Anybody LOST a lot of weight then GAINED it all back?

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  • willnorton
    willnorton Posts: 995 Member
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    at least 100 times
  • bambishealth
    bambishealth Posts: 134 Member
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    About 9 years ago I lost almost 100 pounds. I was excercising, not really logging calories so to speak, but I was keeping under a 2000 calorie intake. Then, I got pregnant with my 2nd son, then the next year my 3rd son, and then the 2nd year after that pregnant with my 4th son. So here I am, the last son is 4 years old, and I am only 3 pounds lighter than my very first starting weight, 9 years ago. I need to get this back off!
  • wnlbutterfly
    wnlbutterfly Posts: 35 Member
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    The stats on this are staggering and rather depressing. The reason they gain it all back is they quit doing what was working for them. I have seen it over and over. Quit tracking their food...quit exercising. My mom and aunt were both life time members of WW and regained all of it...lost it...gained...lost gained.
  • riverain
    riverain Posts: 55 Member
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    Got curious by reading about 'success' stories. Are there people who 'lost' 10's, or 100's of pounds then gained a lot of it back or more?

    And if so, why?

    Is this a pattern?

    Several years ago I lost over 30 pounds. I kept it off for a while, but then my BF moved in. He has the worst eating habits, and instead of converting him to eat healthy like me, I digressed into preparing meals he likes (he hates veggies), then my own eating devolved as well. I kept the weight off for a while by remaining pretty active, but then I started having back problems from an old injury and stopped working out regularly... And here I am back at almost my highest weight again. It was a gradual gain, due to a gradual return to unhealthy eating and less active lifestyle (I used to go out several nights a week after work to different dance classes, sport clinics, etc. Now I come home and sit around with my BF). However, I did it once and I can do it again, so working on going back to a healthier active lifestyle. Trying to cook healthier, and get more regular exercise during the week.
  • seauxphat
    seauxphat Posts: 12
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    Roughly nine years ago, I lost 105 pounds in a little over a year. I went from barely being able to walk one hundred yards, to 30 min daily power walks which included uphill sprints and swimming every chance I got. Ah, I felt alive! I was toned and flexible! Fell in love! Then hit rock bottom after a breakup and lost my drive. Slowly but surely 70 pounds returned. It might as well have been the entire 105 for the way I look and feel, but glad it wasn't. The worst thing I did was stopped pushing myself physically. Once I resumed a sedentary life, the pounds of fat added on. I've come to the conclusion that a healthy mind and body take joyful effort that never ends, and it's entirely up to me. :drinker:
  • Jess732008
    Jess732008 Posts: 98 Member
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    Thank you for your kind words. Fat can be a good veil when you just want to be evaluated for your personality and your mind. But if you've been both fat and not fat a lot, you realize how differently people treat you based on your size. I've had people say things like "You're cutting me off? Did you eat everything in this bar, you fat pig?" or "I'm just about drunk enough to sleep with you" when you serve someone a beer when you're fat but mostly you hear nothing.You're just invisible and that can be comforting, too. When you're smaller, you hear everything, all the time, like you are naked.

    So true. I don't like attention either. I decided just to be extremely modest when I get skinnier. Extreme modesty seems to turn away unwanted attention quite a bit.
  • Jess732008
    Jess732008 Posts: 98 Member
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    Got curious by reading about 'success' stories. Are there people who 'lost' 10's, or 100's of pounds then gained a lot of it back or more?

    And if so, why?

    Is this a pattern?

    Hi, I have always been chubby or obese. I always thought I would not be able to lose weight, so I have not really tried to diet and stick with it. I did WW and ate really healthy for a time but both times only lost about 10 lbs and then gained it back plus maybe 5 lbs. In 2010, I started doing the WW points program and going to meetings and lost about 60 lbs. I went from 264-206. I felt really good and was actually back in the "normal" sizes again. At that time, I had little experience with dieting, and we could no longer afford WW meetings. WW also changed to the Points+ program and it did not work for me. I would lose one week and then gain the next. I stopped losing so I stopped having motivation to go to meetings. So I quit. I stopped exercising too. I was walking for 50-70 minutes a day 3 days a week and lifting weights. My husband started having health problems. I was on a medication that leads to metabolic problems and it made me super hungry. The whole time I was on WW I felt hungry constantly. I did not eat enough of a variety of foods either or enough fat. I ended up gaining over 100 lbs in 6 months. In the past few years, though I have learned a lot about weight management. For me, I have to eat healthy. I cannot have my trigger foods around or I will pig out even if I am not unhappy or stressed. It is just part of my food problem. Cheese is a trigger food. So is peanut butter. Sweets are trigger foods. I have to eat very strict or I overeat and put on weight. Last year I went down from the 330 range to 289. I starting slacking, but still kept tracking and just eating maintenance calories so I have maintained my loss for 6 months. I went off the medicine and my husband is doing better health-wise. I decided to start the Points program and attend meetings again because I need that weekly accountability. I need to weigh in front of somebody. I am doing the old Points program because it works very well for me. I lose quickly on the program and that keeps me motivated.
  • Jess732008
    Jess732008 Posts: 98 Member
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    I have learned to that if I get sick of losing weight and not eating much just to go to maintenance and track on a site like this one. There is no reason you have to lose weight in a complete linear fashion. Losing 30 or so lbs and then regrouping and giving it time so you are motivated to lose again is fine if that will help you maintain in the long run. Weight loss can take time. It doesn't have to happen quickly. It is a life issue and should not be thought of something that has to be conquered in a few months or a year.
  • Jess732008
    Jess732008 Posts: 98 Member
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    OH YEAH!!! I SURE DID!!! I grew up overweight and did not want to hit 30 years old and still be fat. So, when I was 28, I just started walking - 15 mins a day to start, then 30, then 45, then 1 hr. 1 Hr turned in 4 miles, then 5, then 7, then I started to add jogging and then weight training every other day. In 11 months and just before my 29th birthday...I lost 145 lbs and weighed in at 185. Kept it off for about 10 months and then hit the holidays...started eating everything in sight, fell off the wagon, let the wagon run over me even...and by my 30th birthday...I was packing on the lbs once again. I eventually starting losing again but gained it back once more and I felt like a complete failure and started thinking that I'd just be fat always. But, the first was ignited in me again and I spent the better part of 2013 getting the weight back off. I don't regret gaining the weight back though. I learned a lot about myself through those gains and losses. I'm back on the losing track once again. As of Christmas Eve, 2013, I was 217 lbs. Gained about 10 lbs of bloat and fat from overindulgence over the holidays, but getting back on track now and heading towards my ultimate goal of weighing 185 lbs once again. And I'm going to do it too...by this summer...or even earlier!

    If you lose and then gain again...don't let it upset you. Just get back on the horse when you fall off...and most of all, look deeper into yourself to find out what happened to make you lose focus. Learn from the experience...it will only make you stronger. I learned that food is like a drug to me. Certain foods trigger something in me and I lose control. So, I've learned to avoid them. I don't feel deprived. I don't feel cheated. Getting the body I want and feeling great and healthy trumps any of those feelings of deprivation that people talk about. I just know that there are things out there that I can't have. Lots of people out there deal with this daily whether it be for health related issues or whatever. Food is a drug for me...and addiction...and you don't give drugs to an addict or alcohol to an alcoholic...so you don't feed me trigger foods that send me off the wagon!

    Losing and gaining...it's part of the cycle of getting healthy and learning about yourself. Never let it upset you...learn from the experiences so that they make you stronger in the end.

    That's my 2 cents!!! :-)

    Hi, we sound so much alike. I learned that too. Certain foods do the same thing for me. Quite a few foods. It gets a little tiring when you can't eat normal food like a normal person. Sometimes your mind will say, oh you can eat that. They eat that and are small. Those thoughts are such lies. It is worth it to me to never be over 300 lbs again even if I have to cut out many foods and just eat healthy. Not being able to move is far worse than cutting out trigger foods. I even feel the same about hitting 30 still fat. I don't want all of my good years wasted obese. That would be so stupid.
  • Jess732008
    Jess732008 Posts: 98 Member
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    Twice now!!

    It sucks and makes me feel totally weak! The first time I lost 85 and just got lazy and slowly slipped back took a few years before I saw a pic and REALLY noticed. This last time I was down 70 lbs 1 year ago gained back 60 in 6 months on anxiety and heart meds (dont ever let a doctor tell you how meds affect people they have no idea). I even tried getting back on mfp and doing everything right for short spurts during that time and kept gaining and the last ten was pure laziness giving up on myself getting me back up to my highest ever.

    Now I am off the anxiety meds, quit smoking and lowered the BP meds I'm back and on a mission. This time I will not fail Or quit (even when I'm at goal). No excuses, no unneccessary medications and no lazy days. IT IS SO MUCH HARDER TO LOSE THAN GAIN!

    So true. I was on a medication that did encourage me to gain weight. I felt hungry constantly. I kept gaining and gaining and gaining. I could not stick to a restricted eating plan. As soon as I stopped taking the medication, my weight stabilized ( i no longer felt constantly hungry) and I started losing weight. For some reason my doctor would not even talk about stopping it or changing to another medication.
  • Robide
    Robide Posts: 101 Member
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    I've not had quite the extremes of some on here, but yes, my weight yo yos a bit, especially at winter. I find it's down to a few things:

    1) Exercise. The moment the spring comes, I'm back outside taking walks, gardening, and training for and playing touch rugby. When the winter kicks in, I stop all of this, and I get so bored doing cardio at the gym, I have a much lower burn. I'm trying to change this, and am about to start lifting again which I do really enjoy. I'm also thinking about P90x as I think this will help with my fitness and mobility for touch rugby, and it is far more engaging than just running on the treadmill.

    2) Food. There are 2 sides to this. Especially around Christmas, I give up tracking, and slip into happily eating more than I should. This isn't so much junk food, it is 2 things - wine, and good food. Good food (not the magazine!) is especially a problem. I love cooking, and I love to experiment with recipes from great chefs, and my cooking is getting much stronger. The problem is, this food is packed full of calories, and when I have time off, I like to cook this stuff, and so I naturally start gaining through this also.

    It's difficult, the main thing is really keeping up the exercise, which I need to work on. I'm also putting more effort into eating a much healthier day to day diet, because you can still get a lot of great flavours out of these, and then limit the really rich food to special occasions, rather than several times a week as I had been!
  • Almaviva14
    Almaviva14 Posts: 196 Member
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    Yup! Lost 35 between August 2012 and October 2013. That felt sooooo good. Took an extra job on, stressed on other fronts too, have regained 16...through not paying any attention WHATSOEVER to what/when/how much I'm eating!

    I always knew this was going to have to be a 'for life' thing- that my tendency is to eat more calories a day than I burn...therefore I will either slowly (or speedily) regain.

    I'm very glad of the support of this community. Slow and steady wins the race. This is a marathon not a sprint. Setbacks are part of the journey. The only failure is quitting.

    Back to eating clean and tracking this new year. We can do it! Thanks for all of you being here....
  • belleflop
    belleflop Posts: 154 Member
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    Went from 311 to 225 (86lbs lost) in 2007

    Went from 285 to 220 (65lbs lost) in 2009

    Went from 268 to 219 (49lbs lost) in 2011

    Went from 263 to 235 (28lbs lost) in 2013

    Current weight 268

    Goal weight: 195

    I really have to figure out why this pattern keeps repeating. Maybe I need to lose weight in an even year?
  • erockjustin77
    erockjustin77 Posts: 2
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    I have lost close to 65 pounds three times. Oy. That's a lot of weight. Every time I fall back into the same habits.

    The last time I told myself "I will never weigh over 200 pounds again"... and as I snuck past 200 I kept saying "no... no.. no" but I didn't put the work in.

    Hopefully I learned something each time!
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,741 Member
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    I did but only once. Honestly I haven't been a chronic yo-yo dieter or anything which is kind of surprising.

    In my late teens and early 20s I was always around 230-240 lb. Then I had a spider bite (treated with steroids and surgery with 28 days recovery time in a hospital bed), so I put on weight...then followed that up with my first bad breakup. So I wound up at 299 lb which was not normal for me. I was depressed, but I also had some OCD type behaviors around my senior year of college and graduation so I started eating very little, exercising more, but wasn't really "doing it right" because my calories were too low and I was eating just a select few foods. I started working at a more active job as well, and when I had a checkup I was 227 lb. So I lost 72 lb in just over 1 year.

    Then I met my now ex-husband who was also obese and loved to dine out. So I slowly began to gain back weight as I resumed eating "normally" and then going a step further into cooking and eating more decadent, rich, fatty foods. I then came to accept 260-270 as my usual weight range for about the next decade.
  • sbarclay2014
    sbarclay2014 Posts: 4
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    The story of my life- 2x for just under and over 100 lbs. Smaller amounts other times.

    As far as I can tell it isn't about unsustainable diets or the type of diet that you use, it is about taking your foot off the brake. Some people are lucky and they can do what the docs say "just go back to a living a healthy lifestyle and make the right choices". For the rest of us- yo you dieters I believe it means monitoring what we eat or weight forever.

    The component for me that was unsustainable was the amount of excercise i was doing on the last diet- I was doing trialthons, long distance cycling events etc. Fun but with work and family not sustainable long term.

    The second big factor for weight gain last time was significant stressors- my father died suddenly, spent 6 months attending a trial for a family member who had been murdered and worrying about outcome, downsizing at work, stress of letting people go and then being let go myself and also two children who we were going to adopt went home to their bio family (a happy ocassion, but it also caused grief) and then starting up a franchise business and working 24/7.

    I think to function well for my family and job when I am under intense stress, I comfort eat. Outwardly I look like I can handle anything, except for the teltale sign that the pounds are creeping back on (LOL). So I think in times of stress it is even more important to track what we eat and somehow try not to let things get out of control. The reality is though- tracking or not- I knew what i was eating was going to put weight on and i did it anyway so....

    The most critical things that i have not done in the past that i will do this time

    1. From goal weight: Slow transition back to a maintenance calorie zone. Increase my calories by 100 calories weekly or biweekly to see where my maintenance calories lie. Decrease my exercise slowly to see where maintenance and sustainable exercise lies. I am planning on this taking 3-6 months. I think this will help my metabolism as well.

    2. Continue to track food intake with a food journal (not sure if i will do calories or not- but just seeing good and bad choices and quantity should be enough for a dose of realism.

    3. The minute my clothes start feeling a bit tight- address that immediately by changing food choices and exercise. Don't believe the clothes shrank in the dryer or tell my self "no big deal".

    (for 1-3 I need to think of it that same way i do our personal finances. I make a budget, I stick to it for the most part. If there is a big purchase planned- I readjust the budget. If we take our foot off the brake and spending is too high one month- We fix it immediately. I need to take exactly the same controlled approach to my weight and diet.)

    4. In times of stress be hypervigilant- don't let the negative things in life take away all of the hard work and positive things that I have accomplished.

    Good luck to everyone!!!
  • bluestarlight19
    bluestarlight19 Posts: 419 Member
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    I lost about 50lbs or so about...erm...5 or 6 years ago now, and I maintained it for about 2 years...until I met my husband. He eats like crap and I gained about 10-15lbs back after we moved in together. Then, he lost his job 4 months later, due to the economy crap in april 2009. I got a second job to carry us and save for our wedding. That sent my stress levels through the roof and I stopped riding my bike to the train station because it was too dangerous to ride back that late at night. So gone...exercise. Then I had to move back in with my parents because my father became disabled and my mom was struggling financially and so was I. I got married, and was back up to 225lbs, My dress didn't fit. My husband still hadn't found a job yet but had gone to school. Then I got pregnant right away and actually lost weight. He got a temp job that ended up lasting him 2 years right before our first daughter was born. After breast feeding, I still ate like I was breastfeeding and jumped back up in weight and stayed there, but I was pregnant again when she was only 7 months old. Then I was put on hospital bedrest about 5 months. Spent a month in the hospital just sitting on my *kitten* and then another month at home until I was allows back at work on light duty. I lost a lot of muscle mass, I was very weak. My everything hurt after I gave birth, things that never used to bother me before, hips, my back. Then...the darling girl...didn't sleep through the night until this past september so I spend much of the last year in sleepy haze. And then in October, my father died. I'm starting to get some sleep back now, and I have gained some of my strength back but I am now around the heaviest (242lbs) I have ever been and am trying to really crack down on it.
  • jill5280
    jill5280 Posts: 117 Member
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    I have lost and gained quite a few times over my adult life. I think that a couple years ago when I lost 50 lbs, I realized that I have an addiction to food (instead of alcohol, tobacco, etc.) This unhealthy relationship between food and emotion has been the source of much angst in my life. Whenever things get stressful, I turn to food and never turn away from it when things level out. Consequently, my health is at issue in other ways (Diabetes, Cholesterol and the most recent some issues with pain in my feet.)

    In order to overcome the results of this unhealthy emotional eating, I have purposed that "ruthless" logging of food will be my goal for the year. Celebrate the good days, learn from the bad ones. Overall health is my long term goal. Short Term, I have a trip to Europe planned for the summer and I must have my feet available and in good shape to be able to keep up with the kids.
  • debow65
    debow65 Posts: 22 Member
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    dude-what?:sad:

    I want to see what mistakes people make so that others(including myself) can read it and not make it again.


    We rarely talk about weight that people gained back on MFP(only success stories etc).

    I think it's important to note that so far, most failures happened through crash diets(unsustainable), returning to old habits, and stopping to keep track of calories.

    You are so right we don't and you have raised some good points

    I did the two out of three, returning to old habits and stopped calorie counting in just a few months. I gained almost a stone well 10 pounds to be exact. I now know that is why I gained the weight. Also lifestyle can play a big part and I had a bit of stress over a long period and stopped exercising. I now have a fantastic dog (Lurcher) and she keeps me a lot more active and my stress levels are lower. I am still proud of myself as I have lost 40 pounds but I had lost 50 pounds. I still have a way to go yet another 40 pounds. At least now I can try to learn from my mistakes.
  • shimi1991
    shimi1991 Posts: 8
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    lost over 20 pounds last year, stopped tracking once I ended up in a relationship,got promoted to a front desk job and gained it all back.
    Moral of the story is dont let relationships allow you to stop working out.

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