Is this really possible?

[KBQueen]

I have been reading lots of posts and there are so many people who have returned to CD that its making me question if its possible to keep the weight off in the end! Even my CDC is back on CD this week after gaining over Christmas. I dont want to lose the weight then have to keep coming back to CD over and over because I gain weight from Christmas, weekends away, holidays etc. I would be on CD forever! To all those who keep returning, why is the weight going back on so easily?

 

[Rkmriddell]

I think, and it is just think as I've not got to maintenance yet, that its the same with any diet. If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. If you eat the same next Xmas as you did the year before you lost your weight you'll likely put on weight, not being able to control ourselves is the main reason we're all here and that's what we've got to learn to address once we're learning to maintain. That'll be the same with ww, sw, cd and any other. If we learn the correct habits, eat the right foods with an occasional treat and exercise it's likely that we will be able to maintain a healthy weight at any point going forward.

However, I can see that there are times when people may want two weeks of who gives a sh!t food over Xmas and come back to cd as its probably the quickest way to get it off and we all know it works x

CD journey. -11.1, -3.5, -2.6, -2, -5.7, -

 

[MrsFatBum]

I think with any diet if you do not try to maintain the weight by changing old habits etc you will go back to putting the weight back on. There are alot of people (forgive me if i am wrong) who like myself took a break during christmas but didnt work up the stages before hand... which means that we just went from not eating... to suddenly eating everything under the sun. For obvious reasons that will make you pile on the weight.

On a long term basis I think the answer to your question is that the people who did this diet previously did not maintain properly. As you know there are several stages to this diet before you can go back to eating "normal" food... however for this kind of diet "normal" is not going back to eating the kind of food that you ate before... you need to be able to maintain a healthy lifestyle in order to keep the weight off long term.

Alot of people do freak out thinking that it just happens on food replacement diets but I know many people who have done weight watchers or slimming world etc and lost lots of weight but after the diet ended they started putting weight back on..

Simple answer... it all depends on the choices we make after we finish the diet. xx

 

[KBQueen]

Thank you for the replies, it makes much more sense when explained by others I can imagine the excitement of getting to goal weight and can imagine you would want to celebrate but the trick would be to allow treats now and then instead of having huge blow outs x

 

[MrsFatBum]

since i started this diet i have thought alot about the things i will change in my life after i finish and one thing i definitely will be doing is.. for every naughty food i have i will do exercise to burn it off. it might even be simply going for a long walk to burn off a packet of crisps or whatever... i think my main problem has always been eating a load of rubbish and just sitting on it.... i dont think i will ever be able to stop wanting an occasional bar of choc or pizza or something... so i will just make sure that i burn off the excess calories.

 

[KBQueen]

Thats what I will have to do too. I will never be able to stop having some of my fav foods so exercise will need to be brought in x

 

[boardwitless]

I reached target in Feb 2010 and came up the steps - I got to a stage where I now know how many calories I need per day to maintain (around 1800). I try to stick below this daily so that when I go on holiday, or at Christmas, I can have a splurge without too much damage being done, but if I do put some weight on, it is comforting to come back to CD or a similar meal-replacement diet for a short time as I know it works for me (it's my 'default' setting) and I'd rather go hard-core for a short while than lose 1/2 lb a week over months and months.
I also think that 'maintenance' can be very fleeting - some people may view maintaining as keeping within a +2lb/-2lb tolerance, others (like me whose scale readings can go up and down like a yoyo) may take action when they reach a 1 stone upper limit.
I love my holidays, parties and Christmas time for the food so I certainly don't deny myself anything but I make amends on 'normal' days as that's the pay-off. CD cost me £1000 over the time I was on it - I don't intend to have wasted that time, money or effort.
xx

 

[Camille]

Boardwitless, Loved reading your comment. I lost 5 1/2 stone about 4 years ago but made the mistake of coming off SS then going on holiday without going through the steps-big mistake!!! It took around a year to get to the weight I was before starting CD. This time I have questioned if it does make all the difference going through the steps to maintain & you have answered that, thankyou.

 

[KBQueen]

Its answered it for me too xx

 

[boardwitless]

Hi Camille, if nothing else, going up the steps gets you to a point where you find out your individual calorie needs each day - the more active you are the more calories you'll need (I should be more active ) and then it's just a case of doing the maths. If you eat an additional 500 calories on a special occasion, then it's a case of doing 500 calories worth of exercise, or cutting back by 500 afterwards (or a mix of both). The 'doing what you've always done' quote by Rkmriddell is very true - before CD, I ate like every day was a 'special occasion' and I didn't want to go back to that learned habit as I knew I'd end up back at nearly 16 stones.
Jewell77 - you can always have some of your favourite foods, but the key is to have them in moderation. Since CD, I've found that I have less tolerance for sweet things (my downfall) as I think that a time without food 'reset' my taste buds and I find that even open packets of sweets in the house now don't shout so loudly to me now! This comes from someone who used to eat the kids' Easter eggs before they learnt to count how many they had left in the cupboard