Anyone ever kicked the "yo yo" habit?

etscher

Over the past few years, I've been yo yo dieting, and I always end up disappointed in the end when I gain it back. My first big body change was after I got out of basic training in 2009 from the Army and was about 155 and a size 4...holy muscles. Then I started college and 35 lbs crept on; I transferred universities between semesters and had a difficult time making friends at the start of the spring semester since everyone had already established their freshmen friends, so I stayed in my dorm room and ate and watched a lot of Netflix.

In 2011 my mom called me one day and said "I want to join Weight Watchers, but I can't do it alone." So I joined her, with the arrogant attitude that I didn't need to lose weight - until I stepped on the scale and noticed that I was almost 200 lbs. So from November to the next August, I lost 40 lbs and finally wore a bikini on the beach at a size 6/8 (my goal size).

Then grad school started in fall 2012 and due to working a few jobs and going to school full time and basically spending most of my waking hours on campus or rotating between two to three jobs (and eating junky campus food because I thought "hey, I'm skinny now, I can eat whatever), I gained 30 of those lbs back.

Now I'm graduating from grad school and starting a new leg of my journey and I'm back to losing weight to get healthy and get myself in check. However by going over my past, I see a pattern of yo yo dieting and failures, which started in my high school years. I'm so discouraged that the rest of my life will follow this pattern.

Are there any of you who have yo yo dieted in the past and kept the weight off for good? How were you able to make sure that you didn't fall back into the cycle? I really want this to be the last time I do this, and I'm totally discouraged.

karmac0matic

Oh man have I yo yo'd before. I have disordered tendencies so I'm not a good judge of this, but when I would restrict I would go from 115 or so pounds down to 95 (a lot of that was also use of over-the-counter cough gels to suppress my appetite, I had a bad habit of abusing it to also get high). Lowest I ever got was 93 pounds. Then, only a few months later, I was up to 105 after slowing down my drug habit. I gained almost all fat on.

A few months ago (maybe 2 or 3) I started going to the gym as I noticed I'd gained more weight (I was around 115 pounds) and though I worked out, I also continued to eat crap so I stayed around 115. When I slowed down how often I was going to the gym, I didn't slow down my appetite and got around 118 pounds or so.

Now, I'm just trying to get back to my goal weight (which is unhealthfully low but again, I have disordered thinking and eating/body image/etc) and so far I've gone from ~116 to ~109 pounds. It's been painfully slow compared to my other "diets" (ahem starvation) but hopefully within the next few months I'll reach my goal.

For those who have done the restriction diets etc, we know all too well the stress of our weight jumping around like crazy. And because of all those years of yo'yo dieting, my metabolism has slowed down and it's been extremely hard to lose weight!

I wish you the best however, my advice to you would be don't limit yourself too much, don't overwork yourself (i.e. burn out like I did by going to the gym 6-7 days a week and working out like crazy to a point where I got bored of doing it), and don't get discouraged! If you eat something you shouldn't, don't say "screw it, I already ate bad" and keep eating... instead, stop yourself there and maybe do some extra exercise (even a few minutes) to help you burn that off..

Oh man if only I was good at taking my own advice;)