95% of people who lose weight put it back on. Why?

peterdt

I just read this interesting article that states:

"If the statistic that 95% of dieters gain their weight back is true, then what are the other 5% doing to be successful? According to the National Weight Control Registry, the people that kept the weight off didn't just change their eating patterns, they changed their life in some way.

In other words, by dealing with the underlying issues that fueled their emotional hunger, they were able to turn off their hunger switch, which resulted in less emotional eating.

More often than not, emotional eating points to a real life situation that requires your attention. And whether or not you're fully aware of what that challenge is, you're most likely feeling powerless when it comes to resolving it.

This kind of powerlessness results in you continuing to experience emotional hunger, which increases your chances of emotional eating, and makes it difficult to maintain a healthy eating plan that would otherwise keep off extra weight.

If you feel stuck in life, you are certainly not alone. 28-million people in this country are on antidepressants. Most of them are on medication for sub-clinical depression, which means they're not mentally ill; they are simply dissatisfied with their life and are unclear as to what to do about it.

Being stuck is like having one foot on the gas and the other on the break: You desperately want to go somewhere - somewhere in the future where it feels like your life will to be on track - but, you're afraid to make changes and don't feel powerful enough to do so.

Emotional hunger indicates that you need to make a change.

When you overeat for emotional reasons you disable your body's internal guidance system; you no longer have an inner compass leading you towards the things you want, or leading you away from the things you don't want.

You need to prove to yourself that you are not powerless, that you can take your foot off the brake and start moving forward."

Jynus

Because 95% of people don't understand the lifestyle change that goes with it.

Diet is a perma for life thing. If you understand this, then you know that you balance macros and track calories and understand that you maintain or lose by adjusting the calories in vs calories out. It's not about feelings, it's about logic and math.

Vast majority of people don't get this, and just starve themselves on very high carb low calorie diets, shed a crapton of muscle mass, feel lethargic, lose a ton of weight, still look like crap, feel depressed about it, and start binging because of it causing more ballooning than when they started.

altacosturabeth

I think for some people it is the emotional connection they have to food.

But in a lot of cases I think it's because they've almost been a little too strict? So they make it a diet rather than a lifestyle change. To me a diet is following at least some kind of set meal plan for a certain amount of time, whether that's a within a certain date or until they reach a certain weight I'm not sure. To me a lifestyle change means eating well but it also means fitting in some of the bad stuff. Saying that you'll never eat a bit of chocolate again I'm guessing to most people would be something rather frightening! And unless you really detest it or have an allergy to it, I doubt it's going to happen.

So when they finish, or get as far as they can with their little diet, the weight just comes back on.

I guess...

jeffreyjording

I had somebody just ask me " Why are you still using MFP ? Your not still trying to lose weight are you ?" No I have reached my goal. But I need to keep myself accountable for every bite. If I don't I feel the weight would creep back on. Logging my food has become second nature. I believe a lot of people have eating problems due to the abundance and availability of food. Paleolithic man had to work hard for his food. Chasing and stalking game. Walking miles to gather food. No grocery stores no refrigerators. When he had food he gorged before it went rancid, because he never knew when he would get to eat again. It must have been very calming and reassuring to have food. Modern man feels the same way, but our availability of,food,makes it way to easy for a stress reliever.

peterdt

This is the 1000 pound gorilla in the room that everyone is ignoring. I agree with the article. If you want to lose and keep it off those underlying problems must be dealt with.

The article attributes most of the problem to emotional eating. But there are lots of other factors I think that are much more simple. Too much fast food and busy lives. Not enough exercise. Lack of knowledge of what is healthy to eat. Accumulation of a lifetime of bad habits that are hard to break. The list goes on and on. BUT I still think the number one reason is emotional eating. And dealing with emotional eating is not a simple matter. It takes a lot of hard work just like trying to lose the weight in the first place.

peterdt

Congrats! It looks like you have transformed your life! Interesting observations on how our bodies have evolved to adapted to store energy for lean times. What has happened in the past 50 years or so is unprecedented in human history to be sure except for the ultra "rich" that probably has been less than 1% of the population for millenia.

I had somebody just ask me " Why are you still using MFP ? Your not still trying to lose weight are you ?" No I have reached my goal. But I need to keep myself accountable for every bite. If I don't I feel the weight would creep back on. Logging my food has become second nature. I believe a lot of people have eating problems due to the abundance and availability of food. Paleolithic man had to work hard for his food. Chasing and stalking game. Walking miles to gather food. No grocery stores no refrigerators. When he had food he gorged before it went rancid, because he never knew when he would get to eat again. It must have been very calming and reassuring to have food. Modern man feels the same way, but our availability of,food,makes it way to easy for a stress reliever.

ValerieMartini2Olives

Why? Because it is super easy to fall off the wagon. Ask any alcoholic or drug user how many times they relapsed before quitting completely.

VelociMama

I lost 42 lbs before I got pregnant, and I fell off the wagon big-time twice along the way. It took me a year and a half to get there.

It was ALL in my head for me. It was all mental. I had to control my eating even when I felt upset and wanted to pig out to make myself feel better.

That's the great thing about eating well and eating sufficiently for weight loss. You don't lose the weight as fast, but by taking your time, you learn how to maintain it for life where people who are starving themselves don't. Once they drop all the weight, they go back to eating like they did before, and then it all comes back. The people I know who are most successful are those who are the most patient and willing to really dig into why they are doing what they're doing.

To address your commented point, I agree that there are other factors, but for a lot of us, it really is emotional eating at some point or another. I ate knowing I was already full. I could finish a whopper with cheese, large fries, and large coke (about 1800 calories) in less than 10 minutes no problem then go on to eat an entire bag of tostitos with cheese sauce (another 1500-2000 calories) before bed. I knew I was full early on, but I would just keep going. Laziness had a lot to do with it, and I could easily blame just the laziness alone, but the truth is that I was totally miserable and food was my method of self-sabotage.

EatClean_WashUrNuts

Because people CHOOSE TO.

/endthread.

homerjspartan

Becuase you can only go so long before you realize the awesomeness of nachos.

Nerdy_Rose

I think because most people view it as a temporary diet, not dietary life changes, and once their weight is lost and their "diet" is over, they go right back to the way things were before.

(by most people, I don't mean the people on MFP -- I mean in general. MFPers generally have a much better outlook)

JennaClaire520

Your body upregulates and downregulates certain hormones that will drive you back to eating more even if you don't want to. For serious life changing commitments as well- any change has to be sustained long-term.

shelbyfrootcake

Why? Because it is super easy to fall off the wagon. Ask any alcoholic or drug user how many times they relapsed before quitting completely.

Amen. I quit smoking 11 times in 17 years before finally quitting successfully. I don't plan of doing that with food.

quill16

It is my understanding that most of the 5% continue to log their food in some way and have changed their eating style/ way of life on a permanent basis. This is why I am continuing on MFP. I have kept my weight off for 3 months and have no intention "of going back there" again.I don't give up even if a have a bad day or two.

BigGuy47

It takes a lot of hard work

Yes it does.

Having the discipline to control eating habits is hard.
Exercising is hard.
Dealing with emotional eating is hard.
Making a complete lifestyle change is hard.

5% are willing to do the hard work.
95% not so much.

MichaelFunaro

As someone who has lost and gained back and also knowing other who did the same. I think a lot of people think the work is over once they have lost the weight. The truth is that maintaining your weight is actually more difficult than losing it. So many people let their guard down once they have lost and go back to old habits. Has to be something you work at for the rest of your life and even more diligently once you are trying to maintain. At least that's what I have learned.

_Timmeh_

Either trying to take short cuts or were just losing the weight for a certain event.

Crochetluvr

What I find interesting is that I am not an emotional eater...I am an emotional FASTER. When I am emotionally stressed, I cant eat. My stomach gets tied up in knots and just the thought of food makes me feel nauseous. I got fat because I love food. I am now learning how to love it in a more controlled way.

peterdt

denial responses/ oversimplified responses like yours do not contribute to "solving" this problem in my opinion.

Because people CHOOSE TO.

/endthread.

LuckyLeprechaun

If the diet is temporary, the accompanying changes will be as well. Change permanently to change permanently.

vvanm

I had somebody just ask me " Why are you still using MFP ? Your not still trying to lose weight are you ?" No I have reached my goal. But I need to keep myself accountable for every bite. If I don't I feel the weight would creep back on. Logging my food has become second nature. I believe a lot of people have eating problems due to the abundance and availability of food. Paleolithic man had to work hard for his food. Chasing and stalking game. Walking miles to gather food. No grocery stores no refrigerators. When he had food he gorged before it went rancid, because he never knew when he would get to eat again. It must have been very calming and reassuring to have food. Modern man feels the same way, but our availability of,food,makes it way to easy for a stress reliever.

The modern day man is still using a primitive brain that says if it tastes good, eat more because before human refining of foods it was all nutritious. Refined sugar tastes like super nutritious fruit to that brain, for example, and our bodies don't know how to metabolize it in a body that sits at a desk all day. We are meant to be in motion ALL DAY. This is bound to create an imbalance and I'm not sure people eat because they are emotional, or because what they eat is making them emotional and they are trying to eat what their primitive brains tell them will fix the problem. It's amazing we all aren't 500 lbs. with this dynamic.