anyone lose lots of weight..only to gain it back?

i lost 15 lbs for my wedding back in 2009 and gained it all back and then some. My method back then for losing weight was eating lean cuisines and cutting out all "bad" food.

clearly this did not work out.

NOW...i'm down 28 lbs and have maintained this since January (with 12 more lbs to go) by portion control, consistient logging (today is day 305 of consecutive log ins), and exercise. I won't gain any of it back EVER (okay when i have kids, but them i'm losing it again) because its a lifestyle. I dont cut anything out, I just plan accordingly. Crazy fad diets and pills dont work.

feel free to check out my blog on my success story (link is on my about me section)

good luck...you can do it!

Anyone who thinks it's about a diet and not a lifestyle change.

In 2003 after having my second child I lost 75 pounds on the adkins diet. I gained 90 pounds 3 years later when I was pregnant with my youngest child. For me it was simple I burnt out on the adkins and since I had never learned how it eat healthy I quickly gained it back.
In 2007 I joined WW and lost 99 pounds. When the plan changed and I gained 20 pounds over several failed attempts at maintaining. I'm back and trying to lose not with a stragedy but just simple life lessons on how to eat.
I would say I took one thing away from my attempts and reattempts you have to be able to continue doing whatever you did to lose the weight to maintain the weight loss so don't do anything you can't see doing long term :-)

I just returned after 3 weeks of fun with family and friends and have cut my loss in half. I was about to break 40 lbs lost when the break came and have gained back 15 of the lbs lost.
Just shows me how cruddy my family eats, dad won't cook even bacon without greasing the pan first (cast iron pan that I've got seasoned so well that nothing sticks to it in the first place) and he'll pay extra to buy the leanest ground beef he can buy only to load the pan up with a layer of oil so it has enough to cook right when he fries it. My nephew wakes up in the morning and wants his crispers before he will look at bread or pancakes or real food for breakfast, sadly he's 4 so I hope they turn that around though he eats just like his dad does so not really holding out hope, though I think a "diet" of real food would get him off the medications he's on.

After eating like that and having liquid calories (chocolate milk now come on) again I'm so glad to be home with my 10 bags of frozen raspberries and yogurt and other real foods... I am glad ot be back to whole milk also and half/half cream instead of the artificial flavoured whiteners etc.. Oh and ALWAYS snacking, on chips, crackers, ice cream sandwiches.. didn't go over too well. Back home without that stuff I'm not even looking for it!

I was active through out my childhood and college. After college I was dating my boy friend, who became my husband. I wanted to spend every free second with him so I stopped working out and started eating what he was eating. I married my love, but gained a whole bunch of weight. I went back for my masters degree and spent the next three years not doing any exercise. Finally I decided enough was enough and started watching what I ate and working out. I did P90 with my husband and watched every calorie. It worked! I lost about 30 lbs.

Then I got pregnant. It was great but I started doing the recommended "walking" for my working out. Then my husband left for training (he joined the military) and all my careful calorie counting went out the window. For the first two trimesters I was fine but really packed on the pounds in my third trimester. I ended up having an emergency c-section (DS has a head circumference at 98% still at 11 months) and a pretty poor recovery from that so I ate what was easy to make and didn't exercise one bit. When DS was five months and I needed to lose about 70 lbs I decided enough was enough. So now I am here, back to watching what I eat and exercising. Even with a military move (meaning we moved without a place to live and had to live in a hotel for a month) I have lost 20 lbs. Still a long way to go but I a determined to be healthy to be a good example for our son.

Good luck with your journey. That is my story, so far.

About 9 years ago, I lost 40 lbs with Weight Watchers...since then, and up until I started MFP, I gained all of that back and then some.

Somehow, back then, I think I got comfortable with the 40 lb loss, and stopped going to meetings, and got into the habit of thinking "oh that won't hurt" if I had this or that, and my bad habits slowly creeped back.

I have been on MFP since 11/30/10, and lost 56 lbs (total of 66 lbs since October 2010). I am at the point where I am struggling to keep my eye on the prize. I have about 100 lbs total to lose, and being on here is definately helping me. I struggle on the weekends where I am tempted with eating out etc., so I am trying to work on that so the weight doesn't pile back on...

Hi. It's my opinion that when you diet to lose weight, you eventually gain it all back and then some. Permanent weight loss comes when you find the right mix of eating and exercise that works for you, something you can do for a lifetime. You're in the right place to be successful. Good luck on your journey.

Ah, yes. I've done that often. In my mid-20's, while in graduate school, I ballooned up. I got frustrated and joined Weight Watchers. I religiously tracked, exercised and really dedicated myself to making it happen. I felt great, lost 75 pounds and really loved it. I kept it off for about 4-5 years! Then....I wish I had a million valid excuses, but I don't. I got lazy and decided it was ok to go out drinking several nights per week followed by visits to the all-night diner. I worked 2 jobs then, and was a bartender at night. So we'd sit around after shift and drink beers and eat garbage and shoot the breeze until sun-up. I wasn't sleeping right, wasn't eating right and certainly wasn't exercising regularly anymore! Eventually, I started gaining. First it was about 20 pounds back on. Then I stayed there. But it started to spiral out of control, I got depressed about it, I ate more. It was a vicious cycle! So finally, I gained all 75 pounds back. UGH UGH UGH. And have since gained about 15 more than that. I was up and down a lot in my 30's but never got anywhere near where I was back then on WW. I lost 25 pounds before my wedding, only to pack it all back on within a few month.

I think about this often. I've started and stopped more times than I can count in the past 5 years. I get a few pounds off, start to feel great, get complacent, and fall into my "let's go out for dinner" routine, and end up over-indulging. I have a bad case of the quitzies. I worry a lot about that. Am I going to allow myself to fall into that same routine yet again? Am I going to fall into that evil cycle of self loathing, eating to avoid my emotions and gaining weight, then repeat and continue?

My answer? No. Not THIS time. This time is different. I feel it. I feel different, I feel engaged in this process, and I feel committed to making myself a healthier person. I am turning 37 in February. I plan to charge into my 40's fit and fabulous and running races. I wasted SO much of my 30's being miserable, fat, unhealthy, obsessed about my weight issues that I created for myself, and never taking responsibility for it. Here I am, ready to go the distance. MFP has been such a great resource! I love it. It just fits the me that I am today. And I've met so many wonderful, supportive and encouraging people on here who are in very similar situations. I don't feel alone, or ashamed, like I'm the only one in the world who's done this. I feel great! And really excited to take this journey, and post my success stories at my goal weight next year.

:flowerforyou:

Thanks for posting this. It really made me think about things and realize why I'm here!

About 6 years ago, I was at my lightest (at the time)...I was right around 185 lbs - this is obviously relative since at one point, I weighed almost 230 lbs so this is definitely a milestone. Then I got engaged the first time...at this point, I pretty much let myself go because I was, I guess in a sense "rebelling" against my current situation. The relationship was very unhealthy, I was bordering on depression and I felt that my life was headed on a downward spiral. I re-gained the 45 lbs that I had previously lost.

3 years ago, I got married to my beautiful wife. From that point to about 88 days ago (based on MFP logging), I was right around 190 or so. I am now at the lightest that i've been in 18 years, extremely happy, and will definitely be much careful. In addition, I've also quit smoking after being a smoker for 17 years. I am now on Day 55 post-smoking, 0 pounds gained - 3 lbs lost!!!

That's my little "success story" - and I can say that if I'm able to do it...You can too!!! Best of luck!

Last summer I lost about 40lbs, then I got pregnant with my third child and my weight got out of control, now I have about 58lbs to lose.. you need to make changes that you maintain, or you will potentially gain it back.

I lost 60 pounds my freshman year of college due to an eating disorder (never got underweight - I did actually need to lose all of that weight - I just didn't do it very healthfully). SURPRISE it didn't stay off, though it did come back very, very gradually. Unfortunately, the healthier I got emotionally, the fatter I got. Now I feel like I've got s**t together I'm trying to get back to the thinner body I had.

One day I will be both thin and sane at the same time!

i lost over 25 lbs with WW about 4 yrs ago and then met my (now ex) boyfriend...started eating larger portions cause that's what he'd cook us for meals and promptly gained all of it back (+ a cpl extra lbs just for the heck of it).
we broke up in nov '10 and i joined MFP two months later and have had great results through the accountability of logging food/exercise and with the support and encouragement of the other members on here
i am now lighter than i was when i'd stopped WW and looking forward to losing even more weight.
it's amazing what having a good support network can do!!

Yes! Stay away from Fad diets. They are called that for a reason. There are healthy ways to lose weight...nice and slow is the most important and effective. Also never stop moving. As soon as you stop being active the healthy life style seems to dissipate as well. Good luck to you. We are all here for support and tips