I don't think it's true...

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WishfulThinking72
WishfulThinking72 Posts: 3 Member
in Getting Started
that it takes longer to lose weight than it does to put it on. Do you? It's far easier to put on perhaps.

4 years ago as I was approaching 40 I decided I didn't want to be fat and 40. I managed to lose 4 stones in 7 months by sensible eating and calorie counting, but then got stuck in a rut with still a couple of stones to lose. Eventually I gave up trying but tried to ignore, as time went on, that I was having to buy bigger clothes again etc. I then went through a tough couple of years these last 2 years and found myself not over eating as such, but eating pure junk, nothing good and proper, couldn't face proper meals, cooking etc. Finally I weighed myself this weekend. I have put on more or less 4 stones in 4 years. All that hard work undone! But the point is it took only 7 months to lose, 4 years to put back on... when you have a lot of weight to lose it does feel like it will take forever, but think how quickly time flies. I'm fed up of getting to Christmas and thinking 'it only feels like last Christmas was a couple of months ago, just think, if I'd stuck to the healthy eating etc I could have lost quite a bit of weight by now...'

It's this thought that I'm trying to motivate myself with anyway!

The hard part is keeping the weight off I think, but that's something to deal with once I've actually lost weight!

Replies

  • Chaagy
    Chaagy Posts: 109 Member
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    I think it just takes a whole lot more effort to lose, than it does to put on for most of us. To put on weight, I just follow my base desire and eat anything that I come across that seems remotely delicious. To lose weight, I have to fight those base desires, make conscious choices about what I eat, make conscious decisions to make time to excercise. It becomes easier to do this over time, but it's still effort every day.

    For me, to gain weight, requires almost no thought, or at least it's thought that I enjoy (hmmm... what kind of cheese should I put on my cheeseburger? Fries with that... or onion rings? Now that is decision making that I love.)

    I do wonder what will happen when I reach my goal. But that's still 45lbs to go, so I'll start thinking about keeping the weight off when I'm 5lbs to go. Until then, it's lose, lose, lose!
  • Clobern80
    Clobern80 Posts: 714 Member
    edited January 2016
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    It all depends. I sat down one day and figured out how many calories I ate and sometimes it was in the 10s-of-thousands. In one day! This is an honest example of one of my days in the past:

    Breakfast
    2 1/2 lb. Pepperoni Hot Pockets - 1,240 calories
    32 oz of coffee with creamer - 280 calories
    Snack
    2 bags of chips - 320 calories
    1 large bag of toffee covered peanuts - 1,710 calories
    Lunch
    2 large slices of pepperoni pizza - 1,120
    1 container of pringles (big one) - 900 calories
    Snack
    6 Buffalo Chicken Rollers - 1,140 calories
    Dinner
    6 servings of Chicken nuggets - 900 calories
    3 Corndogs - 570 calories
    2 Personal Pizza - 600 calories
    Dessert
    2 King-size Kit Kats - 840 calories

    9,920

    This doesn't even take into account days I replaced my "dinner" with my favorite all-you-can-eat pizza place

    My BMR is around 3,100 calories. Because I walked with my friends on breaks/lunch, I burned more than my BMR. Assuming that I burned 4,000 calories.... I ate 5,920 calories more than what I burned in this one day. Times 7 days per week, that is 41,440 calories in a week (besides, I certainly didn't walk on Saturday and Sunday so I burned even less). That means in one week I could theoretically gain nearly 12 pounds.

    It may seem like a joke, but that was obviously what I was putting in my body. Even if I half that and say I averaged 6 pounds per week when I was gaining, I cannot ever lose that much in a week.

    There is no possible way for me to be consistently and safely at negative 41,440 calories per week. So in reality, losing weight CAN take much, much longer than gaining weight. It's all relative.
  • WendyLaubach
    WendyLaubach Posts: 518 Member
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    I know what you mean. It's hard for me even to imagine how many calories I must have been eating before. I was just filling and refilling my plate at will.
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
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    Yup. Reality is most of us were not just overeating by a little, but by thousands of calories. I know I used to think I was pretty reasonable about what I ate. When I started to really track all of my food using MFP and a food scale It was a huge eye opener. Adding an activity tracker has only added to that eduction.
  • DayOneVB
    DayOneVB Posts: 40 Member
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    I totally agree once you start logging your food it's very eye opening the amount of calories we take in. It's one of the most important tools in the arsenal.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    WendyLaubach wrote: »
    I know what you mean. It's hard for me even to imagine how many calories I must have been eating before. I was just filling and refilling my plate at will.

    I wouldn't do seconds....but my snacking was ridiculous. I can't imagine how many calories I used to eat (and I didn't want to know).
  • kathypierce53
    kathypierce53 Posts: 12 Member
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    clobern80 wrote: »
    It all depends. I sat down one day and figured out how many calories I ate and sometimes it was in the 10s-of-thousands. In one day! This is an honest example of one of my days in the past:

    Breakfast
    2 1/2 lb. Pepperoni Hot Pockets - 1,240 calories
    32 oz of coffee with creamer - 280 calories
    Snack
    2 bags of chips - 320 calories
    1 large bag of toffee covered peanuts - 1,710 calories
    Lunch
    2 large slices of pepperoni pizza - 1,120
    1 container of pringles (big one) - 900 calories
    Snack
    6 Buffalo Chicken Rollers - 1,140 calories
    Dinner
    6 servings of Chicken nuggets - 900 calories
    3 Corndogs - 570 calories
    2 Personal Pizza - 600 calories
    Dessert
    2 King-size Kit Kats - 840 calories

    9,920

    This doesn't even take into account days I replaced my "dinner" with my favorite all-you-can-eat pizza place

    My BMR is around 3,100 calories. Because I walked with my friends on breaks/lunch, I burned more than my BMR. Assuming that I burned 4,000 calories.... I ate 5,920 calories more than what I burned in this one day. Times 7 days per week, that is 41,440 calories in a week (besides, I certainly didn't walk on Saturday and Sunday so I burned even less). That means in one week I could theoretically gain nearly 12 pounds.

    It may seem like a joke, but that was obviously what I was putting in my body. Even if I half that and say I averaged 6 pounds per week when I was gaining, I cannot ever lose that much in a week.

    There is no possible way for me to be consistently and safely at negative 41,440 calories per week. So in reality, losing weight CAN take much, much longer than gaining weight. It's all relative.

  • kathypierce53
    kathypierce53 Posts: 12 Member
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    Yep, I would not even look at the calorie content of things. I was eating mega calories though.
  • kingjabou
    kingjabou Posts: 48 Member
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    Perception of the situation is you gained with little acknowledgement of quality and quantity of food through time. But when you take account of what is entering your body then add the notion of time everything feels slower. But once what is new becomes familiar time will just pass. Just need to remember to always slow it down to keep sight of your goals.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Depends on how fast you put it on.
  • srecupid
    srecupid Posts: 660 Member
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    WishfulThinking72 wrote: »
    that it takes longer to lose weight than it does to put it on. Do you? It's far easier to put on perhaps.

    4 years ago as I was approaching 40 I decided I didn't want to be fat and 40. I managed to lose 4 stones in 7 months by sensible eating and calorie counting, but then got stuck in a rut with still a couple of stones to lose. Eventually I gave up trying but tried to ignore, as time went on, that I was having to buy bigger clothes again etc. I then went through a tough couple of years these last 2 years and found myself not over eating as such, but eating pure junk, nothing good and proper, couldn't face proper meals, cooking etc. Finally I weighed myself this weekend. I have put on more or less 4 stones in 4 years. All that hard work undone! But the point is it took only 7 months to lose, 4 years to put back on... when you have a lot of weight to lose it does feel like it will take forever, but think how quickly time flies. I'm fed up of getting to Christmas and thinking 'it only feels like last Christmas was a couple of months ago, just think, if I'd stuck to the healthy eating etc I could have lost quite a bit of weight by now...'

    It's this thought that I'm trying to motivate myself with anyway!

    The hard part is keeping the weight off I think, but that's something to deal with once I've actually lost weight!

    Not sure I didn't time my weight gain. I did lose 40 pounds since september and i couldn't imagine trying to gain 40 pounds intentionally in the next few months. I think i would throw up from all the food
  • WendyLaubach
    WendyLaubach Posts: 518 Member
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    Not me. I could do it standing on my head. :-)

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