Obesity and addiction

[limewave]

Yes, you don't know other people's struggles. And maybe few people just eat. But very few people go from morbid obesity to normal weight and keep it off. Everyone who does that successfully is an extreme case. That struggle is significant and I feel it should not be minimized by saying that everyone has their issues. The physiology of the ex-obese person is different from someone who has always been normal weight and maybe deals a bit with five, or ten extra pounds. I do not even think it is out of line to compare it to drug addiction.

That is my big fear! I've managed to keep off 160-170 pounds for 10 years now. But I feel like I'm one misstep from being morbidly obese again. I did go back up to 200 pounds when I was pregnant with my son (that's 200 pounds after I gave birth to him). It was a real struggle to lose weight a second time. My goal now is to get on the scale every day and try to maintain. If I go up 5 pounds, I can correct it before the extra 5 pounds turns into 10, 15 . . . 30.

[goldfinch]

That is my big fear! I've managed to keep off 160-170 pounds for 10 years now. But I feel like I'm one misstep from being morbidly obese again. I did go back up to 200 pounds when I was pregnant with my son (that's 200 pounds after I gave birth to him). It was a real struggle to lose weight a second time. My goal now is to get on the scale every day and try to maintain. If I go up 5 pounds, I can correct it before the extra 5 pounds turns into 10, 15 . . . 30.

The good news is the longer you keep it off the more likely you will continue to keep it off. Data from the National Weight Control Registry indicates that the odds improve after a couple of years of weight maintenance.

What a loss! And ten years of keeping it off! Those who try to get you to eat against the rules you have developed for yourself can stick it! You should join the Weight Control Registry. Your experiences can provide valuable data for researchers. People are eligible after they have maintained at least a 30 pound weight loss over the course of at least one year. http://www.nwcr.ws/

I keep track of my weight daily using the Hackersdiet tools. It keeps a running average for you, which can help you catch slips early. Thirty days of daily data is a pretty robust view of where you are at, whether you are trending up or down or pretty much stable. https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/HackDiet/

[lph]

I really appreciate the great answers here! I think it is very difficult for someone who has never been more than a little overweight to understand how it feels to live with real obesity. It must be a very real challenge if one has a type of addiction to have to face that addiction several times a day. There's no way of just avoiding food.

We all are hardwired to some extent to eat when there's food available, and to enjoy calorie-rich foods. But most of us who cycle also know the joy of movement, of getting fitter, of feeling your body work well the way it's supposed to. And everybody knows the actual physics of "burn more, eat less". On paper it's so simple. In real life it's obviously hard, otherwise we wouldn't be spending masses of time and money talking about it and inventing strange diets. But I'm also convinced that it's very much harder for some people, whether it's genes, psychology, habits, culture, metabolism or whatever. Willpower can get you only so far for a certain amount of time, after that a lot more things have to be in place to get you through.