Why do people gain all their weight back so often?

Because life is not static.

I am very aware that getting to my goal is half the battle. Maybe I will be able to maintain with ease for the first year afterwards. But what happens once other life events happen, will I be able to maintain when I have kids? What about after a death? Illness?

I don't think it is either easy, and somehow working towards something is easier than working to maintain something.

EDIT: I just wanted to add that the possibility of gaining weight back in the future does not make this weight gain now less worth it. I was gaining weight before I changed my habits. We only have one day, and that is today. So what we do today is what counts.

I cant seem to crack the emotional part I am losing but will have a day or two that I get down and just eat every thing and cant bring my self to get out of bed to go to the gym ! And then I get back on track but I write every thing in here no cheating and I see the calories in my food that I need to give up and learn to love healthier foods so that I dont put back on the weight!

I still think sometimes a weight gain in maintenance mode is just a lack of being mindful of changes in overall lifestyle, incorporating in the changes and tweaking diet and exercise. For instance, because I spent 2013 with a two hour daily commute instead of 20, my life became more sedentary. However, I was still eating and exercising in accordance with the maintenance plan I established several years earlier after losing 100 lbs . In 2014, I continued improving in strength, balance and endurance, but to my great frustration I gained 10 pounds. I was coming home from the commute exhausted and flopped in front of the beautiful TV our son had given us as a gift. With the help of my internist, oncologist and nutritionist I have tweaked my macros and I have made some simple changes in activity levels, I am back on course.

I emphasize that sometimes, the gaining of weight during maintenance is not some blameworthy slippage of discipline, laziness or lack of willpower or an inability to make a lifestyle change, but rather a lack of mindfulness when life changes. To me, the lesson learned is to stay mindful during maintenance and to start re-evaluating at about the 5 lb gain mark.

It has nothing to do with "restrictions" in my opinion and rather has to do with a lack of focus on the long-term. People hit their goal and then rest on their laurels. They stop doing what they did to lose weight and instead fall back into their old habits. If you previously gained weight with those old habits, odds are you will gain weight again when you revert to your old ways. It's really as simple as that. It doesn't matter whether you ate pop tarts while losing weight or whether you ate whole foods while losing weight; it comes down to what you do at maintenance.

I agree with this, except that restrictions do play a part in some cases. They think if they give up sugar or something, they will lose weight, and then once they get there, they start eating sugar again. What people fail to realize is that there is no before and after. It's a before and during. Figure out how to eat for the rest of your life, and you can keep the weight off.

If they eat sugar again, but eat at maintenance level there should be no problem. People gain weight back because they eat too many calories.

I think it boils down to needing a plan for maintence, just as we had a plan to lose weight:


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/themedalist/view/what-s-your-maintenance-plan-624676

THIS Is the key. It honestly doesn't matter how you lose weight as long as you have a plan for losing and a plan for maintaining. And BOTH plans have to work for YOU.

I've been at maintenance (with some on again, off again tweaking) for 12 years. Having a plan was the key for me.

I lost a bunch of weight in 2006 by watching portion sizes (but not actually counting/logging calories) and exercising. Then I stopped exercising because I mainly did it at home and would come up with excuses. I also slowly stopped watching portion sizes... the though was something like "My weight is fine, why can't I have a double serving of dinner tonight?" And the weight came on slowly enough that it was easy to ignore for a while, and then start justifying with thoughts like "I guess my body just likes 230 lbs." By the time I started on MFP in 2012, I had gained 50 lbs.

While I am not going to say I am never going to gain the weight back, I am definitely looking at things differently. I enjoy working out and keep refining my fitness goals (for example, I enjoy running, so my current goal is to compete in an 8k, and when I do that I am going to start training for a 10k, then a half marathon). When it comes to eating, I don't plan to actually count and log calories all my life, but I do plan to use the techniques regarding portion control and watch my weight so if it does start to increase, I can modify what I am doing.

I have lost a good amount of weight 4 times in my life now. 2 times I gained weight back because of a pregnancy. But in 2012 I lost weight and gained it back..because I just got too comfortable and went back to eating out a lot and not weighing my self at all. I gained everything back (20 pounds) in about 4 months. I learned what I had to do to keep it off for good.


So finally, I lost 35 pounds last year. Started in Feb/March and by September I lost 35 pounds. From September till now, I have been maintaining that loss. It has actually been quite easy..even though I didn't exercise. I make better choices on food, and have an understanding on how much I can eat. I didn't track at all...but I weighed my self everyday. I knew that if the scale went up a couple pounds..I needed a few days of eating better and drinking more water...and it would go back down again.


I have decided to come back and lose these last 10 pounds...so I am tracking again. But when I get to that goal weight..I know what to do to maintain.

Weight is the symptom, not the cause.

Definitely this!!! I might become my mantra...
I guess the main error might be to focus on the weight and not on what caused to gain weight in the first place.

I lost 140 pounds by cutting out all carbs. Then I hit a plateau and instead of working harder, I added carbs to "shock" my body into thinking things had changed up. Well they did and I just kept adding more and more until the weight returned. This time I hope things will be better, because I am taking a more realistic approach where no 1 food is banned, only limited.

Lack of self control, unhealthy relationships with food, medications...

I went from 160 to 130 a few years back.. and then I ballooned up to 240. For me - depression, alcohol, lack of self control, using food for comfort, not exercising...

I think most people go for the fast loss. When I look online for stories about people with a lot of weight to lose, it's all stories or tips about "how to lose 20 pounds FAST" or "how I lost 100 pounds in a year" or "how I lost 80 pounds in just one month!" While you can do that healthily, more often people who are going to lose weight and keep it off long term do it a little more slowly, by making some adjustments to their life that they are going to keep in their life rather than thinking of the diet as a "quick fix". No one wants to hear about the person who took 5 years to lose 100 pounds - even if they stay at their new healthy weight for life.

I understand what you're saying to a degree. I successfully quit smoking and it was the HARDEST thing I've ever done. It was hard and painful and I still have nightmares. Why would I EVER pick up a cigarette and ruin all of that hard work? I'm stronger than that. BUT...

I lost 100 lbs in just over a year and gained half back. My problem was that I was 100% focused on myself and my healthy lifestyle. During the year that I lost weight, i was single and living at home with a nice big kitchen to keep all my healthy food, plus I had the extra money to spend on my wonderful diet. i also had a super active job working with kids. Then, right when I hit my goal weight, a lot of major life changes happened for me. I no longer had a kitchen to keep my food, or the extra money to spend on a healthy diet, i broke my foot, a death in the family, quitting smoking, a very boring office job plus 2 hours sitting in the car every day, and all kinds of other regular life obstacles. I tried as best I could to maintain with a busy yet nonactive schedule, an injury, a budget, and everything else. But it didn't work. Of course, when you're losing weight and motivated, you're thinking "I'll never gain the weight back!", but it doesn't always work that way. Now that things are calming down, I feel ready to create a lifestyle that is more realistic and long term for me.

I don't think it's throwing it away, it's just that the fact of the matter is that it's hard to break a lifetime of bad habits over the course of a few months/years.

:drinker: I also speak only for myself. I have gained and lost 20-30 pounds 5 or 6 times in my life. After a year or so i start gaining a little here and there and then it is 10 pounds and then 15. Here I am again. I believe it is emotional eating for me. If you feed emotions they do not get full. To keep it off you must be mindful of what you are doing. 3 years off is the base line as I understand it-- if you keep it off 3 years you will probably keep it off. This time I am going to use this site for 365 days I hope that will work for me. checking in every month for 1 week would not be a bad plan either. Movement is essential also- and it does not matter what it is at my age just move 60 minutes a day and 10 minutes for every hour of sitting., do a little of everything or anything. chores, free weights, dance walk around, treadmill, stationary bike--- just do it.--the 10 minute rule...good luck persist....every person creates their own plan that works for them if they are successful...

Repeat the behavior repeat the results....

Because life is not static.

I am very aware that getting to my goal is half the battle. Maybe I will be able to maintain with ease for the first year afterwards. But what happens once other life events happen, will I be able to maintain when I have kids? What about after a death? Illness?

I don't think it is either easy, and somehow working towards something is easier than working to maintain something.

EDIT: I just wanted to add that the possibility of gaining weight back in the future does not make this weight gain now less worth it. I was gaining weight before I changed my habits. We only have one day, and that is today. So what we do today is what counts.

I loved this post.

I hope I don't gain anything back, but life will happen, and I'll do the best I can.

The thing about losing or watching our weight is that we are living in the moment and making the best of it. I feel so amazing right now, and I wouldn't feel that way if I hadn't worked for it.

For me it was that another lifestyle change overrode the initial lifestyle change...

A lot of people on this thread have said "lifestyle change" is the answer but since there are many stories of people who change their lifestyle and subsequently change back, this indicates a lifestyle change isn't a complete answer. I think the comments quoted above come closest to the truth. Humans are very skilled at adapting, and one of the ways we adapt to changing circumstances is by gaining and losing weight. Combine this with the unchangeable fact that life is varied and unpredictable (that is, we are unable to learn ahead of time how to cope with every situation life is going to throw at us)...it doesn't bode well. And obviously this is reflected in the statistics that 95% of people will regain all weight lost (often more) within five years of the initial loss. I assume this percentage gets closer to 100% the longer you are monitoring people for.

Which also brings me to my main question which is how do you measure successful maintenance? Does keeping weight off for ten years count? How about twenty? Can you only know if you are "successful" once you die? The outcome will also depend on initial circumstances as well. I dunno...I don't even think there is an answer to this question other than to say we are all human and therefore in a constant state of flux. Nothing is stable and that includes weight, so I guess the best we can hope for it to be moderately healthy to the best of our abilities for as long as we can. And I guess the infinite number of variables involved in that means success is so subjective anyway....