Breaking the Cycle

[Crepusculum]

I'm hoping that this thread can become a support thread for those of us who want to break the cycle of losing and then gaining weight.

I've been doing this for decades now. I'm confident that once I get going I will lose weight again but I'm less confident that I won't gain it. In the last three years my weight has fluctuated by as much as 5 stone. I'm currently sat a couple of stone below my heaviest - but 1.5 st above where I was just three months ago.

There is a lot to unpick here!

Hi there Crepusculum! Yup yup am with you on this, just started a couple of posts myself this evening as just feeling sick of it. Have nearly 5 stone to lose, been there done it so many times and never managed to keep it off long term, always put back on ( the last big gain was from pregnancy, am 5 months post natal).

Really want to try again now Christmas is done, but truly have no clue what plan to try now! Are you following any plan at the mo?

I had most success with the Cambridge 1:2:1 diet, getting into ketosis and not feeling hungry was great! Can’t do it currently though due to breast feeding ( can’t do any low calorie/ restricted cal plan, so clueless as to what can actually do to start chipping away at the mountain)

Hi @Mumtumtastic

Congratulations on the birth of your baby!

My weight loss method of choice has become intermittent fasting combined with calorie counting (easing myself on over a period of a few days) and lots of veg - that can be with a VLCD too.

What went wrong this time was eating out a lot with DH and getting back into drinking far too much wine - then basically self sabotage/burying head in the sand when that made IF hard - too hard! Wine/eating out and DH are a bit of a combination - it is what we 'do' as a couple and that is an issue - we definitely need to find something else/get a better balance. He's happy to be overweight and drinking too much seemingly - I'm not.

I've found that daily weighing works for me (obviously no good if bothered by normal fluctuations - I have no expectation of uniform loss) so I'm vowing to do that now whether actively trying to lose or not. I've bought a calendar just for that purpose - got all the gadgets but there is something about writing it down and seeing it all at a glance.

Today I've cut the wine out. Again. I can't really blame it on that though - I've been doing this long enough to know that isn't really the problem (as it wasn't an issue when I was losing weight in my twenties for example - before DH but I was yo yoing then too!). I also calorie counted and delayed eating for a bit today. In a few days I hope to find myself on weight loss calories (or even a VLCD) and fasting until 4 pm.

I've got a lot more to say on this topic but also conscious that what I need to focus on now is 'easing' on each day - start the process of getting this 1.5 st off again (I'll still be overweight once that has gone but as I wasn't carrying it so recently I know what a big difference it has made!).

Once I'm settled on that then I can really start the work of how I'm going to stop this happening again. I know I need to add more into my life and work round what barriers I perceive there to be.

I lost weight when I was breastfeeding (DC and teens now so this was a while ago!) on weight watchers - at the time it was the old 'discovery' points and I think I got an extra 6 (possibly 10) for breastfeeding which made a big difference to how easy I found the diet. I remember losing weight well on it and there being no issues with my supply.

When I was losing weight last time I put my goal weight into MFP as my current weight and set it to maintain - that worked as a maximum for months on end (would cycle between VLCD/LCD but always aim to keep this as my max) until...well, I stopped bothering and slipped into old habits again.

Yesterday I decided to change that tactic a bit and set it to my current weight and maintain. I went over yesterday (this was fine as the only plan was to record and be aware - and it still represented cutting back mainly due to the lack of wine), the plan today is to be under (even if it is just 1 calorie). I'm not surprised at all to report that my weight this morning went down 1.8 lbs despite being over calories - just shows what my body had got used to these last few weeks!

Hi Crepusculum, thank you I am so happy with baby! Just need to get myself strong again post-partum, am trying to be kind to myself as doing anything too restrictive isn’t recommended ( and near impossible this tired!) but am going to try and focus on better nutrition I think, reduce unhealthy snacks, especially in the evening and try and do time restricted eating overnight ie no food after dinner and leave breakfast til late

I hope you’ve had a good day, you’ve got great awareness of the areas you’d like to focus on. Is there something that would help with motivation? I’m going to have a good think over next couple of days what I think would help motivate me

Thanks @Mumtumtastic!

I've had a good day - so far. Took one of the DC out to a museum today and was quite happy to just have a coffee whilst they had lunch. Didn't get home until 3.30 pm and ate then - so definitely moved that on a notch. Funny thing is I didn't even think about eating/I wasn't hungry at all until I came through the door.

Keeping busy/mind focused on something else definitely makes everything much easier. I'm finding my motivation grows with each day - I just feel better with each small positive step and that helps. Weight is going down (just stopping drinking and the excess calories so I know it is 'just' water weight but I still feel better).

I'm not having to use willpower not to reach for the wine tonight - I've got zero interest in having any so that will make it all much easier now too. I'm feeling pretty contented just feeling better and knowing I've stopped continuing to gain weight.

How was your day?