Fluctuating a lot?

I have had episodes like that - all medically related. When I was 14, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. The most effective kind of medicine for controlling my kind of epilepsy has several unfortunate side effects, one of which is weight gain. This is not good for someone who already has a weight problem! I gained about 50 pounds in a short period of time, so they took me off that medicine. Eventually I ended up going on another kind of medicine for my epilepsy. It caused me to lose the 50 pounds, but it didn't control the seizures as well and it had some cognitive side effects. I stayed away from medicine altogether in my college years so I could get my GPA up and not gain so much weight. Not the safest idea, but my grades were much better. However, all of the beer and pizza definitely caught up with me and I put on weight again. I ended up going on birth control when I was 20, and suffered some major side effects from that. I had a severe blood clot in my leg and pulmonary embolisms. I was hospitalized for about a month and bedridden. A lot of that time, I was so ill that I didn't feel like eating. When I finally was able to come home, it hurt too much to move anywhere other than the bathroom, so I didn't really venture to the kitchen. I ended up losing about 50 pounds there. I had to take a semester off of school to recuperate from the ordeal. Once I was able to walk again, I was at home with nothing to do other than eat. So guess what...I gained about 50 pounds...again! Shortly after graduation, I moved abroad and met my future husband. We got pregnant, and we all know what happens then - weight gain! I started seeing a new neurologist after my daughter was born, and he put me back on the original medication that caused me to gain weight in the first place. I have been on that med ever since, because I need to be responsible and have it to control my seizures. I gained weight, so I went on Weight Watchers when my daughter was about 2 or 3 years old and lost some weight, but I have since gained it all (plus some) back. I have come to the realization that I need to make this med work, so I need to better manage the weight issue. Since taking this medicine, I never feel full. I always feel like I can eat more. It is a real struggle with self control, but I am managing. I am down more than 50 pounds since January, with a lot more to go...

I've had the same problem in about a 20-30 lb range since high school (I'm now pushing 40). Looking back, the reason is very simple: I stopped logging and watching my weight trends. You've probably seen all the threads that just a few extra calories can easily be a couple lbs a month, and then you're up 20 in a year without really noticing anything, or eating like crazy. In my case it was the extra slice of pizza, beer, or helping of ice cream that I would "forget" to log, that led to a break in MFP and logging since "Hey, I'm not fat anymore." That thinking (for me) is just about as dumb as someone that needs glasses to see saying "Hey, I can see with these glasses, so I must not need them anymore!" MFP is my glasses.

For me, the simple (but hard to execute) mitigation is to log forever, and weigh in daily and watch my moving average. If it's trending up I'm getting lazy on logging and need to take action, otherwise six months later I'm wondering where the extra 10-20lbs came from. It's a better solution than waking up every 10-15 months and realizing I'm 40 lbs overweight.