I've been really good with my eating and exercising every single day since Oct. 3rd. Up until this point I have lost like 10-12 pounds and I am starting to look a little better. I even went down a pant size and my blood pressure even went down a lot.

However, as of a few days ago, I seem to be sabotaging myself. I have started feeling really lazy when it comes to exercise and skipping my full workout, also I have lost my discipline when it comes to eating sweets. I ate like 700 calories worth of candy tonight.

I am recognizing a pattern that whenever I lose about 10 pounds, I always give up on my healthy lifestyle and go back to binge eating sweets.

I want to lose weight so badly this time, I always do, but this time I want to be happier and healthier and make this last forever. I am serious about this and do NOT want to ruin all of my hard work.

Anyone else like this? Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

Don't let tonight derail you. You won't undo all that work with one night, but you will if you let one night turn into two turn into three turn into....

Any ideas why you hit that ten pound mark and backslide again? Does it trigger something for you or put you out of your current comfort zone? Is there something you maybe self consciously associate with that weight or with losing further? Alternately, has something happened that triggered you wanting candy and feeling the pull of the couch?

It could be physical. 10 pounds is amazing for a month of work. Maybe your body wants more food! I call them "Food Attacks" where I swear the food attacked me first! Maybe lose a pound a week now.

Sometimes it's good to take a maintainance break. Every 10lbs or so stop counting calories and eat only at maintainance. Do it for a couple of weeks maybe just so that you are sure that you can maintain it and then get back to losing again.

I'm really surprised that you lost so much in just a month, that's a lot to lose when you only had a slightly overweight BMI to begin with. I'm taking a guess here that your food and exercise regimen is pretty strict to get those results so quickly, plus you're only a month in and exhausted. I don't think that's a personal failing of yours, truehappiness, I think that's a very normal reaction from a physical and psychological standpoint.

Two years ago I lost about 10 pounds in about 8 weeks with a super strict diet and I was exhausted at the end. I gained it all back plus another 5 pounds because I just went nuts, eating everything I had deprived myself of in much larger quantities than I normally would have. It was a disaster. This time around I've lost 10 pounds in about 4 months and I'm still going strong. The weight comes off more slowly, but I'm doing this in a way I feel like I can live with for the rest of my life.

Why not try dialing it back a little and lose the weight more slowly so you're not putting such high expectations on yourself? If you can't make the changes stick over the long run, you're likely to keep gaining the weight back when you exhaust yourself and that'll just set you up for a life of yo-yo dieting, which isn't healthy. Slow down and find a way to lose the weight in a way that you can live with for the rest of your life. Think of this as a marathon, not a sprint.

Did you binge on candy before you started dieting? Or is it a side effect of too much restriction at once?

Thanks everyone for the support and encouragement. It means a lot! You all really gave me a lot to think about and consider.

I did lose weight fast in October, but the past like 2 weeks I seem to have almost plateaued as I have only lost about 1-2 pounds since the beginning of November. I guess since it's healthy to lose a pound a week, I haven't really plateaued, but I was hoping to lose most of the weight before Jan. 1st which is a super important date for me.

And yes, something stressful has been going on the past few days..someone very close to me is having some health concerns and I am very worried I know when I am eating it's for an emotional reason. I was also waiting on the results of a biopsy (everything came back today and everything is great thankfully). I used to also be an emotional eater (well, I guess I still am), so I'm just falling back to my old way of coping. At least I'm recognizing it though I guess.

I have been skinny before, and I really enjoyed it, but I just found it exhausting to maintain, so maybe I am afraid to be skinny again because then I will have to work to maintain it...let's be honest, it's a whole lot easier to just sit around and eat whatever the heck you want. But it's also difficult to be unhappy with my weight..so I have to really commit myself to this.

And it's so true, this is a marathon (a life long one!), not a sprint.

Oh gosh I do this too!!

For me though, I know it comes from getting comfortable. I feel like I've accomplished something and somehow I have power over my weight, so I don't think it's bad to indulge (such an awful frame of mind to have but I know this is how I think!!)

And then I eat the candy, get lazy, and it just starts this domino effect

I (was) an emotional eater too and was very surprised that after i made the decision to lose weight, that i was easily able to fight through those feelings and not BINGE or eat junk food because the stress of whatever was happening in my life made me feel out of control ENOUGH and giving into over eating would have just sent me over the edge in feeling completely out of control. At least it was the one area where i could feel fully capable. i hope this helps!

Where did the candy come from? Do you have it around the house or did you get in your car, go to the store and buy it there?

I have candy in the house because I'm currently living with my parents and my mom recently bought a huge stock of candy from the after Halloween sales. I do allow myself a little candy everyday otherwise I end up feeling so deprived that I binge. However, lately I have not been finding that little bit of candy to be enough for some reason. For example, tonight I ate dinner then a little bit of candy. I thought I was finished eating for the night, but then a huge craving for salt came over me, so I ate some veggie chips even though I wasn't hungry, and then I lost control for a minute and ate about 400 calories of candy. I intended to eat more, but I came to my senses and put 3 mini milky ways back. Then I exercised an extra 25 mins as an attempt to burn off some of the damage. I'm really starting to slide and so far I am trying to do damage control, but I feel like I'm kind of losing my self-control because I already lost a little weight, so now I'm getting over cocky about my weight loss and somehow feel the need to eat w/e I want, even though I don't really want it. :/

There is a point in weightloss where you are comfortable and the benefit to effort ratio simply is not enough anymore.

I hit that point around 135ish. I 'want' to be a lot thinner, but realistically I feel/look good, all my 'cute' clothes fit, and I'm the smallest one in my immediate circle.

It sounds shallow, but my family/group is large people, and I look small compared to them. Do I judge them or think lower of them? Absolutely not, but my perspective is shaped by those I respect and am most influenced by.

My parents and brother are short and all well over 100 lbs overweight. My boyfriend is 6' 2" and weighs 240. I'm 14 inches shorter and 100 pounds less.

Now IF by some magic I push it closer to 125 then I feel SOOOO much better, look SOOO much better and there is so much difference just for the 10 lbs, but it is so hard to wind up there.


If your stats are accurate, with being 5' 8" and 155 lbs, honestly you must look pretty darn good. For me that would be like 130lb territory, b/c of the height difference.

I just have a hard time pushing through and I bet your ratio is getting close too unbalanced as well.