Vicious cycle of “loss & gain” game – What’s your story?

Oh forgot to say, gained the weight back because I stopped logging, paying attention to the quantity I was eating and being generally afraid to step on the scale and just face up to it.
Soon realised I wanted pictures of my young family with me in it , and it was only me that didn't like what I saw so I'd better do something about it

I first came to MFP in 2012. I'd always lost weight via exercise before, but was having issues with my knees, and my sister told me about MFP. I lost 30 pounds. Then I broke up with my boyfriend, and while in the midst of a move, stop logging. I met a wonderful man in 2013. Over the next two years, I regained 25 pounds. This time last year, we started talking about marriage, and I thought, "Oh *kitten*, wedding pictures!" and came back to MFP. I've lost 30 plus pounds.

I haven't reached my goal weight yet, and have not yet developed a plan for maintenance. I know I will be successful if I continue to log, weigh, and exercise. I may slack off the logging if I stay within 5 pounds of my goal weight.

@rabbitjb are you still here? What do you do?

cb2bslim wrote: »

Hi! I’m a first time loser. I was never inspired to lose weight until February 2015. After 40+ pounds gone, I have been in maintenance for over month now. I see a lot of posts out on community about people “being back” or “returning for the X-time”. I say, now, that won’t happen to me, but what if your story can help others like me…keep the weight off for good!

This is me thinking outside the box. There are a lot of successful maintainers that can easily tell us how they have done it but I’m hoping this post can act as prevention by those who struggle and are learning about themselves. By reading your story, we can motivate ourselves to intercept the gain issue before it starts.

Why do you think you gained your weight back?
At what point of your life did you decide to start losing again?
What words of wisdom can you forward on to others so they keep their achieved goal?

Thank you in advance! I cannot wait to read your contributive story!

The last time I lost a significant amount of weight was in 2005/06. I got pregnant in 2009 resulting in a gain of 50 lbs and the following year my ex-husband left me and I just yo-yo'd since then pretty much. I've tried to lose that extra weight the last seven years but it's been up and down for me. I did get down to 125 in 2012 but gained it all back rather quickly due to stress at that time.

I just started back in February of this year and lost 25 lbs already and feel so much better but want to lose about 10 more lbs.

Good luck to everyone!

I regained because of pregnancy, but I fully expect to come back at different intervals once I've weaned off of needing to track to maintain (I'm losing now, but I'll keep tracking in maintenance for awhile). The reason is that I'm short at 5'3" and I expect to shrink to closer to 5' over the next 40 or more years. This means my caloric intake will shift over time and I'll likely go through periods where I need to get used to a new maintenance intake. Here's hoping I stay "tall" and active but I think that the shrinking is a genetic inevitability. That might sound a bit depressing but I'm trying to look at it as something I can control and that I can be gentle with myself about.

I've lost weight and gained it back so many times. I've been working on figuring out why and developing a maintenance plan. I used to binge eat and never thought of calorie allotments as finite. When I was young, I was tall & skinny and ate tons of food. I carried those eating habits with me as I grew older and sedentary. So I'm training myself to think of calories in terms of money. I have an all-or-nothing perfectionist personality, which I've been working on. I think it's been really helpful for me to have days where I go over my calorie allotment and still continue to lose weight. I learn that I don't have to eat perfect, and if I go over it's not the end of the world. Dust myself off and try again tomorrow. Pregnancies have been a two-fold challenge for me. Instead of morning sickness, I get extreme fatigue. And I always had the mindset that I can eat whatever I want now (usually unhealthy stuff because I'd be too exhausted to prepare food) and lose the baby weight later. And even though I gain 50 pounds with each baby, I usually lose it within 6 months without much concerted effort. But I almost always start 70 pounds overweight. Next time, I will log and try to gain a moderate amount of weight, do more batch cooking and food prep, and enlist the help of my older children. My maintenance strategy is to give myself a 5 pound +\- range to stay within and weigh myself every day. I like weighing myself every day because I like to see trends in how I eat and monthly cycles and how it corresponds with weight fluctuations. I really do need to get the weight off for good, though. I had spinal surgery fifteen years ago, and I may need disk replacement in the future. In order to be a candidate for surgery, you have to be at normal weight, so that's a big motivator for me.

I have been on MFP for the last 3-4 years now. I keep going back between the same amounts of weight each time. My highest being 283, and my lowest being 255. It is hard, and it does suck, but I think I've realized some things now that I didn't quite realize before when I tried to lose weight. I went back up to 282 over the last year, and right now I'm down to 269.4 lbs There are many things I'm doing differently, and I do get scared that I will fail again, but I can't let that stop me from trying. I will keep trying and I will try my hardest to lose it all this time! I notice I always fall off the wagon as soon as I stop logging my calories on MFP, its happened the last 3 times I've used it. So, I'm simply going to keep calorie counting/food journal all the time until I've lost everything and gotten to my goal weight. I'm also trying to make it a habit to always be active, even if its just a walk or a small home workout and I'm trying to wake up in the mornings and do my workouts first thing after breakfast!

I lost nearly 7 stone, maintained for about a year. Became unwell had to have an operation, sat on a waiting list for the operation for about 6 months. Took ages too recover, regained 2 stone ( 28lbs) over the space of about a year. I had to stop the gym and lost all interest in healthy eating. Been struggling now for ages trying to make a dent in the 28lbs that I need to lose.

I thought I was one of those people that would never regain, but life and a chain of events can just get in the way and can throw you off track very easily.

This is my second attempt, first time I was very successful. I lost 100lbs in a little less than a year, lots of exercise and ridiculous food plan. I wasn't eating even close to enough and really over doing it at the gym regularly. I would vomit at each workout. I had major surgery, then planned to maintain for a year. About halfway through that year my roommate went off her very important medication and basically I couldn't live with her anymore. That happened very quickly, I had to move back into the house I was mostly raised in where all the horrors of my adolescence happened (ya know, bad relationship with mom, bad relationship with myself and food...), and I quickly went downhill in my habits. I have now gained back almost half of what I lost.

My problem was needing to lose fast to have surgery, I had waited all my life so far to have a properly working mouth and I definitely was in a hurry. This time I'm taking it slow and steady. I'm making changes I can live with and exercising in a way my body can handle.