Do the changes ever become permanent?

I lost 30 lbs in 2007, built muscles and was very toned. I maintained the weight, exercised and ate clean for 2.5 years. Unfortunately sometime in the middle 2009 I slipped again to bad habits. Although I exercised regularly and daily, it was not enough to compensate for eating out, eating bread in restaurants, suddenly walking less as new work was only accessible by car etc. All that and my mindset that "we live just once" made me gain those 30 lbs back again. So I am here now in 2013 and determined to change that and get back on track. I hope this time for good.

the most success you'll have is enjoying the changes you make, this is why i don't understand why people go for stuff they don't like.

diet is about moderation and balance just because while you're losing weight you can't have junk food when you've lost it and you're happy you wont binge away all your work, you can have a treat every now and then.

personally as a person at mid BMI most of my life i have about 1 takeaway a month, if that sometimes, i don't miss it, i wouldn't put my last £7 into a mcdonalds, i could quite easily eat it everyday, but i choose not to, i'd rather have a decent meal in me.

when you can get to that point where you can literally take or leave food like that, you'll know you're 'cured' in mind as well as body, getting there is just having the right attitude towards food and your body

For me it became a habit after 6 months.

You need to find the right balance between eating "healthy" and allowing yousrelf treats.

My experience is when people "fall off the wagon" it's becasue they're too rigorous with themselves and buckle under the pressure.

There's no need for extremes.

Just when I think it is getting easier and manageable all hell break loose and I'm back to square one. Personally, I dont think it will ever be permanent. I think being as large as I am that the body actually strives to maintain obesity and weight loss will always be fighting an uphill battle.

your body is built to adapt.

Eat a very low calorie diet? Your body adapts by reducing lean body mass and adaptive thermogensis, so you can survive on less food. Your body will try its best to store more fat as that's more useful to survive a prolonged food shortage (though if the calories are very low it's not going to manage to do much of that, and will need to burn fat, but will try to do this as slowly as it can get away with.... and there's a limit to how far the body can adapt, eat way to little and it can't adapt enough and you die)

Work out with weights? Your body adapts by strengthening your muscles and bones - through neurological adaptations, and also by increasing the amount of muscle tissue (the latter requires eating at a calorie surplus and sufficient protein, and happens more in men than women) - your bone density increases (providing you're getting enough calcium). Additionally, the body will direct any calorie surplus into muscle more than storing fat, and in a calorie deficit, while the body can't build new muscle, it will burn fat and maintain muscle mass while also improving neurological pathways so strength gains are possible and the body will burn fat to make up the deficit, up to a point (lean body mass losses can still happen while doing strength training in people who are already very lean)

Eat too much? Your body stores the excess as fat, because millions of evolution has resulted in bodies that are always prepared in case there's a food shortage, because that's what enabled your ancestors to survive. So even if you've never experienced a food shortage, your body will adapt as though it's likely, because your ancestors had plenty of food shortages.

Sit on your backside all day? Your body will metabolise unused muscle mass as it's surplus to requirements. Again, always prepared in case there's a food shortage, it's not going to direct energy or protein into tissue that's surplus to requirements.

..........none of these changes are permanent, they're all ways in which your body adapts to whatever you are putting it through. There is a limit to how much it can adapt, a man will get stronger than a woman in the same circumstances due to having more testosterone, and your body can only adapt so much to a food shortage, it can't keep adapting indefinitely, death from starvation will result if it goes on too long or the food shortage is too severe............... however the body will adapt to what you put it through, so if you do a healthy eating and exercise programme, get stronger and leaner as a result, then you have to continue with the healthy eating and exercise programme to maintain the changes. If you go back to being a couch potato, your body will adapt to being a couch potato, i.e. metabolising any muscle that's not being used, and storing any excess calories as fat.

This is why it's SO important, if you want to lose fat and keep it off for life, that you make sustainable changes in your life. The best programme is the one that you will stick to, provided it also involves nourishing your body properly, a calorie deficit, and an exercise programme that works the muscles and bones well enough to strengthen them. To maintain, you do the exact same things, but remove the calorie deficit (i.e. eat all your TDEE calories) so that the weight stays the same while the exercise and healthy eating keep your bones and muscles strong.

Yes after a while my food cravings changed, and so did my mentality about food. I can still eat huge portions of high calorie foods but realize the work required to burn it off now, and most times decide that its just not worth it. Go into this with the thought that you are changing your life and with the realization that there is no going back. Going back means old habits creep back up and you start justifying it to yourself that you deserve things. Unfortunately that isn't the way things work, and that's what leads to weight regain.

Important note is that I've been pretty consistent for two years now, and only now am I starting to understand the true changes to my thinking that have occurred. It takes time and dedication, it won't happen overnight. Good luck!

I don't think it ever comes second nature. I still fall back into patterns - like over eating or choosing the "wrong" thing. Like for example, last Friday my BF and I were out for a Happy Hour with friends and were hungry, so we left the bar and wanted burgers. The ultimate place for burgers in Columbus, OH is "Truman's" and we had never been, even though we've lived here collectively 12 years, so we did. We ordered Onion Straws, Jalapeno Bottle Caps, and a burger to share - because we had to wait and I was HUNGRY, I ate more than him. And spend the night sick and had a "food hangover" all of Saturday. So, yeah, even though I developed "good" habits during my journey, I still fall sometimes and forget that the live I led 40 pounds ago can't be sustained in this body.

Is it easier? Is not fitting into your clothes easier? Is hating how you look in the mirror easier? Is hating shopping for clothes easier? Is huffing and puffing up a flight of stairs easier?

I finally lost the weight in 2010 and will never look back. It takes effort. It's constantly making the right choices and finding the balance. But I live a healthy life now. I'm not on a diet.

Losing weight is hard. Maintaining is hard. Being fat is hard. Choose your hard.

What I think I need to realize or understand is that I will have to manage this for a lifetime. There will be up and downs and living does involve eating treats and indulging. So learning to manage that while continuing to make healthy choices most of the time is the job. For me, its almost that I need to change my mindset--that being mindful is just life and it doesn't mean restriction. I'm working on it all!:)

Never. I do not want to discourage anyone but the bad habits we fall into seem to be permanant while good ones always take continued effort. I quit smoking 23 years ago, have not had a cigarette since, woke up this morning craving one. I am the same by food. I know what food does to me, I have lost 100+ three times, but eating, and eating the wrong food seems to be an ingrained as breath.

My dad always said the right things to do are the hard things to do.

Keep doing the hard things, never give up.