Why can’t I lose weight after going from 168 to 130 pounds?
I reflected on it:
Why was it so easy for me to go from 168 to 130, but after reaching 130, I always ended up binge eating intermittently, to the point that I haven’t lost any weight for over a month!
In the early stage, I mostly prepared my own fat-reducing meals, and the process from 168 to 140 was very simple. Basically, as long as I felt hungry at night, the next day I would definitely lose weight, and the changes in my body were quick. I received a lot of positive feedback, so even though it was very uncomfortable to only eat 800 calories a day, I persevered.
However, after reaching 140, the weight change became slower and slower. There were often four to five days with no change in weight. Sometimes, even if I ate very little on a day, my weight would still increase the next day. At this point, I didn’t get any positive feedback, plus eating too little and having a monotonous diet for a long time made me unable to persevere.
So, starting from June 15th, I started binge eating off and on. After binge eating, I would then resume the previous diet plan for weight loss, and then after two days, I would start binge eating again, repeating the cycle.
My weight remained stuck at 131.6 pounds for exactly a month. This isn’t the most frightening part; what’s truly terrifying is that I started to doubt whether I would ever be able to break through this weight loss plateau.
I began to feel tired of eating the fat-reducing meals I prepared myself. I couldn’t stop once I started eating, and often finished all the food for the day in the morning. The turning point came when I really didn’t want to eat my own prepared diet and ordered a fat-reducing salad takeaway, and after eating it, it felt like a whole new world was opened up to me.
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I felt very full after eating, and after finishing, I only felt very satisfied, without any impulse to continue eating as I used to after finishing a meal.
Now I finally understand that the vegetable salad contained beef, chicken breast, broccoli, pumpkin, okra, lettuce, purple sweet potato, corn… many kinds of food, making that meal very rich and with a calorie count of no more than 400 calories.
Actually, the reason I used to want to eat more after finishing my meal was because my long-term monotonous diet made my body think I was facing a disaster, and it crazily reminded me to eat more, making my appetite strong. This vegetable salad was not only substantial but also contained seven to eight kinds of food, perfectly fulfilling what my body lacked at that moment, naturally reducing my desire to eat more.
So, in summary, the reasons I could persevere from 168 to 140 pounds were:
1. Just a little control was enough to get positive feedback.
2. This was the initial stage of weight loss, where my enthusiasm was high, making it easy to persist.
At the stage from 140 to 130, I started feeling tired because the restraint from the previous stage led to an increasingly strong appetite, and the weight change became slower and slower. However, due to the sunk cost, I still persevered.
After 130 pounds, my defense line was completely broken, and I kept binge eating and dieting back and forth for a month without any weight loss. So, if you want to truly lose weight, you absolutely cannot continue as you did before.
That extreme and monotonous dietary arrangement; weight loss is a long-term activity; you must find a weight loss method that you can adhere to.
Later, I reflected on why the urge to binge eat appeared?
In the end, it was simply that eating too little regularly and a monotonous diet made my appetite strong.
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Currently, I have summarized the weight loss methods that suit me best:
1. Three meals a day are essential; even if you’re not very hungry come dinnertime, you must eat a little to prevent waking up hungry in the middle of the night and binge eating uncontrollably. This is also one of the key steps in stabilizing your appetite.
2. The variety of food in each meal must be diverse, avoiding a monotonous diet. When there is a variety of food, it prevents the impulse to binge eat caused by the body lacking certain micronutrients.
3. Increase exercise appropriately. Losing weight from 130 pounds downward will be much more challenging, so at this point, you need to increase your caloric deficit through exercise.
4. Maintain good sleep and rest times. This is a very important part of weight loss. Try not to exercise before bedtime; schedule exercise at least 3 hours before sleep.
These are all my current insights into weight loss, and perhaps there will be modifications due to changes in my body later on, but for now, it is the most suitable weight loss method for me.
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