A thread for people who have lost lots of weight, and put it back on to offer advice

[gazter]

For the last five to six weeks I have been hovering around a weight i am more or less happy with. In the back of my mind i hear the warnings about all those people who lost lots of weight, and then put it all back on again.

Of course nobody intends to put it right back on, but many do. I am not talking about a stone or two here, but huge life changing amounts of weight, five stone, or maybe ten points+ on the bmi scale.

Are there people on here who have gone through this and offer any advice?

[Jaq]

Although I don't have advice I do know someone at my old group who did this. He lost 8 stone I think and the last time I saw him he must have put at least half that amount back on in a matter of months.

I think the problem is that you know how to eat to put on weight hence why you need slimming world. Then you learn how to lose weight but I for one don't know how to eat to maintain.

Well done for hitting your target btw!

[cheery]

I'm male, height 5 11 and in the last six years I've been anywhere between 12 1/2 and 16 1/2 stone several times - I think I must have lost the same 3-4 stone about four times over. The first time I lost 4 stone and got to goal was with SW, but I've done a variety of diets over the years - Cambridge, Lipotrim, WW, Exante, the list goes on. I'm currently calorie counting with MFP which so far I have honestly found the easiest of all the diets in terms of it's flexibility, you can truly eat anything you want, it's dead easy to track as you can scan bar codes and everything is in an easy database (far easier than syns or points!). I'm hoping it'll also be easier to maintain, on the basis that I'll still have to log everything, though that for me is quite a good way forward.

It's an ongoing struggle for me, so I don't have any major advice to offer apart from that I know that my pattern is usually that I lose the weight pretty well by sticking to the rules, maintain well for 3-9 months and then slowly start 'relaxing'. When I see that I can get away with relaxing (eg having a takeaway and not gaining), I up it a bit and then before I know it, it's been a few months and I've been eating two or three takeaways a week, drinking lager and buying chocolate from petrol stations most days! Which leads to a few stone gained. Not good.

So I suppose my only advice would be to keep weighing, nip in the bud any problems as soon as possible (I'm thankful I've only had four stone to deal with rather than 10 stone that some have yo-yo'd with!) and throw away all the clothes that you used to wear so that you notice you need to lose! I have a friend who lost six stone and he has a 'limit' weight at 12 stone that if he hits he has to count everything and get back down to 11 1/2 stone. He then relaxes a little but keeps an eye on his weight. He weighs himself monthly and every six months or so he hits his 12 stone limit and is very careful for a month, weighs weekly, loses half stone then he relaxes (a little!) and the cycle starts again. It seems to work well for him - he's maintained for about 10 years like this.

Good luck and well done on your amazing loss so far. Bet you're really chuffed.

[gazter]

Although I don't have advice I do know someone at my old group who did this. He lost 8 stone I think and the last time I saw him he must have put at least half that amount back on in a matter of months.

I think the problem is that you know how to eat to put on weight hence why you need slimming world. Then you learn how to lose weight but I for one don't know how to eat to maintain.

Well done for hitting your target btw!

thanks, its a worry just how easy it has been.. and kind of how easy it would be to go back on again.

[gazter]

I'm male, height 5 11 and in the last six years I've been anywhere between 12 1/2 and 16 1/2 stone several times - I think I must have lost the same 3-4 stone about four times over. The first time I lost 4 stone and got to goal was with SW, but I've done a variety of diets over the years - Cambridge, Lipotrim, WW, Exante, the list goes on. I'm currently calorie counting with MFP which so far I have honestly found the easiest of all the diets in terms of it's flexibility, you can truly eat anything you want, it's dead easy to track as you can scan bar codes and everything is in an easy database (far easier than syns or points!). I'm hoping it'll also be easier to maintain, on the basis that I'll still have to log everything, though that for me is quite a good way forward.

It's an ongoing struggle for me, so I don't have any major advice to offer apart from that I know that my pattern is usually that I lose the weight pretty well by sticking to the rules, maintain well for 3-9 months and then slowly start 'relaxing'. When I see that I can get away with relaxing (eg having a takeaway and not gaining), I up it a bit and then before I know it, it's been a few months and I've been eating two or three takeaways a week, drinking lager and buying chocolate from petrol stations most days! Which leads to a few stone gained. Not good.

So I suppose my only advice would be to keep weighing, nip in the bud any problems as soon as possible (I'm thankful I've only had four stone to deal with rather than 10 stone that some have yo-yo'd with!) and throw away all the clothes that you used to wear so that you notice you need to lose! I have a friend who lost six stone and he has a 'limit' weight at 12 stone that if he hits he has to count everything and get back down to 11 1/2 stone. He then relaxes a little but keeps an eye on his weight. He weighs himself monthly and every six months or so he hits his 12 stone limit and is very careful for a month, weighs weekly, loses half stone then he relaxes (a little!) and the cycle starts again. It seems to work well for him - he's maintained for about 10 years like this.

Good luck and well done on your amazing loss so far. Bet you're really chuffed.

thanks for this, i am doing slimming world but, like you I have become a keen user of myfitnesspal. I have posted before how it felt sometimes i just wasnt getting enough calories on slimming world. (essentially it is a plan designed for a woman with 5 to 20 pounds to lose, the mainstay market, for men, especially very obese men, the calorie intake from following the rules can result in 2,000 daily deficits, just by staying on plan. Good weight loss, but if sustained can have the impact of slowing down your metabolic rate, which of course, as soon as you fall of the eating plan your body soaks up all those calories and stores them.

I have experimented over the last six weeks trying to slowly manage my metabolic rate by increasing what i am eating to just below what should be my bmr, allowing for very minor slow weight loss.

I have pushed my calorific intake from slimming worlds 1400-1600 ish calories (the calories arent counted, but following the rules results in around this) to 1600 to 1800ish calories. Which to be honest would also be achieved by doubling up my healthy extras.

Slimming world has taught me some important lessons, especially around third superfree. By having these low calorie bulk foods, by not adding sugar and fat, i find i can eat pretty well on 1800 calories a day.

There are often days when i wont even think about it, and its SW all the way, if i really feel like eating something that would throw me on the syns, ill calorie count.

For instance, i had a large fish in batter with a small portion of chips the other day, probably my most daring meal since i started. I calorie counted that day...

[cheery]

Yep that sounds like a good plan. I lost a steady 3-4lbs per week in my first month or two on SW by following the plan religiously and understand now that this was because I was eating way less calories than I needed to. I also got into an unhealthy 'day before weigh in' mentality of having two ham salads! Not at all good for the metabolic rate! Having said that, I am losing well on 1500-1600 calories so don't think I've done too much damage.

1/3 superfree didn't exist when I did SW, they introduced EE just around the time I hit target the first time (early 2010 I think). It is a good solution, perhaps if I'd got into that mindset it'd have been easier to maintain. The trick is obviously sticking to it on a long term basis!

Is your plan for maintenance to MFP calorie count or stick to SW and increase HEXs till you stabilise in weight? I was never very clear when I left SW what their advice for maintenance was but I seem to recall it was to increase all HEXs and carefully flexisyn until you gain, then pull back straight on plan...

[jayde1148]

I'm still on my journey but like you I think I will worry about putting it back on. A woman at my sw group lost nearly 10 stone and has put it all back on and has basically lost .5lbs now and every week she would put on then lose the same lb. but the thing is you have to realise that eating healthily is the way people stay slim and healthy. The 'diet' does the job and you lose the weight and so many people see that as the end point that it goes back on. I saw on telly that you have to sort of lose the 'goal weight' thought in your mind and just get used to making the healthy choices for health not for a diet or to get to a goal weight.

At target you can attend group free so that's a good way to relax the plan maybe focussing on those heathy choices most of the time and use your free WI to keep check an deal with any gain before it gets bad.

I hope you enjoy learning to maintain! Well done!! I think learn to relax around food but not make ridiculous choices, at the end of the day we know what made us fat! You can do this

[gazter]

Yep that sounds like a good plan. I lost a steady 3-4lbs per week in my first month or two on SW by following the plan religiously and understand now that this was because I was eating way less calories than I needed to. I also got into an unhealthy 'day before weigh in' mentality of having two ham salads! Not at all good for the metabolic rate! Having said that, I am losing well on 1500-1600 calories so don't think I've done too much damage.

1/3 superfree didn't exist when I did SW, they introduced EE just around the time I hit target the first time (early 2010 I think). It is a good solution, perhaps if I'd got into that mindset it'd have been easier to maintain. The trick is obviously sticking to it on a long term basis!

Is your plan for maintenance to MFP calorie count or stick to SW and increase HEXs till you stabilise in weight? I was never very clear when I left SW what their advice for maintenance was but I seem to recall it was to increase all HEXs and carefully flexisyn until you gain, then pull back straight on plan...

yeah, increasing healthy extras seems to be the main message from slimming world, but i want to experiment with both. In terms of where i am, my holy grail is to get into below 25 of bmi. I have never been in the healthy bmi scale as an adult, and i am inching slowly towards it. I am happy with the odd pound here and there, and to just trundle along. I really find i dont mind living on 1800 calories, it doesnt feel like a deprivation, a maintenance diet would be around 2200 to 2400 calories, more then enough to accommodate the odd binge.

[lemonblondie]

It's funny that one of the posters mentioned maintaining, and even though I am just starting out, I am already wondering about maintaining. There really isn't a lot about it in the stuff I have (I'm doing it at home so only have limited resources and here). So what is the principle? You up your syns a bit and keep it like that? As you can see I'm already thinking of the months ahead just so that I can be prepared

[Jaq]

It's funny that one of the posters mentioned maintaining, and even though I am just starting out, I am already wondering about maintaining. There really isn't a lot about it in the stuff I have (I'm doing it at home so only have limited resources and here). So what is the principle? You up your syns a bit and keep it like that? As you can see I'm already thinking of the months ahead just so that I can be prepared

You keep you syns the same but add additional healthy extras I believe.

[lemonblondie]

See never would have thought of doing that. Well I'll keep that in mind when I get to where I want to go. Someone said it was easier to lose then maintain, those are not words I want to hear!

[gazter]

See never would have thought of doing that. Well I'll keep that in mind when I get to where I want to go. Someone said it was easier to lose then maintain, those are not words I want to hear!

I think because when you are losing, you are focused. You have a goal, you are going to reach it, every week you (hopefully) make a step towards it. When you are maintaining you dont have the same goal, you dont have the "i lost two pounds this week" feel.

[lemonblondie]

If that is the case that is easy, I can replace losing with maintaining. I'll just remember to change the goal posts!

[Daisyhappy!]

Im a 25 year old female and when I was 20 I did Lipotrim and lost 8 stone, went from a size 22 to a 10 to 12 and quite quickly gained 4stone back, then a few years later the other 4 (despite what my stats say, they're wrong I must change them but am always on my phone and don't know how)
It was absolutely devastating and felt so much worse being big than ever before.
I put it back on because I had learnt nothing about eating healthy balanced meals, there's a sticky over on the Lipotrim section by me that I wrote when I was only a month into the diet and I cringe when I read it back!!
Im not having a go at the diet itself-though I've spent thousands and thousands on vlcd's and here i am the same as the day I ever started, absolutely nobody to blame but myself but I just wished I had been happy to lose weight slowly or normally and maybe I actually would have learnt something along the way.

Here's hoping SW works for me and I work for it. Really enjoying it so far and I feel I've finally gotten my head around the main problem, I was so ashamed of myself for regaining the weight that i put everything on hold-nights out, meeting friends etc, waiting to lose it all again instantly which of course didn't happen so now Im more than happy to lose even half a pound a week and I've finally left all the shame behind me.

None of that is very helpful to anybody, I know, but basically try and nip it in the bud as soon as you see the pounds creeping up and remember if one type of diet or your old reliable isn't working for you anymore-or you it-, or you're no longer motivated or excited by it, there's loads of other healthy plans out there to try!
And leave shame well and truly behind because it's crippling!
X

[missy1978]

I think because when you are losing, you are focused. You have a goal, you are going to reach it, every week you (hopefully) make a step towards it. When you are maintaining you dont have the same goal, you dont have the "i lost two pounds this week" feel.

It's something that worries me, although I'm only half way to target. I need to put a strategy in place for when I achieve what I want so that I don't just feel pleased with myself, relax too much because I have what I want and put all the weight back on. I may be losing weight for a reason but I'd like to keep it off long term too!

Is it just a case of replacing that 'yay, I lost two pounds' feeling with something else? Something that can be maintained while you are maintaining, so to speak!

Maintaining sounds tough as hell tbh and that fact that you are investigating, taking it seriously, says to me that you won't be putting the weight back on any time soon.