This thread is a real mix of hope and depression, from the point of view of one who has not dieted. I have rebelled against the idea of dieting, but to the point of never losing the weight, and slowly going up, up, up.
I hope to be able to maintain this way of eating, and not gain.
For those who ballooned up again, do you know why you weren't able to stop the massive gains? at least sooner than later?
How much of a yo-yo is important? more than 10 pounds, 20? I do expect some fluctuations after I reach goal. I just want to catch myself before I get out of hand, like maybe if I notice I've gained 5 pounds and need to exercise more or eat better.....

Hey Fatmad!

The thing is, if you are doing maintenance the right way, you have kept on exercising and eating properly. It's often been said here that maintenance is just like weight loss, only with a few more calories (and perhaps a little less frequent exercise, but that's really variable).

So if in the past an overweight or obese person has worked their way down to their goal weight, and then thrown in the towel and gone back to the old habits of poor eating and no exercise, then they will virtually always gain weight again.

It's not unusual to gain a little weight after reaching goal as the body adjusts. It shouldn't be a big problem, and there is such a thing as hypervigilance. But I'd say by the time one has gotten to 10 pounds over, it's gone too far. Better to stop it when one gets 5 pounds up, because getting that 5 pounds off again is going to require a month or more of being back on weight loss.

Jay

I was in pretty good shape , maybe a little stocky, all the way up until I hit around 40 and then slowly gained weight little by little until I am where I am.

I stayed in pretty good shape all through my early 20's and early 30's because my brother-in-law was a champion body builder and we worked out together all the time. He shot steroids for 10 years when he competed (as our friends did) and he eventually got a heart condition from the roids and died of a heart attack due to morbid obesity (he weighed almost 500lbs when he died) when he died. I thank GOD all the time I didn't shoot any of that stuff when I was younger I was afraid of needles! Everyone I know who shot that stuff (decca, equapoise and test) are all messed up now or dead!

Once about 15 years ago when I was about 240 and thought THAT was big, I went on a crash diet for 3 months and worked out super heavy on weights 7 days a week and lost 50lbs. I looked great and was strong as all get out!

I didn't change my diet and I gained it all back and then some.

So I have only lost and gained one time, the rest... just a gradual slow process of more and more food and less activity.

fatmad, it is a lot like JayEll said. Maintaining is just as hard as "dieting" and it's for life. You really have to be committed to changing your eating habits FOR GOOD. You cannot lose the weight then go back to eating the way you use to. I'd say if you see yourself slipping and your weight goes up at 5-10lbs, you know you're not staying true to your new healthy lifestyle and need to get back on board!

Wow, this thread is a huge eye-opener for me... I'm 19, so I'm definitely on the younger side of the members on here, and I've been fat my whole life (gaining steadily all through my childhood, adolescence, etc). This is my first real attempt at losing weight--of course I've always wanted to lose weight, but never made any actual commitment to it before this past summer, when I officially decided to change my habits (yea, July 18th! haha). So far I've lost a pretty significant amount, and one of my biggest fears has been that I'm just setting myself up for a life of yo-yoing. I really don't want that to happen, and I hope that it doesn't, but I guess it's just an insecurity of mine. Like, because I've always been fat, I feel like that's what I'm "meant" to be, so somehow this just feels temporary. Especially since you hear all those stats about how the majority of people who lose weight gain it all back... But I don't want that to be me!! Bah! I really admire all of the maintainers on here. Hopefully I'll be joining them someday.

I was a very thin and athletic child. At about the age of 11,12 I started gaining. Nothing major but just a bit chubby. My parents showed love by way of food and often ate giant feasts after we went to bed. I learned to eat in secret. I was 155 lbs in grade 10 and 170 by graduation. Then the bomb dropped. My boyfriend mentally abused me and betrayed me often. We broke up and I lost my job. I fell into a DEEP depression and went from 170 to 300 in 1.5 years. I left my apartment only to get food. When I reached 300 I tried the "heart attack survivors" diet at 800 calories a day. I did that for a month... lost 30 lbs.

Then gained the 30 back Putting me at 300 again.

I got up to 320 and then went on the carb addicts diet and lost 18 lbs for my wedding.

Then gained that back PLUS another 30 to put me at 348 when I got pregnant with babe #1. I lost down to 317 while I was pregnant and was 307 after her birth. Then it crept on and on... I didn't weigh for the next three years period. Another baby came and when she was two (she's five now) I weighed in at 340. Went on the Dr. Phil diet and lost down to 311.

Went off the diet (complacency... just didn't bother any more) and the next time I weighed myself was when I was about to give birth to babe #3 and was 365 lbs.

And then on September 27th I weighed 376. And now on December 27th I am 321.4 (holding a lb of water weight from holidays.)

This is the longest I've ever stuck to a plan (calorie counting) the most weight I've lost, the longest I've kept trying.

And I'll keep trying and getting to where I need to be for the rest of my life. Because being fat and unhealthy is no longer an option.

I think of a yo-yo being more than 10 lbs. Like I mentioned I had worked my way down to 148 and was kind of hovering around 150 generally... almost a year after I started dating my boyfriend, I went on a 5 day trip to Puerto Rico and put on 8 POUNDS! You'd think if you put on 8 lbs in 5 days and went back to your normal habits, it would come off... but it never did. And with happy hours and restaurant visits, I gained 15 lbs after that. If I had been able to reverse the 8, I wouldn't have really counted it as a gain (or yo-yo) but I wasn't able to, I just kept going up.

My goal is to reach 115 and stay below it. My mother has never weighed more than 115 since I've been alive. Before I was born, she told me she yo-yo'ed but discovered running and exercise (albeit got a little addicted IMO) and has never had weight problem since. My extended family are ALL overweight. My mother has been the only one to maintain a consistent healthy weight. A few of them have lost 50-100+ lbs but they always gain them back. It's a family where maintaining seems impossible, but one person is doing it, so I have no excuse to balloon up again.

Though, Tryingitagain, you have really weathered some difficult obstacles in life. That's really my hardest part. When life throws me lemons, I eat a whole pie. I'm afraid when the going gets really tough, I'm still not the best at dealing with it without food.

Star2Be, you are smart (maybe lucky) to be losing weight here. There's so many regular maintainers who can help you once you reach maintenance (which might be soon--you are rocking the WL!). I maintained between 124-132 for about 4 years, still wanted to lose about 20 lbs but was like, a size 10 and pretty fit. When my bf and I broke up, like I mentioned earlier I couldn't handle it and eating/binging was the only way I knew how to deal with it. Thankfully, we have this community to help us avoid whatever might trigger us to gain weight.

I was heavy all through my childhood. In HS I was in the 170's, and by the time I graduated I was flirting with the 180's. Stayed in the low 180's for the first two years of college, but once I transferred to University I graduated from, I put on 30lbs in a semester. Literally every weekend I would try to get dressed to go out and have yet another pair of pants that didn't fit (talk about a nightmare).

I lost between 6-10lbs on a combination of slimfast and weight-watchers, but that didn't last long, lol.

Over the year that followed, I put on another 20-30lbs... finally topping out near 230.

Lost about 15lbs after I got out of college... and stayed around that weight for about a year and a half, until I lost 6lbs in a weekend and decided I never wanted to find it again...

Dropped down to around 180, started working for curves, dropped another 8-10... went on depo provera and freaked out when they told I'd gain weight from it... dropped another 8-10 that month just to trying to avoid the 'unavoidable weight gain" - and I did, lol!

Maintained that until last Christmas, when I went from 164-174, went on weight watchers, lost that weight. Went on a 16 day cruise and found all of it again. Had my tonsils out two weeks after the cruise and lost the cruise weight. Work and other stressors have brought me back to the post-cruise weight.... plus another 5 lbs.

2008 will officially be known as the year of the yo-yo.

I have no idea honestly, way too many times to keep count.

I was a chubby kid, but really started gaining weight when I turned 13. I went on my first weight loss journey when I graduated from high school in 1996 - I went from 215lbs then to 134lbs in Sept 2001. I got up to 199 in early 2005 when I got pregnant with my first - I went up to 253 with him, and got down to 221 before I got pregnant with my 2nd. Gained 27lbs with him, and I'm just now starting with losing that weight.

Age 14 weight 165
Age 15 115
age 17 135
age 19 119
age 20 127
age 23 110
age 24 143
age 25 180
age 26 212
age 29 180
age 33 140
age 38 165
age 39155
age 40 where I am at right now 175
Thanks for the subject writing it makes it clearer

Wow, I'm not sure exactly. I never had any weight problems until after college. I first started weight training in college. Picked it up again a couple times over the following years. At some point I did Weight Watchers with my mother, that went well, and I didn't have so much to lose anyway. I'm thinking it was maybe 10 pounds? Weird I don't quite remember when that was. I think I also lost weight the third time I picked up the weight training, but again not a lot of weight. I weighed about 120 at high school graduation, and about 130 at the end of all this, but due to maturity and weight training, that was a small and fit 130. I think I'd be scrawny and unhealthy at 120 these days.

The weight gain really started around 1997 and continued more or less until I reached 197 in April of this year. I plateau'ed at several weights along the way, sometimes for up to a year. I did some half-hearted attempts to get in shape. At one point about 5 years ago I got down to I think about 168 (from about 183) just because I was walking several miles a day and only eating a couple meals (although one of those was a big fast food meal). I wasn't trying to diet, it was just a weird schedule I had going on at the time.

So I didn't do that much yo-yoing. I think I had a real loss about 2 times, and a couple smaller losses that had more to do with getting in shape than with losing weight. It was more this long gain over a decade.

Since I'm terrible about throwing things away, someday I can probably find some WW and old workout records to help me date some of this stuff and remember my weights along the way. Not sure why I care, but I guess I do.

Hmm... let's see.

I never weighed myself until I got engaged. I was a scrawny teenager and young adult... which did not work in my favour later on. I never learned how to eat properly, and I subsisted on junk food for a long time. Kinda threw me for a loop when I did have to lose weight.

So, in 2000 I weighed 175 (and was horrified! LOL) and I did South Beach and got down to 159 for my wedding in Aug 2001. I still thought I was fat, but looking at the pictures, I looked cute.

In 2004 (?) I weighed in at 210 lbs and used SB again to get to 175. I felt pretty good there. Wearing a size 10. I maintained that for about 9 months and then started gaining again in 2005.

In 2006 I was 226 lbs and lost 36 lbs to 190... and swore I would never weigh over 200 lbs again...

Which brings us to this time! I started at 228 on July 22, and currently weigh 182.4... this time I am doing WW, and I like that much better. I think SB was too restrictive with the carbs. I love carbs... and I would always end up binging on them and spiralling out of control. This way is better.

I have no idea what I weighed before the first gain, so my goal weight is fuzzy at best. I will have to see when I get closer.

Peace,

Heather

I have no idea how many times I'm been up and down in weight....I do know it started when I gained 80+ pounds with my first child and it's been up and down since. Before then I was about 150 pounds and fairly active.

My mom and her mom would emotionally batter me about being a "fatty", encourage my siblings to tease me and as I look back now in pics I was average sized. I did become overweight in high school but lost it in college.

Thank you, joyra! I'm really hoping that what you said will ring true when I finally do reach maintenance. Since this website and all of you ladies have been so amazingly supportive, and have helped me sooo much to get through my WL so far, I think that staying around here during maintenance will be the best way to keep myself on track. And I also hope/think it will help that I've tried to have the right attitude about this--I don't see it as a temporary "diet," but a complete overhaul of my eating habits... Ideally, I want to continue to eat this way for the rest of my life, and since I haven't been following some insanely restrictive plan, I really think I can do it. Of course, life happens, and I know that I'll have my share of fluctuations over the years, but it feels so great to know that I will NEVER be 263 lbs again. Ya hear that, body?