Thread: Stuck in a weightloss rut!

I believe I've been a yo-yo dieter.

Starting in middle school, I tried different ways of losing weight -- in 8th grade I lost a lot of weight, then maintained it until the end of 10th grade, when the anxiety disorder that started showing itself in middle school started to get worse. In the 11th grade, my weight hit it's lowest, 119 pounds, and I was proud of myself, but my chorus teacher told me to eat a lasagna and my mother said I looked sallow and unhealthy. At that time, I did WW from Sunday-Friday, then ate whatever I wanted Saturday.

My anxiety disorder was getting worse, and I finally got medication and started talking to someone. The medication made me more laid back about eating, etc., and so I started gaining weight -- reaching 177 pounds by the beginning of my senior year. For awhile, I barely tried to diet. I started up again right before college, if I remember right, and got down to the mid 160s, where I stayed until I moved to NYC for my last two years of college. I then lost a bit more weight the first semester, then gained it back up to 171 the second semester. At the beginning of my senior semester, I was fed up and finally lost weight into the mid 140s by working out every other day, dieting Sunday- Wednesday, and eating basically what I wanted Thursday-Saturday. I think I was still able to lose weight eating like that because I was working out and walking a lot living in the city.

After I graduated, I started a full time job and reached my lowest recent weight of 139.8 in October 2008. Then I was laid off and had to move home again, and my weight's hovered mostly from the lower 140s-late 140s since then. I've been dieting Sunday-Thursday (most of the time) and eating basically what I want Friday and Saturday.

I'm tired of maintaining. I want to lose 20-25 more pounds and be in the 120s. I know I need to better control my weekend habits, but it's difficult. It's so ingrained and helps me stay on track the rest of the time, but it's detrimental to my efforts. I've been trying to at least keep it to Saturday only, but it hasn't been working so far. I've been trying to walk during lunch and breaks.

I'm just not sure how to get out of this rut. Unless I'm both full and satiated, I always think about food because I've been dieting for so long that it's become something I hold in high regard. Sometimes, taking a shower and brushing my teeth helps but I can't do that all day! I just want to be able to lose these last 20-something pounds.

Any help?

Hi,

It definitely looks like you're a victim of yo-yo dieting. Here's something useful I found about it:

"Stress eating can quickly turn into a binge: We don't register what we're munching on because the food's going down so fast". Make a list of calming strategies that don't involve reaching for the cookie jar, Binks suggests. When you feel overwhelmed, consult your list and pick out something you can do in the next 10 minutes. Go for a quick walk or post a Facebook status update. Either will distract you long enough for your stress levels to come down.

Also, it's true that the point of dieting is to ditch pounds, but focusing solely on calories in and calories out can make it hard to stick to your plan if you aren't seeing results. So forget about your regular scale, use a Quantum scale, it does not display your weight, it just secretly records it and informs you on your progress. I think this would be especially useful for you since you had/have to deal with anxiety disorder, you don't need the extra pressure.

Good luck!