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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I think the trick here is to view food in a new light. It’s nourishment. I can have fun in different ways. For me, it’s easier to resist refined carbs if I don’t consume them. I’m a nurse (on my 20th or so weight loss quest!) and I get medical journals. I read an article today on fatty liver (1 in 3 American adults have it) that frightened me into doubling my efforts to get this weight off for good. So I journal my food in MFP and stick to a Mediterranean Diet and drag myself around the block and into the gym. It’s paying off for now, and I think it will pay off for the long haul.

What a great title for a post and a lot of the time so very true!

For me after years of yoyo dieting and always re-gaining, something just clicked almost 6 years ago when I started my final weight loss journey - this time round was about eating in a way that I could do so long term/rest of my life and simply making an effort to move more. I'm almost 5 years at maintenance so I've found what works for me.

I'm hoping you will find your ending different this time, all the best.

Chris_2013 wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Because just like the aspects you mentioned, weight needs ongoing management. You didn't get a job, consider it goal achieved, then stopped showing up to work. You also did not put your life on hold, ignore your family life, let your health go, or stopped doing the things you enjoy in order to get a job you hate and don't plan to continue doing. That's weight management for you. You need to keep an eye on it for good, like you do with your finances. You need to make it work and balance it well with the other aspects of your life and your own sanity, you also need to make sure it's something you'll want to continue doing, like you do with your job. A large plate of pasta does not ruin a diet just like one argument does not ruin a marriage

You need to learn how to make your diet work WITH your life and not as a program on the side. 10 lbs in 3 weeks indicates that you are restricting your calories a lot. Feeling bad about pasta and sugary treats means that your diet is far removed from your usual diet. The best way forward is to make your weight loss diet as close to your usual diet as possible while still within calories. Want a huge bowl of pasta? Sure, but not as often, and without feeling guilty. Or add lots of vegetables to it and not too much fat so you get to eat a huge bowl of pasta more often without taking a huge hit to the calories. My own mantra for anything I decide to do with my diet is: will this make dieting easier? Do I see myself doing this 10 years from now?

Sigh... nail hits head. I should read this once a week for a while. Thanks.

^^This is it in a nutshell.

I made countless attempts at weight loss with varying degrees of success, only to backslide each time. This cycle went on and on, since I was compartmentalizing my weight loss efforts and not making healthy eating and lifestyle choices a central part of my life. At 54 years old, I finally made a decision that I would make a lifestyle change, not "go on a diet" since that was like holding my breath. Once I changed my mindset, it clicked. It was not a binary choice ("success or failure", "all or nothing") any longer. It allowed me to continue to make progress without worrying about what happened yesterday. This ultimately led to making more good choices and I started to see some rewards from my new lifestyle. Success bred more success, and I found support in others who had similar interests and goals. Now, six years later, it is just a habit. It is now "who I am" and my habits now make healthy eating choices my default behavior. So when I want to eat a big meal, or indulge my sweet tooth, or drink two glasses of wine, its ok. I know that I'm never going back to where I was before.

Also, I've read a bit on the subject and one book I found helpful was Charles Duhigg's "The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in Life and Business". It really shed some light on how shifting expected outcomes and rewards is an effective method of changing behavior.

* edited to add that I just re-read the thread and noticed @jgnatca's post referring to Duhigg. I clearly need more coffee this morning.