my old habits all of a sudden started kicking back in FULL FORCE. i was about 1lb away from my 145lb goal but the next day i binged on sweets. this was halloween. from then on, i've been binging about 2-3 days out the week.i dont know whats up but i've been having a serious craving for sweets everyday. i even dream about cookies and cake... SERIOUSLY!i sit down,give into temptation,eat them(thousands of calories worth) then im sickly satisfied yet feeling guilty afterward. i seem to cant stay on plan longer than 3 days now when before it was a breeze to everyday. im sure i probably gained between 5-10lbs if not more from the last couple of weeks ..now instead of being 1lbs away, im a couple months away. did any of you maintainers have a hard time loosing the last couple of pounds?did any old habits kick back in within your reaching distance of your goal? if so how did you all get pass the tough hump? please tell me im not the only one who is/has gone through this phase.im scared i wont be able to handle "maintenance".any advice, support or words of motivation is appreciated!

I've gone through what you're experiencing not before hitting goal, but during maintenance.

There is only one way to get back into the good eating groove and that's to cold turkey the sweets. There is no other way around it. You've got to be 1000% firm with the stuff and completely ban it. Completely and totally, no ifs ands or buts. You may have some uncomfortable moments as your cravings are all high again from letting the evil stuff re-enter your life. You will just have to push through it. There's no other way around it.

Plan the heck out of your day. Know ahead of time exactly what's going in your mouth for each meal and snack. Don't give yourself permission to veer off.

Make a vow, a pledge, a promise, a something that you will not touch the sugar/sweets.

Push yourself. Don't tell yourself just one bite, just this time. Ban it.

Within a week of staying strictly on plan those horrible sugar cravings will diminish. The old bad habits will die down and the newer good habits will resurface. Bad eating begets more bad eating, but thankfully the same is true for good eating.

Be real firm with yourself. Get back to that *breeze* spot.

What you're going through has happened to me several times during maintenance and it's ALWAYS after having some sugar based food. I've always been able to put a halt to it and get back to the good eating habits and so will you.

Congratulations on your weight loss.

on your weight loss! I do what you've just done on a small scale every week. I get within 2-3 lbs. of goal and then binge eat one night and go back up a couple of lbs.

I do clamp down after the one night. My thing is carbs now - crackers or chips specifically. I don't keep any in the house but my DH keeps bringing them home and I can't stay away.

I have already revised my goal weight upward once. I may have to do it again and accept that my body refuses to go down to 130.

Dagmar

Like rockinrobin, I went through the same thing not during weight loss, but during maintenance. Unlike her, what worked for me was INCLUDING sweets in my diet every day with moderation. Funny how we're all different. So what I suggest is: first, take a deep breath. You haven't regained all the weight you lost, and you won't do that overnight. Second, analyze what kind of eater/dieter you are. Some people realize that they really need to stay away from trigger foods to avoid binges. Others, like me, realize exactly the opposite: if I DON'T allow myself to eat whatever I want (and please notice that I mean WHATEVER I want, but not AS MUCH AS I WANT of it), then I'll binge. My diet was extremely restrictive, and while I could happily do that for 6 months when I was losing, I later realized that the deprivation had cost me a lot. 3 years after I reached my goal I developed a binge-eating disorder. I didn't gain much because I was always in that binge/diet cycle, so I managed to lose most of what I'd gained. But I got to a point where I just HAD to get out of that cycle, and the only way for ME to do that was to quit trying to lose. So I started eating at maintenance level and trying to ignore the weight I'd gained. What happened after months was that the binging had stopped and my weight had stabilized. I'm still not back at my goal, but I've kept 2/3 of the weight I lost for 14 years and now I'm finally working on losing again, BUT without extreme deprivation.

So, like I said in the beginning, I think you have to analyze what exactly makes YOU binge. And then try to develop a plan of action.

Whatever you do, please know that there IS a solution.

There's a great book called The End of Overeating: Taking control of the American appetite. There is so much science that proves that the fat/sugar/salt loading in most foods causes a literal, chemical change in our brains. Rats will literally cross over painful hot coals to get at fat/sugar/salt when they're addicted. Guess what? The food industry knows this and uses it to sell us all kinds of CRAP and TOXINS we don't need (and that are literally killing us). You really do have to go cold turkey for a while, at least until your cravings go away and you're not totally thrown for a loop by the smell of a bag of m&m's. Now that I'm in that place, I incorporate 1 smmmalllll square (.375oz) of 70% chocolate into my day, every day. It's not very sweet, but to my tastebuds, it's very rich and delicious. It's enough to feel like I'm having a treat, but not enough to set off a binge.

Find what works for you, and do it fast! You are in control of this, it is not in control of you (even if it feels like it).

Same boat as you, Brit. I had a massive binge this weekend and have been teetering on the edge all last week. We can fix this. The answer is not more sweets. A couple days of discomfort will be worth not feeling guilty and crappy as we do after binging.

We all know how to lose weight. Let's do it. I'm saying this just as much for myself as for you...

If there is junk food in my house, I will eat it. It's that simple.

If there's anything I've learned, it's that I can't trust myself with junk food. I can try to tell myself I've gotten better, but the truth is, if it's there, I really can't resist.

So there's only one real answer for me: don't have the darn stuff in the house in the first place!

If there's no pie in the fridge, I won't eat two slices because it tastes good. If there's no bags of candy, I won't snack on Tootsie rolls.

Yes it would be grand if I could resist temptation and NOT overeat on junk food when it's there, but I can't, and I've accepted this, so for my own success, I try not to have the stuff around. If it IS around, I WILL eat it, and I'll eat too much of it. It's not worth the guilt I'll feel later, and the "hunger pangs," a.k.a. pangs I used to think were hunger but I now only feel after I've eaten a lot of junk food that day.

I still have treats, but I like to have them so they're not *in* my house, so I can't overeat on them, you know? (like going out for ice cream, etc.)

So for me at least, I just have to keep it out of my house. Then I'm okay. We're all different though, so you have to find what works best for YOU!

Brit,
I was determined not to have sugar at Thanksgiving as I realize that I am addicted. It took me years to realize that. Well I did have a little sweet potato casserole and two pieces of apple pie.

I have been craving ever since. I haven't had any sugar since the left overs have been gone but I am overeating on other food.

I will continue to work at getting 100% back on plan but realize that the next challange will be the month of Christmas with treats everywhere.

I realize that it takes days or a week after I screw up to get through the craving and bingeing again. For me I know that I need to stick to plan. With all treats the next month will be really difficult. I know myself that when I start gaining I often throw in the towel and give up. So I need to do this as I have another 45 +Lbs to lose. I know that if I don't continue staying off sugar, fat and flour even if I do reach my goal I will gain it all back. I have more than once before.

I think a lot of people are going through what you are right now and struggling. Hopefully we can support each other.

I saw an interesting article by Mark Harmon, MD called Food Addiction: Could it explain why 70% of Americans Are Fat? I'm computer illiterate or I would post a link. Have a look I found it enlightening. It's about Big Food and how we get hooked.

Don't give up and as clarabr said you haven't gained all your weight back so you can catch yourself before the damage is worse.