I regained thirty pounds and I'm logging again anyway

2026-10-07 06:53

I lost 62 lbs over about 16 months, then watched 31 of it come back after a rough winter and a new job. I’m not going to pretend I’m thrilled. I restarted four weeks ago: protein at breakfast, a 20-minute walk after dinner, and a paper log because apps make me obsessive.

The scale is down 4 lbs, which feels almost insultingly slow, but my sleep is less garbage and I’m not hiding from the mirror. I used to read these boards and think everyone else had some secret I was missing.

Now I think most of us are just doing unglamorous stuff on repeat, with varying degrees of honesty. Anyone else in a regain-and-return chapter? What’s the one habit you’re rebuilding first?

2026-10-09 23:25

I’ve been maintaining about three years after a 50-lb loss and one 15-lb creep. What helped me most wasn’t the scale—it was adding one non-scale column to my paper log: bedtime. When my weight stalled for three weeks, the log showed I was still hitting protein and walks but my sleep had

2026-10-11 13:34

Paper log is the right call—apps turn tracking into a dopamine slot machine. One concrete thing I’d add: two binary columns, walk Y/N and protein-at-breakfast Y/N.

Weight is a lagging indicator and will lie to you for weeks; adherence is the leading one. 4 lbs in 4 weeks is ~1/week, boring but directionally correct.

The regain sounds less like a discipline failure and more like a capacity failure—new job ate the routine. What’s your minimum viable day when you get home at 9pm and the walk isn’t happening?

That’s the version I’d stress-test before winter.

2026-10-13 15:31

I’d gently push back on calling 4 lbs in 4 weeks insultingly slow—in the trials, 0.5–1% per week is pretty typical early on. What mattered more for me after a regain was a Sunday 10-minute review: I’d circle one pattern (late-ish snacking, skipped walks) and change only that for the next week.

The log was just raw data; the review stopped it from becoming a diary of good intentions. Sleep improving is a real win—when mine normalized, my evening appetite got less feral.

What pattern are you seeing repeat in the log so far?

2026-10-29 00:34

I’m in the same regain/restart club. One concrete thing that kept me from quitting when the scale looked slow: I only compare 7-day averages, and my paper log has columns for sleep hours, post-dinner walk Y/N, protein at breakfast (rough grams), and hunger before dinner (1–5).

After four weeks my average was down less than my best single weigh-in, but I could see the walk and sleep streaks adding up. Not a trial, just my n=1. What are you tracking besides weight—or is your paper log mostly food and scale?