Why is maintaining weight loss so hard?

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  • RoadsterGirlie
    RoadsterGirlie Posts: 1,195 Member
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    After I hit my goal, it took me about six months to properly learn maintenance, and to know exactly how many calories per day my body needed to maintain.

    If you don't go through this process and learn proper form, you are almost guarenteed to gain it back. I lost 90 lbs, and there is NO WAY IN HELL I will ever go back. I am enjoying life way to much right now to ever give that up.

    I will say it is harder when you are skinny, and people around you make comments and ask questions as to why you are still watching what you eat. Food pushers really come out of the wood work the closer you get to goal (and the longer you are at goal), and I'm sure I'm not the only one who experiences this.
  • BCSMama
    BCSMama Posts: 348
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    I'm maintaining now and agree that it's stressful at times. For me, I am still very careful about what I eat and logging it in and staying on track with exercise. Not that I need a ton of encouragement, but it definitely declines and replaced with the attitude that it's okay to "cheat" or "stop dieting" or skip the exercise because you're thin now.
  • sc1572
    sc1572 Posts: 2,309 Member
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    I think it's harder because your weight fluctuates so much. There is no excitement of seeing the scale going down every week. It just seems like such a battle with the scale. Plus I haven't upped calories, I just stopped losing.

    ^THIS!
  • escloflowneCHANGED
    escloflowneCHANGED Posts: 3,038 Member
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    Because a lot of people do fad diets and don't take the time to learn about proper nutrition...
  • emrogers
    emrogers Posts: 328 Member
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    Because a lot of people do fad diets and don't take the time to learn about proper nutrition...

    A lot of what people posted is true. This above has to be the main reason that years ago when I started losing weight and lost weight I gained it all back. I had NO clue about diet and nutrition which I do now but for some reason it's harder for me to lose it this time around. This time what I have learned is the the BIG secret: Lifestyle change!!!!! and you have to keep looking for new goals. You always, always, have to better yourself. Losing weight and hitting all the small goals is great but once you're there you still need to find other goals to hit. This is why you see people who are already thin say things like, "I want to lean out, or I want abs" then you hear people say, "but you already look good!" To us yes, they do, but to themselves they have other goals they want to accomplish.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
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    Weight loss means going under a certain number. Weight gain means going over a certain number.

    It is very difficult to actually know the exact number but easy to say around X. So, to lose weight, eating a good portion under X will result in weight loss.

    If trying to maintain, you have to eat X exactly. But what if your estimate of X was off by 100? That means when you are trying to maintain, you're actually eating 100 extra calories a day.

    Behavior wise, the difficulty to maintain is cause by people that did it incorrectly. They followed a diet plan, they did MASSIVE amounts of exercise, etc. They never actually did something to permanently change their behavior. Without learning how to eat properly, what is good for you, and what foods do what etc. it is difficult to manage your own food intake properly.
  • jaybird951
    jaybird951 Posts: 53 Member
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    for me it has been due to falling back into old habits.....
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
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    some people reached their goal weight after fighting with emotional eating for years - sometimes that may relapse and cause them to struggle.

    some people may have reached their goals after fighting against inactivity or laziness and they may struggle with that relapse.

    some people never had food or laziness issues but they have a very small weight so it's easier to see the fluctuations.

    some people never had food or laziness issues and never have a problem with the flux once they reach maintenance either because they are so in tune with themselves.

    hth.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    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 exactly right...too many people use "diet' as a verb when they should be thinking of it as a noun. When used as a verb, there is an inherent end to "dieting"...a goal weight is reached and wala...diet over...when used as a noun, it's a lifestyle.
  • alliebeck2
    alliebeck2 Posts: 34
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    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.

    Long-term persistence of adaptive thermogenesis in subjects who have maintained a reduced body weight.: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/88/4/906.full.pdf

    There are also numerous papers that have documented an attenuation in weight regain among subjects who engage in vigorous exercise on a regular basis. Also, please note that I did not say it was necessary to exercise vigorously to maintain weight loss; I said it tends to be one of the most effective strategies for attenuating regain -- not the only strategy.
  • RoadsterGirlie
    RoadsterGirlie Posts: 1,195 Member
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    I've successfully maintained a 90 lb loss for exactly a year now. My mindset is the same as it was when I was in weight loss mode - I just get to eat more calories.

    I still track my food, and get plenty of activity and exercise in. I weigh myself daily.

    If I don't do this, I know I can plan on gaining it back.

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