How'd you gain it back?

A few years ago I lost about 45 lbs. It came off fairly easily and I became overly confident that I would continue to lose or at least maintain without too much effort. In addition, I started intensive work on my dissertation which focused on the Health at Every Size approach. The more literature review I read, I actually felt some guilt over dieting and being pretty restrictive in my food choices, and it also undermined my belief that I could keep the weight off long-term. So I was stressed with my dissertation and undermining the mental part, and just gradually put on some weight, and then I moved cities and underwent an intensive clinical year and towards the end of it when I was getting ready to defend my dissertation that's when I went back to pretty extreme binge eating and put on about 25 pounds in a few months.

My takeaways are a) don't get complacent, this is important and will take ongoing diligence. b) be mindful of the mental aspect and where I am putting my attention. In some ways I am glad for the experience, because I think it prepared me well for weight loss this time around. I am not restrictive, I am willing to put in the work, and I have finally been able to reconcile my values of size acceptance, the realities of how rare weight loss is maintained, with my desire to lose weight and be healthy.

"Getting back on is the hard part, usually takes me a while but I need to be in the correct mindset to do it. On it at the moment as off to Italy end of May and hoping to have flicked a very well hidden moderation switch by then. Going well so far but time will tell................"

One piece of unsolicited advice. What has worked well for me on vacations is to only eat dinner (and sometimes dessert). It allows me to have a fabulous dinner and treat every day - which feels like I am on vacation and not dieting or missing out on local cuisine. Even if I stick to that for half the vacation, I usually don't gain weight, or only gain a little weight, which I can get off within a week. If I stick to it, sometimes I lose weight. For me, food is a very enjoyable part of vacation, so I don't want to feel like I am missing out.

Sorry to hijack the thread. Sticking to the topic now- I have found that my past gain-backs mostly occur because of the delayed response between eating food and gaining. In other words, I go off plan for a day and don't see the scales move too much. Mentally, this makes me think I can eat semi-bad and not gain. But I think there is a average at work that takes several days (maybe weeks if modestly overeating) to show. Overeating soon becomes frequent. Then I say, "ok, no more. I have gained 5 pounds and that is it." But the new way of eating has now become habit, so it sticks with me. Now up 10 pounds, I think I have drawn a line again. But within a day or two I always think I will put off being super strict until next week. That becomes two weeks. Then three.

I usually do finally find the resolve to stop from gaining all the weight back (with one exception about a decade ago). I do think that it is better to lose and gain than to just keep gaining. I think being on average much lighter, with a few bumps in the road, is better despite all the stuff written about yo-yo dieting. Ecspecially given that my blood work and other health has been great on average.

I lost weight before doing a diet that was not sustainable. I stopped that and gained the weight back.
More importantly, I did not know how many calories I needed, how many calories I was consuming and did not exercise regularly. So I wasn't eating whole pans of brownies, large pizzas or gallons of ice cream but I was eating too much for my activity level.

I stress ate my way through a lot of baking including 9x13 pans of fudge and brownies

I lost 85lb., then gained 35lb. between Christmas and a 6-wk trip to SE Asia. Took about 15 of it off, then stopped taking care of myself while I was writing the first draft of my thesis. I ate what I wanted and drank like a fish. Put on 30lb over 5 months. Ta-daaa! Yeah, not doing that again.

Mine was stress! I turned to wine and my feelings were delicious.

I've been trying to lose about 50 lbs for the past 3 years. Up and down up and down. Definition of a yo-yoer. My issue was I would lose about 10-15 lbs then decide to celebrate my loss with a cheat meal (bad idea). That turned into a cheat day, cheat weekend, to a cheat week and next thing I knew I gained it all back. Months go by and my healthy eating habits are out the window. I'll get back on my health kick and do the same thing all over again. It's a learning process for me and I am learning to stay committed.

I was on MFP 2 years-ish ago and lost 44 pounds. Then I simply stopped logging on a daily basis until I didn't log at all and, even worse, I stopped getting on the scale. A year later I stepped on that scale and had gained 35 pounds back.

No real "trigger," I just got lazy and made excuses. I got back on MFP in January and so far have lost 23 pounds of what I gained. I can't say it will never happen again, but I know the most important thing I must do is get on the scale every day, it keeps me thinking about what I need to do.

I lost 17 lb in 2013 and I was pretty happy. My mom passed away November 2013. I bought a house March 2014. Moved July 2014. Noticed that I gained about 10lb over those months. I am back down a couple of pounds but have 7 left to get to were I was.