How can a smart person be so stupid about weight loss?

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  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
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    It's all about changing your mentality.

    When you reach your goal weight do you tell yourself:

    "Ah! Finally finished my diet!"

    or

    "Time to bump up my calorie allotment to Maintenance and continue logging and weighing myself regularly."

    Maintaining your goal weight is NOT easy, and should be treated the same as losing weight. You need to stay diligent, because if you stop logging, stop caring, stop weighing yourself... the weight WILL creep back up. It's a life-long commitment.
  • maryannprt
    maryannprt Posts: 152 Member
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    You're not stupid. What you are is someone who sees weight loss as the end game. It's not. The end game (in my opinion) is the time and energy to enjoy your wife and kids, your successful business. You need to make dietary changes you can stick with forever. You can eat anything you want. You just can't eat everything you want. So stop thinking of "diet" as a dirty word that means deprivation and start thinking of "diet" as what a person eats. Eat the pasta, eat the cookie someone brought in to work. Just don't eat all of the pasta or cookies. If you have a day you overindulge, it's not the end of the world. Today, start over. If you can make up the calories by the end of the week, (while still eating enough for good nutrition) ok. If not, write it off and move on. If you made a bad decision in your business, you did the best you could to correct it, but eventually you just moved on, right? You didn't continue to beat yourself up about the time you did x. Everyone here needs support to lose and/or maintain their weight. Most of us has lost weight more than once. This time is going to be the last time for me, because I'm making sustainable changes. It can be the last time for you, too. Good luck!
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,301 Member
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    I love this post...cause thats how i feel about my husband. He is the very same. You're a smart, goal oriented guy who has figured out what most people can't..how to get wealthy.

    apply those prinicples you used in gaining financial security to losing weight. did you make all your money then go on a spending spree and blow it all? nope. you get my point. good luck .
  • dustedwithsugar
    dustedwithsugar Posts: 179 Member
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    Are you really a multimillionaire tho
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    Hi, I'm smart too. I'm no multi-millionaire though. But you must know that even smart people make poor choices. I strongly recommend Habit by Duhigg. If you see this as a habit change and find new ways to reward yourself, this could be the time you get control of your weight!
  • daisyfields79
    daisyfields79 Posts: 69 Member
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    I felt the same way, year after year, after year. I tried so many different diets and always fell off, this is the longest I've gone without falling off. I went into it this time, not looking at it as a diet but a life style change. Even if I hit my goal weight, I can't stop and go back to how I was eating before or I will put it all back on which is why it's a life style change. I make sure to not feel deprived and it's amazing at how many options are out there for lower calories. I found a blueberry juice that tastes sooooo sweet but it's only 10 calories in 1 cup so when I have a sugar craving, I have a glass with lots of ice and do not use a straw because it makes it last longer and the sugar craving is gone. I love pasta but the calories are crazy, I found a Japanese noodle which only has 60 calories in a large serving :) that covers the delish pasta cravings. It's just finding what foods you love but in a lower calorie option and eating that instead of the high calorie foods. I find that rather then having a cheat day or week, I have a cheat meal and it's great. That covers when you go out to a restaurant or out for dinner. You are stronger then you think, don't let food win
  • TorStar80
    TorStar80 Posts: 252 Member
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    I don’t think there is a good answer. This just might be the thing that proves to be a lifelong struggle. I’ve never seen an answer to this that satisfied my logical side. I’ve always struggled and I figure I will always struggle (as many of us do)... at least now I have the tools to correct myself. I’d just say, if you get off track don’t allow it to become 70 lbs... I gained 50 in about 5 years and I kept justifying it instead of getting control.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    edited October 2017
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    Maybe the last 10 lbs is too much for you. It's better to weigh 10 lbs more and be able to maintain it, than yo-yo all the time.
    All the reasons you mention are the things you need to consider to decide "how important" this is to you. I made a conscious decision before I started that I had to make changes I could live with long term. I also spent 2+ years of losing 150 to ponder what had gone wrong in the past, why I couldn't maintain, and what I was going to do differently this time. The result sounds so simple. I always thought I would be able to maintain ok because I had worked so hard to lose (30 1st time, 60 2nd time, now it was 150). But I didn't have a plan as to what to do if I regained. Now I've set myself a 5 lb maintenance range. If I get to the top of the range, even if I think it's water weight, I cut back about 100-200 calories per day until I'm back in mid range. It has worked well for 1 year of maintenance. It's so simple, yet so profound. It took me 60 years to figure out weight management, although I'd figured out the rest of life (more or less) 20 years ago.
    Hope something in this helps you.
  • ZoneFive
    ZoneFive Posts: 570 Member
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    You're far from stupid. All of us have had to learn the lesson that dieting isn't the be-all and end-all -- life is, and making a good and healthy life for ourselves and our families is. I admit to being remarkably thick on this lesson!

    The road doesn't end at goal weight. Keep going, even if the road has to loop around a few times!
  • gita9999
    gita9999 Posts: 8 Member
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    I really believe that weight loss is so hard for a lot of us regardless of intelligence. Our minds are programmed to reward us for eating. I've found that trying switching the reward to something else had helped me (like mfp!!) - how many steps I can get in a day, or how good I am at keeping up a good gym schedule, pushing myself to lifting heavier weights, etc.
  • Goober1142
    Goober1142 Posts: 219 Member
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    Just keep swimming...if you fall off the wagon get back on the next day.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
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    A similar reason as why some men can be so smart in most things, but terrible with women. The are letting another bodypart do the thinking.

    You have mentioned you're goal oriented. How about looking a a performance based goal instead of weight loss. Make a goal to be able to do 10 pull ups by a certain date (have some intermittent goals if you want). Chances are if you're 100 pounds overweight you won't get to the goal. Work at it, lose some weight and you probably can. You'll be lighter and stronger.

    Best of luck.
  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,145 Member
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    Take a look at this thread; maybe you can find what you are looking for.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818701/the-myth-of-motivation-and-what-you-need-instead/p1
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    edited October 2017
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    Chris - it might also benefit you to assemble a "team" since you have the resources and most likely very limited time. Perhaps a dietician to help organize a plan, a meal prep service to provide healthy breakfasts, lunches and snacks a trainer or coach to keep your fitness on point. Not for a few months, but for as long as it takes. Simply planning and packing my meals every day and only eating what I brought has been a key to my success. It saves time and prevents having to make decisions when I'm already hungry. I avoid lunch meetings like the plague.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
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    You're smart. You have asked the question. You must be the one to answer it for yourself. Why do you do this to yourself? How can you make it better?
  • Sumiblue
    Sumiblue Posts: 1,597 Member
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    middlehaitch wrote: »
    Sounds like your goal oriented and like to get the the job done efficiently, and that is what you do with your weight loss.

    You go for the win. 90 lbs in 7 months!
    Yup, you get the weight off fast, probably too fast. The weight loss is your goal, with no plan for maintenance built into it.

    Take a step back, plan a slower more sustainable method of losing that has a way to maintain built in.

    2 lbs a week until you hit 50 to lose, 1.5 until you have 30, then 1lbs a week until the last 10-15.

    Work in the food you like, candy and pasta are fine, just keep them within your calorie goal.

    Not sure what your business is, but I can bet thee is a 5 year plan built for development and growth, otherwise you wouldn't be successful. Transfer some of those methodologies over to your weight loss plan for long term sustainability.

    Cheers, h.

    She is 100% right. Goals and planning
  • Sumiblue
    Sumiblue Posts: 1,597 Member
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    Also. Losing 90 lbs in 7 months is pretty fast. We’re your calories too low, setting you up for cravings and binging? Fast weight loss usually means loss of muscle mass. When you gain weight back rapidly it’s mostly fat.
    Find a strength program and do it, follow a reasonable deficit eating plan and succeed. If you want to maintain weight loss you have to be consistent.

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