Did you gain the weight back after a crash diet

[koal]

I'm currently on a very low calorie diet and losing weight for the first time in a long time. I feel like I've tried every diet and nothing has ever worked before. I also go to the gym.

I've been reading all these things saying when I go back to eating normal I will gain the weight back and more. Obviously I'm not going to go back to eating bad foods frequently, it will be a healthy diet but not as low in calories and I'll still go to the gym.

Has anyone done a crash diet and kept the weight off?

I gained about half back, but didn't get as heavy, still depressing! This was a very low calorie 1200 per day and I lost 5kg over around 2 months.

I had the most consistent success with noom, but you need to spend ALOT of time and headspace on it, but I found it very very helpful to address why I was eating and when.

Our NDN lost over 5 stone at the beginning of the year doing the 1:1 diet. Took years off him. He was out mowing the lawn yesterday and he's put that 5 stone back on plus a good few others by the look of it.

Only way to diet is really sensibly and at a level you can sustain - it's not a diet, it's a forever way of eating. I've yo-yoed for decades but am now managing well doing 16:8. It stops me eating during the evening which is my downfall.

The only time I did a restricted diet with meal replacements twice a day and a sensible meal in the evening I lost 1 1/12 stone which I put back on as soon as I started eating 'normally' again. There's a reason that lifestyle changes are promoted as the best way to lose weight and keep it off. Crash dieting doesn't work long term.

Sadly both times I lost weight rapidly I put it straight back on, plus a good deal more.

I'm having more success currently. It's very slow progress which can feel frustrating. Lots of plateaus. BUT I feel that my mindset is altered and to sound like a tired cliché, it's a permanent lifestyle change.

Yupp, a good few times. Yoyo yoyo for 25 years. Plump, thin, plump, thin, plump, thin ad infinitum. Until my last diet just didn't work. The wind blew and I was stuck plump.

Until I changed approach.

If I were you I'd restrict only every second day. Don't let your metabolism get used to 1209 per day

Yep, I put it back on and more.

It wasn’t a v low calorie diet, just a normal restricted one.

As far as I understand it, the people who succeed in keeping weight off have a fundamental change in lifestyle.

So I’m not sure that following a VLC diet means you must put the weight back on, but I think you will need to plan an interim period where you adopt the lifestyle you think you can sustain long term in a structured way, before you freestyle it

Done WW and Sw few to Ed each time losing 5-8 stone as soon as stop following it I end up heavier than when I started

I lost 35lb in 3 months early last year. I was determined to keep the weight off after that so I did change my eating habits. I’ve since lost another 15lb over 12 months.

I don’t feel any need to go back to eating how I did. I like being a healthy weight and that clothes fit. I like having a healthy blood pressure and no indigestion and no chub rub.

I still eat plenty but I eat sensible portion sizes and small infrequent snacks, and I think about what I eat. I walk 3 miles a day and often do another form of exercise too.

So I’d say it is possible to keep
the weight off but you can’t go back to old bad habits.

Also, for months I continued logging what I ate on MyFitnessPal so that I got a good understanding of what I can eat in a day without gaining weight. I don’t do that any more but I do weigh myself regularly.

Everyone that I know who has lost large amounts of weight , like 6/7 stone have all put it back on nd more sadly. if I ever get down to a weight I am happy with I think it's going to be a complete lifestyle change to keep up with exercise etc to keep it off.

The people I have known who have lost weight in the long term have made long lasting habits, one has gone from no exercise to being a runner, others have made smaller changes but significant ones, like eating out once every few months instead of having lots of meals out and giving up alcohol in the week when they previously they would drink mid week. Or cutting up a morning pastry and taking a lunch time walk

Going to the gym and getting more muscle will help as you will burn more calories, but I would look at what you used to do and decide what you can change going forward.

I was a person who used to do 5k steps a day now I’m a person who does 15k. I was a person who didn’t have time to exercise, now I make time to do my weights. I was a person who would drink at the weekends and now I’m a person who keeps alcohol and the junk food I would eat with it, to special occasions.

Usually the reason the weight goes back on, is because the dieters revert back to their old eating habits.

With most VLCD, they have a re feed. Whereby, you slowly increase the calories to maintain. Most don't follow this and just go back to eating food, that they weren't allowed to eat before.

It's all about discipline and willpower. Some people once they lose weight, diet for life. Others will diet on and off. Whereas, others just go back to old habits and yo yo throughout their life.

The issue isn't the diet that was followed, to lose the weight. It's more the fact that the dieter didn't change their habits long term!!

I keep it off by not going back to my old ways - I don't eat carbs

as soon as I start eating them again my weight creeps back up, so dh and I have decided just to mainly cut them out all the time. He's lost a stone in 2 months and I've got half a stone off which is all I had to lose.

We eat lots of veg and protein and fruit and I don't eat dairy (can't) but I have oat milk and goats cheese

So what meals do you eat?

Pretty much the same as we did before

Roast chicken or venison with lots of green veg, braised red cabbage etx

Lots of salads in the summer

Burgers or chicken satay with salad, goats cheese

Low carb pizza bases with bolognaise

Cured meats, feta, sun dried tomatoes (lunch)

Roast ham with eggs and parsnip chips

Bacon, egg, sausage,

Poached eggs, avocado and bacon

Chicken curry with cauliflower rice

Chinese chicken thighs with salad

Anything really with meat and veg! I get nice white goats cheese from Tesco that's like cheddar and pecorino Parmesan (sheep)

We eat way less than we used to as your body gets used to it.

For breakfast I have berries and yoghurt or just a cup of tea if I'm heading to work.

Stopping the cycle of quick weight loss and regaining is the first step in aiding your metabolism's recovery if you've been crash dieting for years. Put down the low-calorie smoothies, stop searching for ways to drop 10 pounds in two weeks, and choose to cooperate rather than compete with your body.

95% of people will gain the weight back however it was lost.

Yes most do regain lost weight. You have to change your habits permanently.

Statistically, the vast majority of people fail to keep weight off that they've lost, even on non-crash diets.

Because it's often seen as a quick fix, for an event or because of a health scare. It lasts for a few months. People get fed up and then go back to eating as they did previously. This is repeated over years and years!!

Because it's often seen as a quick fix, for an event or because of a health scare.

I don't think that's always why. I think it's just because it is inherently very, very hard to fight your body's and your mind's inclination to eat until full and eat what you like eating. People can call diets 'lifestyle changes' and say they are long-term as much as they like, but changing what you call it doesn't make it any easier to stick to. The amount of time it takes to fail at a crash diet and a lifestyle change is probably pretty similar for most people.

I did lighter life four years ago and lost almost 5 stone in 5 months.
Have put four stone back on.

I've heard loads of stories like that. Not just lighterlife but from those who have done VLCD too.

Did you just go back to your old habits?

Changed some habits.
Better than I was.
Probably kept a lot of the weight off for about two years then bad habits crept back in.
My oh very sporty but has been buying more sweet treats, crisps recently etc so I get tempted too.
It needs to not be in the house and I have a lot better control.

What diet were / are you following?