Why is maintaining weight loss so hard?

katevarner

The most effective strategy to protect against weight regain is actually consistent vigorous exercise. This has the tendency to attenuate appetite and drives the body toward defending the new, lower weight as its set point. While it is possible to lose weight with diet alone, exercise becomes absolutely critical in weight maintenance.

This. I have lost weight and regained it for most of my adult life, but the reason I regain is that I quit exercising, not that I eat uncontrollably. I am currently trying to find enough different types of exercise that I enjoy that I will be encouraged to stick with an exercise plan this time. And I intend to keep tracking my eating so that I'm aware that if I want to eat the way I'm eating I will have to continue the workouts. It's that or eat less, and I really like to eat. Besides, I'm really not working out that hard, just consistently. And as I get older, I know I need to keep up the weight bearing exercise for my muscles and bones and some cardio for my heart.

Robin1117

Yup. Agreed. Maintenance is hard. The fact you have to work to maintain your weight is an odd concept--I never knew that until I lost the weight I wanted to lose and attempting to maintain it. You really have to work at it. As some of the posts mentioned, it's a lifestyle change and you always need to keep the balance of "living life" with food, with a healthy dose of diligence and routine and exercise.
I wrote this a few months ago, regarding maintaining, on my 2 year anniversary.....if you want to check it out, it kind of goes along wiht the question...
.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Robin1117/view/maintenance-is-a-choice-my-2-years-of-maintaining-263772

BigGuy47

I find maintaining more difficult than losing. I've switched my goals to improving fitness rather than a number on the scale.

The more you work at something(the longer it takes to lose weight) the stronger your habits will be.

This is the problem, my healthy eating habits have become quite strong. It's counterintuitive to eat more. If I want strength gains I need to eat more. Working on tweaking my habits.

nellyett

I am about 5 lbs from my goal weight but my focus has shifted to lowering my bodyfat and changing my body composition instead. I imagine I will always log my food because it's an easy way to stay on track, but I've set new goals for myself. I've completed the c25k program and am now trying to increase my speed. one day maybe I'll try to get to a 10km!

I've also just started a pushup challenge and continuously try to increase my weights in strength training. my goal right now is a 6 pack! lol. find ways to keep you motivated and give yourself new goals in strength and fitness. I find this really helps to keep me on track and it's another way to see changes that keep it exciting!!

SherryTeach

Losing weight is exciting. The number drops on the scale. Your clothes get bigger. You see changes. Other people see changes. It's easier to stay motivated.

Maintenance is exactly the same work as losing, just with a little more calories. You still need to watch your intake and stay active. But you don't really get the same sense of reward from it.

When you lose, you might get someone who'll say, "Have you lost weight? You look great! Congratulations!"

No one ever says, "You look the same as last time I saw you. Good job!" :laugh:

That was brilliantly said. Now that I am through one week of maintenance, that is exactly my experience. I plan to continue logging, experiment with my calories and be creative with interesting foods. But I'm not going back to my old eating habits because I feel so much better now.

madrell1

I've lost and gained back and lost over and over through the years. I know what you mean about not having a goal. Now I am pre diabetic with also higher tryglycerides so my goal is to not have to take any meds for it. It seems to me that it is an ongoing goal of staying healthy and eating right for life. That's hard cause it is not like the high of losing and fitting into new clothes. Throw away your fat clothes and just concentrate on eating right most of the time. If you weigh weekly than if you go up three pounds make yourself reduce your calories until it is off and don't buy any larger clothes. If you can't button you will be uncomfortably reminded of all the work you did fading into the sunset. It's a whole changing of lifestyle that if done long enough will become a habit that will get you through the hard times. That's what I am going to do this time that I haven't done all the other times. I am 66 now and know bad blood work can disable you and even kill you so I will do the right food 7/8ths of the time and not give up if I eat wrong the 1/8th of the time. Hang in there and just do it!!

Sabine_Stroehm

Maintaining weight is hard because it requires a permanent lifestyle change. You can't get rid of the fat and go back to old habits without regaining the weight.

This

MB_Positif

It's not hard if you don't go back to "normal." When I was gaining weight I was tearing up at least 3,000 calories a day. By learning proper portion sizes I am now able to eat at maintenance and it feels like I am eating a ton of food. I've been maintaining since July. Only ever up and down a fluctuation of about 2 pounds.

Sabine_Stroehm

It's not hard if you don't go back to "normal." When I was gaining weight I was tearing up at least 3,000 calories a day. By learning proper portion sizes I am now able to eat at maintenance and it feels like I am eating a ton of food. I've been maintaining since July. Only ever up and down a fluctuation of about 2 pounds.

I think that's it. I've been "maintaining" for 10 or 12 years now. Any time the weight creeps up more than 2-3LBS, I log my food for a while to see why. And it creeps back down.

Firefox7275

I'm still losing weight, but i'm curious why so many people have a harder time
maintaining their weight than losing it.

You'd think with the higher calorie limit that it would be easier.

Let me know what you think.

Because too many people diet short term then return to eating 'normally' (AKA what they did to gain weight in the first place) instead of making a lifestyle change to healthy eating, regular physical activity and portion control. They don't address their attitudes - considering junk food as a treat that they deserve and a weight management diet as being about depriving yourself. Yet another reason why calories are not the be all and end all, a 'normal' western diet contains far too little nutritious wholefoods and far too much processed and ready made rubbish. If you consistently eat a highly nutritious diet you are less likely to get sick, less likely to suffer with stress, should cope better with pregnancy or a new baby - these are things that throw exercise regimes off track or reach for the take out menu.

trophywife24

I think that often times people use deprivation instead of moderation to loose weight. I've seen some people I know fall into the "I'm skinny now, I can eat what I want" state of mind after they loose weight...... then they gain everything back and then some. They used food deprivation (extremely low calories, zero carbs, things that just aren't possible to maintain) to loose weight without changing their relationship with food, portions, exercise etc and it just didn't work out for them.

kelsully

First of all....finding the right calorie target can be tricky...need enough but not too much. Also, if one has a bad week during weight loss they might not lose as much that week. If one has a bad week or two in maintenance they will gain. As soon as there is a gain people have the emotional struggle of needing to not give up on themselves. Also, there is the mental game involved in which one thinks they can reward their success by having a treat etc.

LoraF83

Because the vast majority shot their bodies in the metabolism and lost muscle mass and whacked up their systems.

Maintenance level must be less because they have less muscle. The metabolism is not shot for long, but as soon as the initial weight gain happens they drop cal's again.

That first big 5 lbs weight loss, mostly water, usually comes right back on again, mostly water.

DING DING DING - we have a winner!!!

LuvHinesWard86

For me maintaining is much harder for a couple reasons. One is i started thinking "I've got this, I know what I'm doing" and the other is because the scale goes up & down and the "exciteement of losing" is over.

seansquared

The easy answer is that most people have absolutely no clue as to the macronutrient makeup of the food they're stuffing into their mouths.

mgobluetx12

Maintaining weight is hard because it requires a permanent lifestyle change. You can't get rid of the fat and go back to old habits without regaining the weight.

This is it exactly. I've only lost a lot of weight once before, but it was because of WLS, which didn't, huge surprise, teach me any better habits. I've totally revamped the way I think about food. I won't be regaining this weight.

AntWrig

There is a confluence of factors that make maintaining weight loss very difficult for many people. First of all, when you lose weight, your metabolism slows a little; this is called adaptive thermogenesis - it is permanent, it is inevitable, and it is generally proportionate to the total amount of weight lost. This means that in order to maintain weight loss, a person must eat fewer calories than they are used to eating for the rest of their life; even less than a person who naturally maintains that same weight (i.e. a person who didn't have to lose weight to get down to that particular weight). Further, leptin levels drop when a person diets, and they never fully rebound back to their original levels when a person starts eating at maintenance level, meaning the person always feels a low-level persistent hunger, even when eating at maintenance calories.

The most effective strategy to protect against weight regain is actually consistent vigorous exercise. This has the tendency to attenuate appetite and drives the body toward defending the new, lower weight as its set point. While it is possible to lose weight with diet alone, exercise becomes absolutely critical in weight maintenance.

While your metabolism does slow down due to prolonged dieting, it's not permanent. Moving from a weight loss phase to a maintenance phase should be a slow and gradual process. You most definitely don't have to exercise vigorously to maintain your weight.

reliableopinion

This is often due to yo-yo dieting. For permanent weight loss,it is absolutely necessary to have a complete mental shift. Cleanse and detox are crucial.

seansquared

Cleanse and detox are crucial.

Your body "cleanses" and "detoxes" itself. Please don't post this junk. Thanks.

jillica

Complacency.

AMEN!