Repeated Weight Regain Is a Complex Problem

Not all problems behave in the same way.

Some are simple, some are complicated, and some are complex. The distinction matters because the type of problem determines the kind of solution that is likely to work.

Repeated weight regain has the characteristics of a complex problem. It isn't simply that there are many factors involved. Those factors interact, and attempts to change one part can alter the conditions surrounding another.

This becomes particularly important when weight loss and regain have happened more than once. Each attempt becomes part of the history brought to the next, turning what can look like another isolated weight problem into a repeating pattern.

In this episode of Before Dieting, Bronwyn uses the three types of problems to show why repeated weight regain needs a different problem-solving approach, and why understanding the problem needs to come before choosing another solution.

In this episode:

• • The difference between simple, complicated and complex problems
  • What makes a problem complex
  • Why recurrence changes the nature of a weight problem
  • How previous attempts become part of the problem being investigated
  • Why complex problems require a different approach to solving them

Weight regain isn't a simple overeating problem with a simple dieting solution.

Free download: The Three Types of Problems Cheat Sheet provides a quick visual guide to the distinctions discussed in this episode. or copy and paste the link: https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/pod-asset

Read my Blog Article here or copy and paste the link: https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/post/solving-repeated-weight-regain

Download the free instructional sheet here or copy and paste the link below:

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/Pilates

What does it actually mean to be in your body?

In this episode, I’m joined by experienced Pilates practitioner Lanette Helene to explore body awareness, movement and the physical patterns women accumulate over time.

This isn't about Pilates for weight loss. We talk about why women can become disconnected from their bodies, how midlife and menopause can change movement, strength and mobility, and why simply stretching tighter muscles isn't always the answer.

Lanette also explains what Pilates actually is, why it treats the body as an interconnected system, what to look for when choosing a Pilates studio, and some simple things you can do to improve body awareness in everyday life.

Four takeaways

• • Your body works as a whole. A problem in one area may be connected to what is happening elsewhere.
  • Body awareness can be rebuilt. Precise attention to breathing and movement can reconnect you with parts of your body you've stopped noticing.
  • Midlife changes what your body needs. Movement, mobility and strength become increasingly important.
  • Good instruction matters. If you're new to Pilates, Lanette recommends beginning with individual assessment and instruction.

Lanette shares a simple Toe Scrunch exercise for working the feet, toes and ankles. Download the free instructional sheet here or copy and paste the link below:

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/Pilates

To visit Pilates Canberra, or copy and paste the link below:

https://www.pilatescanberra.com.au/

Read the Blog here: or copy and paste the link below:

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/post/back-in-your-body

Weight-loss programs spend a lot of time telling us how to lose weight. Far less attention is given to what happens afterwards.

The usual language is maintenance: you’ve lost the weight, now the job is to keep it off. But that framing can hide an important part of the picture. Your biology doesn’t simply move into a new phase because the diet does.

In this episode of Before Dieting, I look at what can happen when calorie restriction ends, why the maintenance phase can shift responsibility for weight regain back onto the woman, and why the period after a diet contains information worth investigating.

I also share Vivienne’s story. After two decades of dieting, she knew she was good at starting diets but had trouble sticking with them. Her solution was to choose diets that promised increasingly fast results, until she found herself considering a five-day water diet.

When Vivienne stopped looking at each diet as a separate event and brought them together, a pattern became visible. Her previous dieting experiences were influencing what she chose to do next.

In this episode

• • Why the term maintenance deserves closer examination
  • What calorie restriction can ask of a biological system
  • The holding-your-breath metaphor and what it can tell us about biological responses to restriction
  • Why difficulty maintaining weight loss isn't explained simply by willpower
  • How one dieting experience can influence the diet chosen next
  • What Vivienne discovered when she stopped looking at her diets separately
  • Why repeated weight regain needs to be investigated as a pattern
  • How your dieting history can become evidence rather than a record of successes and failures

Something to think about

Rather than asking what you should do differently on your next diet, consider your previous diets together:

What have all my previous diets been trying to tell me?

The diets you finished, the ones you abandoned, how restrictive they became, how long you could stay on them and what happened afterwards may reveal far more than any single diet viewed on its own.

Next week

Before Dieting welcomes its first guest.

I’ll be in conversation with Lanette Helene, owner of Canberra Pilates, talking about something I hear from many women living with repeated weight regain: feeling disconnected from their bodies.

Our conversation ranges across midlife, balance, flexibility and practical ways to stay connected with your body as you get older. Lanette also shares some simple exercises you can try yourself, starting with your feet.

It’s a longer episode than the usual Before Dieting monologue and the first of our occasional guest conversations.

Read my Blog:

Show Notes:

You can read the accompanying Blog here or copy and paste the Link below:

Blog post for episode

In Today's episode:

Most women know how to investigate a diet.

They can tell you how long it lasted, how much weight they lost and why they think it failed.

But very few have ever been shown how to investigate what happened after the diet ended.

In this episode, Bronwyn explores why the period after a diet can hold some of the most valuable clues to understanding repeated weight regain.

Using questions from two listeners, she introduces a different line of inquiry. Rather than judging another diet as a success or failure, she explains how looking more closely at what happened afterwards can reveal patterns, unexpected experiences and overlooked evidence that help explain why the cycle keeps repeating.

You'll also hear why the Weighting for Happiness Project takes a collegial approach to understanding repeated weight regain. Your lived experience provides one kind of knowledge. Weighting for Happiness provides questions, tools and ways of organising that experience so the patterns become easier to see.

Together, those different perspectives create a fuller understanding than either could achieve alone.

Today's Investigation

Before your next diet, spend some time investigating the one you've just finished.

Instead of asking only,

"Did the diet work?"

try asking,

• • What happened after the diet ended?
  • What patterns kept repeating?
  • What surprised me?
  • What did this experience teach me about the way I eat?

Sometimes the clues you've been searching for aren't hidden in the diet itself.

They're waiting in what happened afterwards.

In This Episode we examine:

• • Why conversations about weight regain often feel much harder than conversations about weight loss.
  • Why the period after a diet deserves as much attention as the diet itself.
  • The different questions Weighting for Happiness asks once a diet has finished.
  • How repeated patterns often become visible only when you look back over several dieting attempts.
  • Why rushing straight to the next diet can mean overlooking valuable evidence.
  • Why one woman's experience after weight loss can be completely different from another's.
  • How unexpected feelings after weight loss can become important clues rather than something to dismiss.
  • Why understanding repeated weight regain begins with investigation rather than judgement.

Key Takeaway

Repeated weight regain is rarely explained by a single event, decision or diet.

It's usually the result of many experiences that have gradually become connected over the course of a lifetime.

Understanding those connections begins by asking different questions.

We'd Love to Hear From You

Many episodes of Before Dieting begin with questions from listeners.

If today's episode has sparked a question of your own, I'd love to hear from you.

[email protected]

DM Me on LinkedIn

While I can't answer every question individually, many of them become the starting point for future episodes because, if you're asking it, chances are many other women are wondering the same thing too.

Weight regain and fear: Why looking more closely can feel so frightening

If you've ever found yourself putting off looking more deeply at your weight regain, I don't think it's because you don't want to understand it. Most women I've spoken to have spent years searching for answers. They've read books, followed diets, listened to podcasts and promised themselves that this time will be different. That doesn't sound like someone who isn't interested in change.

What I think is happening is much more understandable.

Looking more closely can feel risky because we've been taught that if we discover what's causing our weight regain, we'll immediately have to stop doing it. If the answer is chocolate, we have to give up chocolate. If it's eating late at night, we have to stop eating late at night. Understanding has become tied to giving something up.

But what if that isn't the purpose of investigation at all?

What if the purpose is simply to understand what your eating has been doing for you? Not so you can judge it, but so you can finally see why it has been so difficult to change.

That single shift turns investigation from something threatening into something useful. Instead of asking, "Why don't I stop?" you begin asking, "What problem is this eating solving?" They're very different questions and will lead you to very different places.

So, before you start another diet, perhaps spend a moment with one question instead.

What are you afraid you might find if you looked more closely at your weight regain?

You can read my Blog post here or, on Apple, copy and paste the link below

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/post/weight-regain-and-fear

For answers you can start here or, on Apple, copy and paste the link below:

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/weight-and-diet-history-diagnostic

OR

If you have any questions, please email me at: [email protected]

#weightregain, #emotioneating, #overeating, #foodrules, #eatingsystem, #womenshealth,

#midlifewomen, #dieting, #weightlossafter40, #dietcycle, #menopauseweightgain,

#psychologyofeating, #beforedieting, #reliefeating, #comforteating, #emotionaleating, #8eatingtypes

Before Dieting... Episode 53

Why do we eat?

It sounds like a simple question, but the answer is rarely straightforward.

In this episode of Before Dieting, Bronwyn responds to a listener's question about the Eight Types of Eating. Rather than looking at eating as simply "good" or "bad," she introduces a different way of thinking: eating is purposeful.

This episode is an overview of the Eight Types of Eating, the framework that sits behind many of the stories explored throughout the podcast. You'll discover why eating isn't one behaviour with one cause, but many different behaviours serving different purposes.

Bronwyn introduces:

• Functional Eating
• Secondary Eating
• Dieting
• Restricted Eating
• Social Eating
• Comfort Eating
• Relief Eating
• Conscious Eating

Along the way, she explains why understanding why you're eating is far more useful than judging what you're eating.

If you've ever wondered why your eating can feel completely different from one situation to the next, this episode provides a practical map for understanding your own eating patterns.

Key Takeaways

• • Eating isn't one behaviour with one cause. Different types of eating serve different purposes, and recognising those differences is an important part of understanding repeated weight regain.
  • The purpose of eating matters more than the behaviour itself. The same food can serve very different functions depending on the situation, whether it's nourishment, comfort, social connection or emotional relief.
  • The goal isn't perfect eating. The goal is conscious eating, where you know what you're choosing, why you're choosing it, and no longer feel driven by your eating.

If this resonates, start with the Weight Ecosystem diagnostic.

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/diagnostics/weight-ecosystem-diagnostic

Please subscribe to this Podcast and leave a rating, so other women can find it.

If you know any other woman who is struggling with weight regain, please pass this on.

If you have any questions, please email me or copy and paste the link below

[email protected]

If this resonates, start with the Weight Ecosystem diagnostic or copy and paste the link below:

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/diagnostics/weight-ecosystem-diagnostic

==========================================================

#weightregain, #emotioneating, #overeating, #foodrules, #eatingsystem, #womenshealth,

#midlifewomen, #dieting, #weightlossafter40, #dietcycle, #menopauseweightgain,

#psychologyofeating, #beforedieting, #reliefeating, #comforteating, #emotionaleating, #8eatingtypes

When Weight Regain Returns You to Safety. Kate’s story and the pattern that food alone could not explain. Season 3 Episode 52.

Kate knew how to lose weight. She had done it many times.

What she could not explain was why reaching a lower weight left her feeling frightened, exposed and unprotected, or why familiar eating patterns returned soon afterwards.

For years, she blamed her sweet tooth and lack of willpower. But when she worked through her Weight & Dieting History, a different pattern became visible.

Kate had grown up in a volatile home where avoiding attention helped keep her safe. Being smaller and more visible as an adult activated a discomfort that dieting advice had never examined. Her history also revealed an early connection between secrecy, sweet food and the time she spent with the parent who made her feel protected.

The food was part of the story, but it was not the whole story.

In this episode of Before Dieting, Bronwyn explores why losing weight and understanding weight regain require different lines of inquiry. Kate’s story demonstrates what becomes visible when the investigation extends beyond calories, food choices and whether a woman followed the plan.

In this episode you'll discover:

• • Why successful weight loss does not explain repeated regain
  • How a Weight & Dieting History reveals patterns across separate attempts
  • Why the point after weight loss may contain the most useful information
  • How early experiences can continue influencing adult responses
  • Why secret eating may serve a function that food rules cannot address
  • How changing the question changes what becomes visible

Your weight history is not proof that you failed. It is evidence that needs to be included in the investigation.

Explore the Weight & Dieting History diagnostic: or copy and paste the link below.

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/weight-and-diet-history-diagnostic

You can also read my accompanying Blog or copy and paste the link below:

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/post/kate-s-story-when-weight-regain-was-telling-a-deeper-story

Please subscribe to this Podcast and leave a rating, so other women can find it.

If you know any other woman who is struggling with weight regain, please pass this on.

If you have any questions please email me at [email protected]

Content note: This episode includes references to parental alcohol misuse and childhood family violence.

#weightregain, #emotioneating, #overeating, #foodrules, #eatingsystem, #womenshealth,

#midlifewomen, #dieting, #weightlossafter40, #dietcycle, #menopauseweightgain,

#psychologyofeating, #beforedieting, #reliefeating, #comforteating, #emotionaleating, #8eatingtypes

Before Dieting... Most women who regain weight are not beginners. They have followed diets, changed their eating, lost weight and proved they can do it. But knowing how to lose weight and understanding why the weight keeps coming back are two different problems.

Before Dieting is the podcast from the Weighting for Happiness Project that investigates the patterns behind eating, dieting and weight regain.

Each episode begins with a woman's story.

Together, we examine what happened, investigate the patterns hidden inside her experience, and uncover what becomes visible when we ask different questions.

Along the way you'll discover:

• why weight regain follows patterns

• why your weight history contains valuable information

• how food rules learned decades ago can still shape eating today

• why relief eating makes more sense when you understand what it is doing

• why knowing what to eat isn't the same as understanding why you eat

• how to investigate your own story before starting another diet

Hosted by Bronwyn Fletcher, Before Dieting... brings systems thinking into the weight conversation to help women see what has been hidden in plain sight.

Because your weight history is not proof that you failed.

It is information you have not been shown how to read.

Before another diet, investigate the story your own experience has been trying to tell.

New episodes

Tuesdays, wherever you get your podcasts. Please leave a review so other women can find the podcast.

Download my FREE e-book Why diet's work until they don't or paste the following link

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/e-book-request-form

And if you know a woman who would benefit from hearing this information, please pass on the link to this Podcast or the e-book.

You can leave me a message at:

OR directly email me any questions to [email protected] or copy the link

[email protected]

#weightregain #emotioneating #reliefeating #comforteating #overeating #foodrules #eatingsystem #womenshealth #midlifewomen #dieting #weightlossafter40 #dietcycle #menopauseweightgain #psychologyofeating #beforedieting #8eatingtypes

Childhood Food Access: When you weren’t allowed to choose.

Episode overview

Most women assume that as adults they should know what ‘enough’ food looks like. But portion confidence, stopping cues, and self-trust don’t appear automatically. They’re built through early experiences of choice, permission, and authority at the table. In this episode we explore Agency: who decided what and how much you ate and how those early meal dynamics can shape adult patterns like dieting dependence, private overeating, and fear of judgement.

This episode continues the paired theme with Access, because these two factors (Access + Agency) often work together to build the blueprint for lifelong eating.

In this episode, you’ll learn

• What food agency actually means (and what it doesn’t)

• Why food confidence is often a developmental skill, not a motivation issue

• Why eating differently in front of others is a protective response

• How secrecy becomes a substitute for choice

Key takeaways

• Agency is authority at meals is for choice, portion sizing and stopping

• Private overeating is often the system restoring autonomy

• The dinner table taught rules that still shape eating today

If agency was limited in your early life, dieting won’t solve the root issue; it only temporarily overrides it. The Weighting for Happiness Project helps you investigate your specific blueprint and diagnose the true drivers behind weight regain, so lasting change becomes possible.

If agency was limited in your early life, dieting won’t solve the root issue; it only temporarily overrides it.

The Weighting for Happiness Project helps you investigate your specific blueprint and diagnose the true drivers behind weight regain, so lasting change becomes possible.

Please leave a review or rate the Podcast so other women can find it.

Download my FREE e-book "Why Diets Work Until They Don't" using the link below:

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/e-book-request-form

And if you know a woman who would benefit from hearing this information, please pass on the link to this Podcast or the e-book.

You can leave me a message at:

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwynfletcheratweightingforhappiness/

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/beforedieting.podcast/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61587755296729

OR directly email me any questions to

[email protected]

[email protected]

Cheers

Bronwyn

#weightregain #emotioneating #reliefeating #comforteating #overeating #foodrules #eatingsystem #womenshealth #midlifewomen #dieting #weightlossafter40 #dietcycle #menopauseweightgain #psychologyofeating #beforedieting #8eatingtypes

Podcast Episode 50 - Show Notes

​The real drivers of weight gain start in childhood, long before dieting ever entered the picture. In this episode we explore Childhood Food Access.

This is the autonomy you had (or didn’t have) to obtaining food outside regular meals, and how it shape lifelong patterns like urgency eating, secrecy, and scarcity thinking.

​This isn’t about blame. It’s about understanding. Because you can’t change what you can’t see.

​Access:

🙋🏻‍♀️who decided when you weren't allowed to eat.

​In this episode, you’ll learn:

1️⃣ How focusing on reducing on current weight prevents you discovering the root cause of repeating weight patterns

2️⃣ The difference between access and agency (and why both matter)

3️⃣How restricted access builds survival strategies around food

4️⃣Why secret eating isn’t a moral failure, it’s a system response

​Key takeaways

🔍 Food access is about permission and autonomy

🔍 Many adult eating patterns were once childhood solutions

🔍 Shame blocks the information you need to change your weight permanently

If this episode has connected dots you’ve never connected before, you’re ready for deeper investigation.

​The Weighting for Happiness Project helps you investigate your specific blueprint and diagnose the true drivers behind weight regain, so lasting change becomes possible.

Please leave a review or rate the Podcast so other women can find it.

Download my FREE Guide Why diet's work until they don't or use the link

https://www.weightingforhappiness.com.au/e-book-request-form

And if you know a woman who would benefit from hearing this information, please pass on the link to this Podcast or the e-book.

You can leave me a message at:

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwynfletcheratweightingforhappiness/

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/beforedieting.podcast/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61587755296729

OR directly email me any questions to

[email protected]

[email protected]

#weightregain #emotioneating #reliefeating #comforteating #overeating #foodrules #eatingsystem #womenshealth #midlifewomen #dieting #weightlossafter40 #dietcycle #menopauseweightgain #psychologyofeating #beforedieting #8eatingtypes