[itsjustpeachy]

Hi all!

I decided to join this forum to look for support and to help hold myself accountable during my weight loss.

Here's my background: I used to weigh a little over 200 pounds and managed to loose 50 lbs over the course of a year. After I hit the low 150s, I experienced some serious plateauing where no matter what I did, my weight stayed the same. I let this plateau drive me a little crazy, and I went through extreme efforts to change this but to no success (extremely strict diets with no wiggle room and at one point I was exercising at least once or twice a day, 7 days a week). Something that l think many dieters have experienced is that extreme dieting is NOT maintainable in the long run, and after 6 months in my self-created plateau purgatory I slowly but surely fell off the wagon.

Fast forward two years later and, after a particularly stressful final year of college and poor eating habits, I managed to regain 25 pounds of the weight I lost. That's half of all my sweat and hard work and it's been very disheartened.

I've lost about 5 pounds over the last couple weeks by being more mindful of my portion sizes. I'm now 170.5 and my goal weight is 125 so I still have 50 pounds to lose. As someone who used to be very strict in their dieting, I'm realizing that absolute deprivation isn't healthy for my mental state !! I want to take a more moderate, maintainable approach this time and build healthy habits I can continue for the rest of my life.

I'm looking to connect with people who have battled with regaining weight, people who have tips for overcoming plateaus without going nuts, and just people who have experience in or are just starting their weight loss journeys.

Thanks!

[Twohundred2lose]

Hi! First of all let me say, YOU GOT THIS! That being said, the struggle is real! I have been a regainer for years now. I go up and down more than a rollercoaster. I got smacked with a dose of reality when I saw 365 on the scale today. So I'm trying, yet again. I'm almost 20 weeks pregnant so I can not go as full force as I wish, but I know even small changes in my diet and being more active will help, and make me feel better. I know it really sucks to undo all the hard work we did before, but just think of this as an opportunity to do even better this time.

I'm honestly not sure how to get past a plateau. I've heard of completely changing up your diet and exercise routine to "shock" your body into losing weight. Maybe try that if you get stuck again! I'm here for you buddy

[Jacqui_D]

Itsjustpeachy! This is what it's all about: "I want to take a more moderate, maintainable approach this time and build healthy habits I can continue for the rest of my life." Good for you! And now you know what pitfalls to look out for! You can do this! Good luck!

[itsjustpeachy]

Thank you Twohundred2lose! I've struggled with yo-yoing in weight before but I'd never lost more than 15 pounds at a time so I guess it thought that last time was it for me. SIGH. I love what you said about an opportunity to do better this time- hopefully we can use what we learned in the past to make our roads a little easier!

I really admire that you're making an effort to make healthier choices during your pregnancy. That is really awesome While I wouldn't wish regaining on anyone, it's nice to hear that many have similar struggles.

Thanks for the reply, Jacqui_D! It's nice to think of my previous attempts as tools that can help me now instead of failures. Thanks for the well wishes!