What Does It Feel Like When Your Weight Fluctuates?
Key takeaways:
For many people, fluctuations in their weight can be deeply personal.
Managing weight is often tied to dietary habits, physical activity levels, and mental well-being.
Here, three women describe what gaining and losing weight is like for them.
The ebb and flow of weight can be deeply personal. Gaining and losing weight can evoke a range of emotions and physical responses.
Three women talked to GoodRx about dealing with fluctuating weight. They describe self-consciousness, fatigue, and a range of challenges. Here’s how they describe the highs and lows of gaining and losing weight.
Pandemic pounds added up
Francesca Maximé was like many people during the COVID-19 pandemic. She gained weight.
At the time, she was working remotely, switching careers from broadcast journalism to a role as a somatic psychotherapist, doing therapy that focuses on the mind-body connection to improve overall well-being. She wasn’t active physically, yet she remembers feeling overextended.
“I was seeing clients virtually because of the pandemic and working late most nights, sometimes until 11PM,” says Francesca, 52, of Brooklyn, New York. “With food always available in the next room, it was easy to eat more than I normally would.”
She gained 50 lbs in 2020 and 2021.
Francesca had stopped doing activities she loved, including playing tennis, doing yoga, and working out with her trainer. She had moved to Massachusetts to live with her mom for 10 months before buying a house in New York. Dealing with the anxiety from these life changes, she says she stopped taking care of herself in many ways.
What are proven ways to lose weight? A balanced eating plan is a good place to start.
Why does it feel so hard to lose weight? Maybe you need to change your mindset.
Is fast weight loss healthy? Not really, experts say. You are better off aiming for slow weight loss.
“I had moved into this new house alone, and I remember just buying whatever junk food I wanted to eat, especially chocolate cake.”
She also had a partner who was a foodie and enjoyed indulging in food. So Francesca indulged too.
As the pandemic wound down, Francesca was discouraged. She decided to make herself a priority. Now she’s back to playing tennis, doing yoga, and exercising with her trainer when she has the time. Her doctor also prescribed her Wegovy, an injectable weight-loss medication that is helping her take the weight off.
“I realize now [that] eating was my relief during that time,” Francesca says. “And I am happy to say it’s never too late to make a change.”
After pregnancy, she found no shortcuts to weight loss
Dee Davidson was 36 when she went through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and fertility treatments to have her first child. She remembers being in the best shape of her life before starting the treatment. She did get pregnant through IVF. And despite staying active during her pregnancy, she gained 60 lbs and developed high blood pressure.
“I was doing my best at the time to keep the weight off,” Dee says. “Toward the end of my pregnancy, I accepted [that] this is how my body is reacting to the infertility treatment.”
After giving birth, Dee got back into exercising and dieting and lost 20 lbs. But she still had difficulty getting back to her original weight. It was emotionally difficult.
“When I look at pictures of myself back then, I think I look like a blown-up tick,” she says.
Even though Dee felt down about herself, she took action. She started working with a hormone specialist. Over 2 years she lost 40 more pounds, which got her back to pre-pregnancy weight of 110 lbs.
“I realized I had to forgive myself and find ways to manage my stress and cortisol levels in order to lose the weight,” Dee says. “If you focus on the weight being a problem, it makes it harder to lose, in my experience.”
Her weight-loss journey inspired her to study holistic health. She became a functional health practitioner and a podcast host in North Attleborough, Massachusetts. She says she takes a natural approach to nutrition, wellness, and fitness.
“I had to shift my mindset from being a boot camp girl to doing yoga and weight lifting because the high-intensity workouts were increasing my cortisol levels,” she says. She also says herbal supplements and vitamins helped her maintain her weight.
It has been 11 years since her weight loss, and Dee has maintained a weight of 110 lbs. The lesson she learned from all this is simple, she says: There are no shortcuts to losing weight.
“Weight loss and maintaining a healthy body weight starts with foundational health and being consistent as possible,” she says.
Shifts in weight took a mental health toll
Rebecca Kaplan, of Port Chester, New York, says she has always had challenges with food. Years ago, she was diagnosed with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. It’s a complex eating disorder characterized by restrictive eating. These patterns lead to inadequate nutritional intake.
The disorder affected the way Rebecca reacted to the taste, smell, and texture of food. Growing up, she was underweight.
Now at age 37, Rebecca says medications have made her weight fluctuate. A significant loss of about 30 lbs a few years ago worried her. She says it was the unhealthiest she had ever felt.
She purposely created a plan to gain the weight back and get to a healthy body weight. Once she hit her goal weight, she kept gaining weight and got to the heaviest she had ever been.
“It was surprising because I had been so used to being one weight for my entire life, and then I had to buy an entire new wardrobe for all the extra weight I gained,” Rebecca says.
Gaining weight made her feel uncomfortable with how she looked physically, she says.
“Being on the opposite side of the spectrum for so long as skinny and then to be overweight was hard to cope with,” she says. “I realize now how unwell I was doing mentally and physically during that time.”
Now, Rebecca says, she’s more mindful of how she can have a healthier image of her body going forward.
Frequently asked questions
Losing and gaining weight repeatedly is known as weight cycling. If you gain and lose weight often, it can harm both body and mind.
Weight can fluctuate because of factors such as changes in diet, activity level, and health. Weight fluctuation can be a sign of a new medical condition too.
The bottom line
When your weight fluctuates, it can make you feel frustrated and insecure. Instead of focusing on the number on the scale, prioritize your overall health.
Why trust our experts?
