please help....I've back slid and feel horrible!

pdwhitlock
pdwhitlock Posts: 83 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Looking for those who've had to restart a weightloss journey. Last summer, I was settled at my 160 goal at 163. I decided I was happiest there and honestly, had begun to look a little bean pole-ish after seeing myself in photos (6'00" and 163 was the smallest I'd ever been in my adult life). This was quite the journey from 279 lbs that I was about two years prior. but now I'm up to 183 and I'm sluggish and feeling down. I try to restart my habit but end up slipping up on weekends and can't get back in my gym routine. I'm finding it harder to restart than it was to get started! I fear that without help and motivation I'll be back over 200 here very soon. Anyone else struggled with restarting and how did you find second success?

Replies

  • EmPersson
    EmPersson Posts: 768 Member
    First of all, congratulations on getting down to your goal weight! Now you know it CAN be done! I've waffled with my weight over the years, getting down using MFP, getting lazy and not logging for awhile and gaining it all (and then some) back again. This time, I have had the most success out of any other attempt because I have a specific end goal (wieght, and date), and have worked my way back through that time-frame and set up milestones along the way. Each little milestone is something to work towards and look forward to each week. I track each milestone and each week in a spreadsheet, so I can easily see my progress - though that can be done with MFP, too. Best of luck!
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,937 Member
    edited May 2017
    For one thing, you are very close to being (if you are not already) in a healthy weight range.

    With that in mind, please set your goals here for "Lose 1/2 pound per week." Eat that amount, log your additional exercise and eat those additional calories, too.

    The last few pounds are the hardest, you can't cut too low or hunger and binging happens but there is a very slim margin for error as well. Slow and steady, eat and exercise. Relax, drink water, sleep. Repeat daily. The biggest problem is that people with not a lot of weight to lose try to cut back too far. Just do what you did when you lost the weight before.
  • duanehcpiercey
    duanehcpiercey Posts: 14 Member
    When I have a bad day... logging or food or exercise. ... I spend the next three days just working on being better than I was on that day. So 1st day after... just be better than that crappy day... then day 2 better than the previous... and so on... then you can make your way to back on track.....

    Good luck. You can do it
  • crushingitdaily12345
    crushingitdaily12345 Posts: 577 Member
    @pdwhitlock you can do it! Would you like an accountability pal? :)
  • patrickreeveboyd
    patrickreeveboyd Posts: 701 Member
    @pdwhitlock Me too I'd like to put myself forth as an accountability pal... There's definite ways you can help me too.
  • fromaquasar1
    fromaquasar1 Posts: 51 Member
    duanehcpiercey wrote: »
    When I have a bad day... logging or food or exercise. ... I spend the next three days just working on being better than I was on that day. So 1st day after... just be better than that crappy day... then day 2 better than the previous... and so on... then you can make your way to back on track.....

    Good luck. You can do it

    I love this idea ^^ - going to use it.

    I am also restarting, after regaining weight I had already lost. I am really fighting for consistency and changes I can maintain for a lifetime this time. In terms of restarting, I found I couldn't get back to the gym at all until I got a workout plan. I just went to bodybuilding.com and printed off one of their free ones. For the next 12 weeks I just go to the gym every day and do what it says on the piece of paper. Then I get to cross the day off (whoop!). I found thinking about going to the gym and what i was going to do way too much, this has helped me get back into working out.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,889 Member
    pdwhitlock wrote: »
    Looking for those who've had to restart a weightloss journey. Last summer, I was settled at my 160 goal at 163. I decided I was happiest there and honestly, had begun to look a little bean pole-ish after seeing myself in photos (6'00" and 163 was the smallest I'd ever been in my adult life). This was quite the journey from 279 lbs that I was about two years prior. but now I'm up to 183 and I'm sluggish and feeling down. I try to restart my habit but end up slipping up on weekends and can't get back in my gym routine. I'm finding it harder to restart than it was to get started! I fear that without help and motivation I'll be back over 200 here very soon. Anyone else struggled with restarting and how did you find second success?

    Yeah, I've lost my good habits a few times and had to get back in the groove again. Here are three things that help me:

    1. I have to recommit to logging and caring about not going over my calorie budget.

    2. Weighing daily helps me as well. I weighed daily for about a year, and gained weight when I switched to weighing once a month. I continued to log, but wasn't caring about going over my calories, as I wasn't getting feedback from the scale.

    3. Dinner is my problematic meal and prelogging this helps me not overeat.
  • Misskcm
    Misskcm Posts: 143 Member
    I think you just described what 90% of MFP users have gone through at least once.
    March of 2016 I got down to 190 and stayed there for only a short amount of time. I was up to 210 this past February and decided it was time for a change.
    The biggest thing I have learned about "restarting" is both your heart and your mind has to be in it. When I was 100% in both of those I lost 30 pounds. I am now down to about 180 and still dropping.
    Here are some things I have done "restarting" and have kept me on track.
    1. Log every single morsel of food that goes in your mouth. You eat a fry from a friends plate.. log it. You have only 1 strawberry... log it.
    2. Weigh yourself once a day at the same time. I always weigh myself as soon as I wake up after I go to the restroom and before I even have a drink of water. Then log it on here. Use whatever the scale says as motivation. If it goes up then use that as motivation to get it back down if it goes down, well it going down is motivation enough to keep it going down.
    3. Do NOT use a decreasing scale as an excuse to binge on the weekend. But...
    4. Do NOT deprive yourself. Enjoy small amounts of the foods you love often. This is one I struggle with. I can deprive myself for months of sweets or bread or pasta.. but as soon as I have a little bit I binge for days in a row.
    5. Log even your bad days. And when you want to eat bad the next day look at the log from the day before. Do you really want to see those red numbers again?
    6. Get a fitness tracker if you don't have one already. I love my Fitbit HR. Some people overestimate calories expended throughout the day and a fitness tracker will help that. You want one with heart rate on it though.
    7. Don't forget you are human. Enjoy life. We weren't built to be perfect. ❤️
  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
    First congratulations on the getting to goal. You know what to do to get there. The most important thing now is to get yourself there mentally. Recommit to you and feeling better and less sluggish. I had a bad Nov 2016-Feb 2017 and gained over 10 pounds but have recommitted and am almost back and hoping to go down a bit more. You can do this. You are worth it.
  • pdwhitlock
    pdwhitlock Posts: 83 Member
    Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who had more success weighing in daily. There's more frustration that way for sure as the scale tends to bounce around but when I went to weekly weigh-ins, I'd gain weight and not know it until I was a few pounds up! I like the suggestion of changing to a 1/2 lb loss as well. Losing weight when I was heavier was definitely easier and restarting is definitely more difficult. I'd advise anyone on their weight loss journey, not to quit logging when they reach their goal, just set to maintenance!

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