5 Reasons You Regain Lost Weight

Old habits die hard, and this is especially true when it comes to weight loss and dieting. Discover 5 common reasons you regain lost weight, and how to break the cycle.

If the question "Why do I regain weight?" plagues you daily, you're not alone. Approximately 65% of dieters return to their pre-dieting weight within three years, according to the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Where are dieters going wrong? Here are five reasons you regain weight, and what you should do to stop gaining weight after losing it and get back on the road to recovery.

Old Habits Live On

If you fall into your old habits, you're far more likely to fall back into your old weight. When old dietary demons like highly processed carbohydrates and high-sugar cookies, cakes, and pies haunt you, banish them with nutrient-dense whole grains, lean proteins, and a plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables. Maintaining healthy dietary habits with a wide spectrum of nutritious foods will help prevent gaining weight after losing it and keep it off for the duration of your life.

Prescription Medications

If you're gaining weight after losing it but you're certain your diet isn't to blame, it may be that your prescriptions medications are interfering with your optimal weight. Birth control pills, hormone therapy, steroids, blood pressure medications, and beta-blockers for heart conditions are but a few in a wide range of medications that can cause weight gain and may account for mystery pounds. Consult your physician about altering medications that may be the culprit.

Nutritional Imbalance

One of the lesser-known reasons you regain weight is that your post-weight-loss diet - and consequentially, your body - is lacking in vital nutrients like Vitamin D, magnesium, or iron. This imbalance can present itself in symptoms like lethargy, but it can also cause metabolic lag and make it difficult to maintain your ideal weight. If you frequently feel tired without explanation, give your body and your metabolism a boost with more vitamin- and mineral-rich foods.

Getting Older

While getting older has its perks, your metabolism slows with age. If you continue to consume the calories at 40 or 50 that you did at 20, gaining weight after losing it becomes unavoidable. As you age, the key to weight maintenance is to eat fewer foods but which pack in more nutrition. Introduce lean protein to help your body burn fat more efficiently, and minimize carbohydrates as they are processed more slowly and stored more readily in the golden years.

Derailed Diet

Treating your diet as a one-time stint rather than a lifelong pursuit inevitably leads to regaining weight after losing it. The goal of a diet is not to deprive yourself for short-term results, but to develop a pattern of healthy eating with prolonged weight loss followed by weight maintenance. If you're wondering "Why do I regain weight?" it's likely time to return to a sustainable weight loss diet and adhere to it not as a restrictive diet, but as an enjoyable, lifestyle choice.

If you can't decipher the rhyme or reasons you regain weight, turn to bistroMD's diet delivery service for chef-prepared, physician-certified meals that are nutritionally balanced to help you lose weight and keep it off.

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