It was once thought that very low calorie diets could mess up your metabolism permanently, but fortunately this is now known not to be the case.

When you are on them you lose fat and lean muscle mass which means in people over 50 they may not be advised. They are also not appropriate for children or adolescents, except in specialised treatment programs or if you have more than three stone to lose.

It used to be thought that when you came off a crash diet you would only put fat back on and not regain the muscle, but this is not the case. In fact we tend to regain weight fairly much in the proportion we lose it, which is good news because it means that no matter how many time you have yo-yo dieted in the past you will not have permanently wrecked your metabolism and there is still hope that you will lose weight successfully in the future!

That said, it does take a period of readjustment for your body after the finish of a very low calorie diet and whilst your body is readjusting it will be tending to try and hold onto calories more. I would think you need another 3 months before you can expect to see decent weight loss and in this time you need to aim for weight maintenance as a goal. To help, when you go the gym, spend plenty of time on toning and weight lifting activities rather than just using the fat burning  cross trainer, bike or rowing machine. This builds muscle helping you to burn more calories even at rest.

I know it's disheartening, but even with the weight you’ve gained you are still ahead of where you were several months ago and it’s important to hold on to that fact.  For now you must focus on stopping more weight creeping on and be patient. In time that should turn into a slow, gentle loss!