"If you're fat and lose weight, you're probably gonna get fat again"
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I haven't read it but I have seen it personally. My mother lost 50 lbs and she was down quite a a few dress sizes and she felt great. Started a new job and couldn't stay as active and within a year the excess weight rebounded
Two reasons. She stopped working out. She went back to eating like crap. She had a plan she was doing well and she became lax due to being tired from work.
That being said for people who are overweight or obese it's absolutely critical to find motivation first then to pick a plan and stick to it.
This why it's so important to lose the weight in a healthy way. A cleaner diet and daily physical activity even if it's an hour walk it can be a real game changer if you can incorporate both into your lifestyle for a long period of time to ensure it becomes default as opposed to a diet where you barely eat aka 1500 cals or less, no carbs etc.
Just work hard and stay focused and most of all be honest with yourself and there's no reason it can't be permanent0 -
I have people who have sent me friend requests, than a month or so later, they disappear. Most of the people I see in this thread have been here awhile and are still losing or maintaining. As an optimist, I think the one or two in a thousand are here. My life experience tells me that today's outlier can be in the majority in a few years. Women over 35 get married more often than stuck by lightening, a black man is the US President, Gay marriage is legal, more women than men graduate with advanced degrees in the US, and many other previously statistically unlikely outcomes have become the new reality.0
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When I went vegan, I did not want to leave my bed for a week. I was miserable. But since then, I lost 25 pounds and maintained for 2 months now. Just need to add excerise ! I pray to God for self control every day. But yeah, you can have sweets every now and then but not a whole bunch to the point where you go back to old eating habits.0
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Tell yourself whatever you want. Believe that everyone in this thread is one of the exceptions.DeguelloTex wrote: »
You might want to learn more about statistics and non-random samples before you pronounce what does and doesn't take genius.
It doesn't take a genius to count them up and do the math.DeguelloTex wrote: »
I feel like this is an argument over nothing.
If your point is that we should be vigilant against regaining and not take anything for granted, I think everyone would agree. But that 80% regain (and it's really not clear what the numbers are--ksharma has posted an argument in the past that the stats are better, as lots of people who are successful are under the radar when these kinds of stats are developed--same for stats about addiction recovery, for that matter), doesn't mean anything specific for our odds.
For example, as I mentioned before, I think losing motivation was directly tied to my failure to continue maintaining before, and I also think community played a role (surrounding yourself with people with similar lifestyles and goals makes it easier, surrounding yourself with people with quite different ones can make it harder). That we are all invested in discussing this on MFP is probably a good sign. Might we stop being into this in the future? Sure.
Similarly, although I regained, that I understood how weight loss worked and had figured it out for myself (based on research, etc.) before made me a lot more confident about it and my ability to be successful again. I do think that put me in a better position than someone who lost by doing a fad diet or just following "rules" she didn't understand and hadn't really learned or incorporated the knowledge (I also think this is why it was reasonably simple to maintain for the 5 years until I stopped caring). So in that sense I think it did matter--for me, at least--that I did a pretty sensible, moderate calorie, nutrition-based approach before, and not some shake-based thing or the military diet or whatever. ;-) There is so much shocking ignorance--that I honestly have trouble believing is genuine--demonstrated in the forums and in diet-talk generally that I think having some understanding does help a lot, even if of course it doesn't mean you are immune from regain.0 -
daniwilford wrote: »I have people who have sent me friend requests, than a month or so later, they disappear. Most of the people I see in this thread have been here awhile and are still losing or maintaining. As an optimist, I think the one or two in a thousand are here. My life experience tells me that today's outlier can be in the majority in a few years. Women over 35 get married more often than stuck by lightening, a black man is the US President, Gay marriage is legal, more women than men graduate with advanced degrees in the US, and many other previously statistically unlikely outcomes have become the new reality.
Agree completely! Amazing to witness.
Smoking - normal not long ago, taboo now
Vegetarianism - "rabbit food" for weirdos, previously; commonplace in major metros today
MFP itself is a HUGE innovation
I hope a critical mass of grassroots momentum through tools like this and just popular culture will energize policy solutions to take care of the rest of the reach (as happened with smoking)0 -
I think everyone should believe they will be in the statistic that maintains their weight loss.
They should be confident about it. They should plan for their success and follow through with that plan.
Walking around in fear of the staggering stats of failure does nothing for me. I will put a concrete strong plan in place and will work towards success. That is all I can do. I will not plan for defeat.
Yes. I think claiming "I can't regain" and not being on guard of possible backtracking would be foolish, but I also think in most endeavors confidence is necessary for success. For example, like I said, I think being confident I would lose the weight really helped motivate me this time. Last time, when I did not have confident in that, I started by framing it as about being as healthy and fit as I could be--and I had confidence I could be healthy and fit, even if I couldn't believe I could change my body (ridiculous but true).
(And not to bring up another sensitive topic, but this is what I like about the HAES thing, the focus on being fit and healthy even if you don't believe you can lose weight, although I personally think anyone who really focuses on that WILL lose weight. There are also aspects of HAES I do not approve of, of course.)0 -
I think everyone should believe they will be in the statistic that maintains their weight loss.
They should be confident about it. They should plan for their success and follow through with that plan.
Walking around in fear of the staggering stats of failure does nothing for me. I will put a concrete strong plan in place and will work towards success. That is all I can do. I will not plan for defeat.
Agree - failure is a self-fulfilling prophecy, otherwise. Winning at these odds is a trick of confidence.
(That said, managing setbacks is a thing that eventually comes up for most. But you know, you cross that bridge if/when you come to it.)
The value of stats like the ones being discussed is in identifying areas in which change can/should be introduced, not to rubber stamp failure a priori0 -
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I think everyone should believe they will be in the statistic that maintains their weight loss.
They should be confident about it. They should plan for their success and follow through with that plan.
Walking around in fear of the staggering stats of failure does nothing for me. I will put a concrete strong plan in place and will work towards success. That is all I can do. I will not plan for defeat.
Agree - failure is a self-fulfilling prophecy, otherwise. Winning at these odds is a trick of confidence.
(That said, managing setbacks is a thing that eventually comes up for most. But you know, you cross that bridge if/when you come to it.)
The value of stats like the ones being discussed is in identifying areas in which change can/should be introduced, not to rubber stamp failure a priori
Yep. I have regained twice....both for different reasons. I could say...look, I can't do this...I am not meant to maintain. It is hopeless.
That is not the perspective I take. I look at the strengths. I maintained the first time for 3+ years. Stats say most people don't do that. So, I rock. I learned from why I gained...and I was strong enough to relose the weight. More of me rocking. I maintained for about a year. Also, awesome. I gained back weight. I felt really hopeless. I turned that hopelessness into fuel and re-lost the weight. I took a long, hard look at why I gained the weight. I made myself face a lot of denial. I am now back at maintenance again and been so for about a month. I used what I learned and now have an even better plan for maintenance in place. I know this is difficult, but I feel stronger and more equipped.
I could feel like a 2 time maintenance failure, but instead I feel like a survivor and ready for round 3. Will I maintain? I don't know, but that is my goal. And if I don't try...then I have no shot at it.
I think you've got your head on straight 0 -
nitaleotta wrote: »DuckReconMajor wrote: »One thing I wonder is how often are these people weighing themselves after they lose the weight? Since I got my own place and have a scale in the bathroom it's become a ritual. My weight gain the beginning of this year did not stop me from weighing myself, at worst i'd be like "damn, 220 again?" and huff and maybe eat a bit less in the following days.
I still don't understand how the weight "creeps back up" on someone. When I hit my goal the only way I will gain (which I'm not going to let happen) is if I see my weight go up every day and actively say "i am done giving a *kitten* and am gonna let myself get heavier" and watch the process. I have never seen the point in hiding from the scale when one is available.
Yea I started weighing myself daily last year and it's helped me immensely. Once I got used to the daily fluctuations due to water weight, etc., it became impossible to lie to myself about my diet or weight gain. For example, I'm more prepared for the 2-3lb gain over a vacation or holiday week and can immediately see the results of eating clean the next week. Weight can't just sneak up on me.
+1 to this. Weighing every day or almost every day is what keeps my head on straight. I don't understand people who avoid it. To me it's a wonderful tool for keeping me honest.
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isulo_kura wrote: »Ahh the Addiction card or as it's otherwise known. 'It's not my fault, so that's the excuse me not getting of my fat *kitten* and doing something about it'
Word0 -
We're all going to die, why bother living.
Is it half of marriages end in divorce, why get married?
So freaking what if I get fat again in a year, 5 or 20 years. That's a year where I could run jump have fun, snore less, buy cheaper clothes.
Nothing lasts forever, it isn't a reason to not try.0 -
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bjankabarazani wrote: »A very interesting article on food addiction in obese and formerly obese people. What are your thoughts on it?
http://www.lift-run-bang.com/2014/05/if-youre-fat-and-lose-weight-youre.html
Thanks for sharing this link. At age 64 I have to say it is point on based on my 40 year experience of losing over and over only to regain 100%+ every time. This time around I am eating all I want of what I am eating to lose weight which is the same way I plan to eat until death.
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I've been maintaining for well over 4 years, no problem. It comes down to priorities. You just have to want it (whatever your goal) more than you want the comfort, convenience and familiarity of your old lifestyle. It's totally do-able. The longer you practice good habits, the easier they become. 0
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We're all going to die, why bother living.
Is it half of marriages end in divorce, why get married?
So freaking what if I get fat again in a year, 5 or 20 years. That's a year where I could run jump have fun, snore less, buy cheaper clothes.
Nothing lasts forever, it isn't a reason to not try.
That's a really good point!
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yopeeps025 wrote: »yopeeps025 wrote: »
That's what the 8/10 who gain it back said, too.yopeeps025 wrote: »
If by "hold it to truth about the future" you mean that I assume I will fail, you're very wrong. I'm really not sure if that's what you meant or not.yopeeps025 wrote: »yopeeps025 wrote: »
They say that people who lose on crash diets have the same success rate for maintaining as those who don't. How you lose the weight is no indication of success when it comes to keeping it off.I think it happens when people do unsustainable things to lose weight and/or don't have a good understanding of how to behave on a permanent basis for maintenance.
It's all very depressing when I think about it, lol.
So you are already thinking of become a statistic?
Everyone is part of the statistics, even hoes who keep it off. Those 2/10 who keep it off are in those stats.
If the stats are right, 8/10 people in this thread who say they won't gain it back will, in fact, gain it back. It only makes sense to consider it.
n=1 will succeed. I don't really care who gives up because I know I won't. Statistics are facts about the past and you keep holding it to truth about the future.
I think it's foolish to not take a good, hard look at those stats and consider the possibility of failure.
Refusing to acknowledge the possibility that it could happen when the odds are that it will happen...that's just not very smart, IMO. Most people say they won't be gaining it back and then they do. I don't want to be one of those people.
8/10 people in this thread who say they won't gain it back are going to gain it back. I wish I knew how to be one of the two who won't.
But there is no way to know who will and who won't. If we knew that, this thread wouldn't have to exist, lol.
That is where your mindset and my mindset are different. I don't care how many people fail at maintenance. There is no need to think about the negative because I won't let that happen.
You're wrong about me and my plans.You don't have a long term plan. I do for sure.
if you assume all the stats are lies, then there is no reason to give them any thought, lol. I don't think they're lying.Statistics says this so it must be true. How do you know this anyways? You psychic?
Even in my own life, the only people I have known that lost a lot of weight gained it back. I have no reason to assume the people making up the stats are lying.
I wish you luck with your plans and hope it all works out the way you're sure it will.
Hear is the thing. You keep bring up stats. The stats can be 99 out of 100 fail. The stats don't matter to me at all because I am not them.
Also if we go by statistics I would have the most health relate issues in my family for having the most excess fat. I don't even understand how some of my cousins have high blood pressure. I never had high blood pressure. I have been at 120/80 for years and even at my high end of 257 I was still 120/80. Stats show black men are more prone to high blood pressure right? It is happening in my family but not to me. Weird right?
The BP thing isn't weird. You're still young. Having BP issues when you're young is the weird thing, black or not. Some people have problems when they did everything right, but cardiovascular issues are almost always after decades of eating a bunch of junk, most of it laden with sodium. Cardiovascular issues in people your age aren't really common at all.
It's in the mid to late 50s and 60s that all that stuff catches up with people - the smoking, drinking, poor diets, that kind of stuff. Hospital beds aren't full of people in their twenties, thirties and forties.
I really hope your plan works out for you. I hope the best for everyone. I hope everyone in this thread keeps their weight off.
Let me clarify the cousins I am talking about with high blood pressure at 30, 28, 21. That is only the ones that have spoke up. I'm sure there are some other health issues going on in the family. All pretty young. All men.
I get that. But that's the odd thing. Most people that age don't have those issues, black, white, whatever. It's odd to have those kind of problems at that age.
It is pretty common actually. My oarents both had high blood pressure in their 30s as did several other relatives. My mom was really thin but smoked, and my dad was a little overweight. They have been takin BP meducine my entire life and they are over 65. So I am still "young" but i am already past the age my parents were both diagnosed with high blood pressure. I have a friend who is several years older than me, but she was diagnosed in her 30s as well. Unfortunately for people of color it is pretty common to be diagnosed at a young age. I have another friend who hit 30 and had high cholesterol, she is of average body fat/BMI. More accurately, a little underweight. Another friend was high cholesterol in her 30s, and used that as an excuse to go Paleo. She lost 20 pounds to get to average weight and beat the diagnosis.
There is no obvious relationship between weight and the "obesity disorders."
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If you return to old habits, OF COURSE you will gain it back. I think changing ones lifestyle and dump the pizza and braughtworst, and trade it for lean chicken and fish, beans and low carb foods as well as a great workout at least 3 days a week or more. Good things are bound to happen. You shed the old you and leave it behind you, never to return. It can be done, I am living proof.0
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flamingblades wrote: »If you return to old habits, OF COURSE you will gain it back. I think changing ones lifestyle and dump the pizza and braughtworst, and trade it for lean chicken and fish, beans and low carb foods as well as a great workout at least 3 days a week or more. Good things are bound to happen. You shed the old you and leave it behind you, never to return. It can be done, I am living proof.
No pizza ever?0 -
I don't know why these statistics are discouraging to some people. Knowledge is always good and helps formulate plans. When I look at statistics here is what I see...
Many people regain weight:
It's going to need constant attention from me and reaching my goal weight does not mean "I'm done".
People who lose weight often have metabolic adaptation:
I need to take that into account when designing my maintenance plan.
90% of the people who maintain exercise at least 1 hour a day:
Physical activity will need to always be a part of my life.
People who weigh themselves often tend to regain less weight than those who don't:
Keep a close eye on the scales and catch any weight gain before it's out of control.
Those who are educated about maintenance tend to retain weight loss better than those who aren't (duh):
It's never too early to start thinking about and planning maintenance.
Emotional triggers are one of the most common reasons for regain:
Learn coping mechanisms for various negative emotions, stress reduction and seeking help right away when depressed.
Maintaining the weight loss for more than 5 years greatly increases the odds of long term maintenance:
Every time I feel like giving in I should keep my eyes on this goal and tell myself "Just hold on for x more years and it may become a little bit easier".
Losing at least 3-10% of your weight at any point has health benefits, even after regain. And the less exposure a person has to high BMI throughout their life the better their odds are:
Even if I do end up regaining, my efforts are not wasted. Not only is it life experience on what causes me to fail, but it's also not a "failure" by any means. In addition to that, it's better for me to restart weight loss than to "give up".0 -
Great post A++++++(continue writing on chalkboard)daniwilford wrote: »I have people who have sent me friend requests, than a month or so later, they disappear. Most of the people I see in this thread have been here awhile and are still losing or maintaining. As an optimist, I think the one or two in a thousand are here. My life experience tells me that today's outlier can be in the majority in a few years. Women over 35 get married more often than stuck by lightening, a black man is the US President, Gay marriage is legal, more women than men graduate with advanced degrees in the US, and many other previously statistically unlikely outcomes have become the new reality.
Yeah another huge point, I may regain all this weight in the future. But I'm going to know why I regained it, I'm gonna know it's my fault, and I'm gonna know how to fix it again. As are most of us here. That puts us leagues ahead of others.lemurcat12 wrote: »Similarly, although I regained, that I understood how weight loss worked and had figured it out for myself (based on research, etc.) before made me a lot more confident about it and my ability to be successful again. I do think that put me in a better position than someone who lost by doing a fad diet or just following "rules" she didn't understand and hadn't really learned or incorporated the knowledge (I also think this is why it was reasonably simple to maintain for the 5 years until I stopped caring). So in that sense I think it did matter--for me, at least--that I did a pretty sensible, moderate calorie, nutrition-based approach before, and not some shake-based thing or the military diet or whatever. ;-) There is so much shocking ignorance--that I honestly have trouble believing is genuine--demonstrated in the forums and in diet-talk generally that I think having some understanding does help a lot, even if of course it doesn't mean you are immune from regain.
Yeah I read somewhere that the obesity rates (at least in the U.S.) have actually been going down recently. I didn't look too much into it to know if it's someone twisting statistics again but in any case times are a-changing. One big difference is that since we've finally dropped a lot of the "fat/saturated fat is the reason we're fat" idiocy we are able to take a more honest look at things, though nonsense still persists.daniwilford wrote: »I have people who have sent me friend requests, than a month or so later, they disappear. Most of the people I see in this thread have been here awhile and are still losing or maintaining. As an optimist, I think the one or two in a thousand are here. My life experience tells me that today's outlier can be in the majority in a few years. Women over 35 get married more often than stuck by lightening, a black man is the US President, Gay marriage is legal, more women than men graduate with advanced degrees in the US, and many other previously statistically unlikely outcomes have become the new reality.
Agree completely! Amazing to witness.
Smoking - normal not long ago, taboo now
Vegetarianism - "rabbit food" for weirdos, previously; commonplace in major metros today
MFP itself is a HUGE innovation
I hope a critical mass of grassroots momentum through tools like this and just popular culture will energize policy solutions to take care of the rest of the reach (as happened with smoking)
I love your post, but an hour a day? That's a lot.amusedmonkey wrote: »90% of the people who maintain exercise at least 1 hour a day:
Physical activity will need to always be a part of my life.
In any case, I think everyone who's posted is right to some degree. Yes, we are at an advantage here, for many reasons. But in the general population, most still fail because this is hard. Stay vigilant, peeps.0 -
DuckReconMajor wrote: »
I love your post, but an hour a day? That's a lot.amusedmonkey wrote: »90% of the people who maintain exercise at least 1 hour a day:
Physical activity will need to always be a part of my life.
That's because the most common exercise is walking. For a more intense exercise it would require less time. Basically the average is the equivalent of walking 3 miles a day (or 28 miles a week) or burning about 200 calories a day.
The number is actually interesting to me. Metabolic adaptation is roughly 200 calories, so keeping up the same amount of burn would put one at a regular average TDEE. I wonder if it's a coincidence or if there is more to it.0 -
flamingblades wrote: »If you return to old habits, OF COURSE you will gain it back. I think changing ones lifestyle and dump the pizza and braughtworst, and trade it for lean chicken and fish, beans and low carb foods as well as a great workout at least 3 days a week or more. Good things are bound to happen. You shed the old you and leave it behind you, never to return. It can be done, I am living proof.
Hell no, if I didn't allow myself the things I like I'd fail miserably at maintenance.0 -
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stevencloser wrote: »flamingblades wrote: »If you return to old habits, OF COURSE you will gain it back. I think changing ones lifestyle and dump the pizza and braughtworst, and trade it for lean chicken and fish, beans and low carb foods as well as a great workout at least 3 days a week or more. Good things are bound to happen. You shed the old you and leave it behind you, never to return. It can be done, I am living proof.
Hell no, if I didn't allow myself the things I like I'd fail miserably at maintenance.
exactly.
If I thought for one minute I couldn't eat foods I love I wouldn't be here...heck with that.
Just because we are losing/maintaining doesn't mean "life" stops...that's when you fail....0 -
Oh, hell, no.flamingblades wrote: »If you return to old habits, OF COURSE you will gain it back. I think changing ones lifestyle and dump the pizza and braughtworst, and trade it for lean chicken and fish, beans and low carb foods as well as a great workout at least 3 days a week or more. Good things are bound to happen. You shed the old you and leave it behind you, never to return. It can be done, I am living proof.
I'm not eliminating pizza or bratwurst or high carb foods from my diet. I've still lose 115 pounds.
If you want to deprive yourself of that stuff, have at it. It's personal preference, not necessity.
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It doesn't take a genius to count them up and do the math.DeguelloTex wrote: »
And you wrote many postings doubting yourself and thinking so much about other failings with statistics. Jeez we wonder do we?0 -
flamingblades wrote: »If you return to old habits, OF COURSE you will gain it back. I think changing ones lifestyle and dump the pizza and braughtworst, and trade it for lean chicken and fish, beans and low carb foods as well as a great workout at least 3 days a week or more. Good things are bound to happen. You shed the old you and leave it behind you, never to return. It can be done, I am living proof.
There is nothing wrong with pizza. In my experience those who try to continue the elimination diets into the never ending maintenance are not very successful.
I like the idea that eliminating bratwurst = a major lifestyle change. I didn't know that many people were that into bratwurst before. Maybe we are all from Wisconsin?
I also agree about the being nothing wrong with pizza, of course. (Or bratwurst, which I eat occasionally, about as often as I ever did. It's just not something I think of that often.)0
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