So tired of this lifestyle

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tassshhhaaa
tassshhhaaa Posts: 29 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'll start this by saying I have been going up and down in weight over the last five years. I count calories successfully have usually work out five to six days a week. Once I get to a maintainable point, I try to eat more and gain. I'm dreading going back to hardcore counting and working out. I'm so tired of not being able to live a normal life and obsessively doing this lifestyle. There's no interesting fitness places around me, and I've toyed with the idea of shakeology or something similar to get me interested in getting back into things.

Long story short...does anyone have any ideas of how I can mix things up to get myself back into this? I just hate knowing how hard I'm gonna work if it's just all gonna come back. Thanks for your friendly advice :)
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Replies

  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    I've just had to make it my new normal. It doesn't have to be interesting or engaging, just has to be done. I cook foods I love, within my calories and change up my calorie goals to usit my needs. I eat low during the week (1200ish) so I can eat at 2000 or so on weekends. I walk my butt off, getting off a stop early, taking the long way to work etc.

    I know where you're coming from and I have been there, but I owe my success this time around, and having been on track for almost 2 years now on redefining my 'normal'.
  • OsricTheKnight
    OsricTheKnight Posts: 340 Member
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    You don't need to obsessively count calories or exercise a ton.

    Exercise in moderation and eat a consistent amount from day to day. If you need to party on the weekend eat less daily during the week to compensate. Monitor your loss and adjust your eating downward if it's not going fast enough for you. Once you get to maintenance, slowly add some food in, but probably nowhere near as much as you'd like to. Get used to that new normal, if you can.

    It sounds like you know how to lose it, which is awesome. Now you just need to accept that maintenance isn't where you'd like it to be.

    Osric
  • caci88
    caci88 Posts: 53 Member
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    I used to be the same - always yo yoing! I think the change comes when you stop being so restrictive that it's not enjoyable. Have you heard of flexible dieting? I'd look into that, and also make sure your calories aren't too aggressively restrictive that you're hungry.. if you can stick to it then the weight stays off! Also, find a type of exercise you like. I LOVE weight lifting, it's the highlight of my day and I'm one cranky girl if I can't get to the gym.. a far cry from the girl who used to dread exercise and see it as a chore! If you find something you enjoy you'll want to do it, meaning it's more maintainable :)
  • pstegman888
    pstegman888 Posts: 286 Member
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    I love this lifestyle. The lifestyle I was tired of was the one where my clothes didn't fit right, where I had to shop at plus-size retailers, where I was uncomfortable in a chair with arms, where I couldn't bend over to tie my shoes without getting red in the face, where I couldn't climb a flight of stairs without getting out of breath, where my blood pressure was starting to creep up, where I ate too much junk food and felt horrible afterwards, where I would lose a little and gain more, where I was just plain dissatisfied and tired of feeling like I had lost control of my life. Never again.
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
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    It wont come back if you dont eat to excess or at a surplus. Its up to you to control your consumption. In part you can offset that with exercise , but to prevent it coming back you need to have an idea for maintenance and to keep on top of it.

    It sounds like once you get to target you go back to your old ways and stop counting. Maybe dont stop or have a different method of keeping track. If you are looking to get back in and its difficult, then two approaches you cna consider are 1. Pick different exercise i.e a sport or a hobby that you might find more fun or new activities/ workouts at the gym. 2. Start with small gradual steps rather than going full throttle and burning out.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
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    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    I've just had to make it my new normal. It doesn't have to be interesting or engaging, just has to be done. I cook foods I love, within my calories and change up my calorie goals to usit my needs. I eat low during the week (1200ish) so I can eat at 2000 or so on weekends. I walk my butt off, getting off a stop early, taking the long way to work etc.

    I know where you're coming from and I have been there, but I owe my success this time around, and having been on track for almost 2 years now on redefining my 'normal'.

    Great post.

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    For me, I'll probably be counting calories forever. I've gotten used to it now and quite enjoy it.

    If you stick to your maintenance calories, then you wont gain weight again. Use the tools MFP has provided.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,701 Member
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    It comes back because your dieting isn't a lifestyle you can live with.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,179 Member
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    What does your dieting and counting calories involve? If you are on restricted diets, very low calorie, limited foods etc, then of course this will nto be sustainable. Make lifestyle changes you can live with. Set a goal for slow weight loss, include foods you like, do your research to find alternatives to high calorie foods you enjoy, so you can make permanent changes to your eating habits, increase your physical activity. Just "getting back into this", losing weight and then going back to your old habits will mean the same thing again. Try small changes and plan to living with them, without a deadline.
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
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    I think your problem is definitely finding your maintenance calories. A lot of the process is trial and error and tweaking where necessary. Whatever the number you've previously used as maintenance and gained on is absolutely not your maintenance. When you're at maintenance point in the future, take 200 calories off the previous number you used. See how you get on. If you are still gaining - adjust again. If you end up LOSING again, then up it slightly.

    The calorie calculators will give you an average - but only you can determine what your body is 'ok' with. :)
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    aggelikik wrote: »
    What does your dieting and counting calories involve? If you are on restricted diets, very low calorie, limited foods etc, then of course this will nto be sustainable. Make lifestyle changes you can live with. Set a goal for slow weight loss, include foods you like, do your research to find alternatives to high calorie foods you enjoy, so you can make permanent changes to your eating habits, increase your physical activity. Just "getting back into this", losing weight and then going back to your old habits will mean the same thing again. Try small changes and plan to living with them, without a deadline.

    Very. Good. Advice.

    Deprivation diets don't work, and lead to bingeing and yoyoing.

    Instead, learn to eat whatever you like within your calorie limit.
  • slideaway1
    slideaway1 Posts: 1,006 Member
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    OsricTheKnight wrote: »
    You don't need to obsessively count calories or exercise a ton.

    Exercise in moderation and eat a consistent amount from day to day. If you need to party on the weekend eat less daily during the week to compensate. Monitor your loss and adjust your eating downward if it's not going fast enough for you. Once you get to maintenance, slowly add some food in, but probably nowhere near as much as you'd like to. Get used to that new normal, if you can.

    It sounds like you know how to lose it, which is awesome. Now you just need to accept that maintenance isn't where you'd like it to be.

    Osric

    That's pretty much how I do it. I never make anything obsessive or log as I personally think it can take some of the joy out of food and make it a chore and robotic. I glance at the back of packets to get a rough idea of macro values and just keep a rough idea in my head everyday. After a while you get to the point where you can just glance at meal and have a pretty accurate idea of calories/macros in it. Don't make it hard for yourself if being overly conscience about weighing/logging if it something you dread doing.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    I don't do obsessive.

    In order for me to maintain my weight (and right now, continue to lose), I do have to closely monitor my intake. Maintenance is slightly easier, as when I do that, I have little more leeway, but i will always have to be mindful of how much I'm eating. I'm short. My maintenance will never be what I would LIKE it to be. And thats why I will be working out as long as I am physically able to! LOL

    It's one of those things where, if it's important to you, you will continue to do it.
  • Werk2Eat
    Werk2Eat Posts: 114 Member
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    I know the feeling. I have no problem losing the weight fast. (I have done it 3 times this past decade) My problem is maintaining. Once you get to that weight where you can eat alot more and not gain, you still exercise and realize you can eat even more. Then one day you move and your treadmill is in storage and you stop exercising, but continue to eat what you have been eating, and you start gaining weight again. Then you stop stepping on the scale because you dont want to know how much you gained back. Before you know it your 20-30lbs over your goal weight. Back to square one....
  • misterdale67
    misterdale67 Posts: 171 Member
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    christinev297 wrote: »
    For me, I'll probably be counting calories forever. I've gotten used to it now and quite enjoy it.

    If you stick to your maintenance calories, then you wont gain weight again. Use the tools MFP has provided.

    Same here!!
  • Venus_Red
    Venus_Red Posts: 209 Member
    edited September 2015
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    This may make you feel better or worse, just wanted to add - I don't know anyone in their 30s and up who is in good shape and at a weight they are happy with who doesn't keep tabs on their intake and their fitness. They may not log and obsessively count, but "normal" for those who are in control of their weight does mean staying on top of what they eat and whether or not they are getting exercise. It's easy to think that there are people who can eat whatever/whenever - but you'll stop seeing those people as you get older. What you learn now about how to eat and how to manage your lifestyle will help you be one of those normal people. Promise.
  • kraft_kris
    kraft_kris Posts: 157 Member
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    I am glad that someone else feels this way. I am almost 43 and I have been overweight for pretty much all of those years (to some degree or another) - I struggle constantly. I have good weeks and then not-so-good weeks. I Have yet to string enough good weeks together to see success (which for me is to be under 200 pounds). And I wonder to myself all the time - if it is this hard for me to even LOSE weight - how the heck will I maintain the loss?

    I am sick to death of having to worry about everything that I put it my mouth. I just want to eat, dammit!!!
  • slideaway1
    slideaway1 Posts: 1,006 Member
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    That's why exercise/nutrition etc has to become a lifestyle that is sustainable (for life within reason). If weighing and logging food is something that you know you wont maintain, then you have to find other ways around it that make it easier and sustainable. If your bored of doing it after you reach your goals then it was just a quick fix or a means to an end. Exercise has to be something you enjoy and will stick with long term, not just something that puts you in a deficit but you hate doing it. Again, this is not sustainable and will lead to some of the rebound weight gain scenarios mentioned. People should also pay more attention to the nutritional numbers and how certain foods make them feel when they log food to gain knowledge instead of just blindly entering it into MFP and hoping there in a deficit.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Ok first it's normal to gain water weight when you increase your calories suddenly. It's not fat. To avoid that, you have to increase your calories by 100 a week or something.

    Second, you shouldn't go 'hardcore' working out to lose. You have to find a workout schedule that is sustainable to maintain once you've reached your goal weight... otherwise, if you start eating more and workout less, yes, you'll gain weight...

    Also shakeology is just a meal replacement. It's expensive and isn't going to do anything for you that a protein shake wouldn't do... But definitely look up Youtube or heck, even Beachbody programs if you want to find something new that you'll enjoy (I LOVE Les Mills Combat from Beachbody, for example).
  • tassshhhaaa
    tassshhhaaa Posts: 29 Member
    edited September 2015
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    Thank you everyone for your advice! You're all solidifying everything I already knew though. I don't think I'm able to stop counting, and a big reason is protein intake. I am a vegetarian and so I'm constantly having to make sure my carbs are lower. I'm at a point in my life where I've adapted a healthy lifestyle for so long, but now I don't have nearly as much time and I don't have the fitness resources I used to. I'm in medical school so I am studying at least eight hours a day, not including other school stuff, which means prolonged sitting my body isn't used to. I don't have fitness classes in this town, so I am honestly just bored and eating the same vegetarian foods because I don't have more time to cook like I used to. I appreciate all the advice, and I don't restrict certain foods or count to only 1200 a day .. It sounds like to me I just need to get past this bump. I think I'm honestly just bored and not sure how to get past that with my situation.

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