Why do people gain all their weight back?

Many reasons including; illnesses, injury, change of circumstances, loss of motivation to maintain, trying to stick to a VLCD. Well done on nearly reaching goal though.

Most of the time I've gained weight back it was because of good old fashioned diet mentality. Ate low calories until I lost the weight and then started eating "normally" again and didn't stop until the weight was back.

A little over ten years ago I signed up with a trainer who taught me all about logging food and exercise, weight lifting, cardio, and establishing good eating habits. I lost close to 70 pounds.

About five years ago I began forgetting about those good habits and the lifestyle change I'd made. I gained back close to 30 pounds.

Now, I'm 9.5 pounds until my goal and I'm doing the weight loss journey exactly as it has been suggested here. It's working and I'm now losing .5 pounds a week as I set my goal to do in MFP. When I set my goals to lose 2 pounds a week, I did. Same thing with when I wanted to lose one pound a week.

All I can say is that accurate logging and eating properly and exercising are the staples on my road to better health. I now think there is not one good reason to gain any of my weight back.

The first time I lost weight, I did it with Nutrisystem. I didn't learn anything about calories, maintenance calories vs deficit calories, and I had no education in how I should eat to maintain. The whole program is "eat this food for a while, lose weight." So what happened after that? I moved to college, ate in the dining hall, introduce pot and beer and bam, I'm right back where I started. Yes, I could have made better decisions and educated myself, but I was 17 and naive. I forgive myself. I'm doing it right this time, with real daily food decisions, counting calories, and exercising.

All I can say is that accurate logging and eating properly and exercising are the staples on my road to better health. I now think there is not one good reason to gain any of my weight back.

agree. that is what i think so. f
ollowing this for lifetime can definitely help maintain as i continue doing what i do now and only have to ajust the calories intake for maintenance when i'll get there.

Don't get too cocky, Spider. Knowing how easy it is to slip back into old patterns keeps you on your toes.

In my case I became deathly ill, had a long recovery in which I could do little more than lay on the couch all day. For months. I maintained my weight during that stretch. Had to then take a merry-go-round of meds which led me to a quick gain of over 20 pounds (in only three months).

I never thought that I would. I lost 70 in about 16 months and gained back 30. Why? I felt SO proud of my success. I was working out regularly and felt great. I had many compliments too. It's too complex to address fully here but I am an emotional eater who gets severe sugar cravings. Many people can eat sweets but I guess I am not one of them. I feel like I should be a "normal person" who gets to have an occasional dessert or a couple of pieces of candy. Unfortunately, I fell of the wagon just like an alcoholic. It took me 11 months to gain the 30 but now I have now been sugar free for three days and I am hopeful for continued success. I had someone offer me a doughnut yesterday. I said "no" and sat near her while she ate hers, tough thing to do at work. I have lost 3.2 pounds in the last 3 days just due to the sugar reduction. My goal is to lose 80 more in the next 10-12 months and then lose another 10-15 after that. I know that I shall always have to be vigilant not to slip again. I am not sure I have the strength to muscle through this another round.

It is hard to keep it off, you get bored with your program.
life changes.
I try to stay within 6 pounds, this month my son got married and I went up 10 pounds,
I now believe stress is the worst cause of weight gain.
I am getting back under control!
I will get back to 117!

I always did before, because I was depriving myself and could never stay on track. I believed that I had to eat 'clean', and do a crap ton of cardio, so of course I was always miserable, hungry, tired, craving everything all the time. Now, since starting MFP, I learned to keep it simple. Calories in, calories out. I get a moderate weekly average calorie deficit, meet my macro/micro/fiber goals, incorporate plenty of treats, do a bit of cardio and I started strength training. It's sustainable now, and fun, instead of miserable, so I think I can keep with it! :drinker:

Loss of motivation!
Personal matters that make you never wanna get up and live!

Its just mistakes we learn from and make us better the second time around

But good luck!!

Motivation will always wane. 100% of the time.

It's impossible to maintain "motivation" for something all the time long-term.

Motivation is not what you need for long-term weight loss success. You need the discipline to keep doing it anyway even during times your motivation has left the building.

Mainly because people go on diets that they aren't going to sustain for life. For weight loss yes, but not for life.

That's why I never tell clients to diet, but just to reduce calories. Since I've done this, the regain percentage has been reduced substantially.

Anyone can diet and lose weight if they follow it. Staying on that particular diet is the problem.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Lots of reasons!

I went on a long trip and wanted to eat and drink with gusto, so I did. Got back and took a little while to get back to the gym. Found out I couldn't exercise anymore and was like wtf?

Spent a long time waiting for the doc to tell me it was safe to exercise again (had to go on a medicine for that).

I still ate with the appetite of someone with the different LBM and TDEE that came with my training. And after a fairly long while, I was back at 30 lbs up.

It didn't help that my new lifestyle change had me losing more weight than I wanted when I reached goal. I knew I had to eat a little more to maintain instead of lose, but I didn't know the right level before all the other changes took place. I did it really slowly, too. I didn't expect to keep on losing.

I met a man who loves huge portions of food, and thought that I was the one who was weird eating so little. Then I started believing people who told me I could eat more and still maintain. That averaging under 1400 calories was "crazy" and "unnatural". That my weight would stabilize.

Yeah. No.

I also had fluctuations due to pregnancy, illness, and injury, but those were largely short lived.

The keys to maintenance, according to the National Weight Loss Registry, are to keep journaling every BLT, continue to eat the way you did when you were losing but increase the portions slightly, as soon as you gain 2 pounds, go back to your weight loss phase, and finally exercise every day for a minimum of 30 minutes to include at least 2 session of resistance training a week. Losing weight is making permanent changes to your lifestyle. You can't go back to eating as you did in the past without gaining weight.

For me, it's seasonal depression. I can lose whatever I want in spring, summer & fall, but come winter, I will put some weight back on. Not everything, but some. At least I am working out and eating healthy, and since over the course of the year I lose more than I gain, that's ok with me.