What in the world is going on?

So here's what happened... I was so frustrated because for two, almost 3 weeks I was weighing 274 every morning and just one week before I had FINALLY gotten down to 272 (the 20 pound mark!).  So as some of you know I was very frustrated with this -- and I appreciate your responses and encouragement. Well, as I anticipated.... I started a backslide down the hill.  As much as I knew I would and didn't want to let myself do it, I did -- not as bad as I could have, but I still did worse with my eating over the past 4 days than I should have -- a lot worse than I was doing before!  I had pizza one day, which I hadn't had since last year -- I had a peanut butter milkshake with dinner one night -- can't even remember the last time I had that -- and we went out to dinner one night and I actually ordered mashed potatoes along with eating more than I should.  I also know that I snacked WAY more than I should have.  I'm TOTALLY not exaggerating here! So I was feeling really down about this, yet still sabotaging all along -- and yesterday came (my norm. weigh-in day) and I DIDN'T weigh.  I hadn't weighed since last Wed.  I wanted to be in denial about it.  Well this morning I said to myself, "NO, you have to weigh yourself and own it -- plus I figured if I saw how much weight I gained, I would be really disgusted that I had gained back what I had worked so hard for and then be shocked into jumping back on the wagon. So you know how this is going to end right?....   After 3 dang weeks of not being able to get back under 274, what do I weigh this morning after a 4 day mini-binge-a-thon?    269.5  I'm completely baffled!  If this had happened when I was eating WELL I would have been ecstatic but now it's like I don't even want to claim it...  now I don't even know how I am supposed to eat.  I seriously do not know what I was doing wrong.  Now I am wondering if what I did the last 4 days is going to catch back up with me!  I hate this emotional roller-coaster.  I will say that the loss HAS given me the push I needed back up on the wagon though.  It's so hard to stay on (especially intially) when you don't SEE the progress -- but it's so exciting when you do.   WHAT IN THE WORLD?

stuff like that happens! I swear fat people's bodies very quickly adapt to when you restrict calories (it actually tries to get by on far less for a long time and fights you!), which is why I too, among several of us here, do not beleive in restricting them too much!  I now realize we cannot have every food we might want in unlimited quantities, but there is a happy medium. We do not have to give up all the foods we love - we do have to teach ourselves how to be pleased on less of it. AND learning to also incorporate high nutrient foods we may not have eaten much of before.  WTG - what did I say?  LOVE that body...it is trying to take care of you and is responding just the way you may have trained it to react.  So, give it time to adjust again. Get back on your track!

My weight can be goofy too.  It's seems like it has something to do with fat.  I can do good all week and the scale won't budge, then eat a little extra fat and the next day it will move.  I know where your coming from.  Claim it, it's yours.  Get back on track and continue. Brenda

I am back on track in so far as I don't want to eat the 'crap.'  But I don't know which TRACK to jump on now!  Now I'm wondering if I have been too crazy about cutting things out (but that's the only way I ever lost before).  I thought I was eating fairly NORMALLY all this time!

Not in the least surprised. It happens to all of us that our bodies happily process more calories w hen we think it shouldn't.  Weight loss is not just calories in and calories out...it's way more complex than that.  You basically added wood to the fire and the fire grew. Time to get back on board and be cautious with  your choices...but you know that.  However, don't be afraid to play with your calories.

That happens to me constantly.  It's like: when I eat more fat, I lose more fat.  It's so strange, right?  And frustrating!!  Why bother being "good" when I can be "bad" and lose weight? 

Strange?  No.  Only if you thought low fat = good. It's all in how you define "good". By many people's perspectives, I'm bad.  I don't cut calories, I eat fatty foods.  Every day I have cheese and oils; I enjoy my steaks....  Weight moved when I really allowed myself to go there. Know what I've discovered?  Who said what is good and what is bad?   Hmmm, well the USDA for one (not an organization that I consider good by any means), lining out supposed guidelines that are heavy on carbs, light on fat.  Were they right?  I don't think so--obesity has skyrocketed since their recommendation ~35 years ago. Even odder, it turns out, according to a source of mine, that there isn't a single medical study indicating fat causes fat, fat causes heart attacks and strokes, etc.  So where did this party line about limiting fat in your diet come from?  Well, let's just say it's tied into the grain industry that was put at the forefront of the economy around 1970.  Unfortunately it's become THE party line and many have bought into it, without knowing there's no substance behind it. Know what?  There are studies that say fat helps you lose fat.  Ironic, isn't it?  So, when some folks get on the low fat bandwagon, their missing some crucial information.  Your body has shown you it needs fat.  Fat tastes good, fat satisfies, fat is good for so many things, especially weight loss.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E2D61F3EF 934A35754C0A9649C8B63 http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/taubes.html

Summary from link 2 During the past 30 years, the concept of eating healthy in America has become synonymous with avoiding dietary fat. The creation and marketing of reduced-fat food products has become big business; over 15,000 have appeared on supermarket shelves. Indeed, an entire research industry has arisen to create palatable nonfat fat substitutes, and the food industry now spends billions of dollars yearly selling the less-fat-is-good-health message. The government weighs in as well, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) booklet on dietary guidelines, published every 5 years, and its ubiquitous Food Guide Pyramid, which recommends that fats and oils be eaten "sparingly." The low-fat gospel spreads farther by a kind of societal osmosis, continuously reinforced by physicians, nutritionists, journalists, health organizations, and consumer advocacy groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which refers to fat as this "greasy killer." "In America, we no longer fear God or the communists, but we fear fat," says David Kritchevsky of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, who in 1958 wrote the first textbook on cholesterol.

As the Surgeon General's Office discovered, however, the science of dietary fat is not nearly as simple as it once appeared. The proposition, now 50 years old, that dietary fat is a bane to health is based chiefly on the fact that fat, specifically the hard, saturated fat found primarily in meat and dairy products, elevates blood cholesterol levels. This in turn raises the likelihood that cholesterol will clog arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis, which then increases risk of coronary artery disease, heart attack, and untimely death. By the 1970s, each individual step of this chain from fat to cholesterol to heart disease had been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt, but the veracity of the chain as a whole has never been proven. In other words, despite decades of research, it is still a debatable proposition whether the consumption of saturated fats above recommended levels (step one in the chain) by anyone who's not already at high risk of heart disease will increase the likelihood of untimely death (outcome three). Nor have hundreds of millions of dollars in trials managed to generate compelling evidence that healthy individuals can extend their lives by more than a few weeks, if that, by eating less fat (see sidebar on p. 2538). To put it simply, the data remain ambiguous as to whether low-fat diets will benefit healthy Americans. Worse, the ubiquitous admonishments to reduce total fat intake have encouraged a shift to high-carbohydrate diets, which may be no better--and may even be worse--than high-fat diets.

These articles and studies are from 2001-2002. This is when the Atkins hype picked up again and everyone went on Atkins and low-carb diets.  Now low-carb has dwindled in popularity and the new hype is well balanced meals.  Where's the 2006-2008 data though?  My nutritionist is all about me eating starches with my proteins to regulate my blood sugar and what not.. but honestly.. I think it's sabotaging my weight loss.  Judging from her age and what she tells me about eating healthy I'd say she was in school during the time when low-fat, complex carb diets were taught to be the best choice for everyone.  I just don't buy it.  It's not working for me! I'm finding myself more hungry than ever and what happens??? I raid the kitchen for a bowl of cereal, a PB & sugar free jelly sandwich and then I dream about chicken wings, beef, pork and lamb!  At least I'm not gaining.. I suppose that's good?  I keep gaining and losing the same 1-2lbs. So again...where's the current data on low fat vs low carb dieting?? Surely they've learned something since 2002...?

Chris, I looked to see if I could quickly find very recent studies.  Most seem to be that high fat diet is helping cancer and Parkinson's patients....