Regain, Re-loss and Maintenance. What can cause regain and what might help to stop it on a journey into maintenance.

A post on the 30 Day Accountability Challenge run by the tireless /u/Mountainlioness404d got me thinking about regain and re-loss. I hope some of the thoughts below are helpful to people looking to maintain their weightloss, or looking ahead to what maintenance might look for them. This won't be applicable to everyone or probably even most people, but I hope there's a few who it will resonate with.

Some quick backstory on where I'm coming from. I joined /r/loseit seven and a half years ago (under a username lost to time). I was in my early twenties and hopeless. After prolonged illness, I'd comfort eaten my way up to 212 lbs at 5'6 and I was devastated at what I'd done to myself. I'd already begun losing via a calorie deficit and no exercise, when I found r/loseit, and it was one of the major tools in my weightloss journey. The support of other members and the no-nonsense approach to nutrition and focus on the individual were invaluable. I lost 60 lbs in the first six months, and then 20 lbs in the next six months (I introduced exercise at this time and there was some recomp) until I hit 130 lbs. I then maintained that loss for six years with fluctuations between 130 and 140.

What were the reasons for the re-gain after that time?

The easy answer is COVID. But COVID was only the instigator. These are the reasons why all the weight I'd lost and kept off for six years, came back in one year

• In my backstory above, you'll notice I referenced comfort eating. During COVID I was made redundant. That in itself wasn't a big deal, once the redundancy was finalised, I found another better job with relative ease. However it took six months for the redundancy to be processed. During that time, the amount of stress was incredible. Unsurprisingly, alone and isolated, I went straight back to comfort eating in the lack of any better mechanism to replace it. I've had other times of high stress and pressure in those six years, but dealt with it through healthier outlets like the gym, walking, talking with friends. Once alone in a house by myself with none of those outlets, I went straight back to what I knew best.

• CLOTHES. OK I feel like this one at least will resonate with a few folks. Trapped in a house for a year, no need to dress professionally unless I knew I had a webcam meeting (and even then only above the waist) I defaulted to comfortable clothes. What was the point even putting on jeans if I never left the house? Certainly no need to put on smart office dresses with structured waistlines or tailored trousers which didn't expand. Tracksuit bottoms and pyjamas it was. They expanded along with me. I never needed to buy new ones between the 140 lbs I started the year at, and the 219 lbs I ended at 18 months later. No wonder I didn't even notice the weight gain.

• Alcohol. I spent the first half of COVID alone, and the second half bubbled with family. In the absence of other places to go, other things to do, the drinks flowed freely. And the fatter I got, the more alcohol it took to produce any effect at all. The sheer liquid calories during that time were obscene.

• Lack of tracking of any kind. I didn't weigh myself, I didn't look in the mirror (what was the point - who else was going to see me?) and I didn't <i>track my food</i>. There are people out there who are lucky enough to be able to intuitively eat. Even after six years of eating like a normal person, I never ever ate without tracking what I was eating mentally and calorie counting. I tried once or twice to wean myself from that, but each time my weight crept upwards. I don't have normal satiation cues, I don't have stomach fullness indicators. Even when I was 130 lbs, if I allowed myself a blowout, I could eat and drink 6'4 men under the table, because I had no internal stopping cues. Tracking is essential to some people. There's a sense in some weightloss communities of looking down on tracking or believing that the ideal is that one day you will no longer need to. Some of us will. It's five mins of our day, and it can help prevent exactly the situation I'm in.

• Lack of movement. In my case, gyms being shut, walking routes being limited to a couple of kms, a lack of enjoyment in youtube workouts (I mostly do weights so cardio bored me) all contributed to this. On top of that NEAT was severely reduced due to the overall lack of movement. No commute meant no walking. Home delivery meant no shopping. Office upstairs next to the bedroom, meant no movement daily.

Takeaways from this

• Keep tracking, for as long as you need to do so. Be honest with yourself about whether you realistically see yourself being able to eat at maintenance without that tracking suppport. It doesn't have to be every day, or as detailed as it is when you're losing weight, but that visible reminder will help you. Myfitnesspal on your phone, your diary, occasionally browsing r/loseit. Whatever works for you.

• Weigh yourself in a regular way. Whether that's once a day, once a week, once a month. Make a note of it and try to catch anything that's outside of a normal fluctuation. Better to catch it at 10lbs than 50lbs.

• Keep tight track of the liquid calories sneaking back in. They're the easiest to overlook!

• Keep some form of exercise in your life, even if it's not for calorie-burn. Whether it's the daily walk, the yoga video, the 3 x times a week lifting weights, make sure some part of your life is kept active. Not only does it help weight regulation, but when those things become more difficult due to weight gain, you will notice and it can be a warning sign.

• Be aware about your clothes. Don't let the fat jeans become the normal jeans, and then new jeans be bought. Be aware of how they fit and whether you're starting to become reluctant to put on tighter fitting clothing.

• Take what worked from your weightloss and restructure it for maintenance. The whole point is that there should be a new lifestyle at the end of it, not a reversion to the old one.

The bright side (for those, like me, who are on the re-loss treadmill)

• We know exactly what to do to lose weight
• We know it works
• We know we have other people in the same boat to commiserate with
• We know that this past 18 months in particular have been very hard
• We know we can do it.

submitted by /u/Rivenwright
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