Welcome to the Regainers Thread! This thread is for 3FC members who lost weight, reached their goal or decided they were done, entered maintenance (even for 1 day), and then for whatever reason regained--and are currently fifteen pounds or more above original goal. (This number is arbitrary, but it's to distinguish a regain from simply going up a few pounds.)

Of course, any member may post here, as is 3FC's policy.

This is a place to tell your story and discuss your thoughts about regaining.
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pageta, thanks for the tip about Martha Beck's Four-Day Win book. I browsed it on Amazon and it looks really good! She does seem to address the issues I raised about "diet exhaustion."

iriswhispers, If you think you need to go back to weight loss mode, then why not try it? 10 pounds may seem easier to lose than 40, but it still would take a couple of months. Losing 40 pounds for me would be essentially starting over, so I could count on 7-8 months at least. The thing is, I tried going back to my old "weight loss mode" and couldn't hack it, for whatever reason.

mackinac19, Martha Beck also talks about how saying something like "no butter" sends her right to the butter dish... So there is that psychological component. But she thinks the answer isn't treating oneself like a bad, rebellious child.

I hope everyone is doing OK. I started back on 3 days a week at the gym, and predictably, my back is complaining, so I have to take it easy again.

Jay

Hi everyone,

Well, I tried to eliminate a food after reading Gary Taubes' long, interesting article on the NYT website: 'Is Sugar Toxic?' and watching Dr. Lustig's 90-minute lecture, 'Sugar: The Bitter Truth' on YouTube. Basically, they point out that fructose (which is in high fructose corn syrup and table sugar) is metabolized differently than glucose - and is much more easily converted to fat. So unless one is eating fiber with one's fructose (eg, in fruit) - Taubes and Lustig recommend avoiding fructose, esp. in sugary drinks like soda and fruit juice. I decided that I would start small and try to skip the glass of Coke I've been having with dinner (8-12 oz). I made it one day - and then couldn't resist having it the next day. I didn't binge or anything, but I am disappointed that I couldn't seem to cut out one small item for more than a day!

Gosh, mackinac19, I don't know what to say.

I haven't had a full-sugar soda in years, although I do drink a lot of diet soda these days. I read the book Sugar Blues and it pretty much cured me of overdoing it with carbs and especially straight sugar.

A man I know has been doing the Medifast program and has lost 55 pounds in 4 months. He's younger than I am and of course male, but still--that much loss makes me want to get back down again. Even if it means following someone else's program...

Martha Beck's book The Four-Day Win is waiting for me at the library. I'm going to go pick it up and see what she has to say.

Jay

I think the fact you could not go a day without a sugar hit should say something.

I have 2-3 dt/cokes w/splenda per week. I do not consider that excessive nor has it had any effect on increasing cravings for more or for the real stuff. It is a pleasure I thoroughly enjoy. YMMV.

I'm enjoying Martha Beck's book, particularly because she is a funny writer.

She points out that if will power were enough, no one would be overweight.

And, she notes that just as hard as you push your body's "famine" buttons, it will push back.

She also uses this analogy--I paraphrase: If you are a caterpillar, virtually all diets will make you a smaller caterpillar. But to become a butterfly (a person no longer worried about food and about getting fat), you have to work on a different level--you have to make friends with your body and change the way you think.

mackinac19, maybe the reason you had that glass of Coke with dinner wasn't because you are weak or a bad person or any of the other negative things we take it to mean. Maybe on some level you were just afraid that your Coke would be taken away forever. Of course, I don't know--just speculating.

Anyway, I'm learning a lot from this book.

Jay

That could be very true. It also could be true that the cellular level, her body is really craving those processed carbs, especially the fructose/glucose blend which is what the Havel, Taubes & Lustig are proposing. If it then is a physical response, not primarily a psychological (however this defined), the solution(s) are then quite different. The question then becomes, how can one tell as an individual? If there is a physical chain reaction, what is the dosage and context for the individual. And perhaps, it is a combination of the two- much like other substances that are consumed in various quantities produce negative consequences in a person yet the memory remains of the pleasant sensations. DS is off for his first transfusion of experimental drugs as I type, Remicaid the next generation. These questions I study are not an intellectual exercise but have serious consequences should it be true for myself and those I love.

Karen925, it seems kind of rude to talk about mackinac19 instead of to her, if you see what I mean. We are all having a conversation with each other here.

Jay

I meant no disrespect to her or anyone else for that matter. I do not I see how I talked past her. I am talking in generalities about ideas raised. So this would be in the third person.

I will refrain from posting in the future.

OH WOW, so glad for this thread. I have been struggling with my weight gain for months and months. When I last lost weight it was because I was on this website every day and blogged too. But, can't remember how to get into my blog now so if anyone can give me a suggestion I would appreciate it. Anyway, I have no idea where to start again or how. I wake up every day saying I will do better but do not better. anyway, just typing this tonight is a start. Thanks for listening

Hi grabec!

What else did you do the last time you lost weight? Why do you think you are resisting this time?

What I did to lose weight would work again, presumably, but I can't (or won't) stick to it. It doesn't seem like it's a matter of will power to me. It's like my body has its own agenda. Some people think that's an excuse, but I'm not alone in this. Martha Beck also talks about this some in her book.

We don't celebrate Easter, so at least I don't have to worry about that!

Jay

I totally agree that our bodies have their own agendas. I've felt for most of my adult life that there is a set weight that my body ultimately rests at, regardless of how I feel about it. It rarely goes above this (or perhaps once I'm there--like right now--I do extra not go go there). While I prefer myself at 20 pounds lighter, I always seem to revert to this weight.

Hi everyone,

Karen, I don't mind if you chat about me - after all, you were just responding to my post. I hope you will post again. And thanks for the response, too, Jay. I really don't go a day without sugar. What I didn't say in my earlier post is that, although I was trying to cut out the Coke for a day, I still planned to have (and did have) the chocolate that I eat every day! I don't plan to give up sugar, but I would like to eat it in moderation - and always with a meal that contains fiber and protein. I do wish I could drink diet soda, but I have NEVER liked it. My sister does say that the newer diet sodas with Splenda are actually good, but I haven't tried one....

Hey, mackinac19!

You might try the Coke with Splenda, just to see if it's a good substitute for you. I prefer the colas with Aspartame, although really I wish I could get a diet soda with good old saccharine.

Perhaps you could also look into sodas flavored with "real" sugar (sucrose) instead of HFCS. I'm not a fan of sugar--and there is way too much in sodas--but I think sugar is "better" than HFCS.

By the way, mackinac, is your ticker correct about your weight being 165 now? If so, that's just barely overweight for your height, according to BMI charts. They are notoriously generalized, but it's worth noting.

Karen925, I didn't mean for you to stop posting. But that's up to you. You are welcome to post here if you like.

I am seriously considering trying the Medifast program. As I mentioned, someone I know has been having good success with that, and watching him show up thinner every week is really an incentive. Medifast does have a transition and maintenance program, and I would definitely do that.

One thing I found interesting is that Medifast's calculations of total energy expenditure based on age and activity are much lower than what I had been getting from other sources. That might explain why I seem to gain so easily if I eat at what I thought was my maintenance level!

Also, I'm beginning to get some insight into what happened when my battle against regain began. Just for background--It was over two years since I had lost, and I was maintaining successfully. That fall I went on three trips; the first two trips were fine, but things fell apart during the third trip. I got no exercise, and I ate a lot of ill-advised foods. It was about a 10-day trip. I'm now thinking that during that week-plus, I shoved my metabolism the wrong way, and I didn't get it back again. My continued struggles didn't manage to move it. So, I think that getting back into fat-burning metabolism will be a good thing.

Just some rambling here.

Jay

I'm also 5'8" and currently just under 165. And I feel icky. Love handles or muffing top stick out regardless of what I'm wearing. That's the one thing I dislike at this weight. They go away when I'm 140. And yeah, those BMI charts are pretty general. There's another maintainer here who is also 5'8" and she's maintaining at 170 and looks terrific. Bodies really vary!

Bodies sure do vary! I have a friend who is 5'5" and weighs 133, which is in the normal range of BMI--but she has a delicate frame and feels overweight because of where the fat has landed.

Jay