[wibblywobblywonder]

Hi everyone,

long time lurker here! Firstly, I lost about 68lbs..maintained that loss for a year.. then this xmas decided to take a "break", (in maintenance i am always very strict on myself, not allowing treats etc, i just find i lose control if i eat too much sugar...and boy did i realise i was right..), i think a few things contributed to this, my dad got ill, family was stressed, work was awful, i just got completely fed up! and i ate and ate and ate.. and now its 2 months later and ive got 28lbs of fat to show for my behaviour!!
regretful is not even the word.. in the past i always caught my lapses and turned them round in a very short period, now i look in the mirror and barely recognise the body reflected back at me. its pretty scary and im overwhelmed.Almost feel as if Ive been off plan so long that I've to reteach myself my good habits. I love healthy eating and enjoyed food more over my year of maintenance that I ever did before.Its not so much fried food/fatty food like pizza, burgers etc, its sugar, sweets cakes biscuits. They were my big downfall..

So to my original question.. I always found that when i had a lapse and ate badly or even went on vacation and gained a couple of lbs i lost them very easily once i got back on plan.. within a week or two max. Its like my body naturally gravitated back towards the weight it was used to. but now that i have 28lbs to lose im not sure if it will be the same,
for anyone that has had relapses or regained did you find it as hard/harder/easier to get the lbs off the second time??
I am definitely hoping that it won't take me as long to lose these lbs as it did the first time i lost them..

Thanks everyone!
xx

i am sorry, posted in wrong forum..mods please move to "living maintenance" if poss..

[katybug12]

I would say that you need to get back on plan immediately! I gained 20 pounds within one month during my freshman year at college (disgusting I know).

When I made an effort to lose it, I was able to lose 15 of the pounds within 3 weeks. Unfortunately, I gained it all back when returning to school plus 3 pounds.

So, now I'm making a real effort to lose it this time... the only catch is it is taking 3x as long. I think because it was such new weight gain, that it was able to fall off more quickly, but since I carried this weight for a year without trying to lose it, it became permanent.

I'm not sure that makes complete sense, but I believe that the longer the weight stays on the more it becomes your "real" weight. Hope I've helped!

[paperclippy]

Hi wibbly! Please feel free to join us on the Operation 5-10 thread (in this same forum). There are quite a few of us around here who have regained 5, 10, 15, 20, or more pounds, and are trying to re-lose them. Unfortunately small lapses seem to be pretty common in maintenance.

There are a couple things I noticed about your post:
1) You decided to "take a break." This is a big no-no! What I mean is that while it's fine to have a few days off plan for a vacation or some such, making the conscious decision to revert to your previous lifestyle for a time period with no end in sight is pretty much a guarantee that you will regain. After all, you gained in the first place because of your old lifestyle.

2) On the other hand, you DID catch your lapse before it became a total relapse. You regained 28lbs -- NOT the whole 68! While it may not seem like it at the moment, this is something to be proud of!

In any case, now back to your original question -- personally I have found it harder to re-lose than it was to lose the first time. HOWEVER! I regained largely due to developing hypothyroidism, rather than due to going off plan in my eating and exercise. So since I was already 75% "on plan" it was hard to push to be even more on plan. It may be easier for you. That said I don't know that it will necessarily go faster than the first time you lost them, it will probably be about the same.