So what happens if you regain the weight you lost?
After all, it’s pretty common.
Here’s what I learned from losing 90 pounds and regaining 40.
As a kid I played sports.
Sports, for me, weren’t about exercise.
I hated gym class at school and couldn’t successfully run a mile.
Still, I wanted to lose weight.
I ended up becoming a serial dieter and, eventually, developing an eating disorder.
When I would lose weight thanks to purging, I would get compliments on my weight loss.
This created an unhealthy cycle that was only broken when I got mono.
A lightbulb went off during that time and I stopped purging.
Unfortunately, I continued overeating.
At my heaviest weight, after graduating college, I was nearly 250 pounds.
That’s when it clicked for me.
That night I bought a pair of running shoes, shorts, and a tank top off Ebay.
When they arrived, I went for my first run.
After that, I continued running.
It became a competition with myself to do better on each run.
That was helpful because it made it more familiar, like playing a sport.
After the exercise clicked, the nutrition wasn’t far behind.
I also found that I couldn’t eat heavy meals after running.
This led to a dramatic change in my eating habits, almost naturally.
I started treating food like fuel for my runs.
Even though I wasn’t tracking my calories or macronutrients, I started losing weight.
Then I signed up for my first race and runningdidbecome a sport for me.
Everything had clicked and I didn’t have totryto lose weight, I was just losing weight.
I felt physically better
The more weight I lost, the better I felt physically.
I wasn’t getting sick as often with things like colds.
I also started having fewer headaches, something I had struggled with since I was young.
At the time I started losing weight, I worked at the top of a ridiculous hill.
Walking up the hill every day had been the bane of my existence.
Once I started losing weight, the hill felt like no big deal.
I also realized I didn’t have as many general aches and pains.
Suddenly the benefits of losing weight were very apparent to me.
I’ll never forget the first time I got on a plane and felt comfortable in the seat.
It didn’t stop there.
The more weight I lost, the better I became at running.
With less weight to carry, I became faster.
One of the biggest changes after losing weight was how much more energy I had.
I had more self-confidence and found myself holding my head just a little bit higher.
At the time, I attributed this to weighing less after all it seemed like the logical conclusion.
I felt empowered that after so many years of feeling like I couldn’t lose weight, I had.
The feedback I got from society was that I AM better now that I lost weight.
People treated me like my opinions mattered more.
My expectations for others became very unfair.
I started to fall into the habit of judging other people I saw on the street.
This was the scariest part of losing weight.
Being overweight my entire life had meant that I was part of a somewhat marginalized group.
The overweight person I see eating McDonald’s might be having a treat after months of strict clean eating.
Just as how what I eat and how I behave isn’t any of their business.
I have no room to judge anyone for the choices they make.
I could meet them where they were rather than expecting them to begin their journey at my unrealistic expectations.
I decided to get a personal training certification and work full-time in the fitness industry.
It felt like weight loss was what I knew, so that was initially my specialty.
Women wanted to lose weight and I was their girl!
More than that, I also realized that losing weight isn’t always the most important thing.
Even if someone is overweight, they may not need or want to lose weight.
When we lose weight, there are a few different spots where our bodies could end up.
My lowest weight ever was 150 pounds (and that lasted for about a day, I think).
At the time I thought I still needed to lose more weight.
Looking back at photos, my body wasn’t happy at that weight.
I had lost a lot of fat, but I had also lost muscle.
When I stopped doing as much cardio and started lifting, I gained weight but I also gained strength.
Maintaining was a whole different ball game.
Because of that, I continued to gain weight.
I started running more and eating less.
The only problem was, it didn’t work the same way this time.
This kickstarted my metabolism into overdrive and helped me lose weight quickly.
This time, even though I hadn’t been running regularly, I had been working out regularly.
I had gained weight, but I was active and fit.
I let the nagging voices get to me and I gave up what I loved.
Still, my weight does not define me or my fitness.
I may have gained weight, but I have also gained strength.
I may have a higher BMI than in 2012, but my body is healthy.
Somewhere along the way, we confused skinny with physically fit.
You do not have to be skinny to be fit and healthy.
One of my biggest inspirations for continuing to improve my fitness no matter my sizeis Jessamyn Stanley.
If you haven’t heard of her, look her up.
That didn’t go anywhere after I regained weight.
Losing weight made me a better athlete and today I am stronger and fitter than I have ever been.
Would I like to lose a few pounds to get back to that sweet spot of muscle-to fat-ration?
A very strong, deadlifting cake.
How much do you really want to lose weight and why do you want to lose weight?
I was finally able to lose 90 pounds because I found the reason that was important tome.
I couldn’t lose weight for anyone else, or just for the sake of being skinnier.
I wanted to lose weight so I could do the things I loved.
If you really want to lose weight, you could.
And that’s actually okay.
Maybe weight loss isn’t your goal.
Remember that losing weight is just one way to be healthier.
If you want to lose weight, you could,but you don’t have to.
Your worth is not attached to a number on the scale.
