I once lost two pounds after following the Grape Diet (if you haven't heard of it, that's because my high school friends made it up and it basically involves eating only grapes all day long, which I don't recommend). After one day of grape-eating, I went off the diet and I gained back that two pounds...and then another couple of pounds because I felt compelled to gorge myself after a day of deprivation.
I wasn't very smart about my eating back then, but this cycle of lose-weight/gain-weight is quite common in the world of diets. In fact, the statistics on diets aren't very good. Some studies suggest that:
- Most dieters lose 5-10% of their body weight in the first few months of a diet, but...
- Up to two thirds of dieters not only regain weight 4-5 years after following a diet, they often gain even more than they originally lost
What about you? Have you ever lost weight on a diet, only to gain it back (and more)? Vote in this week's poll and then leave a comment to tell us about your experiences. Why did you regain the weight and what you have you learned from that? Do you still follow diets? Tell us about it.
Sources:
McCary J. Beyond Energy Imbalace. IDEA Fitness Journal. March 2010.
Mann T. Medicare's search for effective obesity treatments: diets are not the answer.. 2007 Apr. Am Psychol;62(3): 220-233.
Beyond Energy Imbalance by Jennie McCary, MS, RD, LD
Are you kidding? I’ve made a CAREER out of it, unfortunately. I learned from my Mom. LOL.
I remember my Mom and her friends eating two little tiny chocolate chews with a glass of water for two meals a day (they were called AIDS, if you can believe that). I remember the commercials on tv when I was a kid: a perky housewife popping two tiny chocolate chews in her mouth, her gleeful smile obviously concealing a primal desire to rip the arms off the ice cream man and down a half gallon of mint chip while the kids played in the yard.
Scarsdale, Susan Powter, Atkins, The Zone, South Beach…I have gained and lost hundreds of pounds on fad diets over the years. It started when I was only 15 and 5′ 7″, 125 lbs…and a dance teacher told me I was FAT. I am now 45 years old. Last April, I weighed in at my top weight of 381 pounds and finally had ENOUGH!
There is so much conflicting information out there that it drives most of us CRAZY…so I am keeping it simple, eating as clean & natural as possible, and exercising (which is not a picnic when you have a backside the size of a Prius!).
Most diets set you up to fail from the beginning and I have officially washed my hands of them. The result? I’ve lost 37 pounds since April 12th just sticking to my OWN plan, following my OWN instincts, and finding the path that’s right for me. I have finally changed my life by shutting out all the hoo-hah and creating my own plan. I just focus on 10 pounds at a time and it’s coming off. Next stop: the 330’s. I should be 299 by Christmas and it’ll be the best gift I ever gave myself.
You can follow my progress here if you’re interested…I need all the support I can get:
Battle of the Butt
I wish everyone out there the biggest and best success in your efforts to get healthy!!
This is 2010 and we are STILL banging around the rhetoric of “diets”?! “Good/healthy nutrition” anyone?
Dianne, I feel for you. I am doing the same thing as you. I need to lose about 45 pounds. I have been exercising daily for 18 years and yet I gained those 40+ pounds over that same time period. Stop with the “But you gained muscle”! Not 45 pounds of muscle! So I finally had my Aha moment. I decided to journal every bite I take, eat sensibly (avoiding the white foods generally but not eliminating anything). I made a goal to lose 14 pounds by my birthday(in 6 weeks) and I’ve been on this eating plan for a month. It seems to be working.
It is very hard no matter if you need to lose 20 pounds or 200! We really need to support anyone around us that is trying to make their life better–and losing excess body fat will make our lives better!
Dianne, you hang in there. You are doing your body a real service. Thank you for sharing your plan. I like it.
Thanks, Lisa!!
I sure am trying. The road between 343 and 299 seems long and arduous, though. I’m tough and I can take it, but I wish I could do this part faster.
I should hit the 50 pounds lost mark by my October weigh in though!
Thanks, i think to try to p90x(http://www.p90xbuyonline.com/)
Hi all,
Like many others the world over, I too have had my fair share of yo-yo-ing through the diet minefield. Weigh Watchers, Atkins, you all know how long the list is and that it grows daily.
What all these ‘diets’ fail to do is address the individual’s personal relationship with food and why we eat what we eat and when we eat it. Thereby setting each of us up to fail and to be more inclined to try their next diet product: “Reached a plateau in your weight loss? Try this chocolate bar to speed up your metabolism” Yes, the ad lines too are almost as numerous as the diets themselves and we fall for them often.
Since I have addressed my emotional relationship with food, I have managed to keep the weight off and it has come to a point where I don’t actually weigh myself anymore – for me, it’s no longer about the weight, but rather about how I feel about myself. I realised that the answer to my problems was not at the bottom of the cookie jar.
The word ‘diet’ also does strange things to our subconscious as it has connotations of ‘famine’ and ‘going without’ which all trigger the body to go into survival mode. I stopped thinking that there were foods that were ‘off limits’; I was allowed to eat anything I wanted to and when I wanted to.
Suddenly the voice calling me from the pantry stopped. I started addressing my own personal issues directly and the results have been more than amazing.
Well done to everyone for admitting that they have tried diets and failed on them. Have the courage now to look inwards at yourself to find out what is really causing the weight gain.
Exercise for health and fitness, rather than for weight loss alone and you will be inspired by the other benefits too!