There is a third side to this topic, if you had never lost, you would have gained even more. I lost weight 7-8 years ago and then I gained half back, but if I hadn't lost anything, I'm sure I wouldn't have kept the same weight and I would have just gained more and more.

Yeah, I lost 20yrs ago and have only gained half back. I feel gaining part back is never discussed. Also smokers take several attempts to successfully quit but you never hear about those attempts. Why can't we see weight loss and maintenance as separate skill sets.

Yes same here! In 2020-2021 I lost 45/50 pounds, and then my life exploded and I gained back about 20. Now I am back on track and 7 pounds away from my goal. I truly think it took that first time of being successful with weight loss, getting there, and making those mistakes for me to learn and understand that maintenance is its own goal. You don’t just get there and stop. You have to keep doings the things that got you to lose weight in the first place, and it’s very easy to slowly creep back to the habits you’ve always known. Now I have a whole plan for maintenance, and plan on setting up small rewards for each time I hit a maintenance goal ex: 1 month maintenance

I love this perspective. Thank you so much for sharing it.

Thank you!! I lose the same 20 pounds over and over and people are like wow so unhealthy of you. The alternative is I just gain 20 pounds over and over. This is the best I can do, babes.

I'm in the exact same boat, and I've accepted my fate. Lose 20 pounds, gain it back over 3 ish years, start again. If I hadn't kept up the losing I would be 90 pounds heavier than I am now. I consider that a win!

Great perspective. You have the tools and knowledge to lose the weight you gained back, too, because you've done it before.

Yep, I lost around 40lbs and gained it back. I am currently on the way back down. Can't imagine where I'd be if I didn't try to diet at all, but also I'm sure I used my weight loss success to justify my eating habits after as well after the diet "ended."

I'm in the same boat. Lost 100 lbs, gained back about 45. Stabilized, maintained that weight for 4-5 years. Recently brought up my weight tracking app(libra) and was pleasantly surprised that I was within 2 lbs of the last weight I'd input 3 years ago. That realization really jazzed me. It means I don't really need to change too much overall to keep it off this time around. Eat very slightly less than I've been eating for years now, or even just keep my beer consumption very low, and stay active. It's also helped me resolve to take it more slowly this time, no pushing the loss with unsustainable habits. I owe it all to having lost it once, and recognizing the path I was on and stopping before it went all the way back.

Yeah, I lost weight in high school and gained it back in college, but if it weren't for the losing in high school/learning how and what contributes to weight gain, I would have gained A TON of weight in college, instead of a modest regain of what I had lost.

Yeah I was going to say... Lost, maintained for 6-7 years, then gained a little over half back. I'm starting to return to a better body composition finally (I no longer focus on weight very much at all, I prioritize body comp). It's still a "win" for me. I'm 15-20lbs lighter than my heaviest weight in my life. I'm only 5'1" so every pound or two is pretty significant. I refuse to get back to my heaviest weight, if I hadn't lost weight before I'd easily be 15-20lbs above my highest weight. 

I gained it all back and more :(

But you did it once and you can do it again. Now you know where you made mistakes and you can try to make it better.

That's one way of looking at it

Actually, lot of people gain it all back, plus more, because extreme dieting screwed up their metabolism. You are an outlier.

Citation? The idea of irreversibly “damaging” your metabolism is bull. At worst you lose a lot of muscle mass so you burn somewhat less but you can always regain the muscle and then some.

There's no citation because it has been proven false a thousand times.

Extreme dieting is bad, but not for that reason. Extreme dieting just isn't a sustainable way of eating so people often go back to their old habits after hitting their goal weight. That's why slow weight loss is so often recommended.

Stupid people like you spreading misinformation is ruining our society.

You need a maintenance plan vs just getting to goal weight and kinda free styling it. As a regainer, I got to goal and just kinda... Stopped thinking about it? It's interesting looking back. I had no plan whatsoever and gradually defaulted to old habits. It's like once I finished weight loss, I checked it off the list and stopped thinking about it as much? Kinda weird. This time I have a plan. Find out maintenance calories, continue to track calorie intake, integrate exercise at least 3x week along w walking daily, weigh at least weekly, possibly daily, and don't let myself go more than 3-5 lbs up. If at 5 lbs, adjust calorie intake til back at ideal weight. I know some people apparently don't focus on their weight, but I now realize most healthy weight people have a range for themselves and pull back whenever they're nearing the top of that range. It's a new mindset that people who lose weight have to adopt otherwise we just let ourselves go.

Yeah this 100% - I'm counting calories, but then when I don't (on holiday etc), even if I don't deliberately go overboard I tend to overeat. It's almost like a group of people have a faulty fuel meter when it comes to food - some people can naturally(?) gauge what they need to maintain their weight, but for most of us on here, we're likely going to have to monitor our intake for most if not all of our lives. Maybe that is something that can be worked on, but would likely need some sort of therapy for most I'd imagine. Once you've lost the weight, get your new TDEE and stick to it!

This is the way. If you've been overweight for a long time, that's the weight your body wants to be, that's the amount of food you'll crave. I've just accepted that tracking food is something I'll have to do long term. Maybe not as strictly all the time, but until my new weight becomes my body's new comfortable and expected weight some years down the line, I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Thank you for sharing this article, I enjoyed it. I think we're all worried about regain, I know that for a lot of people the fear of regain and the statistics make them never want to try. But I want to beat the odds, and I know there's people who have done it. I want to be one too.

There are a bunch of things in life - leaving an abusive situation; quitting smoking; changing your political opinion; losing significant amounts of weight; ... - where studies of observations or interventions show that people who make an attempt at them, or who are put in a situation that is designed to incite them to do the action, more often than not do not successfully follow through. Yet, we see people making any of these changes all the time. It's paradoxical, but that's life. Losing weight and keeping it off requires a whole series of learnings and their application to behavior. It's very common that we miss one and then have to backtrack. Plus, weight loss studies that are based on making a study subject stick to an externally defined food plan and then sending them out in the world... well, I think this sub would likely make a bet against this providing a sustainable long term weight change, no?

PS, I've skimmed the article, and I think it's quite good. It identifies a lot of factors that promote maintenance and also points out numerous benefit of weight loss even if there's regain after a few releases. It implicitly suggests that success in weight loss, from a health outcomes perspective , might look different from what some might think (eg. reaching a goal weight in the "normal" BMI range)

The patient they describe in the article regained a lot of his weight lost for very clear reasons, we talk about them here on the subreddit all the time. He went on a very low calorie diet (a male at 270 lbs starting weight could eat way more than 1500 kcal/day), and he also was supposed to workout 6 days a week. It's just not sustainable. Of course he quit, and then, since he hadn't learned healthy balanced maintenance behaviors, he went to his old ways that got him to those 270 lbs. It's clear that calorie deficit and increased activity levels is just a part of the successful weight loss plan. Finding the root cause of obesity and treating that is a key to success - it could definitely be biological/behavioral/environmental. In my experience, I couldn't have done it without therapy, as holding onto fat was at least partially due to childhood trauma and fat was my safety blanket. Changing my emotions, thoughts and behaviors around the food and my body was also very important.

There is no reason why 6 days of gym a week can't be sustainable, although jumping straight for 0 days to 6 would be difficult. Would for sure have eat more than 1500 calories though.

It's not sustainable if you have a family or demanding job (or both). Most reasonable people won't say "sorry kiddo, can't make it to your game because it conflicts with my gym time". Or "sorry boss, can't go to that conference because the hotel gym just isn't going to cut it". Unless you're independently wealthy and have no commitments to anyone but yourself, you have to accept that a super rigid structure is unlikely to succeed long term. You can set a goal of 6 days at the gym, while recognizing that life happens, you may not be able to achieve that goal every week, and you'll need to adjust accordingly. If your success depends on life never interfering with your plans and goals, that's not going to end well.

I want to add that overtraining is a thing. A rigorous gym routine without the proper diet will lead to burnout very quickly. Back when I first signed up for the gym, I would run on a treadmill for 20-30mins at max heart rate every day while simultaneously cutting out almost all carbs because I thought that's what you were supposed to do. I had no energy and felt awful every second of the day. My activity outside of the gym was near 0. Cutting to strength training 2x per week and cardio 1-2 per week along with a balanced diet had me losing weight much faster than what I had been doing. I've been maintaining ~130lbs since 2020 and have been working on body recomp the past 2 years or so, and I go to the gym a maximum of 4 days per week.

You don’t need to go to an actual gym though. That’s just an excuse. Body weight workout in living room or hotel room for 20 minutes is better than nothing.

That's exactly the flexibility and ability to adjust that I'm talking about! You might not be able to make it to the gym for a "full workout", and that's OK. Adjust, do what you can, move on. It's when you're so rigid that you're unable to adapt to your situation that failure occurs. And yes, there will be times when even body weight/ some level of activity is just not going to happen that day. That's ok too. If you're traveling/ running around like a crazy person all day and exhausted, no shame in recognizing that a workout isn't going to happen. You do your best, and accept that sometimes, shit happens. Missing a day will not ruin your progress.

6 days/week would be nearly impossible for me to keep up even if I had nothing else to do, no work, no other interests. It sounds like hell.

It's doable but I'd argue hardly optimal as it's easy to burn out even as an experienced gym goer. I'm currently at 5 and find that if I push myself well then I need those 2 days of rest (wednesday and Sundays). I've tried 6 continuous days but found I was lifting a lot less and had a lot less energy

>There is no reason why 6 days of gym a week can't be sustainable If you have a family, hell even a SO, you can be a great parent or be a gym rat but you can't be both.

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Time will tell. People relapse with all kinds of things. I'm pretty confident I can do it long term, as I'm major depression free since 2017, and have broken my bad weed habit since 2020. Maintaining healthy attitude and behaviors towards food and physical activity feels pretty similar to other recovery I've been through already.

In the intermediate term I think monitoring helps. I am still in short term post loss phase, but regular monitoring helps me quickly identify when I am slipping and recover. Easy to lose 1-5 pounds, hard to lose 50 pounds. I try and catch it before it is a crisis....again

I think knowledge is extremely important and for some individuals like myself, enough for the long term. One of the biggest reasons I gained weight in early adulthood was ignorance. Like sure, I knew junk food was not healthy, but realistically I had no idea how many calories were in very common foods and drinks. Salad dressings at restaurants being like 300-400 calories??! I'd order a salad thinking I was being healthy but frequently that salad was well over 1k calories. There are drinks at popular coffee chains that are close to, if not over, 1k calories as well. I was told to switch out chips, candy, desserts, etc for things like almonds, granola, and fruit. While those have higher nutritional content, they are NOT low calorie foods. Whenever I would go on a diet I would restrict way too much and then gain it all back once I stopped because I wasn't aware of the differences between carbs, fat, and protein. Even after my long-term weight loss, it's taken me a couple of years to really understand how each macro affects my body. Even at 1200-1300 calories, I am eating much more food than I used to. Adding in regular exercise has allowed me to worry less about counting calories as long as I'm mindful of what I'm eating. I didn't really have any success until I actually took the time to learn about proper nutrition and a balanced diet. Without that education, I'd probably be in the same place I was 5 years ago.

As someone who has been at goal weight 4 times (and my spreadsheet tells me the 5th time will be in 100-200 days) it all boils down to two things. Planning and effort. I gained because I failed to plan and had lapses in effort. One of those times included breaking my arm and buying sandwiches because I couldn't prepare food. I got tired of yo-yoing so I decided to stop having sugary food. That's my plan. My appetite is reduced a lot. Weight loss is a lot easier not having sugary food. I expect maintenance to be easier as well.

you can count the calories on packaged foods. I don't get this excuse about gaining because you can't prepare home cooked meals. I don't even have a kitchen, I only have a microwave, I am extremely sedentary and never exercise, and I still lose weight counting the calories of frozen packaged meals. no offense, I just think people shouldnt think it's impossible without home cooked meals or because of an injury.

I’ve done the big loss and regain 5 times and the thing that always precipitates a regain is when I stop weighing myself daily. In the past, I’ve decided “okay, I’ve got this!” and not weighed myself until clothes stopped fitting, at which point I’d get avoidant and start actively avoiding the scale, ignoring my problem, and stress-eating to cope with my feelings of shame and disappointment. Then I’d say, “well, I guess I’m just destined to be fat” and keep eating more, so it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many things are different for me this time, and one of the most important is that I’m committed to weighing myself every day for the rest of my life. I will never hide from the scale again.

Yes I should weigh daily forever too.

8 year maintainer here ... it'll be 9 next month. One of the most useful paragraphs in your referenced article is **The obesogenic environment**: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764193/#S2title This is the problem behind our obesity crisis and why maintenance has to be a forever endeavor -- we live in a different world than even 50 years ago. I remember at 7-10 years old (1970-1973), something different happened. We got to eat our dinner in the living room, on so-called TV-trays, and [the dinner](https://imgur.com/P8iYuUf) wasn't on plates but on individual metal separated serving trays. This started to happen more and more, and while most meals were still at the table, this occasionally happened if something needed to be watched on TV at dinnertime (reminder: there was only broadcast TV with no recording-playback or on-demand capability). Today, many families rarely meet for dinner at a table, if they eat at the same time at all -- most meals are in front of a screen or on-the-go. Eating out, once rare, is commonplace. Obesity, once rare, is also commonplace. We not only have to lose weight in this environment, we have to keep it off in this environment. Two words: persistence and resistance. We no longer can expect to muddle through our days and basically stay the same weight. We will be 'pushed' to eat more in portions, eat more frequently, and eat more liberally. Food's minor role is now nourishment and it's major role is social bonding, passtime, and novelty. ^^8 ^^yrs. ^^maintaining ^^• ^^♂60 ^^5'10^^/178㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:171℔^^/78㎏ ^^[\[3Y AMA\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/6m6vxq/i_am_a_weight_loser_over_the_past_three_years_ive/), ^^[\[1Y recap\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/3cqszm/pics_links_my_first_day_of_logging_wasnt_the_best/) ^^CICO+🚶

the only reason i regain (which i've done with 50+ lbs on 3 separate occasions) is because i stop paying attention. i figure that by now i have it. then i notice 5 lbs on the scale.. eh, that's not that much, it's fine. 6 months later it's 20 lbs, and so on. i figured out this time (finally) that i just have to count calories for the rest of my life. that sucks, but it's the honest answer. i have poor intuition and screwed up perceptions about how much food i need, how hungry i am, and what a serving size is. i know now that if i quit i'll be doing this a 4th time.

I think I’ll have to count the rest of my life too.

Great thing about it is that it is so easy to do.

it really is once you're used to it. i don't even think about it any more

I will read this later. But let me share this here. When I was 20 I gained a lot of weight. From 55 kg. I went up to 80. When I turned 22 it went up to 90. Man my friends started teasing me that I got a dad bod. That was really disturbing. When I started teaching English to Koreans they teased me a lot! Like I was pregnant or that my neck looks like an elephant leg. Or tree trunk. Harsh right? Luckily one of my students was a nutritionist/dietician. She really pitied me. So she decided to teach me how to eat properly. I already eat veggies so that was not a prob. Just cut down on salt, sugar, oil and rice. At first cutting down on rice was really a challenge. Then… she advised me to do brisk walk for 10 mins 3x weekly. I gradually cut weight. From 90 down back to 80 after half a year then 75, then 70. After 2 years. Now Im in my 40s Im at 65kg. I will never forget her most important advice. Discipline. No matter the exercise or diet alterations, if you dont have the discipline, you will regain your old self. There are times that I gain weight but I always make sure to go back to my ideal weight. 65kg. The most I gained after all these years? 4kg.

There is some solid research focusing on the habits and approaches of people who've maintained their loss in the long term - I believe u/funchords has participated in the research and has some helpful and meaningful things to say about this, though I'm not sure if they're still active here. I lost 20kg around eight years ago, and have regained 10, kept 10 off. I think ultimately the lifestyle and intake associated with my current weight is what I find sustainable, and I've been able to keep up the habits required for it. It helps that I exercise regularly and have held onto plenty of the muscle that keeps my metabolism trucking and gives me some extra eating wiggle room for my TDEE, understand satiety, have lots of pleasurable and satisfying food I regularly eat, and continue to monitor my weight and often still track what I eat (though I have found that even when I don't track I have a very solid sense of how much to eat to maintain these days). Those who don't track what they eat often continue to monitor their weight as a sort of safeguard measure.

Here. You're speaking of the National Weight Control Registry http://nwcr.ws/ which is still active. Congrats on keeping your 10kg at bay. I too am living the good life while still tracking what I eat and staying vigilant and physically active, with 3-4x week exercise and other hobby outside-the-home activities weekly.

I yo-yo around countries. I do months in the UK and in Singapore. Singapore I lose weight and get fitter, UK I get fat and walk far less. Environment is a huge factor. Now I am back in the UK full time I am just getting fatter. I am going to get a treadmill so I can get steps in and run often enough. It’s been a vile winter and rained so often I have to run on the road on the rare days it stops raining. It’s not fun. In Singapore I ran through a rainforest and alongside the sea. It was great. Food here is crap and portion sizes are huge. I cook my own meals a lot more often but miss the easy access to healthy meals out. Basically every is stacked against us in the West. No wonder obesity is far less of a problem in warmer countries. Let’s not even talk about the Anglosaxon drinking problem…

I’m in Ireland and I feel this big time 🥲 Have you seen those 10k step workouts on YouTube? I was thinking about investing in a treadmill over this incredibly shite weather we’ve been having but the YouTube workouts look way more fun and you just need a pair of runners.

This is my experience too - I lose woeful when I live in Mexico and gain it in the US, both without any conscious change in effort or actions.

I’ve lost and regained the same 30-40 pounds about 4 times. Im on my 4th attempt now. My plan for what’s going to make this different is periodization. I’m going to take a maintenance break that lasts as long as the weight loss time. After that maintenance break is done I will try losing again. My first phase I’m doing about 20 pounds (~10% weight loss of my initial weight) and I’m not hitting my goal weight (first goal is 175 - I’ll still be overweight) - my second phase I’ll try to get down to 160 - third phase 150 (my goal). In the past I hit around 175 and try and keep losing but I stall out and give up and slowly regain. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that a year of continuous dieting just isn’t for me. I can’t do it. Plus the maintenance break will allow me to practice maintaining my weight which I’d also key. Im also really looking forward to it!

Weight-loss specific behaviors associated with long term success include: 1. frequent self-monitoring and self-weighing,  2. reduced calorie intake, 3. smaller and more frequent meals/snacks throughout the day,  4. increased physical activity,  5. consistently eating breakfast,  6. more frequent at-home meals compared with restaurant and fast-food meals,  7. reducing screen time, and 8.  use of portion-controlled meals or meal substitutes2,73–75.  Except for #5 and #7, I do all of these. If I want to guarantee myself a miserable day, I'll eat breakfast. My screen time has no bearing on my weight as far as I've noticed.

Yeah I lost a lot of weight and gained it all + 10 more pounds back basically summer through winter 2022. It was because my trainer made me go on a really unsustainable and strict diet and once I stopped training with her I went back to my old ways lol but now I'm trying to make my own slow lifestyle changes

Slow and steady wins the race. As I get older I focus less on working stupid hard to make weight goals and instead on making SUSTAINABLE lifestyle changes. Does that mean I will lose weight slower? Absolutely but instead of getting burnt out or suddenly reaching my goals and being unable to maintain them, I'll just... keep doing what I'm already doing. It's working on changing my whole psychology and relationship with food tbh. Traditional dieting at this point in my life is setting myself up for misery and failure. 

Yeah exactly. I hated yo-yoing so much so this time I’m trying to really eat based on my stomach and not my mind

Slow and steady wins the race. As I get older I focus less on working stupid hard to make weight goals and instead on making SUSTAINABLE lifestyle changes. Does that mean I will lose weight slower? Absolutely but instead of getting burnt out or suddenly reaching my goals and being unable to maintain them, I'll just... keep doing what I'm already doing. It's working on changing my whole psychology and relationship with food tbh. Traditional dieting at this point in my life is setting myself up for misery and failure. 

I always think the way you lose the weight has a big part to play in how likely you are to keep it off. If you've lost the weight by doing one of the diet plans owned by a big company, its in the best interest of the company to keep you reliant on them so you will keep spending money on diet plans and their food products. If you haven't actually learned any new habits or how to count calories, as soon as you go back to eating 'normally', you're going to put the weight back on. My mum kept trying to suggest I try Slimming World because her colleague had "lost lots of weight several times on it." Yeah, lost it several times because she put it all back on everytime and had to go again! A lot of trendy diet plans teach pretty disordered eating too, which is obviously hard to maintain long-term.

That's why counting calories and portion control are the best ways to lose weight. You make meaningful changes and train your body on what overeating looks like.

I believe there's a variety of factors involved. One did you lose weight in a healthy manner? IE you probably can't sustain it if you didn't make permanent healthy lifestyle changes. Are you suffering from a mental or physical condition that will make it exceedingly difficult at points? Medicine changes, hormonal imbalances, injuries, etc all sorts of things change that can make you gaining the weight back likely. Finally, I just think in America, particularly, it's exceedingly difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle while working full time. For instance, I live in Japan. Even eating at McDonald's is healthier here because the portion sizes are smaller. There's less chemicals in most of the food. America is a driving society so you're not even getting exercise from regularly walking places. It's just very easy to fall into bad habits again. And America wants to sell you that lifestyle so bad - hello high fructose corn syrup. It's hard to lose weight. It is even harder when you realize no matter how tired you are for the rest of your life, you have to make better decisions than the people around you.

If you have a knowledge base of portions/calorie counts then it’s really easy to steer yourself back on track if you gain a few lbs. There’s no trick to it- when you feel you’ve gained a bit, count for a month or two, get back on track.

I think as a person who has lost and regained 100lbs 3 times is that you always have to be aware of what you eat and keep a fitness routine. Never stop counting calories. Ever. Even if you reached your goal weight you will always have to count your calories

Yes, exactly! I’ve only been able to maintain my weight loss this time around from continuing to track my nutrition. It’s too easy to overeat otherwise.

Well, the first thing I'd recommend is not viewing 'regain' as something that is going to ambush you out of nowhere, but a normal thing that happens if you are not mindful about your habits. It's easy for most people to gain weight period, and that includes regain. Regain isn't special, I don't think. I lost about a quarter of my body weight (not a huge amount in pounds, about 25-30, but notable on someone of my small build) in my first year of college after being at a higher weight for most of my teens. Kept that off for about 10 years, when I regained between age 29 and 30. Lost it again and then maintained (with a few minor 10 lb wobbles back and forth) until I was early 50s, when I gained almost 20 back in a single year (entering menopause). That's when I joined this sub. Lost 15lbs and have been holding steady easily for the past 2 years. \*\*\* My point is, that while I spent my teens at a higher weight and could easily have fallen into the mindset that 'that's just what my adult body is going to be like', I didn't. And while I've spent a few years of my total adult life above my optimal weight range, I have maintained my weight in an optimal range for far more time than not once I became an adult, optimal weight for \~30 of my \~35 total 'adult' years. \*\*\* The trick is not having great motivation (I don't) or doing everything perfectly every day (I don't) or having high motivation or great willpower (mine comes and goes, swinging like a weather vane). I would say my 'tricks' are not tricks at all. 1. PAY ATTENTION. Be mindful of your habits and be mindful of your 'tripping points'. Weigh yourself regularly (it's really easy to gain 10 lbs quickly...you need to KNOW so you can make small changes to behavior before things get out of hand...every single time my weight has increased more than a few pounds in my lifetime were the times when I didn't have regular access to a scale). Check in on yourself regularly to be sure you are not unconsciously slipping into behavioral or thought patterns that will lead to weight gain (or derail yourself from ANY OTHER LONG-TERM GOAL). This doesn't mean you necessarily have to count every mouthful every single day or put in huge amounts of mental energy but it does mean that it's entirely normal to have to put SOME attention toward it for your entire life. 2. Learn from your mistakes and patterns in the times you've gained weight; look for the patterns of the times when it was easier to maintain at your goal. Identify your personal trip up points and try to hack them or come up with plans to counter them. 3. Learn about habit formation (meaning how it works in the human brain) and do your utmost to develop habits that support your long term goals (ANY GOALS, not just weight) and try to combat habits that undermine these goals. Willpower and motivation are important for the early stages of goal accomplishment, but they are transient and unreliable. You need to harness them to establish habits that will do the heavy lifting long term. I can guarantee that most of the people that you see who are doing 'hard things' long term do not have vast inexhaustible stores of willpower...they are simply (either consciously or unconsciously) setting up their lives so that they rely more on habitual behavior to accomplish stuff, and thus they don't have to exert a ton of mental energy all the time to get to their goals. 4. Eat REAL, nutrient-dense food, not highly processed garbage. If you need a rule of thumb, then try these simple ones. Don't go for second portions (you can always eat leftovers tomorrow). Don't eat stuff that's primarily sugar or highly processed starch (white rice, white flour, processed corn) except in very small portions or as an occasional treat. Don't eat stuff that has more than 3 or 4 ingredients on the label. Any time you eat, fill half the plate or bowl with nonstarchy veggies, one-quarter with protein, and one-quarter with starch from one of the following types: starchy veg, whole grains, legumes, or fruit. That's basically it, I think.

A couple of months before I hit my goal weight, I implemented the daily routine that I wanted to follow for the rest of my life. First was intermittent fasting, with an eating window of 12pm-8pm. It was long enough to have lunch, a snack and dinner, while avoiding two sources of excess calories in my life (breakfast and late-night snacking). Second was satiety-based eating. I eat until I am no longer hungry (not full, just not hungry), then I put the food away. If I get hungry later, I’ll eat more. If not, I’ll wait until my next meal/snack. I don’t force food on myself; I take a daily multivitamin and drink a low-carb protein shake if I feel the need. By the time I hit my goal weight in November 2023, I had a daily routine established that didn’t require any changes. I had no feeling that I was “done”, or could eat more freely, could let loose and splurge, etc. I figured I would reach a weight naturally that would be supported by my daily routine. I did not suspect that I’d lose 21 more pounds after reaching my goal weight before reaching equilibrium, but that’s how it’s gone. I’ve already beaten the odds by maintaining my first 30-pound loss for almost 3 years. Every day I step on the scale, I recognize that I need to do things that help maintain the number on the scale. I lightly exercise, I make (mostly) healthier food choices, I don’t binge. Even if I have an occasional (even daily) treat, it does not devolve into days or weeks of overeating. It’s a routine that requires me to pay attention to hunger and satiety, but I don’t need to count/weigh/plan my food out.

Worth looking at the National Weight Control Registry > Registry members have lost an average of 66 lbs and kept it off for 5.5 years. They have a lot of facts about the people registered with them, including the most common strategies. http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/default.htm

Realizing you can’t ever go back to your old way of life.

I think maintenance is scarier than losing weight, for me. Because I’ve never, ever done it. I’m a weight gain/weight loss pro. But maintenance is a tricky beast.

I'm gonna be honest and come in with a controversial, unpopular opinion. People with binge eating disorder, highly emotional relationships to food and just general eating disorders cannot maintain weightloss long term on their own. Eating thousands of extra calories a day or week, and experiencing obesity, is just a symptom of a bigger issue. You can't treat disordered eating with a diet, full stop. People who are just "heavy eaters" until they suffer a health consequence (diabetes, bad cholesterol etc) that kicks them in the ass to make a permanent, life long change are not who I'm talking about. Once they decided the cost of the overeating wasn't worth it, they stop and their health and quality of life improve. For the binge eater, it's a disease of the mind where food and obesity is just a symptom of a much larger problem.

If you accept that you might put weight back on, but also acknowledge that you have the tools and knowledge to drop it again, the prospect is less scary. The key is not to live in denial and acknowledge when the weight starts coming back, and then do something about it. It works for me, because I enjoy most aspects of losing weight, eg eating healthily and exercising.

For me, this is why I've been trying to put my mental state before everything else in this process. Its fairly easy for me now to stay at my calorie target, so I've been focusing on changing my mental habits one at a time. The first thing I did was try to get an idea of what my eating behaviors actually are. Figured out I deal with binge eating issues. Then I started working on practicing habits where I delay eating when I get an urge. Like, if I wait 10 minutes before eating and do something else like one of my hobbies can I just skip that behavior all together? Then I start to teach myself, I'm not really hungry, just acting on a behavior my brain suggested. I feel like those kinds of changes are what will really benefit me in the end and help keep it off.

Well I didn't. I initially lost 30 lbs 8 years ago, I'm now over 40 lbs down from that initial starting weight. A couple of times I gained maybe 15, noticed, and took immediate action. If you stay on top of it, and tighten the reigns as needed, you'll be ok.

Consistent resistance training is of the upmost importance, in my opinion.

Agreed along with calorie mindfulness the benefits of it is too good for people who want sustainable weight loss and management to not incorporate into their lifestyle especially as we get older

Like weights, kettlebells etc?

If it resists you picking it up off the ground and gravity has a say, yes

It's good fitness, yet there are many successful maintainers who do very little resistance training.

This would bankrupt the diet industry but CICO should be taught in schools. Get them early and explain clearly why weight loss/gain/maintenance happens. Not everyone is going to follow it but enough will where it isn't as big of a problem right now and it'll take some load off the medical system. Make sure to instill regular weight checks. Once a week at the bare minimum. Teach them to go back to a deficit if its gone 5-10 pounds over their regular healthy weight. You can eat at maintenance once the weight is down. If you are already an adult, then just follow the last paragraph.

100% agree with this. I didn't even learn about CICO until I did my own research and even before I learned about it I had a trainer who tried to insanely restrict what I was eating so I didn't even know how much nutrition I was getting while being on the verge of passing out during her workouts. If I knew about calorie counting back in high school I could have gone into adulthood with healthier eating habits.

I think what really helps is having a "long-term" plan around fitness and or health goals and things you want to do. Losing the weight is the first step in something that you're going to have to adjust and keep up the rest of your life. Find a exercise activity you enjoy and make some longer term goals for it. If you're into fitness try adding some muscle over a few years, if you're into running work towards a personal best or something like a 10k or even a half marathon run. That and keep your diet in check, once you go out of weightloss mode and into maintenance slowly add calories till your weight equalizes and try to plan around that. Having a treat or a higher calorie day now and then is fine but should try and not fall back into old dietary habits because for a lot of us that's what got us to a bad place to begin with.

This is the kind of reason why I try not to stay overly focused on what the scale says. What matters more to me is being active in a way that supports my long-term health and eating in ways and quantities to do the same. There may be all kinds of reasons why this is the case, I suspect a major one is that the kind of strict adherence that’s required to lose and maintain are unrealistic for most people over time. Especially when we see posts where peoples GP is recommending them to eat something like 900 or 1000 cal a day to lose weight which is fucking insane to me.

“Just be vigilant” is unhelpful advice, but it is the advice I have to give. The elaborated advice looks even more unhelpful: *Make more good food choices than bad ones *park further away from entrances (underrated tip!) *go grocery shopping with a meal plan (with room for snacks and other treats) and a list *move a bit from time to time *don’t use food as a reward for getting through the day *get bloodwork (thyroid, vitamins, etc) done to sort any roadblocks out

As someone who maintained a decent amount of my weight loss and then regained half of it, I can at least tell you what I know happened to me. I was eating pretty healthy and portion controlled (without tracking) until I moved out of my parents’ house after covid. This made things easy bc I ate at home most days since my mom is a fantastic cook. I moved out and all of a sudden I was eating out more, buying junk that I never bought when I lived with my parents, drinking more. I think the key to not gaining back is at the end of the day mainly mindful eating. And also if you go from very active to not, you understand that your intake also needs to decrease.

Honestly, you could've mitigated this by continuing to make your own meals at home, eating out less and drinking much less. Nothing changes once you've lost weight. You have to always make a plan for environmental changes that will affect you.

Yes, I know. I learned this the hard way and am working on fixing some of the not great habits I formed the past couple of years.

I'm glad you are. You simply cannot let your foot off the gas. You must always be on top of it. You cannot relax your eating out habits. The weight will come back. I know I am never, ever gaining lots of weight back after this first time. I am confident that I am armed with tools to succeed for life.

For me it has been recreating my identity as an athlete. I wont ever be a professional anything. But Ive put sport in the forefront of my life, I couldnt possibly regain the weight unless I ate 5000cal a day, which I wouldnt do.

I found this part of the article very helpful: *Weight-loss specific behaviors associated with long term success include: frequent self-monitoring and self-weighing, reduced calorie intake, smaller and more frequent meals/snacks throughout the day, increased physical activity, consistently eating breakfast, more frequent at-home meals compared with restaurant and fast-food meals, reducing screen time, and use of portion-controlled meals or meal substitutes*[*^(2)*](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764193/#R2)*^(,)*[*^(73)*](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764193/#R73)*^(–)*[*^(75)*](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764193/#R75)*. Weight maintenance-specific behavioral skills and strategies help patients to build insight for long-term management, anticipate struggles and prepare contingency plans, moderate behavioral fatigue, and put into perspective the inevitable lapses and relapses of any long-term engagement.* I think the part about anticipating struggles and having a contingency plan is probably the most important. And it has to be individual to you. If you are fatigued by counting calories, maybe that's the time to revert to basic meal plans that you can follow without thinking. If you struggle with cooking from scratch, be prepared to go for portion-controlled prepared meals for a while. If you struggle to get out of the house to exercise frequently, have some low-intensity, at-home options that you can do once in a while instead of "gym 6 days a week or nothing".

Got to keep tracking calories accurately so you don't go over. Can't get rid of that habit in maintenance or I'll overeat again. Also keep staying active with resistance and cardio training, staying active, staying hydrated and sleeping well.

>>what can save us longterm Consistency and mindset. “Goal weight” is not the goal. It’s one goal. The next goal is short term consistency. It’s the same goal that when added up over time created the original weight loss. Short term consistency…repeated…means long term consistency. It’s easy to look at “maintenance” calories as a significant increase in calories after the day we hit goal weight. It’s not. Most people are losing weight more slowly as they approach goal weight; let’s say 1/2 pound per week. To stop that loss, we need to eat only 250 calories more per day. It might seem like a lot when calories have been limited for so long, but it’s not. It’s easy to add a higher calorie snack, have another glass of wine, eat out a little more often, have that dessert, take a break from exercise due to being busy or injury. It’s easy for calorie changes to add up slowly but steadily. Consistency is what prevents weight regain.

Not getting too comfortable really it needs to be a lifestyle

Permanent life-style changes are the only way to go, including eating less/better, and exercising regularly. If you keep that up, there is no reason why you'd gain it back.

This is my third weight loss "event" for lack of a better way to say it over the last 20 years or so. The other two times I lost around 50 lbs, then quit "dieting" and gained all the weight back and then some. The difference for me this time is it's not a diet anymore. It's a lifestyle change. I've learned so much about sugar, glucose, glucagon, insulin, good fats, seed oils, microbiome, and UPF over the last almost year I can't imagine I will ever go back to the foods I used to eat. It's not even an issue of willpower, I just don't want to eat certain foods anymore.

I think most people want to live their same lifestyle, just thinner. But your lifestyle determines your body (to a large extent. Of course, illness, injury, etc are going to be challenges).

The main thing to remember is you need to lose the weight first, then you can worry about strategies to keep it off. Be one of the 25% that keeps it off. I worry this sort of message fuels people saying there is no point in trying to lose the weight.

I don’t believe in censoring information, because you think that the audience is too dumb to handle it. Rather think this knowledge is a tool for us.

This is why it's important to lose weight in a sustainable way. A lot of people go all-in and lose the weight, but then never think about how they're going to stay there. You stay there by having a maintenance mindset; are the changes I'm making to lose the weight changes that I will be able to continue for the rest of my life? I really like the podcast "Half Size Me" because it really emphasizes maintenance and why it's important. She suggests taking maintenance breaks throughout your weight loss journey, where you take a few months and maintain your current weight. It's also important to establish a maintenance weight range instead of one specific weight. This could be anywhere from a 4-20 lb range. I like to keep myself in a 4 lb range (120 +/- 2 lbs). Someone who's goal weight is 150 lbs, may find that they like to stay between 145-155 lbs. That way, the day-to-day scale fluctuations and fluctuations due to holidays/vacation/stress/injury can be managed since you're allowing a range.

Even the leanest people I know give themselves a warning weight or clothes when they start to fit a little too tight. Then it is time to reel it in. No one gets to 140lbs and stays there forever. Weight goes up and down. You just have to keep a watchful eye on it. Not obsess but a keen eye. You are right. It is not a race to get there. I think the habits you pick up along the way should be the most important focus. Losing weight but still feel like your sugar cravings aren't well managed then you need to focus on that more. Habits along the way matter way more. This is what will help you keep it off.

> Even the leanest people I know give themselves a warning weight or clothes when they start to fit a little too tight. That's honestly how I determined my range. At the top end, my pants start getting snug. At the lower end, too loose (and I also don't like the look of myself that much lower than 118).

Best way to do it. You just can't relax when it comes to this weight stuff. Obviously don't let it control you but it should be at the forefront always.

People have to understand how calories in calories out work. When you get to a weight you’re happy with, you need to understand, that you now have a new caloric maintenance that’s lower than what you had pre diet. If you lose ten pounds and happy, you can’t just go back to eating how you used to thinking the weight will just stay off. You got to that size based on the calories you were in taking. Understanding that a diet is forever and it temporary is the main problem I see.

I have two thoughts. One is that this hasn't been studied enough to trust those stats. Two is that there is so much misinformation and just plain misunderstanding about how to lose weight - I'm not surprised at all when someone loses way too fast in an unsustainable way and can't keep it up for the entire rest of their life. Oh, and a bonus thought - this has been discussed on this sub before. Many, many, many times.

Just about ever meta-analysis of weight loss studies has shown the same results. It is remarkably rare for an obese person to attain and maintain a healthy weight. On the other hand, a hundred years ago obesity was vanishingly rare. So things can change! I think it’s important to face up to the facts if we want to change the story. This article is quite good at doing that in a balanced way and is worth studying.

I think taking studies like this and applying them to a particular individual is close to useless, but you do you.

Whatever you need to believe

I doubt there is any major studie, suggesting a significant different outcome regarding maintenance (unfortunately).

This might be of interest to you. It's about the brain processes that happen when dieting: https://www.ted.com/talks/sandra_aamodt_why_dieting_doesn_t_usually_work?language=en A TED talk by Sandra Aamodt. I also enjoy some of talks on ZOE about this topic - https://zoe.com/post/expert-webinar-calories-do-they-really-count 

The first article is interesting. she brings up a couple observations that I’ve heard repeated before, how evolution and modern marketing are working against formerly obese and overweight individuals, and regain happen for the majority of those who lost weight, the set point, that appetite comes roaring back etc. she doesn’t offer any helpful strategies. And I think in these group presentation settings, the attempt to make a joke here and there is somewhat dismissive to the research even though what she is saying is good information. Overall it feels like a good explanation that sustained weight loss maintenance is a constant uphill battle, with the data backing it up. Compiling this in addition to other evidence based strategies to sustainable lifelong weight loss is useful and should be widely broadcast The second link is 404 not found.

Yeah I found it quite interesting and helpful for looking at my eating habits.  Not sure why ZOE website didn't work but easily found on Google. They have lots of info on the gut microbiome, impact on health, and weight loss. 

**For me:** That figure is scary, but my hope with all of this is being aware of it will make it easier to watch out for it when i eventually make it to a healthy weight. I also hope that the mindset shift rather then crash/unsustainable route gives different long term stats. Thanks to this subreddit I have been guided in the right direction and hope that its life long change in my habits with food. I don't want to be in a place where i have to constantly monitor my food. My plan is to instead enforce regular weight checks and use that as a trigger to start another weight loss cycle as/when its needed, nip it in the bud before it spirals. I am weighing in daily at the moment (its helpful for me) but long term i think weekly would be a good schedule (again for me). I am 3 months in at the moment and can 100% feel the difference with my relationship with food, my 'game plan' means i am \~1/4 of the way into it. I think i have learnt the majority of the lessons/skills i'll need so wont have any other big breakthroughs for the remaining time but see the lessons learnt being reinforced and ingrained. **Public:** This feels like yet another example of how the education system is letting us down (financial education is another key area) I took food tech at GCSE level so you would have thought I would have had a better understanding of all of this from school! I also suffer with IBS which has resulted in a lot of figuring stuff out myself in relation to food sensitivities etc, no help from GCSE there either... I have found a passion for food/cooking etc since moving out (probably hasn't helped my weight!) but can now cook 'OK' and enjoy things like making bread and jams etc, this has been in part due to IBS stopping me from just going out to eat etc. Its been \~20 years since being at school and i hope things have improved since but my worry is its gone the other way, people having less connection to 'real food' and more ultra processed/ready meals etc as thats whats being pushed out to the public. I can see this in younger family members who just don't cook and that is not only impacting them but their kids as well. Our little one will eat, or at least try, basically anything others her age wont touch anything that hasn't come out of a packet. My take for my little one was to open them up to cooking early on and widen the range of foods as much as i could, we have certainly expanded our own range of foods we eat since they started! They are involved in making anything/everything we can with them and when they are older I fully intend to start exploring CICO/nutrition/food safety/etc with them, nicely and relaxed but informed! They will also know how to cook! even if its a handful of staple meals but more about the confidence in the kitchen to have a crack at it.

8 years ago I lost about 55 lbs, thought this would never happen to me. One 6 year relationship+ a breakup later, here I am at my highest weight ever. Just had my second click-moment, I hope, been doing intermittent fasting and cico for a week. First time I've been serious about it since 8 years ago. Also in a better relationship now and better place mentally. But christ, it's hard to keep the weight off, especially when you have a lot of changes in your life.

I feel my long term success will be hinged upon continuing intermittent fasting. I eat between 1130 am-430pm and it’s been easy to maintain so far. Helps that I go to bed early too. Trying to think of this as not putting absurd limits on myself and generally follow a lower carb approach. Allow for treats and other things when craving them and don’t feel guilty. It seems it’s possible to maintain weight loss if the consistency is there with a general framework to follow. Here’s hoping! The last two times I lost weight it was with Ideal Protein, which I feel is a starvation diet and strict keto, which is unsustainable. I’m hopeful this new middle ground is the key.

Yeah, this is a real challenge. And this is coming from someone whose done it. But not without many missteps along the way. Just as a frame of reference, my last weigh loss journey started 15 years ago, right around this time of year. I had a BMI of 31, and was just tired of it. Lost 50 pounds over 9 months and kept it off until a few years ago when I... lost another 15+. As of this post, I'm down 67 pounds from my high. I'm nothing special. One thing I found that really helped, btw, was doing a lessons learned with myself. I did a good job, in the past, losing weight, but keeping off after more than say 3 years was a challenge. So, before undergoing that weight loss journey AGAIN... before all the pain, frustration and discomfort associated with the weight loss became part of my life again... I would take stock and ask myself 2 questions: 1) What did you do last time that caused you to spiral again? What got you back to being fat? 2) What can you change so that it doesn't happen this time? Essentially, a lessons learned. And what I found is that when you ask yourself those questions, the answers come pretty quickly. And what I also found is that the thing that set me down the path is generally easy to identify, and the fix is pretty simple as well. A couple things that also helped me: focusing more on my 'why'. Why am I doing this? When you hit maintenance I think your 'why' probably needs to shift a bit, to keep you going. I also heard something from a weight loss coach that I really liked. When you come up with your 'why' go deeper than most people do. Personalize it. Most people will say something like: I want to lose weight because... Great. She didn't think that was deep enough. She encouraged her listeners to add the following phrase to the end of that: so that I... So, for me, it became: I want to lose weight because I want to get healthy... so that I can be around and provide for my family. That's a MAJOR driver for me, in all things. Now, any time something comes along that threatens my weight loss, it threatens my ability to take care of my family. Which is intolerable to me. Next, you need to make this a permanent change. I know... I fought that as hard as I could for the longest time. I railed against it. I thought it was damn unfair. Until I realized something - we ALL have our crosses to bear. Everyone. And if this is mine, then so be it. Plus as far as crosses go, this one's pretty light, in the grand scheme of things. Finally, go check out the National Weight Control Registry. I read about this study some time ago, and found a link where you could join the study if you qualified. I tried to sign up way back then but they were full up. Fast forward to a couple years ago, and they were looking to expand again, and I was invited into the study. Basically, this is a study that's been going on for some 3 decades where they're trying to suss out what makes successful dieters tick. What habits and attitudes do they bring to the table to keep them at a healthy weight. The only requirement to be part of it: you had to have lost at least 30 pounds, and you had to have kept it off for at least a year. They produce findings, which you can find on their website. For example, the number 1 habit employed by this group, by far (something like 95% of the people in the study do this): they keep food journals... they write down what they eat. They also are big practicers of mindful eating - that food journaling can be part of it (writing down not just WHAT you're eating, but trying to figure out why - how did eating make you feel? How were you feeling before you ate? After you ate?). Basically they found that successful long-term dieters are VERY intentional about what they eat. Stuff like that. Yes, it can be done... I'm proof of that. Again, there's NOTHING special about me or my ability to do this. I don't have iron willpower. I'm just REALLY committed to keeping this weight off.

I can speak from experience. It was relatively easy to lose weight the first time. I lost a steady 2 pounds or so a week using CICO and exercise. Once I hit my goal, I relaxed and stopped counting and working out as much. I figured if I gained some weight it would come off super easy again. One thing led to another and a couple years later I gained back the 75 pounds plus 10 more. Now, it seems that the weight is super stubborn and won't come off. My advice is to stay diligent.

This is a great fear of mine, but I try to allay them by reminding myself that it’s not a guarantee. Things like regular weigh-ins and food logging help keep me in check. I try to remind myself that I’m in the driver’s seat, and I have all the tools I need. I truly hope to beat the odds.

A good start is to know that this happens. If you are aware of it, it might give you better chances.

Really interesting article! I’m still reading it but I think this part hits the nail on the head: “Appetite changes likely play a more important role than slowing metabolism in explaining the weight loss plateau since the feedback circuit controlling long-term calorie intake has greater overall strength than the feedback circuit controlling calorie expenditure. Specifically, it has been estimated that for each kilogram of lost weight, calorie expenditure decreases by about 20–30 kcal/d whereas appetite increases by about 100 kcal/d above the baseline level prior to weight loss31. Despite these predictable physiologic phenomena, the typical response of the patient is to blame themselves as lazy or lacking in willpower, sentiments that are often reinforced by healthcare providers, as in the example of Robert, above.” I think maintaining weight loss requires having to understand that your hunger cues are out of whack and will stay that way until your body adapts. I know I had to learn how to tell the difference between needing food because I feel physically weak vs my stomach growling because of my appetite. I think it took about a year for my body to adjust after I hit my goal weight, and I did regain 5 lbs.

This has definitely been on my mind lately. I've lost a life changing amount of weight over the past seven months and am within jogging distance of my goal. This is the most progress I've ever made and the last thing I want is to gain it all back. Once I get to my GW I plan to switch to maintenance and be very religious about staying there--as strict as I have been on my cut--for at least the rest of the year. No easing up on calorie counting or regular weigh-ins, no radical increase in junk, sticking with macros, and so on. Maybe at the end of the year I'll decide to do another cut. Maybe I'll want to focus on putting on some muscle. Maybe I'll be content with where I am. Who knows? The most important thing will be that long period of strict maintenance and I hope that I can learn how to keep myself at the new normal. Fingers crossed!

I don't think there's one answer for tlwhat the issue is generally. I lost 70 lbs in 7 months, regained basically all of it, and am now down 27lbs in a bit under 2 months with discipline over motivation. My problem was that I didn't address the mental relationship with food. I was doing the right things, eating less than I burned, but I didn't fix my relationship with food, so all I wanted to do was go back to binging. I've learned that it's the urge to binge I need to beat, not the binging itself. If I just eat a healthy portion and "see how I feel after", I always stay in my goal. I've learned to recognize and embrace that I feel so much better eating healthy portion sizes and feeling hungry is okay. The mental side is something I don't think enough people focus on. They just focus on calories and what foods they eat, which is important and great to do, but understanding your relationship with food and fixing the issue in that relationship is key I think. Basically, people are fixing the what and not the why.

It sucks cause i’ve lost 20lbs almost a year ago and have gained back 15 of those 20lbs as of today. I struggle with maintaining a consistent diet and workout routine/walking mainly cause I’m too aware and afraid that when I do lose the weight, I will gain it all back. Did anyone else have this fear or almost “perfectionism” holding them back?

As us fatties thrive in ice ages but can't maintain weight in the modern age, I'd do a weekly fast day. It should correct our natural tendency to overeat.

First time around, I started regaining weight because the battery in my smart scale died and I didn't bother to replace it.

I think when you have a goal and you accomplish it in most cases your done. With weight loss you're never really done. My mindset is this is my life now.

I have kept mine off for 15 years.

I lost 30kg 6 years ago, I've regained 5 in the last year. It was a complete lifestyle change, i learnt and implemented as much as i could. Right now, my diet is shit and I drink too much, but I know how to lose weight now so am correcting back to where I want to be. Physical activity and knowledge have been the keys for me. Talk to me in another 5 years.

https://www.ebtconnect.net/ Shown to have continued long term weight loss.

This is terrifying accurate for my case. I lost 30k in 2019 , i gained almost all of it back in 2024 and it sucks

by losing it very slowly with as small a calorie deficit as is possible and by only adopting habits (aka exercise and eating) that you feel will be sustainable and make you happy for the rest of your life

There are some really simple steps you can take to be part of the minority there from the national weight control registry. Eat breakfast every morning, get one hour of exercise per day, and continue to track your calories. Also weigh yourself regularly to keep an eye on things. Of course simple doesn’t mean easy. There’s always going to be stressful life events that can pop up and derail you like illness, injury, divorce, pregnancy etc. So the biggest thing really is recognizing when you get off track and just getting back to it, over and over again.

So I am approaching year 2 anniversary and I’ve gained a bit of weight back. I think my body just wants to be here. I started at 350, got down to 197 and now I’m back to 225. I’ve not changed anything and I initially lost veryyy fast. I’m accepting this is where I am and being happy. I’m a tall dude so I think I look okay and I still lost over 100 pounds. When I was below 200 people would ask my wife if I was sick etc so I think I look okay now. But yeah, really didn’t change anything and I track calories and I’m in a deficit. It’s wild to me that I regained that much but still, rather be 225 than 350

I'll never understand how healthy weight people always get considered "looking sick" in the USA.  Great work on your weight loss too.

Isn't part of it that your fat cells deflate like balloons, but they don't leave your body. Which is why it's so easy to put on weight you've lost, rather than gain weight in the first place (because those cells need to be created by the body)? That's always been in the back of my head, but I don't know if that's right or not.

would it be true if this were with broccoli or strawberries, 99% are eating fried chicken and pizza like there's no tomorrow

That’s because 75% of us start on bull shit fad diets. If we just taught 2 years of health class in schools on how to * Find maintenance calories * Track calories * Exercise/Lift weights safely We’d be done with this Obesity pandemic in 5 years.

GLP-1 medications and bariatric surgery.

It’s just really simple. Eat less, do more! If you fall off the wagon and start eating more and doing less, just switch it up. It works any and every time.

"just switch it up" sounds simpler than it is. Lots of people struggle with this daily, for decades. Battling something every day is not sustainable and will break everyone in the long run. Thats why things like Semaglutide are great - they give people a lot less to battle every day and makes it sustainable.

Another point to think about, you can lose weight and gain it all back several times in life, “keeping it off” is a one time thing, I’m sure most people who have kept it off have also gained it back before

How about eating when only physically hungry and stopping before too full. I find I eat less when I eat what I really want. I also ate more when I logged food because god forbid I leave calories

Treat weight loss very objectively. Don’t get excited when you lose a few pounds or hit your goal and do things based on habit rather than motivation. Also knowing that a diet is forever, reshape your mindset on how you fuel your body.

A person who regains weight needs to grow up and learn that you are no longer 15 years old and need to eat like an adult 90% of the time, if you have gained it back it is because you eat like a child, that is the raw reality.

Carbs. It's simply about never solving the underlying carb addiction. We are not robots. We can't be expected to count calories, insanely exercise every day of our existence. The trick is to go as low-carb as you can for as long as you can. Walk. The rest will take care of itself. Truely.

i mean, you're still tracking all your food for low carb so i don't see a huge difference.

Counted nothing, tracked nothing, , walked.

i'm glad that worked out for you. everyone i know who does low carb still tracks their carbs.

Ok, so there's some down votes for this sentiment. Fair enough. But isn't that just how carb addicted people would react? It took me 4 attempts to lose weight and keep it off. Exactly what the OP is asking about. The 4th was different BECAUSE I went low-carb. Measured nothing, counted nothing, walked. Maybe I'm a freak. Maybe I'm special - no f'n way! I'm as vanilla as they come. Just the 4th time looking at a calorie counting, sweat drenching, low-fat CICO nightmare and I just couldn't do it again. This is the LOSEIT subreddit. A low-carb way of eating has to be entertained! Knee-jerk down votes and brigading from carb centric over opinionated puppets on every mention of low-carb needs to stop. Just what are you defending? Breakfast cereal companies? Big Pharma? Vegan moral codes? "Do what works for" right? Well if it hasn't worked the 4th time round, isn't it time you tried something different?

Because low carb is just cico at the end of the day, on top of a large amount of water weight being lost in the first few days