Why Do We Regain Weight Loss?

There’s a few ways that are a common cause of weight gain. I’ll go over a few because this is the time of year that we all try to lose a few pounds after the holidays. And most of us do lose a few pounds but 9 out of 10 will regain the weight by the end of the year.

1. Unrealistic Diets

This may be the number one reason we regain weight. An unrealistic diet is one that you can only do for a short time like a “cleanse”. You drop 10 pounds,  you think that’s great and go back to eating the same diet you had before. Except now you picked up some new eating habits over the holidays like roll and coffee at a coffee shop near work, or stopping at a drive-thru on the way to work to pick up some pastries for the break room.

Before the holidays you would have never done this, but everyone is rushed during the holidays. You have to cram in all that Christmas shopping. We normally do some of that during our lunch break, so we are eating more snack food to compensate for the lunch we had to skip.

The problem is that you picked up a bad habit during the holidays and you enjoyed those trips to the coffee shop and now you continue to go because maybe you like the coffee and rolls or you like the people that hang out there.

The only weight to get control of your weight is to change what your eating. You don’t have to starve to lose weight. Just start eating real, fresh foods. Forget frozen, processed or manufactured foods and start eating all natural foods.
2. Weight Loss – The Energy Gap

The funny thing about losing weight is that, as soon as you start losing, your body suddenly wants it all back.

As you lose weight, your body doesn’t need as many calories as it did before but, for many of us, something strange and frustrating happens – We want more food.

Like the stereotypical bustling mother who plies you with food saying, “Eat! Eat!,” your body doesn’t like to lose weight. It can’t tell the difference between you going on a diet or being struck by famine and immediately goes into protective mode, lowering your metabolism by up to 15% and stimulating your appetite to preserve fat stores.

On top of that, when you lose weight, your body needs fewer calories to maintain itself, creating what experts call ‘the energy gap.’

They estimate that the energy gap we need to maintain weight loss could be up to 200 calories a day for a person trying to lose 10% of his or her body weight. This energy gap is smaller for people trying to avoid weight gain, around 100 calories a day. If you don’t keep that energy gap going every day, the weight eventually creeps back on.

Making Peace With The Energy Gap

Exercise – Your number one defense against your body’s natural tendency to hold on to weight is exercise. It doesn’t just burn calories, it also weakens your body’s desire to regain weight. Researchers don’t understand all the mechanisms behind this, but believe working out may encourage the body to become more sensitive to leptin (a hormone that regulates appetite) so you don’t feel as hungry.
Recalculate your calories – As you lose weight, make sure you recalculate how many calories you need. The more weight you lose, the fewer calories your body needs to maintain itself and tracking that can help you keep the energy gap you need to maintain weight loss.
Go by net calories burned during workouts – When you calculate how many calories you burn during exercise, make sure to subtract the number of calories you would’ve burned if you weren’t exercising to get a more accurate number. For example, if you burned 300 calories during a 30-minute run, you would subtract the number of calories you would’ve burned sitting (e.g., around 20-40 calories).
Avoid compensating for your workouts – Another way we sabotage ourselves without realizing it is by compensating for workouts. This may mean resting more than you normally would or eating more because you think you deserve it after exercising. Stick to your regular eating and activity habits to keep the energy gap going.
4. Not Enough Exercise

Aside from being active, exercise is crucial for successful weight loss and avoiding weight regain. In fact, Dr. Len Kravitz states in his article, “Physical Activity, Weight Loss and Weight Regain:”

Regular workouts is the best way to maintain weight loss. And, when it comes to preventing weight gain, more is better.

While we know that exercise is important, everyone needs a different amount based on a variety of factors including gender, age, fitness level, weight, body composition, and genetics. Successful weight losers spend about an hour a day exercising and experts suggest the following guidelines depending on your goals:

To prevent weight gain: 150–250 minutes per week of moderately vigorous exercise, which translates to about 20-35 minutes of exercise most days of the week.
For weight loss: 225–420 minutes per week of moderately vigorous exercise, which translates to about 60-90 minutes of exercise most days of the week.

Get Started With Exercise

If you’re new to exercise, 60-90 minutes may feel impossible, but it’s okay to start with what you can handle and what your schedule allows and work your way up from there.

Your exercise program should include cardio (about 3-5 workouts a week) and strength training (about 2-3 nonconsecutive days a week) for best weight loss results. The following resources will help you get started:

Experts have found that people who maintain weight loss for more than two years tend to keep it off. It seems that, the longer you maintain weight loss, the better you get at it, mastering the delicate balance of calories in and calories out and figuring out how much exercise you need to maintain that balance.

Two years may seem like a long time, but most of us have a lifetime of bad habits and weight problems to overcome. It’s going to take time to unravel all that history. Remembering how long it took to gain the weight may help you keep things in perspective.

Sticking With It

Sticking with it doesn’t mean you have to be perfect for the next two years. There will be times you fail – You’ll get sick, get slammed by holidays, get injured, go on vacation or just lose your mojo. When that happens, and it does for all of us, how you respond is crucial to your success:

Get Back on Track – Falling off the exercise wagon will happen, but what’s important is what you do about it. Recognize that a mistake is a one-time thing and something you can overcome by admitting your mistake and easing back into your program. The same thing goes for injuries; make sure your ready to get back in the routine of exercising. Start off slow to test out the injury and after a week increase your routine until your back to normal.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.