I'm starting to lose faith in myself! It's been 2-3 weeks and the scale has not BUDGED--not up (thank goodness!) but not down either. Between late night McDonald's milkshake runs, frozen pizza and my best friend's mom's homemade potato soup when I stepped on the scale and it still read a solid 174 I almost fainted because I was sure I had gained! Of course if I had LOST that would have been better, but maintaining is fine with me.

My kitchen is actually really confusing. A lot healthy foods mixed in with very unhealthy foods. Whole wheat bread, natural pb, canned and frozen veggies, yogurt, kashi cereal...frozen pizza and ramen? I'm obviously not being very good!

Things I have come to accept: Although I have lost 110lbs on Atkins, it is just NOT for me anymore. Living on my own, working at Olive Garden and maintaining a social life without being the weirdo who eats the toppings off of the pizza and not the crust while hanging out with friends have all made me realize this.

I need a plan that allows me to eat "bad" foods in moderation. My best friend and I go out every Wednesday night and I'd love to be able to spend that night to splurge on pizza or chinese or mexican without kicking myself the next day because I went 4 billion carbs over my allowance. I don't want to make myself think that I can eat like this every day, which is what I've been doing.

Maybe I just needed this month of off plan eating to realize how much losing weight means to me. Has anyone else gone off plan and then gone back to losing weight? I feel like calorie counting doesn't work for me but I know I do it wrong--I don't have a food scale and I eyeball portions and guess calorie counts. Not good.

Any suggestions for a plan or what I should do? I don't really exercise, I walk about a mile every day (to work) and I walk to the grocery store. I'm a host so I'm constantly on my feet and walking back and forth through the restaurant. Other than that I don't add any extra activity.

I want to get on track. I'm in a size 12 and I can almost taste the single digit sizes but something has derailed me.

You can try weighing yourself with weights and then without weights to see if your scale changes. My scale gets stuck sometimes too and this always work.

You should allow yourself the occasional treat. If you find yourself falling off track, stop, and get back on. Every minute is another new minute where you can make a change. Time is going to pass no matter what. Why waste it being unhealthy when you can make small changes as the time passes.

I haven't made it to goal - not even close, but I have gotten off track on more than one occasion. The important thing to remember is that you have a choice. You can continue to be "off track" or you can choose to make your health and weight loss a priority and get back into the groove of whatever weight management lifestyle works best for you.

If you feel you need to change up your diet style by switching to calorie counting then do it but make sure that you're doing it because you think it is the weight management system that will work best for you and not just because you feel the need to indulge yourself in "off plan" foods far too often.

I'm not trying to be harsh but it sounds like you might just be suffering from a bit of diet frustration and boy do I understand that! You can get back on track and meet your goals - you just have to take that first step back to the path!

To answer your question...

In all my years of yo-yo dieting, never once did I make it to goal after going off my plan for more than a few days. I'd get way to relaxed about tracking, maintain a higher than goal weight for a few weeks to a month and eventually all the little treats and slips turned into large gains...always more than the loss. Matter of fact, this is the only time I ever actually made it to my personal goal and it's the only time I have ever actually kept it off. Oh, and I didn't "cheat" while losing. This is only my personal experience. Everyone is different.

Maybe you really don't want to lose more. Maybe after the big loss you have achieved, (congratulations by the way...that is an awesome feat) you are "content" at where you are at?

First, a million congrats on your amazing weightloss already! That is such an accomplishment! Second, I think most people go "off track" at some point in their weightloss journey because no one is perfect. Also, in my opinion, life is too short to always consume only X number of calories a day (or carbs, etc.) and it is OK to splurge now and then.

What I really wanted to share was my advocacy for intermittent fasting. It has truly changed my life! I slooooowly lost weight over the last year after having my little one but got stuck around a 25 lb. loss. I kept hearing about intermittent fasting but never gave it much thought. I finally did some reading and research about IF and decided to give it a try. I have lost 15 lbs. very easily since starting IF last month! There are many benefits to IF but for me, the best things are that it is easier to stay within my calorie amount AND I don't have to restrict certain food groups. I was a low-carb person for a long time (and still think that is great for many people) so I totally understand not wanting to cut out carbs. Best wishes with the rest of your journey!

Also, congrats on your weight loss so far! That's amazing.

Now, I know there are people here who do amazingly well with taking a short maintenance break. However, I'm not going to suggest that you do that... why? Because it sounds like you're more interesting in cheating and becoming more lax with your diet rather than working on maintenance. I think if you did do a maintenance break you might really be at risk for gaining back the weight. Granted, this is just my opinion from your brief post and what led me guess this was it seems like you're justifying it by mentioning all the junk food you ate and how you did gain anything from that. The problem is, is that can be a slippery slope and when you introduce a bit, you might introduce a bit more the next week and so.

So what would I suggest? What about planned going out days? It sounds like you basically have that set up already. Why don't you just plan on every Weds going out with your friends but that means 1. you make sure to get in a good workout that day 2 you eat less earlier in the day to make up for it and 3 you don't got nuts when you eat out, eat something you like but in a controlled manner without binging.

One thing I've learned is that you really don't need to be all or nothing when it comes to plans. I've lost weight on very low carb diets before but I was never able to stick to them a long time. This time around I still eat relatively low carbish but I've never restricted fruit and I still eat carbs on a semi-regular basis (but always whole grains and always with protein). It's worked worked for me because I haven't had major hunger spikes and I get in some carves, which has curbed the cravings (and more like massive binges at Pizza Hut that used to happen back in my South Beach Diet days).

FWIW, I don't calorie count but I do make myself aware of calories and will count about once a month or so just to check in. That way i'm aware of portion sizes but I don't count everything (that actually stressed me out a lot!).

Whatever you decide, good luck! And congrats on your loss once again!

I think the reason people gain all of their weight back is because it's easy to restrict yourself massively for a select period of time, and then gradually fall right back into gaining mode because they haven't learned to work with the treats and temptations. Food is a nourishment, but we can't deny it's also a pleasure, and a fun pleasure of life- as it should be!

I've had pizza, hamburgers, chocolate, ice-cream on my diet. I've even had some poutine (mmm). But here's the thing- I'll have my shake for breakfast, I'll have my protein bar and salad for lunch, I'll have my 1-2 healthy snacks....and then- hmmm what shall we do for dinner that is 500 calories? Or sometimes, if I know I want to enjoy myself at lunch, I will account for that and replace my dinner. Or skip dinner altogether if I don't feel hungry. And after a while, you realize that you don't need to have 6 slices of pizza to feel the satisfaction as you can get from 2 and not break your calorie bank.

It's all about the math...and this way, I don't have those "OH MY GOD WHAT DOES PIZZA TASTE LIKE I DONT EVEN REMEMBER..." moments I had on other diets that failed me miserably within months.

That, and also, work out, work out, work out!

Hey there Linsy, I just wanted to chime in with my experience. I have only been at goal since the start of August, but I can tell you that I absolutely did fall off plan many, many times during my journey. In fact, I still struggle with my binge eating disorder, but at least I'm struggling with it from a lighter weight (which I'm hoping to maintain).

For me, calorie counting has been essential. It's very important that you count accurately but that you also find a calorie number that you can stick to. Or, you may want to do calorie cycling.

Right now, I'm trying something that I wish I had tried before: allowing one treat meal a week. That means I can go out with friends to a restaurant and not worry about calories for that meal and then I'd just get right back on track. Maybe you could do something like that? For this to work, it's absolutely essential that you can make it fit into your life style realistically or you'll just be setting yourself up for disappointment.

I wish you all the best and just wanted to let you know that it's possible to get to goal even if you fall off track. Huge congrats on your progress and another congrats for not gaining during this little bump in the road.

A small McDonald's milkshake (12 oz) has 580 calories. Medium = 720 cals, large = 880 cals. You might keep that in mind next time you want to make a midnight run.

If you are going to count calories, you really do have to measure and look things up. It's not possible to guess at calorie counts, as the above example from McDonald's shows.

I know pizza is supposed to be the National Food, but do you really have to eat it? I think you might find that the less you eat it, the less you care about it and the more yucky it seems. For me, any pizza that comes in a cardboard box just isn't worth it, and neither are most that are made in a typical pizza restaurant.

It sounds like your reasons for wanting to eat certain foods is social pressure. This is a really bad reason to overeat, but is very common in our culture. All I can say is, life is full of food and social events, and someone who wants to lose weight and keep it off needs to learn how to navigate this without going adrift. Sometimes that means saying No whether it makes you the "weird friend" or not.

Good luck in finding a plan! Please don't let yourself regain--it's no easier to get it off the second time, etc.

Jay

You've articulated the very reason why I would never commit to a low carb plan. I've done that in the past and could never stick to. For one thing, I like carbs. For another, it's difficult to manage a plan like that socially. (To low carbers out there: I'm not slamming you or your plan. I'm just talking about my experience with low carb).

That's why I've chosen calorie counting. It's a plan that allows me to eat anything in moderation. Now, I won't lie to you: The "moderation" part is hard, but any plan has its drawbacks. To me, calorie counting is the one that is the least painful in "real life."

Agree with these two here. Seems it's more that you are just lucky you've stayed at maintenance so far, not that you are trying to maintain. I think for you, planning off days might be the way to go, but then you will need to have on plan days the rest of the week to maintain. You will see how easy it is to gain just 2-3 pounds a month and at first that will seem like nothing, but even 2 pounds a month adds up to 24 pounds in a year. So, you need to find something that works for you, but not just say "whatever" and eat whatever. That won't work for long.

Congrats on your loss so far! 110lbs is amazing!!

I would look around at the different forums and see what plans might work for you. Calorie counting might be something you want to look into because you can have whatever you want as long as it stays within your calorie count for the day.

For me, I will never go "off-plan" because this is a lifestyle change and I plan to count calories for the rest of my life. I've considered maintaining for a while but that just involves eating slightly more calories than weight loss mode. I'll fully admit that I chose calorie counting because I love pizza and wanted to make sure I could still eat it

The best thing to do is to take each day, each meal and each pound lost one at a time. Looking at your overall goal can be overwhelming, but if you take it slow and celebrate each small triumph and step toward the right direction it becomes infinitely easier to reach that ultimate goal

Just wanted to add that I eat a lower carb diet (keeping net carbs at or below 100 grams a day) and I can still fit in pizza. You can do things in moderation and not go full out on any program you do.

I am eating lower carb because it keeps cravings at bay and helps with blood sugar issues I've developed, but I don't need to overly restrict my carbs. I just try to keep them in check. I skip rice and pasta most of the time, but when we order pizza, I'll eat two slices and just make sure the rest of he day is low carb. So... if lower carb has worked for 110 pounds, maybe just modify it a bit to work with your new lifestyle. You don't have to totally abandon it.