Feel utterly broken - another diet failed again

People may have said it already but try Noom. It's very good. Noom and increase your walking, if you walk.

Similar to me and I'm starting soon too! Almost exactly the same weight as you and same size. Good luck with your journey x

I'm starting this soon and I cannot wait and these sort of stories are making me so excited! OP I've tried and failed every diet too. I've also tried fasting and not dieting,, calorie counting, hypnotherapy. I'm hoping mounjaro will be the thing that sticks!!

What I am mostly referring to is using restrictive diets like Atkins or Keto. Unless you are prepared to spend your entire life never having another biscuit or a glass of wine, there is no point in starting. Yes, your calorie allotment will change depending on the goal but this is part of a wider lifestyle. I can have one biscuit in a deficit and 5 biscuits in a maintenance, or 10 biscuits in a surplus. The fundamentals of my nutrition do no change.
But if I go on Keto in the hopes of losing weight and then return to my previous eating habits, it will likely to put me buck into my previous weight bracket rather quickly.
I don't shy from the word diet. I just see diet as a changed attitude towards general nutrition which can be maintained indefinitely and not as cutting out entire food groups even though you cannot conceive the rest of your life without a slice of cake here and there. So we are not actually contradicting each other, I am simply saying that typically when people get hung up on the word diet they are mindful of the difference between the two. If the OP already had a concept of "diet" as you and I understand it, she probably wouldn't have picked Atkins as her preferred methodology for weight loss.

It will be temporary though because you wont continue in a calorie deficit, you will then maintain. So you will need to change things for a temporary time, its what any acheivement entails whether for work, hobby or physical health.

I think people get so hung up on not saying the word 'diet' as if its a swear word and they miss the point. A weight loss 'diet' is to eat less than you burn off, how ever you do that.

I dont use the word diet to just mean a weight loss diet. I say diet as in its what you eat so Im well aware of the word meaning.

It sounds like you must be having too many calories. If you definitely adhered strictly to the no carbs thing, it must be that.
I personally find dropping bread and processed carbs like biscuits etc does definitely help make you feel more toned, flatter belly etc. even if no actual weight loss.

Hi op you seem like a lovely person but at a low point. Perhaps bottle that feeling as an incentive to take control. Would really recommend my fitness pal, you can carry on eating what you want but soon realise that healthy foods fill you up more. It’s quite enjoyable to track calories and weight and exercise on there - it can get a bit obsessive! Go for half a pound a week loss, it will be easier to do long term. Give yourself two or three months before first weigh in as it will fluctuate day to day and can be disheartening. At difficult times remember that low feeling as an incentive to stick with it

I batch cook a lentil Dahl for easy cheap low calorie meals it’s delish. Lots of protein,no oil

Good luck with it all x

I agree with this. You can do this, and slowly is better than rapid weight loss.

Don't give up. Keep going. And get over to the weight loss boards. They are really really really supportive!

Another thing I find helps is thinking 'if not now, when'.

Why will tomorrow be a better time to diet than today? Will tomorrow ever come? That chocolate bar can be eaten once you've achieved your goal, if you can't say no to the chocolate bar today, what makes you think you can any day?

It's about delaying gratification and stepping up the challenge. Best of luck!

However you do this, please have a look at the weight loss chat section of this forum.

There are challenges and lots of friendly posters of all weights trying lots of different methods and lots of support which makes a huge difference. I know it can be hard without support in real life but at least having a virtual group means that you get support and can journal, document and get inspiration

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat

I am slightly overweight but in my experience the slim people tend not to obsess over what they're eating. They typically eat breakfast, lunch and supper, but don't snack, eat small portions, and don't stress if they miss a meal from time to time.

We say that to highlight that this is not a temporary measure like restrictive nutritional protocols where you "go on a diet" for a short period of time and then return to your normal eating habits.
Flexible dieting is done with the assumption that you are changing your eating habits for life and this may include being in a calorie deficit as well as maintenance (or surplus, depending on goals). Something that you can maintain with relative ease throughout your life.
So when people say "don't go on a diet" they mean "don't alter your eating habits temporarily and restrictively hoping for a long-term result". After all, "diet" in it's essence just means a group of foods that species habitually eat. And even special "diets" don't at all mean calorie deficit (like a "diet" in ED units, for example).

I have made a spreadsheet to keep track of my weight. It colour codes my daily weight from start to desired, also colour codes my daily calorie intake, calculates weight left to lose, calculates calories left (or gone over) for the day and every seven days it calculates an average of my weight for that week compared to the average of the previous week.

The last feature really helps on days like today, where I have supposedly gained weight on the two days I've stuck to my limit, while on the two days I've gone slightly over before I appear to have "lost" weight, but my average is still -1kg on the previous week's average, so the slight gain doesn't matter and is likely down to being on my period. It keeps me sane.

I might add a column that lets me track my average calorie count for the week, too, to see how it compares to what the online calculator suggests.

I add my daily weight every morning and add my calories eaten as I go along.

Might be worth making one for yourself if you're halfway decent at spreadsheets? If not, I'm sure there are apps that can do all of this for you.

I get it. It’s really hard. I know exactly where my eating issues came from.

I am over weight. And losing it. Because it clicked one day that regardless of why I do it, it’s me that does it. I am responsible for putting the weight on. But the good thing is that made me realise that if i am the one responsible. Then it is within my control to lose it.

The first thing I did was increase my fibre intake. I didn’t change anything else at first. Then I increased my protein. Not by huge amounts but increased it. Then I started weighing myself. I get weighed everyday with some scales that connect to my phone and don’t actually look. The up and down of the scales can be really depressing. I only look once every two weeks and in 4 weeks I am down 10lb. But the fact that I can see the scales went up and down in that time (but overall are on a downward trend) really helped. It doesn’t matter if one day it goes up. There could be all sorts of reasons for it. It’s made me less afraid of the scales.

in the last few days I have started calorie counting and it’s really opened my eyes to how much I used to eat. And eat thinking ‘oh it’s not that bad’ or ‘I have eaten much today’ when in fact I had eaten huge amounts. Even healthy things. I bought a jacket potato with beans and cheese from the food van at work and weighed it the other day. It was twice as many calories as I had previously input when I have done calorie counting before. I had estimated a medium sized potato. Half can of beans and 40g of cheese. But actually weighing it showed it was over twice as much as I had guessed.

I have never felt losing weight was easy (I have some additional health issues) but I feel really at peace with losing it and not like I am on a diet. At the weekend, we had a Burger King as we were in a long journey and grabbed a drive thru but I was still under my calories for the day. I am not missing out or depriving myself or going hungry.

It’s not an easy road. But it’s one worth taking, imo.

You need to take self responsibility. Eating cookies, feeling sorry for yourself, and cutting yourself off from people because they socialise isn't going to help.

No one can trigger you into eating, that's your choice. Personally I would cut out breakfast and have a nice lunch and dinner. Low bread and lots of water.

I've spent my whole adult life yo-yo dieting. The only thing that worked for me is mounjaro.

Mounjaro has been life changing for me. It is worth looking in to.

That seems a lot more accurate. Im 5'5, and 66kg and 10 years older than OP and I maintain at around 1500.

Ive been doing walking for fitness and strength and the watch thing I use also calculates calories (I dont pay much attention to it) but the calories I use on an hour long brisk walk (3.5mph) is pitiful. Good job I dont rely on it to enable me to eat more.

So if I do a walk today my calories burnt will be in the region of around 1700. That is quite low to maintain so its very easy to gain weight.

Yeah, eating less is whats known as going on a diet!!!!

Why are people so keen to say dont diet

It just means eating less calories or burning more calories (by which ever way works) to put you in calorie deficit to lose weight

All these posts talking about 'dont diet, just walk more' well that is dieting, its making sure your body is in calorie deficit, there is no other way to lose weight despite what millions of pounds worth of books will say.

The thing with Atkins or low carb is that you must limit and be very conscious of how much veg etc you have, especially in the induction phase. You can't just eats loads unlimited green veg.

Induction tends to end up being predominantly high protein and fat but they key is you only eat until you don't feel hungry ( rather than feeling full) and end up getting used to eating less and therefore having a lot less calories.

The induction period is meant to be a minimum of 2 weeks and less then 20g of carbs a day.

Once you are losing weight you ramp up the carbs until you find a limit for maintaining. You can increase this by increasing activity levels.

At 76kg you’re not that overweight so it’s unlikely a few weeks will show a huge weight loss. The quicker it comes off, the quicker it will go back on. It’s hard, but you need to think in terms of sustainable weight loss. Are you never going to eat carbs again? You didn’t put on weight overnight so you can’t expect to lose it overnight. You need to look at things you can do that can be easily incorporated so you can sustain it long term.