why do 95%of people put weight back on, ugh

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brenn24179
brenn24179 Posts: 2,144 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I dont want to be one of them. I have gained 10 back, working hard to get it off. Are they undisciplined or life stresses getting to them. What do you think, kind of depressing but I dont think it has to be this way if we are vigilant.
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  • BigTnew
    BigTnew Posts: 22 Member
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    They ate more than when they were losing...
  • pkw58
    pkw58 Posts: 2,039 Member
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    For me, it was just not making my health a priority... Now it is.
  • ApexLeader
    ApexLeader Posts: 580 Member
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    most people exercise and change their dietary habits in order to create a calorie deficit to lose weight. some people do one or the other and lose weight. unfortunately, once they lose significant weight they tend to start gravitating back to old habits (like eating foods high in sugar or overeating or not working out) and then they put the weight back on.

    the important thing is to not look at diet and exercise as a short term thing and instead focus on making it a part of your life. if you stop doing the things that allow you to lose weight and be healthy, then you will stop losing weight/put on weight and be unhealthy.
  • Faye_Anderson
    Faye_Anderson Posts: 1,495 Member
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    Usually because they have been too restrictive when "dieting" ie eating 1200 calories, and then expect to be able to eat at maintenance, either that or they get lax with weighing food/counting calories and overeat:flowerforyou:
  • xPinnkBarbiex
    xPinnkBarbiex Posts: 2
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    I've always managed to gain back but not all of it. Mostly stress from school but I do restrict myself so I don't go overboard.
  • jonmico
    jonmico Posts: 37 Member
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    They don't reverse diet.
  • jjrichard83
    jjrichard83 Posts: 483 Member
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    reasons people put weight back on -

    1. they follow fad diets
    2. they believed the "cleanse or detox" would actually work and keep it off.
    3. no long term changes were made
    4. no tracking of progress was done, so was unsure if it was actually working
    5. addiction and will power issues.


    Those are the main ones I think...


    Jay
  • Psalm17v22
    Psalm17v22 Posts: 168 Member
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    I think sometimes people get to their goal weight and "relax" or feel like they've accomplished their goal and can go back to what they were doing before. Other times its stress induced and they revert back to old habits, I've done this several times.

    God bless,
    Karen
  • Elleinnz
    Elleinnz Posts: 1,661 Member
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    They do not make sustainable changes in their diet......

    Example - Drink VLC shakes and you will lose the weight - but are you going to drink those shakes for the rest of your life???

    I absolutely know that what is different for me this time around is that I have an eating plan that I can follow for the rest of my life - I dont deny myself anything that i really want - but I understand everything has a consequence - and I weigh up those consequences all the time....

    I am not losing massive amounts every week anymore - but slowly but surely I am getting lower on the scale - one day (and it might be 12 to 18 months away) I will reach my final goal - and I know I will be able to keep it off....

    So bottlom line - what works for me eat enough of the right foods (I actually eat more now than I ever had while picking up the weight) , and I got my butt off the couch .......and I make sure I am on top of my gains - 5lbs up - get rid of it IMMEDIATELY.......I will never allow myself to slowly get fatter again...
  • freckledrats
    freckledrats Posts: 251 Member
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    Diet is forever, you just alter it based on your goal. If you reach your goal weight, you diet to maintain instead of lose, that's all. People gain it back because they go back to their old habits, which are what got them needing to lose weight in the first place. New habits are needed, and the lifelong diet changes are what you have to do to form those new habits and stick to them.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,526 Member
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    Because the majority of people are doing it for extrinsic reasons. A wedding, a cruise, an event, summer, etc. Some will also be "forced" to because of a health issue, but weren't willing to until it hit them. Many approach it with "diet plans" and "diet programs" but many of the programs and plans aren't sustainable for life. Many also go for the gimmick fads and fast weight loss diets because of impatience and refusal to actually work hard.
    The other 5%-10% look at it intrinsically. They do it because they want to, because of how it makes them feel and because they know it's going to reap benefits in the long run.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Because people tend to think of diet as a verb rather than a noun...they go on a "diet" rather than focusing on changing their diet, bad habits, etc. Also, most people do not educate themselves on what kind of nutrition their body needs to lose and then maintain. They go on a diet...once diet is over, they revert back to their old ways because they've made no effort to actually change lifestyle.
  • tricksee
    tricksee Posts: 835 Member
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    The ones who put it back on are on diets. The ones who keep it off have made a llifestyle change.
  • droneofvelvet
    droneofvelvet Posts: 290 Member
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    I did because I lost weight in a very unhealthful way. I was eating only an apple sauce and a piece of bread if even that for 2 months. With the influence of medication I gained it back in a matter of months + 20 extra lbs. I stopped exercising abruptly and kept getting big lunches and having big dinners.
  • boatsie77
    boatsie77 Posts: 480 Member
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    They don't successfully work out the reasons as to why they are addicted to food--using it as their drug of choice to temporarily mask the pain.
  • IsMollyReallyHungry
    IsMollyReallyHungry Posts: 15,350 Member
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    bump!
  • sleibo87
    sleibo87 Posts: 403 Member
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    Personally I think because they consider this a 'diet' and not a lifestyle. You can't hit your goal and go back to the way you were. Its about learning that you can't go back to soda and fast food everyday, you still have to keep up the hard work. I saw a poster that said "Losing is hard, maintaining is hard, being fat is hard.....choose your hard"
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,452 Member
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    It's a really good question and I've wondered about it a lot. I refuse to believe that those 95% are weakwilled (after all, they were people who had the will to lose the weight in the first place!).

    I think one factor (probably not the main one) is that we're always being presented with reaching weight loss goal as a sort of happy ending to the story, without recognising that it's only the beginning of the story! I see so many stories about people who have got to goal weight, and so few stories about people who have maintained goal weight for five years or so. I suppose we've got to understand that getting to "goal" isn't the actual goal, it's staying there. Once we start dieting, we're dieting for life.

    Another small factor is that I imagine there aren't the same rewards associated with maintenance. I love seeing the scale numbers improve, my measurements go down, being able to fit into smaller sizes, etc. But at maintenance, there will be none of those rewards even though I'll still be dieting. People might say "Wow, you've lost weight!", but they're unlikely to say "Wow, you've maintained your weight!"
  • ColeyCannoli
    ColeyCannoli Posts: 147
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    Reaching for a goal is exciting and makes you feel great. But maintaining? It's dull. You can get comfy really quick. No one congratulates you on keeping weight off but its so important to staying healthy not to go up and down. Being healthy is a life long goal. You don't have to be crazy obsessive about every pound but watch it if the scale starts to go up a bit. If you can lose, you can maintain... just take it a day at a time. :)
  • missprincessgina
    missprincessgina Posts: 446 Member
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    Not everyone puts weight back on. I went from a size 16 to a size 6 when I was 17-18. I'm 33 now and have maintained my weight loss. It was easy to maintain my healthy lifestyle.

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