What's Keeping You from reaching Your Goal Weight

emzoe13 wrote: »

Lhenderson923 wrote: »

I’ve started this journey before. I lost 70lbs using MFP in 2018 and maintained about a 60lb loss. I was still about 15lbs above my goal weight though, and whenever I tried to lose those last lbs I would always end up in a terrible restrictive cycle of eating. I probably started those last 15lbs 3-4 times in two years but always ended up back. I recently had my first child and I gained 50lbs during the pregnancy (while a lot of it was fat, my son was over 9lbs and I had a lot of extra fluid which added to that). Now I’m 15lbs from my prepregnancy weight and 25 from my goal weight. But this time, since I’m breastfeeding I’m more or less forced to loose weight in a healthy manner which is great for me! I know that if I fall back into my old habits close to goal, I will impact my milk supply. So my problem is definitely internal and always strikes when I’m close to my goal.

So relatable! What is it about those last few pounds that's so difficult? In the beginning of February I reached my goal (not in lbs because I don't use a scale but in terms of how my clothes fit), and immediately I lost control of my calorie intake and have gained a bit back. I really want to get back to my goal and maintain it, but I'm finding it difficult to motivate myself to control my cravings especially at night. I know a lot of it has to do with psychological factors of the pandemic and feeling a bit stuck and bored in my life, but it's almost like when I'm this close, my brain decides that I have a liiiitle bit of wiggle to treat myself, but when I do treat myself I end up going way overboard and sabotage myself because of my all-or-nothing attitude towards food. Not sure how to overcome this yet but working on it!

dragonwind67 wrote: »

Beautyofdreams wrote: »

I started my health and fitness journey for the second time on March 8, 2020. At the time realized I had 4 risk factors that resulted in a poor outcome if I contracted covid. Have lost 73 pounds with 15 more to go. My body is telling me that I need a diet break and I will eat at maintenance for a week. This is the 3rd break that I have taken in a year and they always freak me out. I worry that I will continue to eat at higher calories after the break is over. Am off exercise until I see the doctor as I have injured myself so losing condition the longer I sit.
My first serious diet was after I had my kidney/pancreas transplant in 2009. I had gained 75 pounds during 3 years of dialysis. Started walking and eating 1400 calories day. Eventually added 3 days of weights and went back to college in a different field. In 2010, I suffered a bowel obstruction and had surgery to remove part of the small intestine, scar tissue, repair leaking pancreas, left ovary and appendix. Restarted the diet and exercise and by 2011, had lost 93 pounds. Kept it off until I met my fiance in 2012. He was morbidly obese and enjoyed going to movies and dining out. Slowly gained most of the weight back over a 5 year period.
My biggest obstacle is myself. I tend to have depression and low self esteem and am a bit of a perfectionist. Sometimes it is difficult to accept that my body looks the way it does or that I am not the most athletic person or that I make mistakes, too. Am currently going to counseling to work through these issues and grief since fiance died in December from Covid complications.

I am in stage 3 B Kidney disease. I am lucky at this point. my blood pressure, and other items were already under good control. But I am so confused about a kidney diet. I want to follow what is best while loosing weight. I am at 273.4 but am also five foot one. MY biggest obstacle is confusion about what to do that is right.

If anyone had kidney advise message me I am totally at a loss here.

Speakeasy76 wrote: »

It's interesting you posted this, because I was cleaning out stuff and came across my old "diet and fitness scrapbooks" that I made in my early 20's (so about 20 years ago). I found something in them called the "Inner Diet Profile." It was an online test I took to determine what the biggest barriers were to me successfully losing and maintaining weight loss. Mind you, this was about 20 years ago that I took it. I'm at my 2nd goal weight now (after losing about 8 more pounds from my weight loss 8 years ago), and currently am trying to see if I could lose a few more for vanity reasons. If I don't, no big deal.

My biggest obstacles were my discomfort level (I had a "high degree" of discomfort with dieting/weight loss); inner control (Having doubts about my ability to succeed at weight control); and stress eating. Perfectionistic expectations was moderately high as well. WOW! I don't think I realized how accurate this was until I was able to be successful! This still held true even before my more recent (successful) attempt at losing about 8 pounds last year. For me to be successful, I had to do/think the following: Change my mindset to believing I was a person who could lose and maintain weight and control binges (inner control); be much more mindful of eating and if I was eating out of stress/anxiety, recognize it and fine other ways to cope; learning to accept that I might be hungry or even frustrated at times with losing weight loss and being okay with that (discomfort); and getting rid of the all-or-none thinking mentality I had with weight loss.

It'd be interesting to know if something like this is still around. Granted, when I took this I must've only semi-absorbed what it said at the time, because I don't even remember taking this test. I also clearly didn't learn too much from it at the time, but I guess it was my own experiences and self-awareness and acceptance that lead me to successful weight loss and maintenance.