For those of you who re-gained weight

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  • pizzafruit
    pizzafruit Posts: 317 Member
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    30 years ago I went from 210 lbs. down to 130. I restricted what I ate and exercised every afternoon. Then the kids came and my time belonged to them. I'm not blaming them, that's what happens when you choose to have kids. I became obsessive and started weighing myself several times a day and realized how unhealthy that was. Bit by bit over the years I've managed to regain it all plus an additional 60 pounds.
    I now struggle with emotional eating, and some days it's like someone throws a switch in my head telling me to consume all the carbs and sweets I can get my hands on.
    This is a process and I have thrown in the towel on more than one occasion. Now I'm here trying to figure it all out. The older I get the faster I want the weight off and the reality is that simply isn't going to happen. One day at a time, one foot in front of the other. That's how it has to be.
  • andrea4736
    andrea4736 Posts: 211 Member
    edited February 2017
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    My problem was sheer and utter laziness and apathy. I maintained for 2 years and then I stopped tracking. I figured since I was still working out every single day that maintenance would just kind of take care of itself. WRONG!!! I wasn't eating unhealthy per se, I was just going back for 2nd and 3rd helpings which were unnecessary. I grew up eating well beyond my hunger cues just because something tasted good. That's something I'm going to need to tackle for the rest of my life. Tracking does exactly that.
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    edited February 2017
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    I've only lost the extra weight one time and I'm now a few years into maintaining. The motivation thing is key I believe-I lost the weight/now maintain because of a medical condition (my glucose number is directly tied to my weight). That gives me a pretty deep motivation, since I know I'll be a type 2 diabetic if I re-gain the weight. If it wasn't for that though, I never would have even lost the extra weight because I really didn't care that I was overweight. And no way would I be successfully maintaining without the medical issue hanging over my head.

    Health markers aside-nothing has really changed because I'm now 5olbs lighter. I loved my life when I was overweight and that's still the same now. Marriage is the same, interactions with others is the same, I still wear the same kinds of clothes (just in smaller sizes) etc etc. I think a lot of people think weight loss will change their lives in some sort of magical way, but really it's been pretty anti-climatic for me-I'm still me, just a bit smaller now :) But medically speaking it's a whole different ballpark. And that's my focus/what keeps me successfully maintaining. For those who don't have that though, I can definitely see why long term adherence is so hard.
  • Reaverie
    Reaverie Posts: 405 Member
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    It gets very exhausting worrying constantly about "calories" and "healthy options" and "did I exercise enough".. thats why diets never work. You change your lifestyle so it becomes the norm. This isnt easy to do. I have a great memory thankfully. I know the calories (and prices) of just about every food I like. And those I dont know, like if I were to order take out, I can mentally estimate and be off by no more that 20 points. Generally I overestimate that much which is good.

    I gained all mine back because I crash dieted and the next time life "hit" I gained it all back. (And boy can life hit. In the span of 3 years I lost 2 cousins to murder, an aunt who was blown up by a propane tank, a grandmother who was just old, an uncle who hit head on a semi on his harley.. and this past few years two more uncles, suicide by driving off a cliff and one unknown. Maybe suicide as well.)

    This is my third time around and this is the first time I didnt start thinking about OTHERS or new outfits..etc etc. This is the first time I am here for non-selfish reasons. I want a lifestyle change. I dont think you can keep the weight off until its no longer about you and looking good for a wedding or beach, but something internal that craves better health and no longer concerned what others think of you.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
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    Not a huge amount of regain, but it was small life changes that contributed:
    1) change in my daily bus route that shortened my walk to the bus in the morning
    2) change in my kid's school schedule that decreased the times I walked to or from school
    3) I won a "wine club" prize that got me having a glass or two of wine several nights a week rather than once or less a week.
    4) I injured my foot wearing badly fitting dress shoes and couldn't walk as far or fast or often.

    THat's really all it took - changes that might seem insignificant added up over time.
  • Jules_farmgirl
    Jules_farmgirl Posts: 225 Member
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    I lost 70lbs after my kids were born. I kept it off for 1.5yrs. I did great with maintenance. My regain was due to the fact that I was under stress from many things, and instead of using my fitness and diet to control it and work through it, I let it consume me. Not proud of that at all. However I did "snap out" of it at only 30lbs up from my where I had been, thank goodness! Now I am viewing this journey as a way to improve what I broke. Lose a little more than last time, add in more strength and possibly even start a beginners lifting program.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
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    vanmep wrote: »
    There are a fair number of posts on here that are along the line of - I lost a whole bunch of pounds and then regained most of it and now I'm back. I'm wondering if you would mind to reflect on what happened that you regained the weight? Was there a problem with your original weight loss plan? Was there a problem with maintenance? Did your motivation just dwindle? I have a ways to go before I get into maintenance, but I thought I might be able to get some wisdom or at least things to watch out for :smiley:

    I stopped journalling what I ate. Plain and simple. For me, I will have to track calories the rest of my life - I know that, and I simply got lazy and gave in to the BF on going out to breakfast and snacking...not blaming it on him but I have never had a problem maintaining when I was not in a relationship. He has always had a very active job, and I have a desk job - so our calorie needs are extremely different. I had gained 10 pounds a couple of years ago, and finally lost it, only to gain it back plus 8 more, this year. He LOVES me to bake goodies, and although I love to bake as well, I don't like having that crap around. (Also my son is no longer around the house to eat everything in sight, so it's very different now. ) So I am laying down the law. HE can go out to eat. I am sticking to my plan. I am over it. >:)
  • everher
    everher Posts: 909 Member
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    My motivation didn't dwindle, but I got too comfortable.

    Originally, I lost around 80 lbs going from obese to the high end of the healthy BMI range for my height. I maintained that loss for years without really trying. I couldn't eat as much as before without feeling sickeningly full and I was more active than I had ever been before so it wasn't hard for me to stay at a healthy weight.

    Eventually, as I became less active and started to eat out more, I started to gain weight, but it was a slow gain. I tried dieting to lose the weight I was gaining more times than I can tell you, but I would always be super restrictive and eventually give up and gain back all the weight I lost and more.

    Last year I weighed myself because most of my clothes wouldn't fit and I was surprised to find myself just a few pounds from my highest weight ever. It was enough to make me finally get serious about making a lifestyle change.

    If I could sum it up I would say I gained the weight back because I didn't weigh myself regularly (and only really realized I was gaining weight when I'd already gained back 20 lbs or so and it snowballed from there), I changed my activity level without changing my intake (which is something I'll be cautious of in the future), and I began eating a lot of restaurant food which there's nothing wrong with but I've realized I have to be careful because some dishes could easily be over my daily calorie limit.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    For me, the following link rings pretty true having lost my weight and more or less maintained that loss for going on 4 years...

    http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-22368/12-habits-of-people-who-reach-maintain-their-ideal-weight.html

    That was a good article. Thanks for posting it.
  • tapwaters
    tapwaters Posts: 428 Member
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    I lost about forty pounds, but went back to my old habits and stopped doing what I was doing to be active. It sleeps like I woke up one day and was 250lbs from 140lbs, after my starting weight of 220, then 180, then 140.

    Since I gained 110lbs in a year (not even joking), I've since lost it all again, coming in at 130lb. I'm much more active and my fundamental underlying habits are changed and are incapable of cropping up on me again. I also have a better understanding that it is something I'll need to work on every day in maintenance, not something I can assume.

    I think the change from not having a goal anymore is a big part of it for a lot of people. To help with that, along with the simple impossibility of my old habits, I set new body goals in the line of recomp and building.
  • Mary_Anastasia
    Mary_Anastasia Posts: 267 Member
    edited February 2017
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    I became depressed because I hated my job and my abusive boss, then my grad school shut down in the middle of my program, then the man I loved (boyfriend/and one of my best friends) kept saying how unattractive I was and he tried to hide our relationship, then I tried to lose weight and it didn't work, and I quit my career but had to live off the money I'd saved up for a wedding, then I left my boyfriend but we remained too close and he would see what he could get away with while maintaining I was fat and unattractive, then my dad died, then my car died, then my house went into pre-foreclosure. This was all in just less than a year. I was left with crippling depression, a broken heart, penniless, wrought with confusion about my life choices, unpredictable daily anxiety attacks, anddddd regained 40lbs.
  • BrunetteRunner87
    BrunetteRunner87 Posts: 591 Member
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    I lost a lot of weight once and gained it all back because I stopped thinking about what I ate. Then I lost some, then gained it back. Each time I would begin to count calories and lose and then stop and gain it back. Basically I ate whatever I wanted as long as it fit into my calories and macros and never really developed a healthy relationship with food, so once I got tired of counting I went back to eating how I was before.

    Right now I am trying something new and instead of counting calories I am eating tons of vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, good meats and eggs, and whole grains. When I eat that way I am generally at a good place calorie wise and I feel good during exercise. Sometimes I eat sweets or refined carbs but as long as it is very sparingly compared to eating the other foods. I've started to look at food as a good thing that fuels my body and gives me vitamins instead of thinking about what I can't eat and what is the caloric content of everything.

    I haven't gone long enough to see if I will eventually gain weight back, but I feel like I have developed some good habits that I can sustain for a long time without getting burned out on constantly thinking about the # of calories in my food. I know calorie counting is the end all be all for a lot of people on here but I think that is what gave me trouble before - just worrying about calories and not developing the other healthy eating habits.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    I lost 70 pounds 20 years ago, kept it off for about five years and then regained it all over the next ten years. If I had to say what went wrong I would say it is because I didn't use the bathroom scale and because I was a fair weather athlete. I also found it easy to tell myself that because I had ridden my bicycle that day that it was okay if I ate more. Without stepping on the bathroom scale I had no way of knowing that I was gaining weight. So, now I use it weekly. Then there was the exercise thing. I would ride a bicycle if it wasn't raining, if it wasn't windy, if it wasn't cold, and if it wasn't dark. I would take the winter months off and then be so out of shape come Spring that it would take me until Summer to be able to ride much at all. And then I had to mess with 100+ degree days. Now, I read through the Winter, ride inside when it is lightning, enjoy a little wind, and seek out bigger hills.
  • tapwaters
    tapwaters Posts: 428 Member
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    try2again wrote: »
    tapwaters wrote: »
    I'm much more active and my fundamental underlying habits are changed and are incapable of cropping up on me again.

    The notion that bad habits are "incapable of cropping up again" sounds very naive & dangerous to me. :(

    No. They're really not here, I mean impossible literally. It is incapable of repetition.
  • lulalacroix
    lulalacroix Posts: 1,082 Member
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    I stopped weighing my foods and logging in MFP. Period.
  • victoria_1024
    victoria_1024 Posts: 915 Member
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    I lost 50 lbs in college, but I did it by eating a low calorie diet, working out a ton, and cutting out all the "bad foods" that I enjoyed. Because I was under eating and working out so much, I couldn't keep up that lifestyle. I never reached a point of maintaining my loss. I didn't even know that maintenance was a thing... I have always either been losing weight or gaining weight. So once I lost it, I just started gaining again. I was in grad school and stressed, so that's where the gain started. And then I had 4 babies and gained weight each of those pregnancies.

    Now I've lost 90 lbs and I've been maintaining for almost a year. I didn't lose weight by starving myself or working out excessively so I have a lifestyle that I've adjusted to and it works for me. I feel confident that I can keep this up long-term. The way I lost weight previously wasn't something anybody could keep up long-term.
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    Exactly what @try2again said....... viewing it as a short-term project of achieving a weight loss goal, as opposed to a life-long project of maintaining a healthy weight.......

    This was my precise mindset. After I lost 70 pounds -- project done, moved on to the next thing. Stopped tracking, started drinking and very quickly lost control. Gained it all back.

    This time, I'm learning about balance and nutrition, I'm learning new habits ridding myself of my food demons. I'm doing nothing (and I mean NOTHING) that I can't do for the rest of my life. If that means it takes me a year or two to lose the last 10 pounds, so be it. I have a very modest deficit, do exercise I enjoy and eat and drink what I like, at appropriate calories levels for my goal.

    There is some very, very good advice here. Take it, learn from it and beat the odds!

  • jbirdgreen
    jbirdgreen Posts: 569 Member
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    Well I'm not "back" and not "gone" from MyFitnessPal -- Kind of in some weird purgatory where I feel myself gaining, but I have zero motivation to actually do what it takes to start losing again. My Diary is an empty wasteland, and I really don't want to keep it up. :neutral:
    • For me, I let myself have a cheat week during the holidays that unleashed my snack foods binge beast. It's turned into more of a cheat quarter than a week. :(
    • I also started a home-based bakery, which was fine until I started attempting to come up with new recipes. It takes a lot of tasting (and calories) to get to perfection -- I ate like 6 muffins trying to figure out what I can do to improve a carrot cake formula. Plus I always bake an extra for quality assurance -- guess who eats that whole thing :(. Yeah, me.
    • I also switched day jobs, and I had to cut my spin class :(. It was right after my personal training session, so I burned a WICKED amount of calories --I could pretty much eat anything on those days because the calories were so high. Also the sun used to set later, so I was running after my evening Zumba classes -- I run alone, and I don't like doing it in the dark.
    • I also snack more on this job. I have no idea why -- I buy the same things I used to, but it all disappears faster.
    • I am also kind of tired-- trying to start a business and hold down a strict government job is a lot. My previous focus was just gym, cook, work.

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