I typed into google this morning "What is the percentage of people who diet that regain the weight." It came back with a multitude of things. Depressingly enough 95% gain it back. Is this true?? Then I found this link.

healthread.net/why-dieters-regain-leibel.htm

Is it really hopeless? Am I fighting a battle that I will eventually lose anyway? Am I, the Queen of text book weightloss, going to miraculously fall into the 5% of the 95% category and keep it off?

I believe in Science. I believe that history is a great way of predicting the future. I believe in Math. In believing as such...well it doesn't look so good for me to keep the weight off.

I'm 5'7. I was 227 and now I'm 214. I've lost the weight doing the HMR - 800Doctor supervised weightloss program. Its been less than 3 weeks of being on the shake fast.

I realize I can't give up. I can't!! I'm not healthy! I've been feeling so much better. But am I busting my butt for nothing? To get a few months of bliss being thin? I'm I leading myself into an even worse place? Where I'm forever battling weight gain with a body that will never surrender? That link has scared the crap out of me!!!

Follow me on my journey! I've been blogging before & during my Dr. Supervised liquid fast.
fatmeltchallenge.blogspot.com

I'm glad you believe in science. I'm glad you believe in history.

But it helps to believe in psychology, too. Most people regain the weight because they give up on their healthy habits. If you treat this endeavor as a permanent lifestyle change, the weight will stay off. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's possible.

I believe in me.

I believe in me too! I think I can, I think I can. I won't be another rung on the belt of those who have failed. Oh man...think I'm hyper-ventilating! Gotta go for a nice walk and relax.

I thought I wouldn't regain weight after I lost, and I didn't, for over two years. Then my weight started to creep up, a couple pounds at a time. I wasn't reverting to old habits with crappy foods--but I was eating just a bit more per day, and then just a bit more. I would get back on plan, but wouldn't be able to sustain my efforts for more than a couple of weeks.

By last March, I was up ten pounds. Now I'm up ten pounds more, after a bit over three years since I lost. So, that's what? About two pounds a month gain for the past year plus.

I thought I had "the answer," but clearly I didn't have all of it. It may be that there is no single "answer" that fits all.

I didn't watch that video BTW--it seemed to me from what I read that the guy was about to try to sell me something.

Jay

I have no problem believing that I can be in that 5%. Someone has to be! Why the heck shouldn't that be me?

(though I realize that figure probably tracks people who have lost at least a certain amount of weight so I may not count )

If you spend some time reading over in the maintainer's forum, you'll see that maintaining looks a lot like losing. Constant vigilance. Adherence to plan. Like JayEll said, just eating a bit more per day adds up to a pound here and there, and we all know how that goes...

(though Jay, I'd commend you on still being 30 lbs down, and stopping the creep when you did!)

Because maintenance is so much like losing, I think it is helpful to lose on a plan that you can sustain, well, pretty much forever. In your case, where you are drinking shakes and likely on very low calories, I hope your plan includes a lot of supported transition back to real food. When you come back to real food, you will have to learn what we practice while losing -- meal planning, portion control, how to order healthy in restaurants, etc.

I plan on counting calories forever. If someday it turns out that I can eat intuitively, that would be great. But for me, counting calories forever is a small price to pay for how good I feel at this weight.

Lastly, I think we all need to make the switch from passive voice to active voice. I see people talking about their weight like it is something they have no control over, using words like "I hope" or talking about "luck." I think we all have to accept responsibility for our bodies and acknowledge that we have power over our weight. After all, we choose what we put in our mouths, and we choose whether to sit on the couch or move. (People with medical conditions like PCOS are the exception here, because their bodies resist almost all efforts).

Thanks Jay for your honest reply! I'm really really scared of getting to maintence. I realize there is definately a psychological component to all of this. Some reason why we eat. Possibly to "feed" whatever pain might be lurking somewhere inside. I think while losing the weight we have to discover what that is and recognize it or you will not be prepared to deal with that once the weight is gone. Everyone stops telling you how great you look, the high of losing is over.

I listen to my Dad talk about his alcohol addiction and all he would have to do is replace alcohol with food and he would be talking about me. I believe there is definately more to it than just over-eating. If you diet you've got to figure out the trigger and correct it..or the trigger will just go off again and again and again.

Don't let some statistics be an excuse to not lose the weight.

If you don't want to gain the weight back, you won't. It's up to you. It's not left up to fate or chance or medicine. It's left up to you. It's in your very own hands. YOU GET TO DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT YOU RE-GAIN THE WEIGHT. Which is a good thing. So therefore it doesn't matter if every one gains back the weight - you still don't have to.

Remember, good habits once established are just as hard to break as bad ones. Get these good habits ingrained in you. Allow (force) them to become automatic and natural - and just part of *what you do* and *who you are*. Fall in love with this healthy lifestyle. DISCOVER that eating well is no hardship or burden, but a joy and a blessing. Than you too will want to do this forever and ever.

Amy -

Your so right! You have a kick butt attitude that I hope to adopt as I move along on my journey.

The program I'm doing is exteme. No doubt. I have very little patience. After you reach your goal there is 4 weeks of transition to food. Then there is a long maintenance portion of the program more like a really hands on weight watchers program. I've had many friends do the program and lose a 100 pounds or more and then not do the maintenance portion and gain it all back. Heart breaking. Every day I feel a little stronger, every day the light at the end of the tunnel gets brighter for me. I have hope I can be in the 5%! What an accomplishment in itself! Being in the 5%. Sounds like an elite club of some sort.

I've talked about this before here - gaining the weight back isn't a statistical process. It's not as if out of everyone who loses weight, 95% are chosen at random to gain it back no matter what they do.

What that number means is that 95% of people don't do what they have to do to maintain the weight loss.

Whether you are a part of the 95% or not is completely under your control. It's not a statistical roll of the dice. It's whether you apply yourself as needed to stay out of that group.

Me, I'm going to worry about getting there first, before I start worrying about whether I'll stay there.

Get out of my head! That's exactly what I was going to say . . . so there is no point in saying it again

Do not be discouraged by statistics of others... These are mere bricks with which they are trying to weigh you down... After all... A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her...

be a "Brick House"...

I think this means that as you move from your liquid fast, you have to realize that the next step will be learning to eat again, in a healthy way, a way you can't continue, and that if you start to gain, you have to rejig your diet and exercise again before the weight gain gets out of control again.
You have to accept that how you were eating before is not how you will eat when you are "done" your diet.
Each of us here believes we will be in the 5% that won't regain. We believe in ourselves, and what we are learning or we wouldn't be here.
I know several people who have lost and kept it off. I was talking with a dear uncle who lost over 100 lbs a few years ago. He has regained some and lost it again (never more than 10 pounds) but overall has maintained, after a virtual lifetime of being overweight. If he can do it, I can believe anyone can. I would never have thought it was possible for this to happen for him,but now feel quite inspired by his journey.

I think a lot of people look at what they need to do to lose weight, but never look at what they need to do to keep the weight off. People think they can go on a diet, lose weight and then it will be easy after that. But you need a plan for what to do when you hit goal. You have to have a plan for maintaining weight loss.

Check out this New York Times article from the last decade:
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/25/he...r-do-they.html
This statistic that's quoted all across the media and medical field was based on a study of only 100 people, back in 1959... hardly the basis that we'd use in ANY poll, study, etc.

So don't read that stat and worry - just work hard and keep a healthy lifestyle as your priority.