How quickly can I shed 60lbs?

[Jolleigh]

Hoping to hear from others who've lost large amounts of weight.

I've always been quite big. I got up to 18stone 10lbs while pregnant with DD1 (now 3 months). I'm now down to 16stone 11lbs, though I have just the stress and wine diet to blame (I was forced to leave DD1's father for her safety and also made redundant).

I'm hoping to get to 12stone 7lbs - a 60lb loss. I'd settle for 13stone 7lbs if I can get that far, though it's still overweight. I have 40J boobs that don't deflate much when I lose weight so I still look fairly slim at that weight.

How have others lost huge amounts like this? How did your skin look after? How quickly did you manage it? Please tell me your stories...this feels like climbing a mountain...I need inspiration!

[Shia]

If you lose weight too quickly you run the risk of having excess skin which cannot be removed by the NHS and you would have to save the money, which could be thousands and you will have huge scars.

Have a look here...

www.minimins.com/lot-weight-lose-then-join-wemitts/

[BackforGood]

and as your little one is just 3 months, it's not the time for anything drastic - eat healthily yes - put her in the pram and walk for miles every day, but don't go on a faddy diet now.

[FruitBasedDrinkForALady]

I've lost 50lbs in the last 50 weeks. I've another 10lbs to go. I started at 202lbs. My skin isn't loose, but it is crepey around my belly and thighs. My boobs have gone drop 38f to 34dd and still look like basset hound ears... Realistically, I don't think more than 1.5lbs per week is sustainable long term, especially to change your lifestyle /mindset about food and exercise so you keep it off. Best of luck.

[Jolleigh]

Thanks for the link Shia. Hopefully after the first month or so I can sustain a 1lb loss each week. I'm certainly no fad dieter!

Lots of pram walking is being done

[Jolleigh]

Thank you Fruit...and we'll done! 50lbs I off is brilliant. If I can turn round in a year and say the same I'll be a very happy lady.

[FruitBasedDrinkForALady]

Thanks, Jolleigh. Yes, it does feel great, especially when people I've known for years walk past me in the street! It's a cliché, but slow and steady seems to be the only realistic way to tackle long term weight loss. I set myself some interim goals to keep going and use My Fitness Pal to log calories in and out. I found it great for forcing me to make better choices and to recognise that sometimes I really wanted the chocolate, so I had to go for a walk to earn some dinner!

Since your DD is still only very tiny and you're obviously going through an awful lot right now, don't be too hard on yourself about losing weight too. There will be ups and downs, but once you make better decisions most days, you'll be doing well. And if you end up eating everything in sight one day like my belly full of pizza right now you can start again tomorrow.

[Jolleigh]

Good to see you've found My Fitness Pal a useful tool...I've been using the food and exercise diaries on there for a few days now. I forsee many an occasion where I have to work to earn some chocolate .

[BackforGood]

Would anyone mind explaining what 'My Fitness Pal' is / how it works ?

[FruitBasedDrinkForALady]

MFP is an app/Web thing where you input your current weight, height, etc and your targets for weekly exercise, weight loss, etc and it gives you a recommended daily calorie goal. You can then use the app or site to track all your food and exercise. It's not a perfect system and some people who seem to know more about these things than I do, suggest that the daily calorie limits are too low (eg mine is 1200 which is absolutely the lowest recommended I've seen anywhere for healthy weight loss, some argue it's too low for a sustained time) but I'm a whole lot healthier than I was a year ago, which is all I have to base it on!

I find it very useful if it comes to an either/or choice, ie if I eat this cream bun, I can't have dinner, and for portion control. I weigh most of what I eat, especially things like pasta and rice where I'll eat whatever is on my plate, be it 100g or 500g.

[BackforGood]

Thanks - I might go and have a search

[ChestyNut]

I lost 6 stones in 5 months ish on a VLCD.

I found it really difficult as went from a 24 to a 14 but in my head I looked no different and "felt" fat. My head couldn't keep up with the new body I had.
My skin was ok, bit loose but nothing horrific, I could wear a bikini and looked ok ( I think)

4 year on and I've gained it all back
I didn't finish the maintenance phase so didn't really change my food habits as just abstained for 6 months.


So my thoughts are that slow and steady is more sensible. Smallish changes that will last (hopefully)

I have all that too loose again but I've started WW and feel ridiculously pleased that I've lost 6lbs in 2 weeks without craving and planning my next "treat"

We can do this

[AntoinetteCosway]

I lost 5 stone in about 10 months on Weight Watchers. My body is fine in terms of skin not being loose etc but I still wouldn't recommend doing it that fast. In retrospect I was obsessing over it as a means of avoiding the fact that I was hugely depressed (PND). I think the only way to lose weight fast is to obsess over it and I don't think it's good for your mental health to be honest.

[ChestyNut]

Me neither antoinette has really affected the way I see me and my relationship with food.

[FruitBasedDrinkForALady]

As I mentioned above, I've lost my weight reasonably slowly, but I still don't see myself as any smaller in the mirror. I feel like a total fraud picking up a 10/12 instead of 18/20, and I wonder if the shop assistant in the changing room is thinking, "ye gods, she's kidding herself with that lot", but objectively, I know I am smaller. I don't know if that will ever change, but at least I know it's true, even if I don't feel it. If that makes sense! I have a much better relationship with food than I did a year ago though, so that's a huge positive.

[Jolleigh]

Thanks ladies. Hadn't seen these responses until just now.

I'm probably quite unusual among big women in the sense of I don't actually think of myself as particularly big. It probably doesn't help that I know many people in my weight range who are roughly the same height who are size 24/26 but I'm an 18. The flip side to that though is it takes a lot of weight loss for me to go down even one dress size.

I certainly want to do something sustainable...I altered my daily calorie goal on My Fitness Pal because I'd lose far too quickly if I was sticking to 1600 a day. That's quite a chunk less than what my other app says I should be sticking to...2200. My other app continuously recalculates my calorie goal based on my current weight in order to sustain slow and healthy weight loss. Much more useful. And yet when I finish my day's food diary on My Fitness Pal at the 2200 target, it still tells me I'll weigh less in 5 weeks.

[TalcumPowder]

OP, apologies for a minor hijack of this interesting thread, but if Chestynut is still about, could I ask which VLCD it was, and whether you had a counsellor who should have been supporting you properly as you transitioned back to food?

I'm doing week four of Cambridge, and currently finding it mostly refreshing to take food out of the equation entirely, as it's making me think about how much of a prop I had let it become, and the reasons why I over are. But I am already thinking about several months down the line, and the potential pitfalls of eating normally again. Any advice very welcome.

OP, best wishes. (Have no advice, as am a rank amateur at this -have lost 19 pounds so far.) You've clearly had a terribly stressful life of late, but you sound admirably sane and collected. I have no doubts you can lies the weight sustainably.

[ChestyNut]

Hi Talc yes I had a fabulous counsellor and supportive group but it was so easy to be complacent.

Once I'd lost loads I still had no idea where I wanted to be weight wise so I kept going but having treats and thinking well I can shift it next week.
Maintenance was more scary for me as meant choosing healthy options and I just wanted to have treats

Got into a crappy binge/starve cycle and the binges took over, no ones fault but my own.

On the plus side....my work dress feels looser today

Good luck.

[FruitBasedDrinkForALady]

Jolleigh, what other app are you using? I love comparing them! With MFP, I think calculated my basic calorie needs as something like 1650 to maintain my weight, so to lose 1.5 lbs per week I need to burn about 3500 in excess of what I consume, leaving me with a daily goal of 1200.

Whenever you close your daily log on MFP it gives you your projected weight for 5 weeks from now, and once you're below your maintenance calories for that day, it will project you dropping weight (because any sustained deficit will lead to a weight loss). Now I just have to get back on the wagon, I'm up a kg this week after a very fun weekend!!

[Jolleigh]

Fruit it's called Monitor Your Weight and it's definitely worth a look. Has weight loss graphs and other bits and bobs.