What are the main reason behind your failed diet attempts?
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I failed so many times by crash dieting and over-restricting.
I've failed by failing to change the thought processes behind my poor choices.
By having big huge end goals without day-in, day-out process goals.
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My previous failed serial starts were down to lack of knowledge and understanding.
I would try and eat a 1200 calorie allowance of misery (demonising foods I liked and trying to cut everything out), guesstimated my intake (was probably eating closer to 1800 calories), overestimate my exercise burns (to try and justify food), didn't understand water weight fluctuations so when I would gain back the weight I'd lost after 10 days I would rage quit.
This time around after spending a bit of time on the forums and researching properly (not reading the *kitten* you see in magazines) I've set myself to a reasonable deficit (1lb per week loss) which gives me a calorie allowance of around 1600 net, I eat all the foods I like, but moderate those that I know are more calorific or that I tend to binge on, I try not to keep my worst offending binge foods in the house and I meal plan/prep so that I have more control over my intake. On top of this I weigh daily, I understand the reasons why my weight fluctuates. I've also started to focus more on my fitness goals rather than my weight loss ones which has encouraged me to improve my nutrition. I have just logged my 220th day yesterday and I have lost around 35lbs in 8 months.8 -
For me it was laziness, giving up is it seemed like too much work, didn't have the right knowledge, depression and just plain denial thinking and telling myself I was happy with how I was and always making the joke "the only diet I am on is a seefood diet, I see food and I eat it" and the other joke "I'm allergic to exercise, it leaves me sweaty and unable to breath" lol I was just not dedicated and family telling me I needed to lose weight I would just ignore them, I regret letting my weight get so bad but I think turning 30 made me realise I need to change1
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Not focusing on what I need to do and what works for me (staying in my lane!) Revisiting old methods that clearly didn't work for me because they are comfortable standbys (hello, WW). Complacency. Letting other people's, especially my family member's, issues get in the way of my goals. Perfectionism, and doubting that CICO works. It's not sexy as heck, so I doubt it. I don't know why I doubt that I can eat one sensible portion, adjust my day and be alright.3
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Eating less than 3,000 calories + moving my body more than 50 feet in a day used to feel like mild torture to me. It took years but I basically had to "brainwash" myself into believing that I didn't want to lay on the couch and use potato chips to scoop an entire jar of nutella into my mouth, and that I didn't want to sit on my *kitten* all day, until it became mostly true.4
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Failure- Cutting out a lot of foods. Too restrictive, not sustainable long term. No knowledge of the actual calories I needed, was taking in or burning. Losing quickly but no plan to maintain. Setting unrealistic goals and getting frustrated.
Success- Eating food I would normally eat and that the people around me eat. Moderation. Realistic and easy to sustain long term. Knowing how many calories I should have. Logging my food every day.
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Lots of things...
- "I'm having a hard time, so I deserve this cake."
- "I have enough to worry about as it is without stressing over diet/health as well."
- "I'm not really THAT overweight, so I should stop dieting and learn to accept my body."
- "I'll have to live off of turkey and kale and give up sugar and that would make me miserable."
- "Food is about the only thing making me happy right now, I can't give it up."
- "Life's too short to count calories!"
...and just a whole series of excuses on the theme of being lazy, feeling sorry for myself and equating "not easy" with "impossible".6 -
I just graduated law school. In the beginning three years ago I told myself I would bring my meals with me to school and plan accordingly for any deviations. That was a big failure on my part. I let late night study sessions give me an excuse as to why I should go to the local deli or subway or fast food place nearest school and order a shmorgasborg of food.
First year I was okay, well within a 5 pound range of what I at the time normally weighed. Then second and third year came along, and I really just let myself go. I knew I was gaining but I still continued to let myself spiral. I also discovered that white wine was my favorite alcoholic drink, and it's loaded with sugars, so when you're drinking a huge bottle every weekend, that also doesn't help. I kept telling my boyfriend oh I'm starting X diet Monday, wish me luck! And would do it for one week, if that. My excuse again was "too much work on your plate, take the cheap way out" and order food.
Once I took the bar exam July 25-26, I promised myself that now that I have more time, I need to stick to a committed lifestyle change and NOT a diet. I'm in 2 weeks and already seeing noticeable changes. It really is YOU as a person that gets to choose whether you want to be committed or not. There are no excuses for that.4 -
At first it was lack of knowledge on how weight loss actually works. Later on, my mother died and it hit me hard... a few pet deaths as well.
But I am back up again. I know my father isn't going to live much longer being 81... but I'm going to be prepared this time (premade foods, shakes).2 -
Every time I dieted it was one group or another of food which was banned. And it worked for a while because I foliowed it but then I would just forget about it and go crazy and start binge eating my way back to what I lost..
This is the first time I'm counting calories and eating whatever I want in whatever combo and I feel soooo liberated from my culinary frustations. :-)
Also, I never used to exercise like I do now and after a certain point (like 84-86 kg) the weight wouldn't drop. Everybody urged me to run, do crazy cardio and such things that I HATE. Now I do a combo of hiit, weights and light cardio for my rest days. And I'm finally happy with my sport schedule..3 -
I have never failed at losing weight. I have failed to maintain the loss but since even then I did not become overweight I don't look at that as a failure.
This is the first time I've been overweight and had to lose. I have regained a few lbs twice since hitting goal but both times I lost those few lbs again without it getting out of hand. The jury is still out whether I will ever regain to the point of overweight. #fingerscrossed2 -
Lots of things...
- "I'm having a hard time, so I deserve this cake."
- "Food is about the only thing making me happy right now, I can't give it up."
- "Life's too short to count calories!"
Thank you, this post and the responses have helped me a LOT.
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Slim Fast, Xenadrine, and green tea pills. So much of the fail.2
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bump0
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LACK OF COMMITMENT. If someone was truly committed to a goal, they do WHATEVER it takes to complete it. And many times that means sacrifice.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Using things has an excuse to stop and not getting back on track like going on vacation or car accident in past. Also while I understand that this needs to be a lifetime thing not just dieting and then going back to the past way of eating. I have problems with adhering to this and find myself falling back to old habits/ways of eating.
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I lost weight once in 2013 to 2014. It took me a year from 2012 t0 2013 to understand the process. Because it was my first time. Then it only took 6 months to lose the weight. This time around it took 2 months for my mimd and body to finally adjust to changes of eating ay deficit and exercising.0
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Honestly, it came down to being too lazy to buy/cook/prepare food. Life has been extremely busy for me up until recently, so it felt like a chore doing all those things. Easier to just drive up to a window and have food handed to me within minutes.0
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I blame potato chips. And cake.2
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