[Grateful4Health]

Originally Posted by simplchaos

I am a bit curious, what causes people to gain their weight back? I can't imagine losing the 80-100 pounds I hope to lose and then making a CHOICE to allow the weight to creep back on. Are there triggers or warning signs that this is going to happen? Is it simply a persons personality? Are we all in danger of going there? I'd like to be prepared if I can. I'm on day 18 and not even thinking about cheating. Does that eventually change and then one thing leads to another? I'm sad to read so many people put in the effort and money to get healthy and then they have to start over. I don't want that to be me.

Hi simplchaos happy to see you trucking along here. I can tell you are really serious about making a change, by asking such serious questions, so that in an of itself is a great quality for ongoing success.

You already got a lot of good answers from people that have been successful here.

For me, when I started maintenance I spent several hours forcing myself to read through several of the maintenance threads. I say "forced" because after a while I started to see the same themes over and over from lots of different people over the years - the same challenges, the same questions. First, it made me feel more at ease and "normal" about the same things I was questioning and challenged by. Second, it helped me see the common mistakes that people were catching for themselves - and again, helped me feel a little better about making the same mistakes, and also hopefully helping me to avoid some of them. I like facts, so reading so many "case stories" helped me start to see patterns. Also there is a website called "Refuse to Regain" that they mentioned several times on the threads, and that website has helped me tremendously during maintenance so far.

The other thing I will mention for me personally, and my weight loss (and gains) issues is that in addition to the medical logistics and food and diet (which included previously undianognosed thyroid and hormone issues), I also needed to
- make life decisions about socializing and what I did and didn't want to to in social situations,
- I needed to work through some things in my past (traumas) that has caused some patterns of anxious/compulsive/addictive behaviors,
- I needed to change how I dealt with stress, and change my lifestyle so there wasn't so much stress.
- I personally was also using work and business as an avoidance mechanism, and then eating to "keep going", so I had to change that.
- I needed to become OK with relying more on social support and friends and people around me, and not just "going it alone" to the extent that I would cause myself harm by treating my health poorly.

It is very different for all of us, there are common themes, but we each have our own matrix to sort through, change, and succeed.

[Briael]

Originally Posted by hysteria_625

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/p...-lbs/25508667/

Good for him! Over 100 pounds in 3 months! Sure sounds like he did a program very similar to IP. I didn't track down the People magazine article but the USAT one says 'about' 1,000 calories per day, and his maintanence program sounds pretty healthy (although I like animal products and think they can be incorporated into a healthy woe)

This is pretty much crash dieting, regardless of how he did it. I would put money on a fair whack of that loss coming from lean muscle and tissue mass, too.

Losing 30lbs a month in the first month is probable. As he got closer to a moderately lean body fat percentage this number would dwindle and he wouldn't get those results. 105lbs over 12 weeks = average of 8.75lbs a week. Not sustainable in any healthy way.

Be careful of articles like this where no analysis is done on his body composition and there is no confirmation of what diet protocol/principles he used.

Originally Posted by Destony

Is it just me, or does anyone else really get "out of whack" over the weekends? I'm in the midst of week 8- I don't mean going out and being social and all that, just more that the weekends seem to throw me completely out of routine and I know it's not a big deal, but making sure that I eat on time, spacing everything and all that. During the week, I am up at 0430 and go to sleep somewhere between 8&9 in the evening (though it's usually 10 when I finally get up and go in to bed) so I know my 4-6 hour spacing, but on the weekends, I usually "sleep in" and get up around 730-bed is still about the same time, but it seems like I don't get hungry enough in time to eat at intervals that I am supposed to. I almost feel as though I am overeating...(a ramble I know, but just wondering if anyone else experiences this and do they have any "tricks of the trade" they can share?
As always- thanks for the support and inspiration that you all provide!

Yes, my hours change around a lot at weekends, too. Try using this as your opportunity for a restricted bar. Chop it into treat size portions and make sure you pop one every hour.

It's less important that you eat to a timetable than it is to get your food allowance in. Don't forget that you are not on anabolic metabolism (food being broken down by time), you are on catabolic metabolism where your body is burning fat when it doesn't have bio-available foods. The two aren't really comparable so the principles of spacing your meals out is not as relevant as you might think. After all, assuming you sleep for longer on a Friday and Saturday night, your body still needs fuel and you aren't eating every 4-5 hours then, are you? Ketosis has many advantages for people with irregular eating patterns.

[Destony]

CenTXChkand Grateful4Health thank you for responding. It is so helpful to know that it's not just me.

[hysteria_625]

Thanks Amanda - it crossed my mind too he may have had WL surgery? Not sure if almost 9#s per week after that is healthy or not...?

[Grateful4Health]

Amanda you just rock. I love reading what you write. It’s so helpful.

[strugglingover40]

Today is my first day of restart and it was kind of funny I have not craved anything nor felt very hungry I hope tomorrow is the same. I need to stay motivated and hopefully help someone else stay motivated also

[Destony]

Briael thank you so much for the idea of making a bar into snack size! What a great idea. I'm definitely trying that this weekend! You all rock!! I love the things I am learning on these forums. Still a long way to go, and I don't want to turn in to my "typical dieting self" when I give up for one reason or another, this is really helping to keep me in check!!