's the point of exercise if you eat back your exercise calories?" See what I mean...complete and total fail. Not only are there numerous health benefits of exercise outside of weight control, but really, exercise is far more important in maintenance than it is for losing...losing weight is about 99.9% diet. Diet for weight control; exercise for fitness.

TLDR - People fail to make a lifetime commitment to nutrition and fitness.

QFT
I'm someone who lost 60 pounds and, over the course of 3 years, gained that plus 10 back. My "diet" was just to get me to my goal weight. I wanted to be "normal" but normal isn't eating 3500 calories per day while being almost completely sedentary. I wish I hadn't gained the weight back but at least now I know this has to be something I am always working on. It's either that or lose 75 pounds every 5 years and that sounds miserable.

cppeace

Well,
I gained it all back because life and stress. Because my family problems, because I couldnt get below 200lbs after 2 months at 206. Because when I went on birth control I gained 15lbs for no real reason. I have many reasons but just as many to lose it again and more.

Hezzietiger1

lack of discipline. That's it.

froeschli

lack of discipline. That's it.

And there I thought it shouldn't be about discipline, but habit. If you need discipline, you haven't changed your lifestyle. If you need to keep telling yourself that "no, you can't have that", no wonder people keep gaining weight back, the frustration alone would get tiresome.
I am at the "wow I don't need that" stage, except for chocolate....