A common question I see from people who’ve regained weight is, “WHY does it feel so much harder to lose weight than it did the first time?”

Here are three reasons that make losing weight you’ve regained feel harder than when you first lost it.

1) The method you used to lose weight is not “new and exciting” anymore.

New stuff is really motivating. We get a giant dopamine hit and it motivates us to do the things that will get us a result we want.

Dopamine is the “reward hormone.” From a survival standpoint, it inspires us to get out and find food and resources we need to survive.

The thing is, eventually dopamine wears off. (And people who constantly seek it out end up with addictions.)

It can go back up again, but when it comes to something like losing weight with the same program that already worked, it’s not gonna feel “new and exciting” because it’s factually not “new” to you anymore.

This is one reason why people program hop instead of just doing the “boring” thing that already works – because they’re chasing that dopamine hit from “new and exciting.”

2) You EXPECT it to feel like it did the first time.

I’ve heard a lot of people who’ve gained weight back say, “I just need to get back to what works.”

Well…yes and no.

You need to DO what works, yes.

But you can’t “go back” to it because you’re not the exact same version of yourself that did it the first time.

For that reason, it will never feel like it did before.

You’ve gotta start NOW and do what works, not keep trying to “go back” to what works.

3) By regaining a bunch of weight, you’re reinforcing your old belief about your weight loss, like “I’ll always be fat.”

If you’re reading this, odds are you’ve regained weight multiple times throughout your life.

Every time we have a repeat experience of something, it reinforces our BELIEF in that experience.

The stronger our belief, the harder it can be to overcome. (Not impossible – just harder.)

If you have decades of experience that “proves” you’ll “always be fat,” and you lose 100 pounds and then regain it all plus another 25, you reinforce the BELIEF that you’ll “always be fat” or that “nothing works for you”…

Even though that belief is factually not true, because you lost 100 pounds and reached your goal weight. You weren’t fat at goal weight, so you already disproved your own belief that you will “always” be fat.

See, deeply ingrained beliefs like this FEEL like facts, but they’re not. They’re just beliefs.

When it comes to weight regain, gaining back weight reinforces that old belief and makes it feel like a “fact,” even when you have evidence to the contrary.

Look, most people navigate weight regain at SOME point.

I’ve regained weight before, and I’ve also lost it again.

The answer isn’t to program hop, fall into the trap of thinking surgery or shots will fix the core issues (they won’t), or give up.

It’s to learn HOW to navigate weight regain so that you get the weight back off ASAP.

Weight regain is not a life sentence. You have ALL the power to make it stop (by doing what worked to get the weight off in the first place while starting where you are NOW, with WHO you are now).