Daily Bread #132

I think it is time to blog again about my weight loss journey. I stopped my weekly posts on February 28, 2020 after posting every week for 131 weeks in a row. More than 2 years seemed like enough and at that time I had lost a total of 183.5 pounds since April of 2018.

In November of 2020 I stopped attending the weekly on-line support groups but seemed to maintain just fine without them.

In February I posted that my loss total had increased to 185.1 despite some stress eating in January. I reached my lowest average weight of 136.3 in February of 2021 which was 186.5 less than my starting weight of 322.8.

By the end of May 2021 my weight was holding very steady at 145 and I stopped logging all my calories. (something I had done daily from April of 2018.) Big surprise, but when I stopped logging, I started gradually gaining some of the weight back.

So, this week I am at 150.3 with a total loss of 172.5. Yup, I have gained back 14 pounds from my lowest point. It isn’t a disaster, a 10% gain still leaves me at a very close to “normal” weight. It is also “only” 7.5% of the weight I lost.

Most diets fail. Most people gain all their lost weight back plus some. Only 5% of people keep it off for more than a year. This struggle is very real.

I can tell myself it’s all muscle which is heavier than fat, but that would be kidding myself. While it is true that I have more muscles from 4-5 long hikes every week, swimming, and using the stationary bike on days I don’t hike, it isn’t 14 extra pounds only of muscle. I can log 33 miles in 4 days, which burns a lot of calories as well as being just glorious, but the weight gain is coming from eating more calories than I am burning. While a few chips on a hike are fine, it is hard not to dip into an open bag for an after-hike snack. I also got in the habit of dessert every night. And while I am not (and never have been) a true binge eater, I can easily go for an extra and unnecessary cookie or two just for the taste. So I am back to logging all my calories. If necessary, I will start weighing and measuring everything again, but that was a pain so I am going to wait a bit before starting that up again or going back to the support group. My new clothes all still fit and I am still healthy, so I am not going to stress too much about those 14 pounds, but I really don’t want 14 to turn into 30, 60, 100, 150, 200 or more. I am not going back and I intend to stay in the 5% club. Blogging may help me get that discipline and accountability going again too. We will see.

It’s a struggle, but as we said back in the day, “dare to struggle, dare to win!”

L’Chaim!  

My average weight this week is up 1 pound for a total loss of 172.5