the nightmare of gaining it back.
 

As you can see from my signature, I got down to 155 and maintained it for about a year. I would occasionally have a high-carb treat, but never gained anything from it. Then I started having a high-carb meal on occasion. Still I didn't gain any weight. You kind of get into the mindset that this is where I'm going to maintain, so a little treat here and there won't matter.

Well, several months into having treats "on occasion," I noticed my size 10 shorts were getting a little tight. But it was the end of the summer, and I figured I'd washed them so many times, surely they had shrunk.

Then my winter clothes were a little tight. I stopped weighing myself for a while, because (remember?) "I'm maintaining at this weight."

Then one day I decided to weigh myself after having not weighed for months. Needless to say, I was shocked to find I had gained 10 pounds back. Then I did a lot of meandering among different plans, never giving any of them a solid chance of working.

Add to this an accident I had. I slipped walking down the staircase one morning and broke 2 vertebrae in my back and was laid up for weeks. I gained another 10 pounds over this, and ended up back at 175.

Finally I started doing Protein Power again, right by the book. Add to that the fact that my husband of 25 years up and left me 5 weeks ago (I had no clue anything was wrong -- he literally never gave me any indication anything was wrong), with no good explanation of why he was leaving.

So now I'm down to 154 again. This time, I'm going to keep in mind the problem with "occasional treats" and avoid them. I'm going to concentrate on eating enough protein and staying low carb.

That's my story, anyway.

In short, you get over-confident and then start to backslide.

It sounds like some people stop working out too.

Its hard to gain weight back (high carb meal or not) if you're burning over 3000 calories per day and only eating 2200, but some people stop exercising when they meet their goal and their metabolsim slows down again.

His loss I think keep it up.

Thanks. I intend to.

Right after it happened, someone said to me, "Just keep putting one foot in front of the other." I did. I tend to pace when I'm upset anyway, so I just kept going. We have a lot of land, and I have a path cut through that works out to be about a mile per loop. I just started walking (more like slowly pacing) that route many loops a day. I'm sure that helped with the weight loss (though it didn't help much with the emotional loss). What also helped was the fact that I lost my appetite completely. I made sure to get enough protein (almost) every day, so I don't think I lost muscle, just fat.

Once is enough, though. I don't intend to slip up and gain it back again.

Who knows? I may need to catch the eye of another man in the future.

I have gained back about 15 pounds. I know exactly what my problems are though. With my new job I have been to tired to exercise and have gotten really out of shape. I've also fallen into the bad habit of "sampling" things at work, which is not good when you work in a bakery. Because of my busy schedule, I have also started having more and more convience foods.

I still am smaller then when I started, but I really need to get back in gear. Kick out most of the convience foods and start tracking carbs again, get motivated to exercise more, and work really hard on getting back into veggies in my diet.

I lost about 40 lbs doing low fat about 7 years ago. I was exercising and eating "right". lol As soon as I got to goal, I completely stopped everything. I quit exercising and started eating whatever I wanted. Gained it all back plus 20 more.

I have been maintaining my goal weight, with a few lbs to spare now for over 3 months. I am still exercising every day and eating low carb. I think the key is to stick with what worked, and not think you have it made once you reach goal. :)

I lost 15 lbs 2 years ago just by walking EVERYWHERE I went and working at a job where I was always on my feet. My boyfriend and I would walk a good 10 miles just on the weekends. I was paying attention to what I ate and never starved myself. Since I was the one footing the bill for the food we ate I didn't buy much junk (candy and wahtnot). Then we moved to a rural area where you can't get anywhere on foot. I can't drive so I would have to rely on my bf to take me places. He hated leaving the house so I spent most of my time on my butt. Also I had no exercise equipment and hardwood floors are not much of a workout surface. This alone caused me to gain 10 lbs quick. Then we moved again. D.C is a wonderful place where everything is in close proximity. Unfortunately, Starbucks, chinese, and a wonderful candy store were right across the street. I gained 20 lbs in 6 months. Then we moved again. This time it was in with his father cause he's disabled and needs the extra help. He's a total sweet/bread addict and we would make regular trips to Dunkin Donuts, sometimes 3 times a week. So, now I'm just trying to overcome my newfound carb addiction. But I totally think exercise is the key. So I've got my elliptical trainer to help with the fact that I can no longer walk everywhere.

I think you answered your own question. They got off track. Our bodies are programmed to stay at a certain weight so any lack of life-time vigilance is going to be rewarded in this way. :p

Its really frightening how few people keep it off. Something like 5%. I think a lot of it is because most people go on diets and think of it as a temporary change. If they don't continue the diet their entire life, they'll gain back the weight. That's why people are saying "Way of Life" that know they have to keep it up for the rest of their lives.

Fat cells have long, long memories!

I lost 55 lbs. about 11 years ago doing the low-fat thing. Went from 190 to 135, but paid dearly for it. I ended up so sick and weak, my doc said I literally starved myself thin. Went through a major depression caused by the starvation - doc said that neural pathways shut down when starved, resulting in depression and other mental lapses. I felt so terrible that it took me all this time to consider "dieting" again. This is literally the last diet I have in me. I am so grateful that I found LCing and a WOE that I can live with.

In one word...change...but if it's not a good change, the changes resulting won't be either.

I used to keep my weight with low fat and a LOT of exercise, and when I moved and couldn't do that much exercise anymore, the eating low fat didn't seem to do a BIT of good!

Now that I've done it AGAIN with low carbing, I know I have to be vigilant, but I think it's easier to stick with low carbing than it was to figure out a way of exercising an hour & a half a day...which I enjoyed, but got too busy/poor/etc to do anymore.

I think vigilance is the key. Throw out the bigger clothes, so you HAVE to face the fact that certain things are getting snugger, and it's easier to stop the slide at the top, instead of the bottom.