For those who have lost weight and put it back on, why?

[TrailerM]

I always hear stories of people working extremely hard to lose weight, and then they turn around and put it all back on again. Not to be rude, but why would you do this to yourself. Don't you remember how hard it was to lose it the first time?

For those of you who have previously re-bounded to your original weight, what is going to keep you from putting it back on this time?

It has taken me almost 6 months to lose 40 lbs, and I am still working towards my goal of 185. Once I get there, I hope to never have to lose that much weight again.

[jon1995]

usually from cutting to hard and over eating for awhile plus water weight.

[festeri]

Let’s consider, for a second the likely physiology of those folks who stay naturally lean. Based on the Geneticcs Hypothesis (3), we’d expect them to have pretty good hormonal status in terms of thyroid levels, low or normal cortisol, maybe decent levels of testosterone, GH and IGF-1. They probably also show a normal nervous system output and an ability to increase fat oxidation when calories are raised as well.

We’d probably expect them to exhibit a spendthrift metabolism (6), one that cranks up in response to overfeeding to burn off excess calories. It wouldn’t be surprising if they were the ones who showed a great deal of Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT, 7) which is what allows them to burn off excess calories without getting fat. All of this, almost certainly with other factors would all contribute to their general lack of fat gain during overfeeding. Of course, if fat gain is limited during overfeeding, that would tend to mean that any weight gain will tend to be LBM, as the P-ratio data described above indicates.

The problem is that the above physiological profile in no way describes individuals who have dieted down to a low body fat percentage. Rather, dieted individuals typically show a biology that is absolutely not geared towards anything except packing the body fat back on. Typically, the metabolic consequences of dieting include a lowered metabolism, decreased fat oxidation, decreased HSL activity, increased LPL activity impaired hormonal status (including lowered testosterone and raised cortisol), decreased thermogenesis from a reduction in both thyroid levels and nervous system output and a host of other metabolic defects. All of these serve to both slow fat loss during the diet and ensure rapid fat regain when food is reintroduced.

For example, in the classic starvation study (the Minnesota Semi-Starvation study) men were dieted for 6 solid months reaching 4-5% body fat at the end of the study. Then they were refed and body composition was tracked. By the theory being advocated, they should have gained lots of LBM and little fat during refeeding, they were clearly super lean to start out with. But this is absolutely not what happened.

As would be expected based on the metabolic adaptations to dieting, their bodies were mainly primed to replenish fat stores. Reductions in metabolic rate, fat oxidation and thermogenesis all contributed to a preferential gain of body fat and these systems didn’t reset themselves until all of the body fat lost had been regained (8). Quite in fact, signals from body fat (i.e. leptin and the rest) are the mechanism behind this physiology (9).

The bottom line is that, in dieted down individuals, the body is primed to gain body fat at the expense of LBM to replenish what was lost during the diet. Again, this is fundamentally different than looking at genetically lean individuals (for whom a low body fat percentage is their normal level) in terms of what happens when they are overfed.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/mus...n-changes.html

[TrailerM]

^ Good article. I need to remember the last paragraph once I hit my goal. It said to eat at maintenance for approx. 2 weeks after you have hit your goal to try to "normalize" your body, before beginning a bulk cycle.

[drewsedg]

I don't get it either. After all of the hard work to get where I am now there is no way I will ever go back. I still have some weight to lose but I won't be getting any fatter than I am right now ever again.

[keepnitreel]

Back in 1999, I was @ 9% bodyfat & hitting the gym hard. It all came to an end when I decided to stay home with our new born. 12 years & 40 lbs later here I am but this time for good! Will never let that happen again!

[Electricheadd]

I got divorced, and spent 5 years playing warcrack every night while abusing the Domino's pizza delivery number. My own fault, but for some reason it was preferable to live in the fantasy world for awhile. I won't let it happen again either, I always liked the body building lifestyle.

[ScSc0rP]

Being content. Letting things snowball

[DarthInvadeHer]

Well when I first started I was around 132-136 and I lost 6-10 pounds so not THAT significant. I was around 126 when I was at my best and I told myself I would never let my self go past 140, and I'm around 155 now. LOL. I have an eating disorder though, and it got really out of hand which is how I ended up at this weight Butttt I'm working on losing it now (hopefully I won't be derailed by my ED) and I would say that the reason I would never let myself go like this again is because these last 2 years have been the absolute worst years of my life, and I never ever want to feel this depressed or ****ty again.

[alex2363]

i had 2 surgeries in last 2 yrs.....over ate cals...now i know iifym and im not looking back

[ThomasBlake]

I was in excellent lean shape 5 years ago but for some crazy reason decided to quit training and go on a 2 year drinking binge and lost all that I had. I've been sober for 3 years now though and have put on a solid foundation once again these last 2 years. I'm now in the process of cutting the fat again.

A lesson learned is wisdom gained.

[tylers21]

Injury.

[nlite2000]

In the past it was always from simply returning to my regular eating habits, and from not lifting weights.

I am glad I found weight lifting, it is a narcissist's dream.

[wings_unhinged]

In 2004, I was 180 and grew to 250.

I lost it all a bit later, only to go from 192 back to 250 a year later.

Then I attempted to get rid of it, got to 235 before going to 265.

Got to 209 last year but failed AGAIN. 240.

Now I'm 233.

Love of sweets and junk food. No exercise.

[skelooth]

This is a funny question, because I don't have a clear answer. I've gone from 300lbs to 200lbs to 300lbs 200lbs, and I kid you not, I am 300lbs again. I don't expect to live very long at this rate

A lot of it has to do with comfort levels, coupled with a natural propensity to gain weight like a mother ****er. After graduating college, getting married, and aquiring a desk job I blew right back up like a balloon again. Sure I like pizza, but I never ate unreasonably. I also have all the symptons of a broken thyroid (I'm prematurely gray, my skin is flakey, my energy levels suck) even though blood tests always come back normal if not on the lower end.

Life is a funny thing. You work with what you got. I'm down 30lbs again but have already been plataued for a few weeks. As an adult I have significantly less time to dedicate to exercise so it's a constant battle against the clock.

[RRS73]

In the past it was always from simply returning to my regular eating habits, and from not lifting weights.

I am glad I found weight lifting, it is a narcissist's dream.

Repped. I never lifted weights in my life until 3 years ago, but tried cardio on and off with no long-term success. My weight went up and down my entire life. I hit the weights now and have not looked back. I'm in the best shape of my life, and have never felt better.

[Newag]

I think one of the things that scares me most in life is putting back on the weight. I don't eat or conduct myself the way I did before. I can easily maintain my weight and exercise willingly. However that little voice in my head keeps telling me that I will be back to 300. If I was before, why not now? I pride myself on proving that voice wrong. I worked to damn hard to ever get above 185 again. When I get to my goal weight I don't ever want to see above 165. I can't answer on why people kill all their hard work but I hope I don't.

[nakedbabytoes]

Messed up thinking.
I hear people all the time say "If I was your size, I'd eat whatever I want!"

That's why you aren't my size. That's why I wasn't this size! People tend to set a weight number goal, but once they get to it, they reward themselves by eating like they did before. Not exercising like they did before. I think I finally realized this was forever once I got down to my goal and didn't revert to old habits. That I didn't see food as a reward for hard work. It honestly is either something you get, or something you don't. Like either the light goes on or it doesn't. When you think about the workout numbers & not the food.

[sid007]

b/c some only diet to lose weight and these people yo-yo

Barely eat = Lost weight

Weight loss != fat lost

They are lowering their lean body mass and metabolism dieting and go back to their own habits only to gain the weight back and some.

Keep this cycle going and they get to a point where they barely lose on a diet and give up

Gotta do it the right way and long term (life style change)