Why do people gain all their weight back so often?

bcattoes

Perhaps one reason is because you don't ever lose fat cells once they have been created, the cells just shrink with weight loss. Now, it takes less energy for cells to expand than to conduct mitosis and create new fat cells. So, once the cells have been created, or once you gain a significant amount of weight, you will always have those same fat cells from when you were bigger. The only way that I know of to remove fat cells is by surgery, which is dangerous and can damage your body.

Further reading: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080505/fat-cells-slim-up-but-dont-ship-out

Yes!! This, too, is a big part of it.

I agree.

i seem to recall somebody posting a few weeks ago that you can actually lose fat cells. cells die and are replaced. this includes fat cells. so, over time, after losing a lot of weight and maintaining the loss, you actually could get rid of the extra fat cells created while overweight. that poster said it took something like 5 years for all of your fat cells to be fully replaced as part of this normal process.

But, did the poster know what they were talking about? Not being snarky, that's a serious question. I guess I need to do some research, because I too have always read/heard that fat cells do not go away (except with liposuction).

amlynn16

I'm speaking for complete experience here. I think asking someone who has actually been in the situation is best suited here. In MY case it's sometimes there's a trigger behind WHY weight is gained. I lost 110 pounds about 9 years ago. it took me 15 months to get it off. I watched what I ate, I worked out and managed to keep it off for about 3 years. I did give myself a little slack back then. However, my grandfather passed away when that 3 years came around. The whole mind set of not caring anymore. I managed in 3 months time, 40 pounds. Overall, I ended up gaining 130 pounds. I ended up going back to the original mindset I was 9 years ago where even tho my health was being compromised because of the weight, I didn't care. About 2 years ago, that all changed. I've lost 110 pounds, would like to lose 10 more pounds, but I'm also happy where I'm at. I feel healthier. For a lot of people, its the mindset of where they are at when they gain the weight. (Believe me, I've also asked others who've gained the weight)

BrainyBurro

Perhaps one reason is because you don't ever lose fat cells once they have been created, the cells just shrink with weight loss. Now, it takes less energy for cells to expand than to conduct mitosis and create new fat cells. So, once the cells have been created, or once you gain a significant amount of weight, you will always have those same fat cells from when you were bigger. The only way that I know of to remove fat cells is by surgery, which is dangerous and can damage your body.

Further reading: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080505/fat-cells-slim-up-but-dont-ship-out

Yes!! This, too, is a big part of it.

I agree.

i seem to recall somebody posting a few weeks ago that you can actually lose fat cells. cells die and are replaced. this includes fat cells. so, over time, after losing a lot of weight and maintaining the loss, you actually could get rid of the extra fat cells created while overweight. that poster said it took something like 5 years for all of your fat cells to be fully replaced as part of this normal process.

But, did the poster know what they were talking about? Not being snarky, that's a serious question. I guess I need to do some research, because I too have always read/heard that fat cells do not go away (except with liposuction).

i think the jury is out. there are a bunch of links if you google this. it was the first time i'd heard this also.

montana_girl

I think whoever can successfully come up with the answer to the thread question could become a millionaire...

The answer to that has as many reasons as does the weight gain to begin with. It's different for everyone.

I took 6 years to lose 100 pounds and 6 1/2 years to get to my weight goal. I was able to maintain that for three years, but in the last year my weight has been slowly creeping up. Why? A lot of reasons, but what it mainly comes down to is that even after 10 years on this weight loss/maintenance journey, I am still dealing with the issues that got me to be morbidly obese in the first place, emotional eating. I can do well for awhile, but something happens in my life and I find myself reverting back to my old habits. This year has been especially stressful, so I'm fighting those bad habits harder than ever, but losing the battle more than winning.

What keeps me going is the fact I do not want to be part of the statistic of people who gain all (or more) of the weight back. I keep fighting the battle. As someone once told me, "As long as you are struggling with your weight loss, that means you haven't give up."

fougamou

Perhaps one reason is because you don't ever lose fat cells once they have been created, the cells just shrink with weight loss. Now, it takes less energy for cells to expand than to conduct mitosis and create new fat cells. So, once the cells have been created, or once you gain a significant amount of weight, you will always have those same fat cells from when you were bigger. The only way that I know of to remove fat cells is by surgery, which is dangerous and can damage your body.

Further reading: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080505/fat-cells-slim-up-but-dont-ship-out

Yes!! This, too, is a big part of it.

I agree.

i seem to recall somebody posting a few weeks ago that you can actually lose fat cells. cells die and are replaced. this includes fat cells. so, over time, after losing a lot of weight and maintaining the loss, you actually could get rid of the extra fat cells created while overweight. that poster said it took something like 5 years for all of your fat cells to be fully replaced as part of this normal process.

But, did the poster know what they were talking about? Not being snarky, that's a serious question. I guess I need to do some research, because I too have always read/heard that fat cells do not go away (except with liposuction).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/health/research/05fat.html

"The result is that the total number of fat cells in the body remains the same, year after year throughout adulthood. Losing or gaining weight affects only the amount of fat stored in the cells, not the number of cells."

bcattoes

My attitude is this is my life style change to eat healthier and maintain exercise.

Any change in diet or exercise habits is a change in lifestyle. But, whether you call it a lifestyle change or a diet, it can still change again. It's rare for anyone not to have several lifestyle changes over the course of their life.

In fact, changes in lifestyle are often what cause people to gain weight. They get married, they have children, they get a sedentary job, they lose a job, they get an injury, etc.

pipcd34

I haven't read the threads but I can bank on someone saying the same thing i'm going to say... whatever you do, it must be the way of life and you have to be happy with it. I mean that you don't want to think of your eating as "a diet" because once you get to your "goal weight" YOU THEN start eating all the crap that you used to eat which makes the weight come back. same thing with exercise. you stop, slack off so the weight comes back... makes sense when you think about it...

STEELMAN47

because they go on a diet instead of a lifestyle change , diets don't last

jeedsjds13

The leading obesity doctor here in Alberta, Dr. Arya Sharma, said at a lecture he gave, that once your body gets to a certain weight, it will always for the rest of your life want to go back to that weight! So if your highest was 150, and you lose until 120, your body will always be fighting to get back to 150. Same goes for 300, lose a bunch and get down to 150, and you will always have to work a lot harder to keep your body from going back to 300 as that is what it wants to do. Once you go higher than your previous highest, your body will realize this and reset the new high number as its preference. It's sad, and means we will forever need to be disciplined and have control in order to keep the weight off. No one is perfect in that aspect. This is why bariatric surgery is a valid option as a tool for many as it helps the control aspect, and with proper effort/assistance on the psychological side, it works permanently.

SoreTodayStrongTomorrow222

My attitude is this is my life style change to eat healthier and maintain exercise.

Any change in diet or exercise habits is a change in lifestyle. But, whether you call it a lifestyle change or a diet, it can still change again. It's rare for anyone not to have several lifestyle changes over the course of their life.

In fact, changes in lifestyle are often what cause people to gain weight. They get married, they have children, they get a sedentary job, they lose a job, they get an injury, etc.

those sound like excuses to me :-)

triciaj66

most everyone thinks of it as a diet ,its not!!! its a change in the way you look at food and exercise..A lifestyle change! people put food at such a high priority... eat to live don't live to eat!!! With excising its easy to stop and be lazy. back in the day we all moved more now everything is done for us..... we need to burn off what we eat....

AlwaysInMotion

I lost 120 lbs, then gained back about 45 very slowly over multiple years. Luckily I'm losing that now, too.

During my "maintenance" period, I simply stopped being diligent with exercising and portion control. Small changes (good or bad) add up. Rebound weight is insidious and creeps back slowly. Trust me - if 50 lbs came back overnight, we'd flip out and do something immediately. When weight comes back at a much slower rate (ex: 1/2 lb per month), we tend to completely overlook it. Part of that is denial.

IMHO, it's really about *complacency* (which is a normal human tendency). Unlike initial weight loss, maintenance is rarely treated like a goal. Without a goal always looming on the horizon, we tend to lose our focus and drive. So, I think the trick is to make new goals even after the initial weight loss (ex: I will run a 10K this summer, I will get my cholesterol #'s down for my next checkup, I will join a soccer league, I will ride 2000 miles on my bike, I will take a healthy cooking class, and so on...) I think we always need something NEW to aim for. Because it's simply to hard to aim for "stay the same".

LeslieB042812

I've done both--lost 30 pounds and kept it off for 2 years and then gained it back. The way to keep it off is to not stop tracking and exercising. I gained mine back when I was really sick off and on for 6 months. I couldn't exercise and I was too drained/stressed to care about tracking. I still tried to focus on healthier foods, but it's too easy to eat just a little bit too much, even of healthier foods. And, our bodies are programmed to gain weight, not lose it (at least mine is). So, maintaining takes constant vigilance!

bcattoes

My attitude is this is my life style change to eat healthier and maintain exercise.

Any change in diet or exercise habits is a change in lifestyle. But, whether you call it a lifestyle change or a diet, it can still change again. It's rare for anyone not to have several lifestyle changes over the course of their life.

In fact, changes in lifestyle are often what cause people to gain weight. They get married, they have children, they get a sedentary job, they lose a job, they get an injury, etc.

those sound like excuses to me :-)

Excuses are reasons.

Lexandrei

I gained back 8 pounds. The thing is, I eat really healthy. The only difference is the intensity/plate increase of my workouts and the fact that I'm not tracking my calorie intake as rigidly as I was. And as terrible as this sounds, I think it was worth it for me. I'm at a weight where my body's not going to fight me and I can maintain it easily without rigid dieting. I'm 5'2 115lbs, female. I like being able to eat a handful of walnuts or sample a bowl of new oats without freaking out about how I'm going to fit it in.

triciaj66

I lost 120 lbs, then gained back about 45 very slowly over multiple years. Luckily I'm losing that now, too.

During my "maintenance" period, I simply stopped being diligent with exercising and portion control. Small changes (good or bad) add up. Rebound weight is insidious and creeps back slowly. Trust me - if 50 lbs came back overnight, we'd flip out and do something immediately. When weight comes back at a much slower rate (ex: 1/2 lb per month), we tend to completely overlook it. Part of that is denial.

IMHO, it's really about *complacency* (which is a normal human tendency). Unlike initial weight loss, maintenance is rarely treated like a goal. Without a goal always looming on the horizon, we tend to lose our focus and drive. So, I think the trick is to make new goals even after the initial weight loss (ex: I will run a 10K this summer, I will get my cholesterol #'s down for my next checkup, I will join a soccer league, I will ride 2000 miles on my bike, I will take a healthy cooking class, and so on...) I think we always need something NEW to aim for. Because it's simply to hard to aim for "stay the same".

well said !!! always keep pushing for more!

SoreTodayStrongTomorrow222

My attitude is this is my life style change to eat healthier and maintain exercise.

Any change in diet or exercise habits is a change in lifestyle. But, whether you call it a lifestyle change or a diet, it can still change again. It's rare for anyone not to have several lifestyle changes over the course of their life.

In fact, changes in lifestyle are often what cause people to gain weight. They get married, they have children, they get a sedentary job, they lose a job, they get an injury, etc.

those sound like excuses to me :-)

Excuses are reasons.

no - getting married, having kids - those are EXCUSES

an injury is a REASON

don't confuse the two

Inshape13

From what I've been able to see, there are a few different reasons that people gain the weight back fairly quickly. The biggest reason that comes to mind and the one I've seen a lot of, is that the person was following a restrictive diet without paying much attention to calories or macronutrients, they essentially ended up starving themselves until they lost the weight they wanted, then didn't have a clue as to how to proceed after that. Since they didn't learn much about portion sizes, eating certain foods in moderation, etc. on a self-imposed, heavily-restricted diet, they soon return to their old eating habits, which led to them needing to lose weight in the first place. Rinse and repeat, some people go through that cycle for years and years without getting anywhere.

This is what I was thinking too. Maintaining has been harder for me because there is not the satisfaction of hitting that scale goal...just keep doing what your doing. This time around I changed my entire lifestyle and work on fitness goals frequently too.

bcattoes

My attitude is this is my life style change to eat healthier and maintain exercise.

Any change in diet or exercise habits is a change in lifestyle. But, whether you call it a lifestyle change or a diet, it can still change again. It's rare for anyone not to have several lifestyle changes over the course of their life.

In fact, changes in lifestyle are often what cause people to gain weight. They get married, they have children, they get a sedentary job, they lose a job, they get an injury, etc.

those sound like excuses to me :-)

Excuses are reasons.

no - getting married, having kids - those are EXCUSES

an injury is a REASON

don't confuse the two

I'm not confusing anything. If the REASON you gain weight is that you got married and your lifestyle changed, that REASON is no more or less valid than injury. Neither MAKES you gain weight. It was always personal choice, no matter what the REASON you made the choice.

tesha_chandler

Truthfully, every time prior to now that I have lost weight, it has been on some stupid fad diet. As soon as I started wanting regular food, I'd eat it and pack on everything I had lost.