I've been chatting to some friends of mine over the course of the summer about their own weight loss progress (or not).
I thought I'd pop this question to y'all: why do some people just throw in the towel after losing some weight and then just eat and eat and eat for days/weeks/or months again before they get "back on the wagon" ?
I ask because a friend of mine has problems losing weight, but she would tell me how consciously, she knew she needed to stop eating junk but felt she was trapped and wasn't ready to start again, even though she didn't want to keep gaining weight. In a nutshell, she felt stuck.
i did this once. i guess i didnt intend to give up and then gain it all back and stuff my face. we were moving and i was just eating whatever was quick, fast food. and then..i dont know. old habits creep back in. its sort of like an ex smoker thinking they can have one cigarette, and then you're up to 2 packs a day before you know it. i think this is mostly why diets fail. this time around, when i eat like crap for a few days i get back on the wagon. before, once i gained back a few lbs id feel defeated and just give up.
Eating feels good. Carbs are a mood lifter/enhancer. After months of deprivation and being "good", food is a natural reward for your efforts. Unfortunately, just a few days of eating high carb, low nutrition foods is enough to downward spiral into total carb cravings and compulsive eating.
It takes months to break out of a bad habit/cycle. It takes so little to slip back in.
I truly believe it is physiological as well as emotional. A very dangerous combination!
I've done this before. Honestly, I would lose some weight and feel like I still looked basically the same. Meanwhile I'd hit a plateau so I was a little irritated by then and just gave in to eating whatever I wanted. Another time I did it, it was almost the same thing... except I had lost a bit more weight than the previous time, but got fed up with how difficult it was to stay on track. I would see thin people eating french fries and think - I should be able to eat that too, so I did. Unfortunately each time put me right back where I started. NOT THIS TIME THOUGH!!! I am in it to win it! :P
Perhaps she's feeling failure in another part of her life. If something triggers a sense that success isn't obtainable, it can spread into other areas of life. Another "all or nothing" type of mentality.
why do some people just throw in the towel after losing some weight and then just eat and eat and eat for days/weeks/or months again before they get "back on the wagon" ?
Sometimes it can be depression, listening to negative self-talk, perfectionism, fear, too much effort, wanting to feel the anesthisizing of the food for a coping mechanism, lack of support around you, people in your life not wanting you to change, or it feeling to risky and then opt to stay in your comfort zone. I think the biggest one is not addressing the real reasons you are overweight. For most of us, it does not have anything to do with loving food. The excess is on for a purpose. It is up to us to figure out why...losing the weight can be a temporary band-aid to the problem while not actually addressing the problem. There are many reasons or excuses depending on the person, highly individual.
Last edited by better health3; 08-21-2009 at 11:32 PM.
Eating feels good. Carbs are a mood lifter/enhancer. After months of deprivation and being "good", food is a natural reward for your efforts. Unfortunately, just a few days of eating high carb, low nutrition foods is enough to downward spiral into total carb cravings and compulsive eating.
It takes months to break out of a bad habit/cycle. It takes so little to slip back in.
I truly believe it is physiological as well as emotional. A very dangerous combination!
I agree with this, 100%. A few days of "off", which isn't necessarily going to do much to change your weight, can SO EASILY trigger cravings and a spiral that is hard to break out of. And then, the more you give into those cravings, the more you keep having them.
Think back to the first week you were on plan - that week was likely harder than, say, the 10th on plan week in a row. That's because in that 10th week, you're not fighting the same cravings - you don't give into them, so they dissipate. But if you get sucked back in, you have to break the craving cycle all over again.
Sometimes it can be depression, listening to negative self-talk, perfectionism, fear, too much effort, wanting to feel the anesthisizing of the food for a coping mechanism, lack of support around you, people in your life not wanting you to change, or it feeling to risky and then opt to stay in your comfort zone. I think the biggest one is not addressing the real reasons you are overweight. For most of us, it does not have anything to do with loving food. The excess is on for a purpose. It is up to us to figure out why...losing the weight can be a temporary band-aid to the problem while not actually addressing the problem. There are many reasons or excuses depending on the person, highly individual.
good answers. I think for me I still haven't figured out the true reasons that hold me back, if it's simply staying in my comfort zone or life. I used to blame it on family stress, relationship stress...but now I'm thinking I was just using them as excuses.
for me it like madalinn and countingdown said: I give in for a day or so the craving come with a venegeance. Onec I have given in it is easier for me to justify eating them by saying "it's jsut one day or weekend" followed by "well i messed up the past three days, i will get back on track at the beginning of the week" and so on. Once I give in it is even harder to get back because my cravings are so intense.
1000% ditto to what Counting Down and Mandalinn said. You have a few "off" days, you're once again craving those carbs, you get sucked back in and then you have to start that cycle all over again of weaning yourself off of them. And it's hard. And that's when lots of folks say to themselves, "aw screw this. It's too hard. What's the point? How am I ever going to do this?. And they give up.
Unless you've made an ironclad commitment to "do this" and are thoroughly determined to, you've left yourself an out.
I just got into reading the thin commandments (based on recommendations here). While I dislike his diet portion of the book, the 'commandments' really hit home. He focuses and changing behavior patterns based on our own history with food.
I also believe that people don't do things we don't get a benefit from. Being fat does has its benefits and sometimes we aren't ready to let go of them.
For me it was not being the center of attention, being taken seriously at work, the physical feeling of zoning out. Once I started losing these benefits, it was almost like my body would scamble to get them back.
You can't just leave yourself bare with no strategies to deal with life. You set yourself up for failure by losing weight cold turkey, so to speak.
A person needs to prepare to deal with life without food, without extra weight. I'm not surei need to figure it all out before I started, but I do recognize that I gained weight and stayed fat for a reason and that I can't ignore that while getting rid of the weight.
Second, third and fourth the craving spiral - with one other thought. I find a twisted form of security in having a full tummy - might be a warped "lizard brain" response, but the sensation of fullness equals comfort and safety in my head. Learning to stop and learning to retrain that desire has been a major hurdle for me.
I agree with all the craving comments. Before (diets past) I would always allow myself little bits of "bad" foods thinking I needed to or I'd miss them to much and fail by wanting them so much. Once I figured out that, that was what was making me fail (the cravings having those little bits of bad food were causing) it got sooooooo much easier to keep it up.
Some people are all or nothing type people and some can have little bits here and there and be fine. It's all about finding out what type of person you are and sticking to it. If I leave the door open on bad foods even just a crack it always seems to just open up wide and suck me in. Then I think "oh well, I'll start again next week" but next week come and I think the same thing.
I'm with all the above who said it's a brain chemistry thing. Human emotions are powerful. Sure, stress and depression can trigger a binge, but the person's own feelings are what prolong the binge state. I'm with the above poster who said that carbs make us feel good. It's like getting high with drugs - same concept, only with food. I have found that it takes an iron will and determination to overcome those triggers and brain chemistry. Too bad it took me a decade to figure that one out.
Some food to some people is like heroin to other people. There has been disagreement before on this subject, but I stand firm that sugar, (specifically corn syrup) and other food additives are more addictive than meth.
why give up and eat and eat.....?
