msinai's Journal, 17 April 2017

I understand. Each time I post publicly that I'm going to lose weight, I gain. I have to commit to a new way of eating and living. You are not alone.  

i am ready too. i have said it so many time but today I really feel it. doing yoga and pilates tonight. TRULY THE LAST "cheat day" !! 

I so wish that I had something smart to say to you. I know that the thing that made the biggest difference for me after years of losing the same 50 pounds over and over again was learning about low-glycemic eating. I grew up in the "low-fat generation" -- where everything was about low fat. And no one ever explained that every time they took fat out they put sugar of some kind in, so we could never lose weight. So when I joined FS was when I started studying low-glycemic eating because my blood sugar and my blood pressure were too high....not horrible...but on the road to horrible. My dad died of complications from Type 2 when he was 62, and I was scared I might not outlive him if I didn't do something. Low-glycemic worked for me -- I think mostly because it's moderate, it's not extreme, it's a way of eating that will last me for the rest of my life. And midway through all this, I got lucky in a really ironic way: I developed IBS and I have had to give up bread and a bunch of other carbs that aren't digestible for me anymore, because if I eat them I get sick. I don't recommend this part of my diet plan, but I do recommend reading up on low-glycemic eating. Honestly, I think it saved my life. 

HM makes a great point. Sugar is a key thing to avoid, no matter what other strategies you employ. Sugar is probably the biggest culprit for body fat gain, and this is because sugars are so easily absorbed (as opposed to calories from complex carbs, fat and protein, which have comparatively lower conversion rates in the digestion process). The other thing that I have found helpful is using that food diary regularly. At first I thought it was a hassle, and too 'obsessive', but I have come to change my mind about that. If you can accurately record your calorie intake and output, you can actively maintain a deficit (more output than intake), which will inevitably lead to burning fat. It's hard, and it's especially hard to get started because it means significant adjustment to pre-existing habits, but once you get going it gets a little easier. You can succeed at this. 

Ditto the above two comments... 

Hang in there, it's trial & error, our bodies are constantly changing, keep moving forward, stay positive, try your best to make healthy changes, baby steps, just don't give up, you can do it!👍 

Another benefit of the food diary is that by writing things down over and over, you start learning the calories and nutrition of the food that you eat, and that's helped me maintain my eating plan even when I'm away from the computer and can't rely on it to tell me what and how much to eat. It takes a long time to accomplish this, but it does happen.  

Break up with sugar! It just makes you hungry and eat more. 

I'm sure the majority of us can relate to your struggle. And I don't know your background or history but I can tell you from personal experience for me it has always been about how I look,that is until this year when it became about health and that was very scary. my best advice would be try not to let it get to this point if you can help it. it's a really hard process losing the weight but it's even harder to hold onto it year after year just being unhappy. you have to choose your 'hard' remember your health is your wealth.x 

I have also been down that road, I think this is the third time. I am almost to my lowest recorded weight, looking forward to getting past it! Keep trying, don't feel bad about doing it over and over again, just DO it!! Pay attention to what works for you and what doesn't. One of the things that DIDN'T work for me was adhering so strictly to the diet I was on that I was almost a fanatic about it. When I finally did say "screw it, I can't do this anymore" I gained it all back. This time around I'm allowing myself cheat days, I will have a taste of someone's dessert, I totally ignored my diet at Easter, but the important part is to GET RIGHT BACK ON as soon as possible (which I did :-). This doesn't work for everyone, as I said, see what works for YOU. Good luck on your journey, keep posting, keep tracking your food, track what works and what doesn't work, love yourself for who you are NOW, and don't give up!!!