Hey there. Ive been a member for a while but my last post was in 2012!
I stopped using the forum so much and then served a mission for my church so I didnt have access but during that time I went from 170 lbs back up to 190 then down to 160 and I was SO Happy!! Honestly i dont know how i did it either. my body just "changed". after some weight gain (arghh) I bounced between 170 and 175 for the darnest time. Well lately Ive become depressed and spiraled into binge eating (I used to weigh 260 due to this. and I WONT get there again.)
So here I am once again at 180 sometimes 185...wishing for the days of 160 adn below. My goal is 140s but we will see where I can go.

Ive started running and Im doing decent but no matter how I run my weight hasnt shifted. And Ive realized just how bad my binge eating has been so now Im counting calories and really keeping an eye on things. Major Depression still hits but I will NOT let it affect my weight and send me down that spiral.

So here is to another try. Second chances and all that. We all need them. All the time.

And a question. Does anyone have advice for when you gain weight back is it harder to lose? The same? Easier? What has worked for you? Is running good? I havent done it before but I love it. Ive heard its not that great for weightloss though)

Thanks guys.

Well, Hello Hilarious!

I too just returned from a year long hiatus. I am actually the heaviest I have ever been in my entire life. The harsh winter and bout of severe pneumonia have contributed to it.

We are similar in that I also have Major Depressive Disorder and binge eating.

My experience with yo-yoing with my weight is this: I went down to 150 my junior year of college. No idea why. I didn't actively change anything, but I naturally started eating better because I moved in with someone who liked to cook healthy meals. I gained it all back since then. I have been trying to get back down to 155, but it is much harder this time. I don't know if it is because I regained, and there are also many other factors (couldn't work out, depression, binge eating) that were not active at that time of my life.

Right now, I am also counting calories. I am not even really restricting anything yet, just watching to see what I eat. I have been recording my food faithfully for 5 days now. The challenge is to stick with it.

I don't run because I am afraid it would be too hard on my body, but I had a friend who lost a lot of weight from running.

Anyway, now that I blabbed on about myself, I want to say that I am so glad to see you here and I wish you all the best!!

Welcome back! I don't believe in second chances - I believe in as many chances as it takes

I have no insight as to whether losing re-gained weight is any more difficult, but I would think it gives you a bit of an advantage - after all, you've done it before, so you know how to do it and you know you CAN do it!

I think running is, arguably, one of the best ways to get in shape and lose weight. At 6MPH, a 170-pound person can burn an estimated 300-350 calories running for 30 minutes. Are you using anything to track your runs? If you have a smartphone, an app like MapMyRun or RunKeeper can track distance, time and speed, and you can better estimate your calories burned. Is it possible you're eating more than you're burning and canceling any calorie deficit you've created? Maybe start tracking your food with MyFitnessPal (or any other food tracking app/website) to see how much you're eating and burning, to see if you're overeating what you're burning?

Are you following any specific plan, besides running? What did you do last time to lose the weight?

I think it's important to see your weight loss as a journey. If you go down a different path for a while which leads you to a previous point on your main road, it's just important to keep moving forward. It's not like you've failed and you have to give yourself a second chance, you're continually growing as a person and life happens. Weight loss can be seen as this win/fail concept, it just isn't the case. We're all walking our own path and sometimes we can get a little sidetracked but that's ok. There will always be a road to walk, it's never destroyed.

I think you've got a great attitude about not letting depression lead you back to the beginning of your journey, if you keep looking towards the finish line then you'll be absolutely fine. Depression is an awful thing, but I really do believe from experience that healthy living can help with keeping depression at bay immensely. It's only when I began to start leading a more healthy life that I felt my own depression wane.

To answer your question - I'm currently in a period of my weight loss journey where I've gained back weight that I had previously lost. It was tough realising that I had backtracked, but once I started to really focus and put some serious work into weight loss again the weight came off as normal. I think the hardest part about regaining is the mental obstacles that one can face. Dealing with re-gaining is hard, but once you accept what has happened has happened you can start to look forward and progress once more. It took me a while to stop beating myself up over it, but now I know what I have to do and I'm going to do it until I've reached my goal! You can too