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

peterdt

That is good to hear. I think there are so many reasons why and if you are in touch enough with yourself to understand that is you main problem that is great.

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.

jojorocksforeva

Because you have to stick to something...
you cant just expect to go back to your bad eating
and nothing will happen it doesnt work like that.

zaph0d

They do temporary things like diets or fads or Dr. Oz stuff, rather than transforming themselves into fit lean people.

Going on a diet and losing weight is for chumps. Transforming oneself is permanent.

californiagirl2012

Because "diets are unsustainable". They don't address the true issue, calories in, calories out. Diets are too restrictive and not sustainable. Typically they are so restrictive that you don't realize how crazy you have become about food and then you rebound. I did it for 15 years.

I found reading a few books helped me change my lifestyle:

Naturally Thin by Bethany Frankel
Anything Goes Diet by John Barban (not a diet, just a way of eating for weight loss and sustaining for maintaince)
Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon
The Venus Index (for the two books in the bunch that talk about calories and goal setting, the beginner workout is awesome too but can be just a side note compared to the other manuals).

I won't tell you what to do. Do what you want and so will I. I'm living my dream and too happy to care what you do or argue with anyone about it. Either you get something out of this or you don't, does not matter to me. How those book ended up helping me --> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/740340-i-lost-60-lbs-at-age-51-anyone-can-any-workout

positivepineapple

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.

Wow I never thought of that its interesting. I mean I know we needed to work a lot harder for our food in those days, cars, fast food and grocery stores make it easy for people to get fat because food is so available and we don't have to physically work for our food. I never thought of gorging as an instinctive thing but I'm sure it it.

Gremlinz

Dieters, as has been pointed out, is the key word. A diet is temporarily changing your eating habits so you can look good at a wedding, at the beach, or whatever, and then when they get to their goal they feel like they can celebrate by going back to their old ways!

To "drop" weight (if you lose it, it can be found... if you drop it, it is gone!) requires a lifestyle change which cannot be temporary.

oodlesnoodles

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.

I don't think it is so much 95% "are not willing" - that's a bit harsh. I find alot of people just struggle more. Not everyone has massive willpower. We all come from different backgrounds and tackle problems in different ways. Some are better at succeeding faster than others.

basillowe66

I've been thru a few diets. This is different. I look at this program as a lifechanging Experience. You are learning over time what you can eat and lose weight . You don't have to necessarily cut anything out, just limit it. Thats why overtime, keeping a good tracking on your food you learn how to manage it.

I don't think of this as a diet, like I said it is a lifechanging way to manage what we eat. And we have a lot of help here, it's not like going it alone

Basil

Positive_Thinker

Because they choose to gain it back. Period. :yawn:

All the excuses in the world (and believe me, I've used 'em all) don't change the fact that overeating (taking in FAR more calories than we burn off) makes....us....OBESE.

Without accepting full, absolute and total (redundancy intentional!) responsibility, for every bite, every mile walked and every pound gained and lost.....we are doomed.


I have chosen to be aware of what I'm doing today, ..... I'll take the credit, or the blame...I own my body and my mind.

Lowell :drinker:

peterdt

Congrats to you on all your efforts and sounds like you worked hard on the mental aspect also. Wishing you continued success.

One thing that have helped me is meditation. When I "feel" like eating something I try to stop a moment, breathe, and ask myself what is this feeling? I don't try to suppress that feeling but try to understand it instead. Breathe into it. It does not always work, and often I don't feel like doing that either, but at least now I know that the feelings are there and it is good to get to know those feelings, and it does sometimes "work".

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.

desiv2

I can't tell you anything other than my experience, I didn't gain it all back, but I did gain a chunk back again before. I was practicing a diet that wasn't realistic for everyday life, and on top of that I never bothered to really learn about my body and how it works. I just ate the calories some book a crack doctor wrote to make money told me to. I fell off because it wasn't something most people can sustain for life.

I read that a good way to help yourself from gaining is to make sure you throw away all your fat clothes, and if you find your clothing getting tight, reeling yourself back in and refusing to go up a size. Have no idea if it's good advice, but I plan on doing that. XD

crazyvermont

Very simple, people choose fad diets vs a lifestyle

o2bADyer

You can't just "diet"...you have to make changes permanently. (my 2 cents)

VelociMama

Congrats to you on all your efforts and sounds like you worked hard on the mental aspect also. Wishing you continued success.

One thing that have helped me is meditation. When I "feel" like eating something I try to stop a moment, breathe, and ask myself what is this feeling? I don't try to suppress that feeling but try to understand it instead. Breathe into it. It does not always work, and often I don't feel like doing that either, but at least now I know that the feelings are there and it is good to get to know those feelings, and it does sometimes "work".

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.

Thanks. It is still a struggle sometimes, and the pregnancy has been a really big challenge for me, but I'm still trying to do better.

I have really poor impulse control when it comes to junk food, so often what I did was a post-pigout assessment, and I would ask myself, "why did I do that? What can I do to makeup for that caloriefest?"

Everyone has their own personal reasons for why they end up the way they do and why they succeed.

peterdt

I think the vast majority of people do you "choose" to gain it back.

I agree that not wanting to accept responsibility for our bodies and lives can make us obese.

But I think for most obese people (say 75%) there is an emotional aspect to it that needs to be dealt with for lifetime change. Maybe you are part of the 25% that don't have a problem with emotional eating and your problems lie elsewhere.

Or are you in denial?

Because they choose to gain it back. Period. :yawn:

All the excuses in the world (and believe me, I've used 'em all) don't change the fact that overeating (taking in FAR more calories than we burn off) makes....us....OBESE.

Without accepting full, absolute and total (redundancy intentional!) responsibility, for every bite, every mile walked and every pound gained and lost.....we are doomed.


I have chosen to be aware of what I'm doing today, ..... I'll take the credit, or the blame...I own my body and my mind.

Lowell :drinker:

elisa123gal

I believe a lot of people have eating problems due to the abundance and availability of food.


This guy is 100% right. It isn't emotional eating..it is the easy to get and tasty food that makes us rack up the calories in modern society. Treats are everyday offerings...and we move less..and build our social lives around food. It is so hard to break that cycle.

purpleipod

I start to detest the amount of effort that it takes. That's why I've gained it back every time.

peterdt

yes, that is one of the things I love about MFP. One simple thing is that it is FREE. So, with that you can look at MFP as a lifestyle change. Many of the major diets offer monthly subscriptions similar to MFP but you gotta pay. This I think will tend to put you more into a "diet" mindset. This is one of the reason why I think MFP is groundbreaking in the "diet" field. It promotes lifestyle change, not just fad diets.

I also like the accountability of the friends I have made.

Logging my food and exercise has also helped tremendously.

I have also learned a lot from fellow members and it has allowed me to tweak my lifestyle changes.

I've been thru a few diets. This is different. I look at this program as a lifechanging Experience. You are learning over time what you can eat and lose weight . You don't have to necessarily cut anything out, just limit it. Thats why overtime, keeping a good tracking on your food you learn how to manage it.

I don't think of this as a diet, like I said it is a lifechanging way to manage what we eat. And we have a lot of help here, it's not like going it alone

Basil

Amberonamission

I have lost and regained 100 lbs. I was stabbed in the eye and lost focus on my food. And I want allowed to exert myself at all for 8 months because of the glaucoma that wasn't being controlled by medication. The meds were so messed up too. couldn't feel my hands or feet or lips. The only thing that brought the pressure down in my eye made me very hungry.

peterdt

Well, it looks like you are on your way to some positive change again. Hopefully this time will be different. Do you think you have an emotional aspect to your eating that also causes the gain?

I start to detest the amount of effort that it takes. That's why I've gained it back every time.