Yeah, it makes sense, sadly enough.

The mind is the hardest thing to win over when it comes to weight loss. We believe all the crap we've heard over the years, we believe all the crap that we've told ourselves over the years. We come to believe that we can't, we're weak, we're whatever negative thing you want to come up with. So when we start to see success, it's frightening and if we're not ready to confront it, it's frightening enough to scare us back to the familiar.

This is when we need to start to tell ourselves the positive stuff. We're strong. We're successful. We're doing it right this time. We CAN do it.

The fear... we're so used to being fat that it's safe, it's familiar, we're comfortable in it, change in the scale we're facing is just plain scary. You just have to hit it face on and think of all the great stuff that comes from not being fat.

Don't tell yourself it is a diet. And don't tell yourself that you cannot have something......that will make you feel deprived and sets you up for failure. I know you will hear this over and over but it is a life change. Those of us who have faught this terrible disease all our lives know how difficult it is. The best thing to start with is portion control.

Hi, your post wasn't stupid, in fact it's quite true! I have ALWAYS been overweight, I was born at almost 11 pounds! My fear is that if I lose this weight, will I have to strength-emotionally-to keep it off? Or will I fall back into old habits? And then there is the fear of all that excess skin--I sure as hell can't afford palstic surgery to have it removed. I'm trying hard to exercise and tone up, I just hope it's enough.

I feel that way every day. I've also been overweight my whole life and was never really successful at anything. This is the most weight I've ever lost. Right now I'm trying to build better habits but every time I put eat something that I mentally think of as a "bad food" I have that same fear too that I'm slipping back into poor habits. When I look at food, whether or not I'm eating it I feel that pull and think "how long can I hold out/stick to plan/ keep losing". But the more I lose I've noticed that it easier for me to get back on track when I mess up. Noticing that has made all the difference in pushing forward and making progress (and well given me hope-something I've only just realized I never had following any other diet). I know it's a big number but I feel like if I could lose 100 pounds I'll feel like I'm well on my way. Until then I just try to take it one bite at a time.

P.S. Like someone else mentioned--the skin issue also terrifies me greatly and weighs heavily on my mind with each pound I drop.