Recouping: Diet Day 437

[darkemeralds]

This is the first time I've lost this much weight, the first time I've made a regular habit tracking both my daily weight and my daily food. It's the first time I've ever deliberately pushed the pause button on a diet, and definitely the first time I've ever re-started a diet after stopping (but before regaining all-and-then-some of the weight I'd lost).

After a hiatus of several weeks, it feels good--comfortable and safe--to get back to tracking what I eat. I can envision a time when it'll be enough to do that intermittently, say one week out of the month, but that time isn't yet. I still need that tool.

I haven't quite turned the weight trend line downward again. It takes a couple of weeks for any consistent calorie change to show up there. That's true in either direction, which must account for that magical thinking at the end of a diet that says, "Hey, look! I can now eat all I want and not gain weight." Because for two weeks or so, that's true. The metabolic train doesn't stop on a dime.

Once it does slow down, there are a few weeks where the re-gain is deniable. Then there'll be a couple more weeks where you can't really deny it, but you're not ready to stop it. Then two more once you finally re-take control, and two more after that before the undeniable gain starts to go away again...

The moral of the story, for me, is this: it's easier to stay on the diet than to get back on it, and easier to get back on it sooner rather than later.

I want to remember that.

Comments

[alex_beecroft]

I had a week off my diet over the summer holidays, when my family and I were all at the seaside. It took me about three months to lose what I gained that week! But I did lose it and carried on downwards until I got to my target. My target weight (of 11 stone) has a buffer of 3lb on either side (so anywhere between 11 stone 3 and 10 stone 11, I'm still in my target zone.) For Christmas, what I did was make sure I was 10 stone 11, which gives me 6lb of weight that I can gain before I fall off my target on the wrong side. That way, I can scoff Bombay Mix and chocolate for three days, possibly put 5lb on, and still not have the guilt of having gone off target.

Then, of course, I get to work to take the 5lb off again. But all of the time, including during the weight gain, I've been in control, so I don't feel panicky or as though it's all doomed now that I've put a bit extra back on.

[darkemeralds]

Now that is fully-conscious planning!

The Hacker's Diet agrees with you that a band of a couple of pounds on either side of your nominal goal weight is a good strategy. He gives a five-pound band (2.5 lbs on either side) as a normal range of fluctuation, and a ten-pound band as an alarm trigger. He suggests that in any given month your weight trend might wander around in that narrower band because of water weight, but if the trend line hits the wider limit, immediate diet changes are in order.

Conscious awareness has certainly been the key to my success so far. It sounds like it's been yours, too.

[alex_beecroft]

I think the main thing is to discover a diet that actually works and can be followed without too much of a feeling of sacrifice. Once you know you've got control, it's much easier to exercise it. But yes, it is a case of constant vigilance. It's not terribly hard, but it is continuous.