What caused you to regain your weight after a successful diet?

[erebus]

...If you don't mind me asking!

Of course, many on here will be on their first and only weight loss regime, but what we have to say could be of 'use', I hope, to all fellow strugglers, helping us to recognise the pitfalls and what we would have done differently if we knew then what we know now!

For me,it was simply complacency, I think. That and (and this is a 'biggie') I now think I recognise that I was on a very restrictive diet; I knew the calorific value of everything and I recorded everything I ate; my diet, though quite healthy, was quite limited. I wouldn't dare ate an 'unknown' food, calorifically..... but also I think I was dieting for public approval not for me, primarily.

This time around I went from considering Idiot Proof to thinking that whilst Idiot undoubtedly successfully attacks the 'hows', it doesn't go far into the 'whys'. Also I quaked at the idea of putting double cream into sauces!

I want to be more Paul McKenna and Gillian Whatshername, more mindful of what I eat and how, not banning anything just pondering on the physical and emotional consequences of each food decision I make.

I want to make it clear I'm not angling for any gory details of family stuff or private stuff, here, just maybe that a stressful situation occurred and you weren't prepared for it? Or you reached your goal weight and went straight back to the diet that caused the weight gain- that sort of thing.

Thanks!

For me if I want to maintain under 9.5 stone I need to avoid having crisps with lunch and boost bars / magnum ice cream most days! Looking at it objectively now, for lunch I was having a 3 pack of sandwiches (with fattening fillings), crisps, banana, and yoghurt. Plus boost bar mid morning. Plus big portions of carbs at dinner. And of course eating baking - chocolate cake/ biscuits.

Not bingeing, just gradually back to the diet that caused the weight gain. Nothing gory or private, no comfort eating just if I want to be thin I need to eat less.

I managed to get down to my pre-pregnancy weight by the time DD was one. We then bought a car (hadn't had one for years so had been cycling, walking and using public transport), and I stopped breastfeeding, and went back on the pill, all in the space of a few weeks, but obviously didn't adjust my diet enough to take account of all that - I put on about a stone in six months.

I've gone from a job where I walked 40 minutes 5 days a week to get there to one where I drive to the door and sit for 7 hours a day.

That, combined with a new addiction to kitkats and a vending machine that I can see from my desk, has been disastrous.

Nuts, my total weight gain I attribute to nuts.

Greed. I did lighterlife and lost over two stone after my eldest was born. Armed with my new found knowledge and insight as to why I had been overweight for much of my adult life I kept the weight off for over a year.

And then I thought "sod it".

Why do you think you thought 'Sod it'? ( )-

Was it a feeling that you'd 'deprived' yourself long enough?

Sorry, curious!

I put on a bit of weight when I stopped dieting and went back to eating normal foods, but continued to ignore my hungry and full signals. Now I eat whatever I want and I'm losing weight

You mentioned in your OP that you're interested in Paul McKenna so if you fancy it we have a thread here

that was exactly it erebus

and we had decided to start trying for baby 2, which was the excuse I was looking for to eat what I wanted!

of course, on this fabulous new regime by the time DS popped out I was 3 stone heavier. I was a bit and also

He is now 1 and I'm still a stone over what I got down to when I first finished lighterlife but I'm getting there. However if DH says yes to baby 3 who knows what will happen

Also erebus wanted to add that my biggest weight gains have been during pregnancy and its aftermath, aside from pregnancy and breastfeeding weight has been between 9 stone 5 at lightest and 10 stone 5 at heaviest. In some ways that makes it easier for me to loose as it wasn't just my WOE that caused me to put on the weight.

two pregnancies, major surgery and being signed off work for 4 months contributed to me gaining the 3 stone i lost (plus another one for good measure). I ate loads of carbs/sweets, kept eating for the sake of it. A takeaway was a whole carton, plus rice, plus naan bread

I love food and its very easy to overeat

this diet is my last diet - need to change the way i view food as a reward

Well, 5 1/2 weeks into my new WOE, I'm doing well as far as the scales are concerned but I do find myself drifting towards the biscuit tin when I'm say a bit bored. That was always my downfall, spotting food then mindlessly putting it in my mouth!

Another 'bad' thing I do is ease up when I've hit a target! Today for instance. I have lost a stone in 5 1/2 weeks but I absolutely mustn't think- oh, that was easy, I can obviously eat a bit more as the weight falls off. No it won't stupid!

I have several mini targets- a hospital appointment in 5 weeks to have a minor op but of an 'intimate' nature (and a camping hol at 7 weeks with that one friend everyone has who can eat like a horse yet wears size 10); the Xmas Do at work (last 2 years I found myself desperately scratching around the innards of my wardrobe finding something suitable to wear that still fitted!). And the biggie- I turn 50 in 18 months time plus am peri-menopausal and aware that weight loss becomes much harder post menopause!

I am as clear as I can be that this diet has to be 'it'.

Good luck to all, as always!

I think the word is in your title "AFTER" - this is why we always put the weight back on because there's "the diet" & then AFTER "the diet".

Sadly we have to consider that we need to eat/ exercise this way for life!

Depressing but true

Was alcohol for me. Lots lots of weight before going to university, then through a combination of not being very happy, drinking loads of empty calories, eating crap the next day to get over the hangover, before repeating the cycle... had been a 20, got down to a 12, then went up to 16 at uni, then all the way up to a size 22 over the next few years. It was shit. But I felt that how I looked 'didn't matter' (which of course it did) so needed an 'awakening' to do the big loss agian. Now I'm a size '13' after 18 months dieting. I'm having to watch myself at the moment as I've upped my social life significantly and - uh oh - drinking a fair bit of alcohol again...

Two words. Cornish. Holiday.
Pasties, cider, cream teas, clotted cream ice cream, eating out, desserts, more cider......

I put on 4lb. Back on the diet again now though. I'd lost just over 3 stone when we went away.

Being a greedy bastard. Love my food. If I didn't exercise I'd be gargantuan. Am size 14 with a bmi of 26, which is way better than it was, so atm I'm happy to indulge as long as I balance it with being active.

MC after 4 yrs of trying and just about to start IVF - followed by 5mo chemo and being banned from ttc for a year - ds - two subsequent mc, both overshadowed with the dread of potentially having to have chemo again - just meant that I wasn't in the right mindset to eat just the right foods in the right quanties. I wasn't eating unhealthily and some people would lose weight on what I was eating - but it still allowed me to gradually add a lb here and there - and over 10 years that's not good. However, 6wks and over a stone in, going well so far.

Erm, the fact that 'diets' dont work? ANd eating far fewer calories /restricted food groups in an effort to lose weight cannot be maintained long term

No, I don't think 'diets' work, either.

I'm following Gillian Riley's advice which is about overcoming food addiction. So far it's working for me. I have no 'forbidden' foods, I am not 'bad' if I choose to eat something that isn't necessarily a particularly healthy option.

And I am eating less! Certainly not 'far fewer' cals (though I don't actually count them), just sufficiently less so my body uses its stored fat supply for fuel.

I have been on this regime for 5 1/2 weeks now, and I hope not to be one of those people who, with all due respect (as it must work for them), post 20-30 times a day on here, months into their diet. If I do that it will mean I am totally obsessed with food which wouldn't be sustainable for me.

Food has to occupy its rightful place in my life, no more, no less.

I did weight Watchers at least twice or three times and did Rosemary Conley four times with four different teachers over a period of about 18 years. Most times I lost a stone and then something happened, I went on holiday or left the class or Christmas arrived! Each time I put the same stone back on. Not extra but really back to the same weight almost spot on! I never really learned to eat normally!

I now feel my eating is impulsive eating and I am trying to change it with a course called New ID www.newid.info/ which is a Christian course for people with eating disorders. It has taken me years to admit I have an eating disorder and it is both limiting and liberating, limiting in that I can 'blame' everything on my eating problems (and eat) and liberating in that I can know this is not normal eating. BUT not everyone who is overweight has an eating disorder, I know. I am approximately 3 stone overweight and in the obese category with a BMI of about 32, down from 34 a few months ago. for me diets do not work as it is not the normal eating that is a problem it is all the bits in between.

Developing more of an active lifestyle, just walking a friend's dog, has helped.

erebus I know you know my story! I guess (IMHO) I do think thinking about what you eat that is not healthy (nourishing for your body)/why you overeat/under exercise and changing your behaviour permanently (without removing all treat-foods forever!) is the only way to really maintain a healthy weight without going back on the diet-not-so-merry-go-round! I am still working at it but I have found some people on mumsnet very supportive. Including you, erebus, so thank you.

Hiya italiangreyhound- just reread my post and I realise it reads like a 'dig' at people who find it useful to keep on track via posting about their progress- sorry! I didn't mean it like that at all! I guess I was trying to say, badly, that my hope is that I will eventually reach a place where food is just one of those things, like cleaning one's teeth!

My day's gone OK- I haven't really gone easy on my eating, though I justified it by doing a little recreational concrete mixing and pouring... I know how to have a good time don't I? So I ate normal meals (muesli for b/f, ham and peppers omlette for lunch and -ahem- hot dog for dinner! AND a glass of wine!).

My hope is that I can maintain a 1lb a week weight loss over the next 2-3 months as I head towards 11stone. But I won't if I go on having hotdogs and vino...!

erebus I did not read anything negative into anything you wrote at all!

Eventually I really want to move away from having a problem with food. My New ID course is very much about finding freedom from eating problems and that is what I want. But the process towards it is the journey I am currently on. So I want to do whatever supports me, and of course for others too. I don't always want to read about what other eat but I know I want to tell others when I had a good or bad day and that often means saying what I ate! So glad you had a good day today. For me that is the learning process but one day I hope I won't have to! Today was fab for me, normal, healthy food for 2 out of three meals (cereal, salad, rice, fish, lots of veg) and a rather less healthy pub lunch!

Yes, 1 pound a week would be good but the first thing for me is learning to eat normally, for me at least. All the best.

How do you find exercise, if you don't mind my asking?

Pies and beer

hth

No Jareth it doesn't- but boy I could sure manage some pie and beer at times!

Igh- actually... I don't exercise! There. I said it. I am not a complete blob, I will take the DCs on a 4 mile walk of a weekend (but not every!), or a 5 mile bike ride. I would walk a mile to do something rather than drive, DS2 and I often have a jog 'round the island' on Wii fit and so forth but I can't find a way of sustainably including exercise in my day. It used to be easy when I could, pre-DCs cycle to work (also helped that it was in Brisbane; nice weather and bike paths...). Now I could walk half an hour from the park'n'ride to work BUT I'd be cutting it fine, timewise; I don't want to arrive at work hot and sweaty (it's uphill) and I don't want to be obligated to walk in the pouring rain! there's also a financila matter: I pay someone to park in their drive, I'd also have to pay the P'n'R.

I don't mind swimming but, like so much exercise, it takes time- the drive to the pool, the getting changed in sometimes slightly grotty surroundings, that nasty cold-pool thing when you hop in, then reverse it all at the end! We do take the DCs swimming but it's in family-time so the pool's full of toddlers and you can't swim lengths whilst keeping an eye on the boys!

Yes, I could get up an hour earlier and go for a good walk or run but the word 'sustainable' creeps in here. I'm not a morning persona, and at nearly 50, that isn't going to chance; I barely get enough sleep anyway, after evening one to one time with DH, post DCs bedtimes (older one is creeping towards 9.30pm) and him snoring for England...

Anyway, I am skim re-reading Gillian, more for reinforcement, really. I am awaiting STG's assessment of the CD to see if that would help. I am gradually thinking more GR as in considering my choices based on their consequences, but I will keep weighing as I don't completely 'trust' myself yet! But I will restrict it to once a week.

Good luck with today!

Sorry, didn't proof read that one (knew I should have!). The only bit that doesn't make sense is about me knocking 50 and changing as opposed to 'chance' which is what I wrote!