Is CD a lose fast gain back all plus more diet!!??

[rade]

ok here's my personal contribution to this thread. It's painful to think about really, but here goes

I've always had a weight problem of varying degrees but about 8 years ago I lost over 5 stone in a year by going to the gym regularly and counting calories. I did it all myself ( no slimming clubs etc) and vowed that I would NEVER put the weight back on again. I even went and had liposuction on my thighs and confidently told the Doctor that I would never put on weight again!

Fast forward to about 3 years ago. Almost all the weight had gone back on again and I now started doing CD. I lost 4 stone and almost got to goal, then gave up again, but I was the lightest weight I had ever been as an adult.



Fast forward to today and here I am ( or was 6 weeks ago) the heaviest I've ever been and attempting to lose the same weight all over again

Have I learned my lesson this time? Yes I most definitely have. I fully intend to get to goal and this time I WILL stay there. My body cannot cope with the weight fluctuations and I know I eat too much. I therefore have 2 choices when I reach goal. Eat the way I used to and watch it all pile back on again, or accept that I can't eat what I like without paying the price and learn to eat less and say no to food when I'm not hungry.

I honestly don't think being on a VLCD makes you put the weight back on any quicker (apart from the glycogen if you don't do maintenance properly) unless you carry on eating too much as I did. When I think of all the salads and gym I did to lose 5 stones and then put it all back on again I could scream!!!

Sorry if I've waffled on

I think what I'm trying to say is that you can easily put it back on again no matter how fast or slow you lose it - I just waffled along the way a bit - sorry!

Really good to hear.. i glad you've reached the point now..

we can only live and learn

 

[Kate]

I only plan to lose each pound once if at all possible. So far, that's working for me.

However, I've gone back to eating the way I did before I discovered CD. How so? I hear you cry. Have you learned nothing?

Well, firstly, let me say that when I was at my biggest, I used to get horribly frustrated when I heard about people who just cut out fizzy drinks, or crisps, or chocolate bars, or cheese, or alcohol, and lost loads of weight. I didn't have any of those things (except occasionally alcohol with a meal if I was out for dinner). I ate healthily - just a little bit too much. In fact, about 100 calories per day too much - 1 slice of bread.

I put on weight by giving up exercise. I used to cycle everywhere and go to the gym five times a week. Then I had a dramatic change in circumstances that meant I couldn't do that any longer. In fact, it got to the point where it was quite difficult to fit in any exercise at all. I got lazy and stopped making the effort.

Of course, no exercise meant I needed fewer calories. I did drop my calorie intake a little - but not quite enough. It took ages for the weight to creep on, so I didn't notice at first (having been someone who never weighed, and took her size completely for granted). And then I suppose I just let it go on far longer than I should have done.

I used CD a couple of years ago and lost 4 stone. It's all stayed off. I've lost another 2 1/2 stone since. Also all stayed off.

I exercise at least as much as I used to, and I eat the same way I used to. See, I already knew a lot about healthy eating, and had no problem putting it into practice - I had done courses in nutrition and exercise prescription, and despite knowing everything I knew, and having good, healthy eating habits, and knowing how very important exercise is, and loving exercise as much as I did...I still got out of the habit.

So what am I saying here? Well, essentially, the diet you follow makes no odds. Every diet works to some extent or another. The speed of the weight loss has nothing to do with whether you'll regain - that's up to you creating and maintaining healthy habits (and exercise should be one of those healthy habits). But you know all this I just thought you might be interested in my backstory, I guess

 

[sazzy34]

.


QUOTE
Okay, so as so many people say, they are going to make good choices and not do what they did before.

So how come it's going to be different this time? I assume we all knew we were making poor choices before, and yet we still piled on the weight doing what we knew we shouldn't. We continued to let it happen. Why, when we knew what it was doing to us? Why couldn't we make those healthy choices first time? What stopped us, made it so difficult?
What makes you think that you aren't going to do it again?
Will you have the right mindset for it. After all, you will still be slim. It's incredibly easy to think a few pounds doesn't make much difference, the diet can wait until next week.






In my case I actually didn`t "notice" the weight gradually going up,
Until you get that one thing that happens to you and then you realise how bad its got ...
For me personally I have never had my head in the right place before when trying to lose weight ( positive mental attitude lol)
And now I have !

 

[KD]

I ate healthily - just a little bit too much. In fact, about 100 calories per day too much - 1 slice of bread.

That's true aswell. You can still get overweight eating healthy foods. I also ate very healthily. Also ate very unhealthily though.

The kids never had processed meals, all good home cooking and I joined them. It was the snacky things that got me. The crisps and extra slices of toast

I knew about nutrition and it was so important to me that my kids ate well and I didn't pass on any of my issues. Seemed to have managed that:clap: Didn't care for myself so much though

Also the reduction of exercise having been a judo freak who had an accident which put paid to that. I still always exercised, but not enough to balance out what I was eating. The bigger I got, the less exercise I did because it was getting harder.

Okay, so as so many people say, they are going to make good choices and not do what they did before.

So how come it's going to be different this time?

. For me personally I have never had my head in the right place before when trying to lose weight ( positive mental attitude lol)
And now I have !

Yep, getting the head in the right place to diet is of utmost importance. You've then got to don a different type of positive head for maintenance.

 

[Kate]

Also the reduction of exercise having been a judo freak who had an accident which put paid to that. I still always exercised, but not enough to balance out what I was eating. The bigger I got, the less exercise I did because it was getting harder.

Aye, there's the rub!

It sucks, doesn't it? Let's face it, we all know what's good for us - putting it into action just isn't always as easy as "innocent bystanders" would have you believe (you know the innocent bystanders I'm talking about...the helpful ones who say "can't you just eat less and exercise more?"). If actually doing it were as easy as saying it, none of us would ever have been overweight in the first place.

 

[icemoose]

As part of my NLP training I have been doing a lot of work on "Perception is projection", so in other words if you say something is going to be hard then your unconcious believes that so goes with that mindset, whereas if you say something is fun and enjoyable then you have that mindset.

The reason positive people suceed on the diet is that there concious and unconcious are in tune with each other, it is also why some people fail and get frustrated as they conciously want to lose weight but unconciously don't want to which is why people post things like "WHY CAN'T I DO THIS, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME" etc etc

The answer is nothing is wrong with them, you just need to make sure that both your concious and unconcious want the same thing.

Anyway when you get to goal you need to enjoy keeping the weight off, you need to keep positive that you look good, wear nice clothes, still eat nice food, take compliments etc etc and let that be the wind in your slim sails.

So I suppose what I am rambling about is to say be positive!! If someone says "HOW ARE YOU?" then if you answer "NOT BAD" then your unconcious can't process NOT and hence it hears bad and you start acting that way, therefore if someone today says "HOW ARE YOU?" then say GOOD THANKS!

Enjoy the diet, and enjoy being slim after the diet....

Mike

 

[dropsofjupiter]

Great thread!

I was having thoughts on maintenance myself. I was discussing with OH, who (if I'm honest) is sick of me trying WW/SW/Counting cals etc, andI am sure he thinks that me doing CD is going to end in me giving up. he has been nothing but supportive so far, dispite eating fish and chips in front of me on day 2 or 3 (I did say he was allowed to, though!).

Anyway, I was saying to him that I am confident that I will be able to maintain - I just need to get to a healthy weight first. I know all the nutrituin exercise stuff. I know what I SHOULD be doing, and once I have enough cals I fully intend to exercise more. (I am SSing at the mo - and my exercise is walking the dog. I will start swimming as soon as my cossie fits me!!)

I am using SS as a means to an end, not the end itself. A tool, if you like, to get me where I need to be, and help me get out of the boredom/emotional eating habit that helped to get me obese in the first place. I dont want to be reliant on the cambridge products for the rest of my life - but while I am re-educating myself they are fabulous.

This turned out longer that I meant it to, but I am looking forward to making healthy choices because I want to, because I am slim and happy with my weight.

Discussions like these are fab!!

 

[Lilly]

I had this issue a few weeks ago a friend of mine said I was ridiculous doing the cambridge and they always have a friend who did it don't they!!! The fact is once the fat has got gone its gone, if I gain weight after goal its not the old fat hiding somewhere thats crept back on its NEW FAT that i've put in my body. I'm thinking of this diet as a fresh start, wiping the slate clean and starting again! My mentality is already SO different, i'm already exercising and my food choices are going to be wise, I don't want to be that overweight again!

 

[icemoose]

You are exactly right, the diet doesn't make you obese again, eating too many calories after the diet makes you obese.

I always say to my clients that you got big once and hence you can get big twice!

And when people say they couldn't eat what they ate before then it just isn't true!! It is very easy to eat 3000 calories a day and not feel that you are bloated or in anyway overeating.

Education is important.
Positivity is important.

And of course a decent set of scales that tell you when you are eating too much is paramount!!

 

[Rayven]

Hey guys, only just caught this thread now. Its great to hear everyone's stories. I'm currently 28 years old and am the heaviest i've ever been. I've only had one succesful diet before and was calories counting and practically living on rabbit food to get down to 10 stone. The thing was that i was 18 at the time and never put any thought into how i was going to keep the weight off. I obviously knew that my old diet was what had made me overweight in the first place but i thought that losing the weight would be the hard bit and keeping it off would be easy!!!
Not having changed any of my eating habits meant that the weight crept back on....slowly at first so that i didn't think it was a problem and by the time i DID think it was a problem i'd kinda given up!
This time's different for me because even though i'm only on day 3 i'm already thinking about maintaining once i get to target. I know i can't eat the way i did before and to be honest i don't want to. I don't want to get to my 30th Birthday regretting the fact that i've made wrong choices and because of that i'm miserable.

I wouldn't worry too much at the moment about how you're going to maintain but a little thought about it every now and then can only be a positive thing. I'm looking forward to enjoying a healthier diet, chicken, tuna, heaps of veg and fruit. That all sounds really yummy to me right now. If you waved a plate of curry under my nose (my fav) I'd tell you to shove it (in the nicest possible way) You have to believe you CAN and WILL lose and keep it off and that you CAN and WILL be healthy when you get to goal.

Sorry for rambling. xx

 

[KD]

The reason positive people suceed on the diet is that there concious and unconcious are in tune with each other, it is also why some people fail and get frustrated as they conciously want to lose weight but unconciously don't want to which is why people post things like "WHY CAN'T I DO THIS, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME" etc etc

Hey! That's really interesting So true too, but I've never really thought about it in that way.

I think I've always had a battle between wanting, and really wanting when it came to my weight. There did seem to be some confusion when I would say things but not totally 'feel' them. Now I know the official line on this

 

[Lily]

Fascinating thread!

I love this forum. I've been on weightloss forums before where everyone wanted to sit around moaning about how they hadn't lost weight when they'd only cheated a little bit... Now here, there's some really useful advice--thanks guys!

The whole 'I know someone who lost seven stones on LL/CD and has put it all back on again' has already reared it's ugly head--more than once. I'm sure people think they're being helpful when they say it But very early on, I realised that I know lots of people who've lost weight at WW, or SW, or Rosemary Conley--the list goes on (I've tried them all, and more). And guess what? Quite a few of them have put it all back on--and more--again. So it's not how you lose the weight--as many people before me on this thread have already pointed out. In many ways, losing weight is the easy bit. You're in control, you know how many calories you've got to have. And then all the weight's gone--now what?

I think it's important to accept that if you've ever had a weight problem, in all likelihood, it's always going to be a continuing battle. How hard you make that battle is entirely up to you. But if you've always used food to deal with your issues, there's a good chance you're always going to have a tendency to do that when the going gets tough. Other people use alcohol, drugs, cigarettes... So you've got to be prepared!

I'm trying to think about what I'm going to do after I've lost weight. Not eating has definitely freed up another couple of hours in my day, so there's no excuse--I've got time to think about it!

And I'm determined that this really is going to be the last time I ever have to do this!

 

[rade]

Thanks guys, i feel the positive mental attitude is a must.. without this sounding strange i am enjoying the diet so far! it's regulated, easy to understand and the occasional impulses do pass, eventually!...

i have had to curb my social life, my nearest and dearest know i wouldn't be ripping up the town til xmas... even saying that i use to only have a night out once or twice a month before hand, if that... it's strange how i miss having a nite out even though i had very few over the last 4-5 months! i think it's knowing i can't go out for a drink with my friends or have a big nite out.. and please don't say - drink water or have a coke zero - seriously it would never happen.. it's be like a chocoholic being locked in over-night in Willy Wonkas factory!! i am not an alchoholic by any means but i couldn't go out for a big nite out and not want 4-5 glasses of wine.. woe is me!

but unlike someone i know on this diet, their social life is hampering their success.. they stop and start on virtually a weekly basis, i know i couldn't do it myself, this is a hard diet and i don't plan on prolonging the experience for a few nites out!! arty0016:

 

[icemoose]

KD you should go on this NLP course, you would love it!! It is so relevant to weight loss / weight maintenance. Diva recommended it to me and has totally focussed my mind on what the issues are here.

M.

 

[Lighterlady]

You mention drinking 4 or 5 glasses on a night out - I was the same, and it would be three or four nights a week. But in the last few months I've been shut away writing my book, and not drinking at all, if I go out now, I can only have 1 glass, and I feel tipsy. I'd imagine after losing the 4 stone I have to get rid of, it will be even worse! Alcohol is probably the main reason I put on a lot of weight at university in the first place, and its that weight I am still trying to lose. In the past 4 years since I left, my lifestyle has been much better, I go to the gym frequently, and I eat healthily, and as my weight has been stable in all this time, I've been kidding myself that I can carry on in the same way when I finish CD. But I have realised that those 4 or 5 glasses of wine can double my daily calorie intake, and so I can't carry on drinking so much in the future. It is probably why, despite exercising and eating well, I haven't managed to lose any of the weight I put on at uni. I am surprisingly not missing alcohol too much (am only on week one, but haven't really drunk the past few months either), and going home with a clear head is so much better than waking up in the morning wondering what happened the night before. I don't think I was dependent on alcohol, because I could not drink if I decided not to, but I rarely made that decision, apart from during lent, or for whatever reason. I am now making the decision that I will cut down my alcohol intake considerably in the future. It just isn't worth the weight that comes with it.
Sorry, bit of a long post! x

 

[GnomesGnuts]

Alot of my thin friends Ive noticed dont really think about what to eat, they dont really think about food, Id love to get to that stage. Ive taken my first steps to changing my eating habits in the last two weeks, came off cambridge after a month, I didnt feel healthy, having packet food wasnt for me, but i bow down to the fact it works or many people and many people feel great and healthy, I was 20stone13 and after a month on cb i am now 19stone 9, now Ive decided that instead of waiting for my goal weight I wanted to get into changing my eating now, so Ive dug out my old books on nutrition and started buying fresh foods, even made my own veggy soup today, no potatoes in it, smells and tastes fab, looking at labels, looking for sauces with no additives or sweeteners, tescos do this great korma sauces, all natural ingredients, 50% less salt and no colours or e numbers, taste fantastic altho Im gonna start making my own korma sauces, cant be that hard can it? I have joined the gym and now do 4/5 days of exercises, both weights and cardio. I feel better, I dont think you have to weight til goal weight to change your habits, you just have to want to do it, I woke up one day, utterly depressed, search and searched the internet until I worked out it was probably because I was lacking in nutrients, and sometimes thats what makes depression worse, regular exercise boosts the serotoin in your brain to make you feel good, its all clicking into place, I just want to tell people that you dont have to wait until youve lost all the weight to embark on a heathier lifestyle, you've just gotta make your mind up to do it.

I ususpect Im gonna get lots and lots of debate with this, prob from KD

 

[Kate]

Spot on, nice post GnomesGnuts!

 

[sazzy34]

Good for you gnomenuts, you sound very positive

 

[slushy]

i have lost and regained the same 3-4 stone more times than i care to think about over the past 20 years.

each time i have lost it has been a different diet and each time i have regained it has happened quicker and quicker as i have gotten older.

earlier this year i tried to lose it again by healthy eating. i followed the susan powter books and her website - anyone remember 'stop the insanity'? ( probably not as it was very big in the usa but not in the uk) - anyway it is basically low fat low sugar low salt - and in her words high volume high quality food - basically eating whole foods and food in the form it grew in rather than anything processed.

guess what? i GAINED weight ----- WHY? because i had NO IDEA about portion control.

i learned a valuable lesson which will stay with me when i am at the end of my cambridge journey and that is no matter what i eat i MUST CONTROL MY PORTION SIZES and keep all things in moderation!

 

[alipally]

Interesting post.
I can identify fully with every post on here.

The thing about fat loss by whatever means, is that any plan will work.... Every diet book, 'club', system or group, ever conceived of will be effective if you stick to the rules, no matter how bizarre they may seem...... you will lose weight, it all boils down the the same theory.

consume less calories than your body needs for a sustained period of time and you will lose weight....... of course some are more healthy than others, but nevertheless they are all effective, the instructions are followed exactly (I think this point is important, as some people will say such and such a diet didn't work for me... the reason is usually, because they 'tweeked it, 'only a bit, it shouldn't have made any difference really' )

BUT
If you do what you always did you will get what you always got....If the dieter goes back to eating more calories than they burn, the result will be a weight gain.

In order for any dieter to achieve long term success they must fine tune their consumption of calories to equal, on average, the energy needed to survive....

Having bounced up and down a good few times in the last couple of years, I am well aware of the challenges facing anyone who is nearing their target weight and looking towards a longterm maintanence plan.

I have to say that when new clients ask me this question I always say that losing the weight is the easy part keeping it off is the real challenge!
I still see several clients who have been at target for a year now, they rarely buy products, but they like to know that somebody else is witnessing their weight on a monthly basis, and I'm more than happy to see them for a few minutes each month

Now I've gone on for longer than I anticipated!