Maintenance Failure - Gained all the weight back (w/pics)

mom23mangos wrote: »

jennifer_417 wrote: »

If I looked like your before picture, I'd consider my loss a great success!

You look absolutely fantastic, and should be thrilled with all of your hard work!

Thanks. I started at a normal BMI, so it was truly vanity weight. I had stopped aerial classes and Krav Maga due to financial constraints, both of which acted as resistance training and was solely cycling for exercise. Add in being totally clueless about calorie counts in what I considered "healthy snacks" (cheese, nuts, fruit) and a desk job and I became what some call "skinny fat".

George8383 wrote: »

Wow absolutely fantastic wish I had that will power and commitment what's advice would you give thanks

It's hard to give advice because everyone has to find what works for them and what worked well for me may not work well for others. Not logging helped me keep a healthy relationship with food. Other people don't have that issue. Not weighing myself and going by progress photos helped me gain muscle because if I had stuck to a 5lb maintenance range, either my physique wouldn't have changed as much or I would have gotten too underfat to be healthy. However, doing true bulk/cut cycles probably would have allowed me to put on even more muscle.

But the point of the post is that even if you have a maintenance window, don't assume if you reach the top of it that it means you need to tighten up and lose weight. If you are using other methods of measurement, you may realize that you just need to slide your window up. Scale weight IMO is the least of measurements you should be using to make decisions about your progress.Pictures, tape measure, body fat analysis...those are all much more meaningful. Because while it's important for many here to lose weight for health reasons, most just really want to make body composition changes. And the scale won't help you there.

Biggest advice I can give is consistency. It's not about willpower, but you are right it is about commitment. Willpower and motivation only get you so far. You have to have the discipline and commitment to do it even when you don't feel like it. Do things like meal planning and exercising at a certain time until it becomes a habit. When you have a day or week that you miss working out because of life or you eat all the cake, don't let it get to you and just go back to the habits you've made. Consistency over the long term will get results.