Unsuccessful transition

Ok, first my opinions are not always popular here, but... Here is mine. Adrenal Fatigue is not real. The fact you "lost" your period tells me a few things. First, you are probably too lean for your set range. Set range has not been proven in people completely, but we can look at the research that lends insight into it. Definitely shown in rats. Rats are a decent human proxy for studies. The question I had to ask myself is, what is keeping every once of weight off worth? If you lost 100 and start "bulking" and regain 20lbs and feel better, is that a win? It's much like someone losing 20 and regaining 4lbs. I too have had hunger,satiety, hormone issues. I lost 220lbs. Sub 10% bf at one time. I have intentional regained roughly 20 in 10 months. I am getting some recovery, but not as much as I hoped. I "think" I will end up at about 230-250lbs vs the 400 I started. That's roughly 50-65lbs of regain. For me it's worth its. I suggest you do talk to a professional, but also soul search a little... jmho... just waiting for the disagree button hits. Ahhhhhh life! Best wishes.

Maintenance is tough and it’s about finding a balance.

You won’t regain all that weight overnight. It will take months of consistent over eating to do that. Yr logical self knows that. Try not to panic.

Yr period stopping us a sign u r possibly too lean. So u probably do need to gain a few pounds. I would see yr doctor as well just to rule out other medical causes for the loss of period.

Transitioning to maintenance is tough for a lot of people.

It’s worth considering therapy if that’s a possibility.

Oh, last thoughts.... @cmriverside is most likely right about it taking a year for some hunger hormones to balance some. I posted some recent research on the subject in the maintainers forum.

While 124 is considered a "normal" BMI for your height, it is on the low end, and just because it is normal does not always mean it is the best choice for you for mental or physical health, especially if you are showing signs for dealing with disordered eating and body image. That is not a and thing, it is just important to realize that and adjust your expectations a bit.

That you've lost so much weight is an incredibly accomplishment. It would still be an incredible accomplishment if you decided to maintain 10 pounds higher than you originally planned. You may find that that is healthier mentally and easier to maintain without binging. You can always lift weights to help recomp that weight, so it starts to slowly move from fat to muscle.

I agree with seeing a regular doctor and a menral health professional if you are able. But for right now give yourself some grace, feel proud of what you accomplished, and try to work yourself into a higher calorie intake that can be controlled without binging.

My suggestion is to eat at maintenance for 128 lbs for you (you lost 100 so you know what your cal level to maintain should be) for the month of Oct. Don't weigh yourself. Work out normally. Try to enjoy your new body and the energy from eating at a set level to maintain a good weight.

Why? Because in my opinion weighing yourself right now is only going to freak you out more than you already appear to be. Try to think long term. Let your body stabilize over a month of solid consistant intake. Maybe you will get your period back. I bet your clothes end up feeling back to normal within 2 weeks.

You have to "stop the cycle" and sometimes just letting go of the scale for a little while is the only way. Think of your cals over a week timeframe vs daily. If you go over by 100 or 200 one day, then just go a little under for a few days. Don't make BIG waves.

Hope this helps. I know it's not like the other advice but sometimes a different approach to get back to maintaining is needed.

umbramirror wrote: »

Thank you to everyone who has responded. You have no idea how grateful I am to be reading all of this and how insightful it has been for me, as well as supportive.

For just a bit of additional background if this helps someone in the future, is that while I have been having several days of binges, I haven't changed my exercise routine at all, apart from today. My typical routine was as follows: Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 65 min heavy weight lifting [following a similar program to Stronglifts 5x5] followed by 20 min of a HIIT-like workout; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: 70 min vigorous calisthenthics, followed by about a 2.5 mile run. At one point, it was 3.5-4 miles but I worked to cut it down. Sunday: 3.5-4 mile run. Today was my first true rest day in about 2 1/2 months. As far as calories go, up until these past 2 weeks I was probably consuming about 1700-1900 calories daily, with a few days slightly above this.

I feel great when I exercise and stay active, but today, I simply didn't feel like doing anything. I actually stayed inside all day feeling terrible about myself, and going in and out of sleep. Reading all of your comments and listening to that one video posted by @psychod787, has given a burst of energy to reassess my situation here. I have considered that I have been at a low set point, and have noted the low energy, the fogginess of my mind, trouble sleeping, loss of period, intense hunger, irritability, etc. but decided to push past it because I was enjoying my leanness. I was feeling proud of myself, that I had somehow gotten to a size 0-00 pants, XS-S small shirts, could see rather good muscle definition despite having a small layer of fat left over from being obese. I enjoyed that I was small and could lift heavy.

Now I see that I have pushed myself too far. That I let myself fall on the other end of the spectrum in weight loss and management and it's time to bring myself back. I'm trying to reconfigure my routine as I type this, and determine what my caloric intake should be and how often and how intensely I should exercise. I don't know if I should weigh myself considering that I'll likely see a weight of about 135 lbs and I don't know if can handle that. But maybe I should, to keep myself accountable. I'm not sure, but I'm ranting now... I will read over all of your comments again and try to reorganize myself. Thank you all so much again from the bottom of my heart.

Give yourself a couple days for the binge water weight to ease, then weigh in. Maybe just a couple times a week. I personally had to cut back on weighing. It's hard to see the scale go up. If you are 135... 🤷‍♂️
I mean, you know how to lose, I just would advise against it for a while. @fernt21 is brilliant young lady and @nowine4me is a longtime maintainer. @cmriverside is a looonng time maintainer. You will be ok.....

https://youtu.be/wCEzoOpG1zQ

Glad to see you've taken in all the info and are re-considering where you want to be. The combination of loss of period and the binging episodes and intense hunger are more than ample clues you've gone too far and that some regain is needed for your to become healthy again. This is not a bug; it is a feature!

I second that it will take a while for the hunger cues to resolve and that you may have to fight it with time in conjunction with allowing for some regain.

Rest days are beneficial, you may want to restructure your routine to better incorporate them.

Since you seem to be a bit unsure about your maintenance you can go back to generic TDEE calculators for an estimate if your own data are suspect, which they are because of extreme restriction and over-exercise!

Your exercise, even after you reduced your run distance, remains on the high end. Regardless of whether you're sedentary or not outside of exercise, on the basis of exercise alone (and of being 5ft 6" @ 130lbs) your TDEE would be north of 2600 Cal a day, which means that you are probably still under-eating as opposed to over-eating unless you regularly hitting the almost 3K Calories range.

My "sage" advice would be to take a deep breath, eat at the maintenance level of someone a good 10lbs above you absolute minimum, and get there gradually while giving yourself time for the intense hunger to reduce. And any time you look at yourself and don't see complete perfection reflect on how much better you feel and move as compared to where you were 90+ lbs ago!

cmriverside wrote: »

psychod787 wrote: »

Oh, last thoughts.... @cmriverside is most likely right about it taking a year for some hunger hormones to balance some. I posted some recent research on the subject in the maintainers forum.

What happened to your AV image? Had me worried there for a minute, I thought you got in trouble!

*edit to say, all I was seeing was the gray bobblehead...now it's back to your other AV. Weird.

I am trouble ma'am!😉

Beyond the transition to weight loss itself I imagine the transition from deficit to maintenance as one of the most challenging - for several reasons, but what led to my initial failure was the formation of a new goal.

In so much of our lives we are conditioned to simply achieve a goal and then it's done. Prepare for and finish a test - done. Finish a class - one. Graduate - done. Marriage - done. The real struggle is in the maintenance phase as the new goal isn't as clear and not short term fulfilling. It requires higher level thinking, patience, and discipline.

When I first hit my goal weight I arrogantly thought - "Done!" and took a few celebratory weeks off - of course slipping into past habits and losing discipline. I completed one goal and never established a new goal. I took a long look at my behavior and got back into the discipline of logging and monitoring and setup a new goal of competing in obstacle course racing and triathlons. So this made weight management a secondary issue as I couldn't stay in deficit and be competitive. I also couldn't gain weight or my performance is going to drop.

Over time I turned this into higher order goals, but less objective - be better than I was yesterday, live a life worth reading about, live a life my family & friends would be proud of....things like that.

umbramirror wrote: »

Everyone's advice is so helpful. I'm finding it incredibly difficult to become comfortable with the idea of maintaining with the way I feel right now. Everything in me is telling me to restrict, to get back down to where I was. It's my mind and body's first reaction to bloat and heaviness, to try to compensate with restriction. However, I know that maintaining is what has to be done, to alleviate some of this stress, to regulate some of the dysfunction that has occurred, and to stabilize my balance that has clearly been out of balance.

Today is a challenge. I went to the gym but felt awful. One positive though is that I was able to increase my lifts a bit. 😅 I feel nauseous and bloated, so I don't have much of an interest in food. Today may have to be a lighter day before I return to maintenance level calories. One of the worst side effects besides the feeling of having a fever, chills, lethargy, etc. is that all of my clothes are tight. Putting on my work clothes made me really realize the weight (no pun intended) of what I had done.

I'm trying my best to not let this destroy me. I don't like the way I feel and I don't want this to continue. My goal is to consume more calories close to maintenance (which I will calculate) and decrease my exercise just a bit. It is more difficult than I would have ever thought!

Other than the loss of menstrual cycle, I could have written your original post word for word at the beginning of maintenance. At the beginning of my maintenance I was also close to your stats, 5'6 130lbs and rarely taking rest days from very intense exercise. I think part of the scale issue was that at 130lbs I still wasn't satisfied with my body but at the time I didn't realize I would never achieve the body I truly desired until I broke that scale obsession since it would eventually take several bulk/cut cycles along with an increase weight but decreased body fat percentage. I would eat in a very healthy sustainable way for weeks, have an extreme food day for whatever reason and then over restrict to compensate because I was terrified at the 5 pound increase reflected on the scale (despite knowing that half of it was water weight). The extreme deficit would work but would cause me to drastically over eat again which would then cause me to panic and introduce an extreme deficit again. This cycle could repeat for months sometimes before finding that healthy sustainable groove again; it truly felt uncontrollable.

I don't have a ton of advice unfortunately but i'll share the the thing that helped me personally break the cycle.

After having the the kind of high calorie day that would usually set off this cycle of panic, I would force myself to stay off the regular scale and eat at maintenance for a few days. After a few days I would slowly reintroduce a modest deficit. The same day that I reintroduced the deficit I would take a "baseline weight" on a quantum scale. This type of scale never shows an actual weight only cumulative loss so on day 1 in a deficit again I would reset the scale and it would show 0lbs. Week two after being in a -250 calorie deficit I would weight and the scale would show -.5lb. Week 3 after another week in a -250 calorie deficit the scale would show -1lb. Week 4 after another week in a -250 deficit it would show -1.5 etc.

I would track my weight loss and how I felt about my body each day until I was in a place where I felt good about my body again and at that point I would allow myself to weigh on a normal scale again. Sometimes it was after I lost three pounds, sometimes five, sometimes ten. Sometimes when I finally felt fantastic in my body and was ready, I checked the normal scale I was still five pounds heavier than my "panic" weight which shocked me. Sometimes when I finally checked the scale but still wasn't feeling totally great about my body it would show five pounds less than my "panic weight" which also shocked me. Doing this eventually showed me that the number on the scale truly didn't reflect how I felt about my body at any given moment. This really did help me break that cycle.

Though very very rare, even now four years into maintenance there have been a couple of occurrences where I've had to cut weight quickly for competition, over ate for a few days after the competition as a result and have felt the urge to introduce an extreme deficit. Though I can get on the regular scale now without the panic, I still use the "few days of maintenance strategy" to avoid falling into the restriction cycle.


My strategy for overcoming this obviously wont work for everyone. I mostly wanted to post to send support and good vibes. I also wanted to let you know there is hope in finding balance balance with exercising, eating and living life.

Wow, I feel your pain. I am 5'5.5" and lost 108 lbs. I've regained 12 after 2 years of maintenance. Most of the gain (9 pounds) was this year. I didn't know what to do and was panicking about it. I finally accepted where I am and have forced myself to weigh once a week and to get back to a modest deficit. It took me a year to lose the last 20 lbs so I have to accept it may well take me 6 months or more to get rid of the recent gain.

BTW, I only dream of being at your weight! I started at 251 and ended at 143. I'm now 155. Two trips this year have cost me dearly but I had a great time and I have to accept that part of maintenance is going to be relosing some of the weight after holidays. Hang in there and don't allow yourself to over-restrict your eating because that will just cause the binge cycle to start. I would advise giving it a few days at a deficit then bite the bullet and weigh. I know for myself in the past I have had total regains when I refused to weigh. That may just be me but you aren't alone my friend. Keep us posted with how you are doing.