What causes failure?

maintaining is hard because youre still restricting calories but for no improvements like weight loss so the motivation to maintain fades as you get used to how your body looks or you care less and less as the days go on untill you gain too much and care enough again to diet

People fail because they restrict food groups and believe they are "bad"…they then restrict to the point that they can't anymore and then bing on said bad foods…feel guilty, eat more, give up, and then repeat the cycle again every few months…

If most people just made sensible changes and ate in a deficit and treated themselves to said foods then they would lose weight and it would be sustainable.

This is a false dichotomy. Calorie counters return to MFP time and again talking about "falling off the wagon". This is true across the globe. To say ONLY those who restrict foods fail is just plain false.

the post was about what "causes" failure….IMO food restriction is one of those causes….I mean if you want to me to cover every single possibility for failure then we will be here all day….

geez…lighten up C3PO….

Ah so now it's one of the causes. Got it.

People fail because they focus on food and exercise instead of a real mental or spiritual program. Weight loss is a short term fix. Yee haw I lost 20 pounds. What is your average weight over the last year? Two years? 5 years? Chances are you will be back to your 5 year average without keeping your mental and spiritual program alive and active and that program never ends.

Judging by the number of "I'm Back!" threads on MFP, it would seem that counting calories is a major cause of failure.

Alcohol has been my Achilles heel.

It could be mine as well if I'm not careful. I love wine. And as I age my "discretionary calorie" allotment decreases, leaving less room for yummy wines.

This is an excellent question. I am answering it more for myself. I have not been over-weight all my life. It has really been just the past couple of years. After considering what has got me here, I will have to pursue a more active career. In addition, I will have to pursue activities in groups like boxing. I enjoy any activity while I am still learning how to do it. Once I have mastered it, I usually lose interest. I have thought of becoming a weight trainer and eventually moving into the field of rehabilitation. I am heavily dedicated to one of the most sedentary professions and currently attending grad school in the profession. Both combined creates a sedentary life.

I will have to seriiously consider my social interactions and make a conscious effort to find friends who are active and who eat healthy.

My thoughts have been interrupted, so I must go and come back to this after more thought. Thanks for the questiopn.

Depression, fast food, junk food you name it

all the sugar and fats I have had since Halloween(my annual down fall). 30 lbs off in the last 18 months, now gained 10 back. ;-((

Because I got sick of logging my food. It got boring to me. I started having too much fun going out with new friends and having dinner and too many drinks now that I am single(and loving it). I had the same attitude as you when I started on here. I couldn't imagine gaining back any of the weight I'd lost. LOL. Life happened. Getting slowly back on the wagon now.

I gained about 10lbs from my lowest weight.

For me, lately I've been getting tired of logging. I get tired of the mentality that I automatically shift to, "How many calories is this?" every time I want to eat something that doesn't come with the calorie count on it. Many times I'll just say, "I think that's about 1200 calories." And just throw it in there as a quick add.

Also, winter kicks my butt and I have severe muscle pain when I spend more than a few minutes walking around outside. When walking around is my main form of "exercise"---well, I'll just avoid it to avoid pain.

Bump

You are right....and MFP tells us how many calories we should consume to lose and/or to maintain our weight...it's not rocket science. .Each one of us has different requirements. It's a life long commitment. I'm amazed at how quickly the calories rack up in a day! MFP is a great tool to keep a diary of food intake.

Let me preface this by saying that I don't use MFP as a social device or as a weight loss tool. It's just an amazing calorie counting app! What I see in a lot of clients I train who fail is this continued setting of goals. Setting goals and meeting them is not inherently a bad thing, if you want to look good for a reunion or beach day, great! However it leaves you feeling satisfied afterwards, which is dangerous. Fitness and the pursuit of aesthetics can't be a momentary drive towards a single goal, it needs to be a lifestyle.

1.) A sense of satisfaction.
2.) Boredom with eating clean.
3.) Peer pressure (you're friends all want you to drink or eat the same thing as them, which you can't do)
4.) Overdieting/overcutting (cutting calories to something like 1400 a day will not only **** up your metabolism but will also leave you hungry and susceptible to cheating)
5.) Not understanding this is a lifestyle and, in turn, a life long commitment.
6.) I see some people result o food and lethargy when they go through a rough patch in life (family members death, SO problems etc...) I like to think of fitness as a way to work through those issues, not as a reason to quit.
7.) Money - supplements and clean foods are expensive.
8.) simple lack of will power. this is probably the most common, some people have never dedicated themselves to something like this before and just don't know what it takes. It's an all day all night thing, not simply when it's convenient.
9.) This is less listable but a lot of people structure their lives around food and eating. Whether it's comfort/boredom eating or just a routine/habit you can't shake.

The truth is pretty simple and something a lot of people don't want to hear. The reason you quit is because you don't want it bad enough. You don't want to work. You don't have the drive and the work ethic. It's hard to hear but it's often the truth and lies, at the very least, at the base of all reasons someone slipped.

Until I could get right in my head about the emotional reasons I was eating, there was no way I could lose weight. For me, it was never about the discipline or eating the "right" foods or whatever the reason was that I thought I was failing at in my journey to lose weight. I was so disciplined in every area of my life, why couldn't I make this work?

Turning to food for comfort was how I dealt with my demons. My demons were being a perfectionist, feelings of not being worthy of love, not loving myself. I had to go ALL the way back and figure it out. I am still about 40 pounds out but let me say this. I have gained self love, confidence and appreciation for the fact that I am worthy of everything this life is about.

I am going to be 50 in 2014. I know with an absolute certainty that my weight will be gone by then. This is all fine and good but the best part is that my "head space" where food for comfort is concerned is right where it belongs for the next 50 years....out the door and viewed as a demon of the past.


****edited for clarity****

Way to go on figuring our the root of the problem. Congrats on the success you've already have had and on your future success.

Let me preface this by saying that I don't use MFP as a social device or as a weight loss tool. It's just an amazing calorie counting app! What I see in a lot of clients I train who fail is this continued setting of goals. Setting goals and meeting them is not inherently a bad thing, if you want to look good for a reunion or beach day, great! However it leaves you feeling satisfied afterwards, which is dangerous. Fitness and the pursuit of aesthetics can't be a momentary drive towards a single goal, it needs to be a lifestyle.

1.) A sense of satisfaction.
2.) Boredom with eating clean.
3.) Peer pressure (you're friends all want you to drink or eat the same thing as them, which you can't do)
4.) Overdieting/overcutting (cutting calories to something like 1400 a day will not only **** up your metabolism but will also leave you hungry and susceptible to cheating)
5.) Not understanding this is a lifestyle and, in turn, a life long commitment.
6.) I see some people result o food and lethargy when they go through a rough patch in life (family members death, SO problems etc...) I like to think of fitness as a way to work through those issues, not as a reason to quit.
7.) Money - supplements and clean foods are expensive.
8.) simple lack of will power. this is probably the most common, some people have never dedicated themselves to something like this before and just don't know what it takes. It's an all day all night thing, not simply when it's convenient.
9.) This is less listable but a lot of people structure their lives around food and eating. Whether it's comfort/boredom eating or just a routine/habit you can't shake.

The truth is pretty simple and something a lot of people don't want to hear. The reason you quit is because you don't want it bad enough. You don't want to work. You don't have the drive and the work ethic. It's hard to hear but it's often the truth and lies, at the very least, at the base of all reasons someone slipped.

Well stated