Regainers

Whenever I see posts here from people who once lost a lot of weight with
low-carb, but then gained all or most of it back, I shake my head in
confusion. How does this happen? I don't want to be rude, I really don't
want to offend anyone, I just want to understand. I can understand being a
bit slack and letting a few pounds creep back on, I've done this myself.
But once my clothes start to pinch, I get strict again and lose those
pounds. I just can't imagine having to go buy clothes a size larger again
and being ok with it. For those of you who regained a significant amount
of weight, you must have noticed, right? So what was it that made you ok
with gaining the weight back? In this past year, whenever I've regained a
pound or two from overeating I got a sense of fear and cut back and lost
the weight. But if other people can regain then it could happen to me too,
and I want to learn how it happens so I can avoid it.

--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.

Ask yourself how you gained your extra weight in the first place....

Luna wrote:
|| Whenever I see posts here from people who once lost a lot of weight
|| with low-carb, but then gained all or most of it back, I shake my
|| head in confusion. How does this happen? I don't want to be rude,
|| I really don't want to offend anyone, I just want to understand. I
|| can understand being a bit slack and letting a few pounds creep back
|| on, I've done this myself. But once my clothes start to pinch, I get
|| strict again and lose those pounds. I just can't imagine having to
|| go buy clothes a size larger again and being ok with it. For those
|| of you who regained a significant amount of weight, you must have
|| noticed, right? So what was it that made you ok with gaining the
|| weight back? In this past year, whenever I've regained a pound or
|| two from overeating I got a sense of fear and cut back and lost the
|| weight. But if other people can regain then it could happen to me
|| too, and I want to learn how it happens so I can avoid it.
||
|| --
|| Michelle Levin
|| http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick
||
|| I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3
|| flaws.

"Roger Zoul" wrote in message
...
Ask yourself how you gained your extra weight in the first place....

What he said...
It's all about denial. I gained my weight fairly quickly over 3 years. It's
not that I didnt notice I was getting bigger, its just that I refused to
weigh myself and didn't face up to how bad the situation was until it was
(almost) out of control. That said, I'm with you Luna - once I get to my
goal weight I aint NEVER goin' back!
Caitlin


Luna wrote:
|| Whenever I see posts here from people who once lost a lot of weight
|| with low-carb, but then gained all or most of it back, I shake my
|| head in confusion. How does this happen? I don't want to be rude,
|| I really don't want to offend anyone, I just want to understand. I
|| can understand being a bit slack and letting a few pounds creep back
|| on, I've done this myself. But once my clothes start to pinch, I get
|| strict again and lose those pounds. I just can't imagine having to
|| go buy clothes a size larger again and being ok with it. For those
|| of you who regained a significant amount of weight, you must have
|| noticed, right? So what was it that made you ok with gaining the
|| weight back? In this past year, whenever I've regained a pound or
|| two from overeating I got a sense of fear and cut back and lost the
|| weight. But if other people can regain then it could happen to me
|| too, and I want to learn how it happens so I can avoid it.
||
|| --
|| Michelle Levin
|| http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick
||
|| I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3
|| flaws.

On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 05:12:47 GMT, Luna
wrote:

For those of you who regained a significant amount
of weight, you must have noticed, right? So what was it that made you ok
with gaining the weight back? In this past year, whenever I've regained a
pound or two from overeating I got a sense of fear and cut back and lost
the weight. But if other people can regain then it could happen to me too,
and I want to learn how it happens so I can avoid it.

--
Michelle Levin

Yep, I noticed all right.

Only problem was - I was STICKING to the LC plan that had gotten the
weight off in the first place! In the end I had to halve my calorie
intake to just maintain, having regained half the weight I'd lost.

Of course, my system is screwy. It does not work properly and hasn't
since I was a child. It wasn't until we finally realised that apnoea
was an issue for me that things straightened themselves out.

I know I'm not the only one for whom regain while NOT doing anything
different diet-and-exercise wise was an issue. Rosie-bint (who used
to post here and still does sometimes) went through exactly the same
pattern when she miscarried her first child, then again in her second
pregnancy when she carried young 'Frogmellia' to term.

Aramanth

Luna,

Unfortunately, I found that for me long term low carbing can increase my
insulin resistance and hence make it impossible to lose any weight at all no
matter what I do. Only medical intervention with a drug that reduces
insulin resistance will help.

Plus, when my insulin resistance gets very high, I am exhausted and hungry
all the time when I eat low carb.

I have only regained all the weight I lost once, but the reason was that I
felt so much better when not low carbing (after 3 years of strict low
carbing) that I decided it was worth living with the extra pounds. I'd been
feeling half dead for six months while slowly regaining weight anyway. I did
manage to find a diabetes medication that stopped the weight loss after I
regained 10 lbs. Then I got a cancer diagnosis and all of a sudden weight
didn't seem like such an issue and I figured I might as well enjoy life
while I had it. That accounted for another 10 lbs.

I recently regained about 5 lbs despite long stints of careful low carbing
and exercise. This time I got smart and headed towards a endocrinologist.
By taking a medication, Metformin, I've managed to lose the 5 lbs without
changing my dietary patterns. In fact, I'm eating more, not less carbs.

Weight loss is far, far more complex than any of the diet doctors would have
you believe and diet and exercise while they are effective for many don't
work for everyone. Particularly not people with intense insulin resistance.
Unless you address the IR (as Aramanth has done by relieving her sleep apnea
and I have done by taking an anti-IR medication) IR will stop weight loss
cold.
-- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.7 .
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/...0Diagnosed.htm



"Luna" wrote in message
...
Whenever I see posts here from people who once lost a lot of weight with
low-carb, but then gained all or most of it back, I shake my head in
confusion. How does this happen? I don't want to be rude, I really don't
want to offend anyone, I just want to understand. I can understand being a
bit slack and letting a few pounds creep back on, I've done this myself.
But once my clothes start to pinch, I get strict again and lose those
pounds. I just can't imagine having to go buy clothes a size larger again
and being ok with it. For those of you who regained a significant amount
of weight, you must have noticed, right? So what was it that made you ok
with gaining the weight back? In this past year, whenever I've regained a
pound or two from overeating I got a sense of fear and cut back and lost
the weight. But if other people can regain then it could happen to me
too,
and I want to learn how it happens so I can avoid it.

--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.

This is different. When I gained weight, I was unable to find a way to stop
or reduce. Now that we know how to lose weight the idea of allowing a large
regain is unthinkable. Luna is asking an important question.

Cubit
311/232.9/165

"Roger Zoul" wrote in message
...
Ask yourself how you gained your extra weight in the first place....

Luna wrote:
|| Whenever I see posts here from people who once lost a lot of weight
|| with low-carb, but then gained all or most of it back, I shake my
|| head in confusion. How does this happen? I don't want to be rude,
|| I really don't want to offend anyone, I just want to understand. I
|| can understand being a bit slack and letting a few pounds creep back
|| on, I've done this myself. But once my clothes start to pinch, I get
|| strict again and lose those pounds. I just can't imagine having to
|| go buy clothes a size larger again and being ok with it. For those
|| of you who regained a significant amount of weight, you must have
|| noticed, right? So what was it that made you ok with gaining the
|| weight back? In this past year, whenever I've regained a pound or
|| two from overeating I got a sense of fear and cut back and lost the
|| weight. But if other people can regain then it could happen to me
|| too, and I want to learn how it happens so I can avoid it.
||
|| --
|| Michelle Levin
|| http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick
||
|| I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3
|| flaws.

What he said...
It's all about denial. I gained my weight fairly quickly over 3 years.

Hell, I gained 100+ pounds in about 7 months! LOL!

LCing since 12/01/03-
Me- 5'7" 265/188/140
& hubby- 6' 310/199/180
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/lcer09/my_photos

I haven't regained significant weight personally, so do note that this
is based on observation of friends and acquaintances who have.

Luna wrote in message .. .

For those of you who regained a significant amount
of weight, you must have noticed, right? So what was it that made you ok
with gaining the weight back?

Usually, the people I know who have regained significant weight have
been dealing with other life stresses and/or situations that made it
difficult for them to control their food choices reliably (loved ones
in hospital where healthy, low-carb foods aren't available in the
cafeteria, etc.)

The other people I know who have regained significant weight have been
people who used food for comfort/entertainment/etc. on a regular
basis.

The third set of people I know who regained significant weight were
the ones who thought of low-carb as a "diet" rather than a lifestyle
change.

In this past year, whenever I've regained a
pound or two from overeating I got a sense of fear and cut back and lost
the weight. But if other people can regain then it could happen to me too,
and I want to learn how it happens so I can avoid it.

See above. You're a young, single woman who is concerned about her
health and appearance, and you have the time, motivation, and
resources to pay careful attention to it. Bravo to you for taking
advantage of it.

Fifteen years from now, if you're (God forbid) dealing with (say) an
aging parent in a nursing home and a child with learning disabilities,
you might not always have the energy to monitor your eating and
exercise patterns, nor the time and opportunity to make good
consistent food choices.

Stress and overcommitment are an easy way to gain weight in the first
place, after all (that's how I did it!) You're stuck at the office
and it's easier to have them deliver a chicken parmesan sandwich from
the pizza place across the street; you're exhausted before a
mid-afternoon meeting, so you have a candy bar to give you a sugar
boost; you're a ball of stress when you meet your date for the
evening, so you have two glasses of merlot with dinner and then the
chocolate-chip cheesecake seems like a wonderful idea instead of a
heart attack on a plate.

And that was just **work***, not anything really important like
family.

The only thing I can think of, in observing the experiences of people
who've regained significant weight, is to live a healthy lifestyle
with low-carb eating and regular exercise consistently, day in and day
out, until it becomes second nature. That way, when an emergency
comes up, you can put your full attention to dealing with it because
the healthy eating and exercise has become automatic.

And, of course, if one has compulsive eating issues, to work through
them instead of masking them with compulsive dieting (Steven Bratman's
book "Health Food Junkies" a/k/a "Orthorexia" is quite wise on this
point).



T.

Yeah, I thought about that. It started when I was a kid, I had a whole
different attitude about myself back then, I didn't know stuff then that I
do now. To regain the weight the same way I gained it the first time, I'd
have to be the same person I was at age 13.

In article ,
"Roger Zoul" wrote:

Ask yourself how you gained your extra weight in the first place....

Luna wrote:
|| Whenever I see posts here from people who once lost a lot of weight
|| with low-carb, but then gained all or most of it back, I shake my
|| head in confusion. How does this happen? I don't want to be rude,
|| I really don't want to offend anyone, I just want to understand. I
|| can understand being a bit slack and letting a few pounds creep back
|| on, I've done this myself. But once my clothes start to pinch, I get
|| strict again and lose those pounds. I just can't imagine having to
|| go buy clothes a size larger again and being ok with it. For those
|| of you who regained a significant amount of weight, you must have
|| noticed, right? So what was it that made you ok with gaining the
|| weight back? In this past year, whenever I've regained a pound or
|| two from overeating I got a sense of fear and cut back and lost the
|| weight. But if other people can regain then it could happen to me
|| too, and I want to learn how it happens so I can avoid it.
||


--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.

I don't know if this is a strange question or not - but a lot of you talk
about gaining a pound or two and then having to lose it. I've noticed with
myself that I flucuate up to 5 pounds. In the morning I can weigh and be
one weight and then in the evening of the same day (several hours after last
meal) I can be as much as 5 pounds different and in the morning it will be
back down 4 pounds maybe 5.5. Do others have flucuations this large? I did
a test. I weighed myself - then took a shower and dried off and then
weighed again - I was 1/2 to 1 pound heavier. I can only attribute that to
my skin soaking in water during the shower. Any answers to why all the
flucuation?
Diane


"TdN" wrote in message
om...
I haven't regained significant weight personally, so do note that this
is based on observation of friends and acquaintances who have.

Luna wrote in message
.. .

For those of you who regained a significant amount
of weight, you must have noticed, right? So what was it that made you
ok
with gaining the weight back?

Usually, the people I know who have regained significant weight have
been dealing with other life stresses and/or situations that made it
difficult for them to control their food choices reliably (loved ones
in hospital where healthy, low-carb foods aren't available in the
cafeteria, etc.)

The other people I know who have regained significant weight have been
people who used food for comfort/entertainment/etc. on a regular
basis.

The third set of people I know who regained significant weight were
the ones who thought of low-carb as a "diet" rather than a lifestyle
change.

In this past year, whenever I've regained a
pound or two from overeating I got a sense of fear and cut back and lost
the weight. But if other people can regain then it could happen to me
too,
and I want to learn how it happens so I can avoid it.

See above. You're a young, single woman who is concerned about her
health and appearance, and you have the time, motivation, and
resources to pay careful attention to it. Bravo to you for taking
advantage of it.

Fifteen years from now, if you're (God forbid) dealing with (say) an
aging parent in a nursing home and a child with learning disabilities,
you might not always have the energy to monitor your eating and
exercise patterns, nor the time and opportunity to make good
consistent food choices.

Stress and overcommitment are an easy way to gain weight in the first
place, after all (that's how I did it!) You're stuck at the office
and it's easier to have them deliver a chicken parmesan sandwich from
the pizza place across the street; you're exhausted before a
mid-afternoon meeting, so you have a candy bar to give you a sugar
boost; you're a ball of stress when you meet your date for the
evening, so you have two glasses of merlot with dinner and then the
chocolate-chip cheesecake seems like a wonderful idea instead of a
heart attack on a plate.

And that was just **work***, not anything really important like
family.

The only thing I can think of, in observing the experiences of people
who've regained significant weight, is to live a healthy lifestyle
with low-carb eating and regular exercise consistently, day in and day
out, until it becomes second nature. That way, when an emergency
comes up, you can put your full attention to dealing with it because
the healthy eating and exercise has become automatic.

And, of course, if one has compulsive eating issues, to work through
them instead of masking them with compulsive dieting (Steven Bratman's
book "Health Food Junkies" a/k/a "Orthorexia" is quite wise on this
point).



T.