This past Saturday, I was down exactly 2.8 pounds. Ha!
So, how I did it?
I ate mostly vegetables. I had a lot of salads. We only went out to eat twice during the week and both times I had a salad. At home, I had either a salad for lunch and veggies for dinner or visa versa. I had chicken, too. And one day I had a hamburger and fries. Drank LOTs of water. With just about every meal I had broccoli. In Joel Furhman's book Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, he says broccoli has more protein than steak.
What do you do to lose weight in a hurry? Any special tricks or tips for us?
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P.S. I've lost a total of 18 pounds since January first. Slow and steady wins the race!
So I was mentioning before about trying to figure out why we gain weight back after we've lost it. I've been reading a lot about it and have found that one of the biggest factors for weight gain, after loss, is for the weight loss to be rapid.
The article about the Biggest Loser winners who have all gained most if not all of their weight back, quoted a study done by the Obesity journal stating the reason why the contestants gained their weight back was because their metabolism was wrecked (basically). Here's a link to the actual study. It's pretty interesting.
But I did NOT lose my weight rapidly. In fact, it took me almost FIVE years to lose 100 pounds. That averages out to be about a third of a pound a week. Granted, my weight loss was absolutely never steady or regular. But it was by no means rapid.
I think there's something to the study on the Losers and the correlation to them gaining it back after rapidly losing it. But what about the rest of us who are sensible?
I think I'm going to have to keep researching it. But if I had to take a stab at it right now, here's what I'd guess at.....
Our minds are prone to forming routines. Read Charles Duhigg's new book The Power of Habit (I've just started reading this book) and you'll see our brains are hardwired to create paths between neurons as a way of learning and adaptation. Take a look at this video from his website.
Now, I'm not sure it's quite a simple as that! But he's on to something (and maybe I'll find out more about this once I get further into the book). For me, my body craves sweet and creamy. Why? Sure, there's the physiological response of our bodies to the primary reaction of sugar (glucose and insulin) into our bloodstream and the conversion into our pleasure sensors (and fat deposits, etc.) and energy. (Boy that was a laimo explanation of that whole intricate process of mitochondria and metabolization!)
For me, my body craves these delicious things because I've trained it to. It was a learned habit I created when I was a child that I've been practicing at my entire life. I have build a habit within myself, of my own volition but entirely unintentional, to make myself crave the foods that are bad for me.
Huh?
So I'm doing this to myself?
Well, of course it's NOT as simple as that. But I think I might be headed in the right direction. What do you think? Why is it we are predisposed to eat bad food, gain weight, lose weight, but still go back to eating the foods we love (and packing on the pounds)?
Why do we gain the weight back after we've lost it?
As I mentioned before, studies show the odds are stacked against us. If we lose weight, chances are we're going to gain it back.
So what's up with that??
NBC Newssays it's because of a "too restrictive" diet. They quote the Obesity journal that says if people follow a very low-calorie diet, they'll regain significantly more weight back.
Danny Cahill now has to eat 800 calorie less than a typical man of his size. If he eats any more calories than that each day he'll gain weight.
Wow!
Well, there's proof, even if it's just one man, who proves the theory of rapid weight loss leads to gaining all of it back.
What about me, though?
I lost ONE HUNDRED POUNDS from 2007 to 2010. That's definitely NOT rapid weight loss. Doing the quick math, that's about two-thirds of a pound a week. (Sure, my weight loss was anything from steady loss—ups and downs plagued me.)
Yet here I am, FIFTY POUNDS heavier. I have already lost almost 20 pounds since the first of the year, so realistically, I gained SIXTY POUNDS back.
I've been reading a LOT about this lately, but I'm still perplexed. The statistics are staggering...
NBC News says "more than 80 percent of people who have lost weight regain all of it, or more, after two years."
When I first got life insurance, I was about half way through my total weight loss and because I had been losing weight, they had to give me a higher premium as if I was heavier and unhealthier than I actually way. They said it was because of the same thing that NBC stated. I had to wait until about a year after I got to goal before I could get my life insurance premium reduced.
So science proves that we will regain all or most of our weight once we lose it.
Why?
Why even lose weight if the odds are against you. If you know there's a strong possibility you won't be in the very small percentile who will actually keep it off, why try? I mean, I don't know about you, but if the odds are against me in a negative way, I'm sure to win (or rather lose) every time.
But here I am, 50 POUNDS HEAVIER than I was at my lowest on Weight Watchers (in 2010).
What about you? Have you lost a significant amount of weight and then gained all or most of it back? Or more?
I had a rough weigh-in last week. I gained 2.8 pounds but the worst part was I was completely shocked about it.
You know how sometimes you gain weight but you expect it. Maybe you cheated a little too much during the week and you know you're going to be up.
But I was thrown off guard by this gain. Two week prior to the weigh in, I was on a week-long vacation where I indulged a little. Not much, but 3 nights I had dessert and 4 days I ate things I normally wouldn't. All-in-all, not horrible. I was expecting to gain a few pounds from this eating behavior.
I didn't weigh in after I got back from vacation because I knew I'd be up a few pounds, so instead I hunkered down and stayed on plan for the next week. The thought was that whatever few pounds I gained while I was on vacation I'd be able to get off over the course of the following week.
Well, it didn't work.
Or maybe it did.
Maybe I gained more than a few pounds on vacation. I didn't weigh myself when I got back, I don't weigh myself at home any more. Only at Weight Watchers. What if I gained several pounds? What if I gained 10 pounds? Over the course of just ONE WEEK?!?!
Say it ain't so!!
Is my metabolism so screwed up from all of the dieting (lose weight, gain weight, lose weight, gain weight....) that it no longer knows how to gain just a little bit from indulging?
I read an article in the New York Times that mentioned how Danny Cayhill had gaining 100 pounds back over the five years since he won Biggest Loser. This quote from Danny, in the article, shocked me the most:
“All my friends were drinking beer and not gaining massive amounts of weight,” Mr. Cahill said. “The moment I started drinking beer, there goes another 20 pounds. I said, ‘This is not right. Something is wrong with my body.’”
