Anybody LOST a lot of weight then GAINED it all back?

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  • 1a1a
    1a1a Posts: 761 Member
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    Did an excellent job of losing almost 15 kg over a 5 month period by working out like crazy and eating lots (burning 600-800 calories a day, eating in excess of 2000). got quite trim, still had a fat stomach, weight loss didn't improve my boyfriend's level of attraction to me (as weight gain had also not diminished it). Got discouraged, got so lazy, lost my required fitness levels for the kinds of workouts I was doing, stopped walking, stopped being mindful of what I ate (of course I stopped tracking calories). 2 years later I had all the weight back plus another 5kg.

    Conclusion, even though I felt like what I was doing back then was sustainable, it evidently wasn't Currently aiming to work out when time allows and be much more mindful of what I'm eating. Occasional food logging shows clearly how I gained it all back (some days in excess of maintenance by over 1000 calories, it is Not hard to do.)

    Thanks for making this thread, it's actually really reassuring to know I am not the only one that lost it and gained it back. We're all back on the horse now, we can do this :-)
  • sarafischbach9
    sarafischbach9 Posts: 466 Member
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    I think gaining weight and hanging onto it because I wanted to avoid male attention was/is the issue I have. It's a really long story but nasty things happened to me when I was younger. I found being 'bigger' stopped men wanting to come near me. I have spent the last two years gaining tonnes of confidence and now I am ready to shed the weight for a final time. I worked out last night I need to lose 50lb to get to my goal. I'm really excited that I can achieve this in 2014. I've given myself till the summer. I guess the real reason some of us have trouble with maintaining a healthy weight is a little deeper.

    I'm sorry bad things have happened to you.

    for me, it was the opposite though. When I was 15 years old, I was in my upper 130's and lower 140's. I was very curvy but I have never been overweight. I am 5'3.5" so I am just under 5'4". Men would always bother me when I was curvier but once I lost weight they stopped.

    So when I became anorexic ( had an eating disorder for 5 years from 2005 to 2010 ) I found that being scarily thin would keep the men away too.

    Nowadays that I have a boyfriend who loves me very much and wants to spend his life with me I just ignore any men that bother me. And honestly most men don't bother me; it just seemed like I was always bothered when I was 15.
  • happysherri
    happysherri Posts: 1,360 Member
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    35 lbs

    About 9 years ago i had gained weight after 2 kids and life. My marriage was not going well, i thought maybe if i lost the weight it would help my marriage. Lost 35 lbs in 3 1/2 months

    Did not help my marriage, my depression got worse so i gained the weight back. Lost about 30 lbs after the divorce (6 yrs ago) then 15 more lbs after joining MFP.

    I'm almost at maintenance, and will never do it for anyone else but myself ever again.
  • QueenAthena
    QueenAthena Posts: 5 Member
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    Yes, I lost 50 gained 15...(due to bad eating habits) gained another 25 last year! ( It was all due to stress ) . I was going through a period of change and didn't know how to cope. My goal is to learn how to manage stress WITHOUT food!
  • ibboone
    ibboone Posts: 10
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    I will explain a sensible explanation to why people regain weight.
    For this example I will use a guy named John.
    John is looking to loose some weight, so he goes on a LOW calorie diet. At the beginning of his diet he weighs 200, He is looking to loose 20 pounds.

    Before the diet John was sustaining a weight of 200 pounds.

    200 pounds of body weight
    36 pounds body fat
    164 pounds lean body mass

    After the diet John has lost 20 pounds and now weighs 180 pounds.

    IS THIS GOOD OR BAD? Everyone will say good, but is it really?
    Lets look at the after diet weight in.

    After the diet
    180 pounds body weight
    27 pounds body fat
    153 pounds lean body mass
    20 pounds of weight loss
    9 pounds of fat loss
    11 pounds of lean body mass

    Rating his weight loss by body composition instead of using a scale, we can see that John was unsuccessful.
    John lost over 50% of his weight from lean body mass. Now if John was to go back to what he was eating to sustain his 200 pound body weigh he would gain weight. You ask why. Lets look at the after diet scenario.

    Six weeks after the diet ends
    200 pounds of body weight
    42 pounds of body fat
    158 pounds of lean body mass

    John weighs the same now as when he started but with one difference, John has a higher percentage of body fat, which slows down your metabolic rate. It will be harder to loose weight than before.

    Hope this helps out someone because it makes sense to me and thought I would share something that I have learned while on my lifestyle change.
  • lisanume
    lisanume Posts: 155 Member
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    I just jumped on the scale and realized I gained all PLUS of my 49 lbs BACK! UGGH. so mad, but it is what it is. Life lesson, just because you get a cold, flu, illness, doesn't mean you can slack off and eat alllll the comfort foods, and never work out again!!
    I am back on the wagon .... started easing into it slowly on the 1st. Uggh...

    I'm ready. good luck and get back to it.
  • focuseddiva
    focuseddiva Posts: 174 Member
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    ibboone -- very interesting response. What would you recommend for "John" to lose successfully the next time around? It is SO true that it's harder to lose the second, third, fourth time around. What's the right way, then? Increase lean muscle mass through strength training? What if "John" were "Joan" --? It is harder for women to put on muscle ... how would Joan lose weight successfully?

    I really need to know because I could be John. Or Joan.

    I lost 45 lbs. Kept it off for 4 years. Put it all back on. Two things did me in:

    • Allowing one 'cheat day a week to become 2, then 3, then 4.
    • I stopped weighing myself daily. Started weighing weekly. Then skipping weekly weigh ins.
  • Nancy33333
    Nancy33333 Posts: 32 Member
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    Ibbone--I'd like to know more about this too. How did you do the calculations? What would make things better to not regain like that?
  • maryjay52
    maryjay52 Posts: 557 Member
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    i been bouncing all over the place the last 15 yrs . was 300 lbs at one time ..went down to 192. now back up to 243 but was 250 a week ago.. started diedton jan 1 and weighed in at 246.. nice thing is that i was able to maintain that former weight loss longer than ever.. man oh man did i slip this past year and i know exactly where all my oopsies were!! signed up for an 8k on march 1st so my motivation to move me *kitten* and eat right is high up there!! good luck with all of you on your journey
  • wheird
    wheird Posts: 7,963 Member
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    I initially lose 45lbs with MFP and gained most of it back. I had a relationship go bad and I tend to be an emotional eater. And since I hadn't corrected my relationship with food and lost it all by eating far too few calories, I ended up having to start over.
  • 2pupsmama
    2pupsmama Posts: 77
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    I lost over 50 lbs over the course of 2 years and managed to gain it all back in 1 year. I am your classic yoyo dieter although I thought I had come to the point where I was no longer on a "diet" and had control of my eating habits. Well guess I was wrong and I'm once again trying to learn and be consistent with attaining and maintaining a healthy weight and body fat%. If anyone like minded would like to add me as a friend I would appreciate the company and support.
  • svandever101585
    svandever101585 Posts: 188 Member
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    I lost 55 lbs 6 years ago before my wedding. As of Last May I had gained all of it back plus 22 lbs. I have been working hard since May and focusing on diet and exercise and now I am down 67 lbs. This time I will not let myself gain it back! This isn't a "diet" it is a new lifestyle.
  • sherrybaby81
    sherrybaby81 Posts: 257 Member
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    I had lost 65 lbs starting in 2006, ending in 2008 when I got to my lowest weight of 135lbs. I had some medical issues and some stress (I am a stress eater). Due to many bad choices, I gained 90lbs between 2010 and now. I am currently at my absolute heaviest at 225lbs and even though I have been here off and on I am having difficulties keeping on track.
  • JackiSto
    JackiSto Posts: 56 Member
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    Been here, done this! I've been some version of chubby to obese my entire life and in 2005-2006 I lost an estimated 130 pounds (100 that I know of, but I had been losing for awhile before I weighed in for the first time, so it's a guess). I kept the weight entirely off for 5 years and it was wonderful! Then I quit a job and got a new one, broke up a three year relationship, moved, got a promotion, got into a new relationship, and bought a house in the space of a year-and-a-half. In the midst of everything going on I got lazy and stupid and gained much of the weight back.

    I saw someone else comment about how ashamed they feel about this, and I'm right there with you. I know better and have proved I can do better, now I just need to get off my behind and DO IT!

    Last time I did it entirely on my own and got into some really bad practices by the end of the extreme dieting binge - this time I'm trying to reach out more and have some friends and support and stay healthy about it! Please reach out and friend me if you're so inclined!
  • SovanJedi
    SovanJedi Posts: 27 Member
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    In 2012 I lost roughly 44 pounds in weight. I was on the way to my goal weight but then my friends and family all commented negatively on my physical appearance (i.e. my cheeks were very sunken in) so I basically gave up throughout all of 2013 and gained it all back.

    Now I plan to do it again, only make my goal weight a stone heavier than what it originally was going to be, then keep recording a "maintained" body weight diet for the rest of the year to get my body accustomed to the calorie intake. Then from there I can, I dunno, hopefully not have to record food anymore and live life normally again.

    I was kind of bummed about the whole thing to be honest - I didn't quit the weight loss by myself, but the people around me basically bullied me into it. It's not like I was an unhealthy level below, either (aiming for a BMI of 22 and a height-to-waist ratio of 0.43, and despite what my face may have looked like, my body was actually very healthy-looking).
  • Belinda170
    Belinda170 Posts: 23 Member
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    Me too! I lost almost 100 pounds, kept it off for four years and then my Mom died (gained a little), I got into a new relationship (gained about 25), relationship broke up after 3 years (gained a little) and so on until now I gained it all back plus 40 pounds.

    I'm working on gaining back my great eating and exercise habits. I got my eye on the ball!
  • InfoomaousTete
    InfoomaousTete Posts: 1,383 Member
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    I lost 60 pounds from 2011 to 2012 and then in 2013 I gained 40 of it back. I started to not feel well mentally and physically and all it took was a few months of that and I spiraled out of control. Stopped working out...stopped tracking....stopped caring...then got more depressed with each pound I gained back. So here I am in 2014 trying to start again...one day at a time.
  • Chriztii
    Chriztii Posts: 94
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    I lost 15kg from December 2011 - August 2012 and stayed that size until November 2012 - June 2013 i gained back 10kg.. and i have currently lost 7kg again. I have a binge eating issue i tend to spend months slowly eating worse and worse telling myself "it's only one mcdonalds meal this week" until i am eating one mcdonalds meal every day until i decide to lose again .. it's exhausting haha
  • erbell3
    erbell3 Posts: 22 Member
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    Thank you for your kind words. Fat can be a good veil when you just want to be evaluated for your personality and your mind. But if you've been both fat and not fat a lot, you realize how differently people treat you based on your size. I've had people say things like "You're cutting me off? Did you eat everything in this bar, you fat pig?" or "I'm just about drunk enough to sleep with you" when you serve someone a beer when you're fat but mostly you hear nothing.You're just invisible and that can be comforting, too. When you're smaller, you hear everything, all the time, like you are naked.

    I'm so sorry, it is unreal how rude people can be!
  • kathystrauss1
    kathystrauss1 Posts: 142 Member
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    I lost 80 lbs in my mid 30's and kept it of for about 5 years. I made a lot of mistakes though and put it all back on. I didn't log, didn't strength train and even my cardio got spotty as I got bigger. I stopped weighing myself and was in total denial that I was so big again. This time just feels better with logging, weighing and measuring food and online support. I'm also strength training as well as cardio. I know not everyone agrees with weighing themselves but I need to since I can really deny my weight gain based on looks and clothes fit only. Thank goodness for smart phones and technology because it is so much easier to log than it used to be!

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