Losing weight, weight loss injections or gym?

I always took mine out too, unless the weather was really foul or it was too dark and cold. We all benefit from fresh air and it does relieve tensions. Playing chase around the park, walking, pushing swings, playing ball games and (sometimes) carrying a stubborn child back to the car--not fun! all helps to keep you fit and is mostly lots of fun.

We had good waterproofs (the kids had thick Swedish-style ones), torches in the Winter and usually had a great time in the local parks and in the woods in Summer months.

Weight loss injections are the metaphorical equivalent to papering over the cracks in terms of weight loss.

The gym will do little to help you lose weight unless you go daily and can create a calorific deficit of 500 through exercise alone which for most people is just not realistic.

The leaves the only thing left which is diet, simply put - eat fewer calories. Work out your TDEE and eat 500 calories less, add in exercise 3 times a week and 10000 steps a day and the weight will fall off. Just make sure that the calories you are eating come from healthy whole foods that will keep you satiated to avoid binge snacking. Lots of protein and fibre. Avoid sugars.

Strength training is the way to go but think 2-5 years to reach your goal physique. With Injections you will lose muscle mass and that is harder to get back in later life.

Ah, that's a shame.

I haven't worked in NHS for a long time, but my handovers were 7.30 am and to be honest as I've become older I've realised that if you ask the right person and give the right reasons, many things are possible. Creative thinking is what you need, to try to fit an exercise session or two into your life.

I've found we're spending about £300 a month less on food since I'm using Mounjaro, because I do all the food shopping/cooking etc and I'm more focused/less tempted to buy treats for any of us, as well as for myself. So it's saving us over £100 a month overall as my latest pen was £179. If you currently drink alcohol or eat takeaways you'll save on those too. You do still have to put work into calorie counting and exercising, but it's easier when you're feeling less tempted by food. I've been totally floored by the extreme tiredness from MJ, but had virtually no other side effects.

I'd be wary of the uncertainty of long-term side effects if I were younger, with young children, because so little is known about MJ. Wegovy (under other names) has been used for a couple of decades for diabetes, so more is known about it.

It's not quite as simple as that though. Someone who lifts weight and has good muscle mass will burn more calories per day than someone the same weight who does no exercise and has little muscle. This can help maintain weight and also a little towards losing weight. If your body burns more calories at rest because you have good muscle it gives you more room to play with and not have to be so strict

Your poor Mum i hope she's feeling better now, this sounds very similar to my experience.
A and E doctors did not seem surprised in the slightest that I was using weight loss injections.

You don’t say how old you are but if you’re anything over 30 you should lift weights and do resistance based exercises for bone strength and functional fitness and cardio for heart health. This is non-negotiable.

You may be insulin resistant hence the inability to control your diet and reliance on sugar to get you through the day. Weight loss jabs that keep insulin response under control may be used simultaneously to achieve your goal of GETTING HEALTHIER. Just losing weight and being slim shouldn’t be the aim from a vanity point of view. I have plenty of friends size 12-16 who are active triathletes, marathon runners and hiking buddies who’d leave their slimmer counterparts for dust.

think of training as keeping you independent in old age - you cannot fake this with some Ozempic jabs. The small changes you make need to be permanent and you need to be happy with them or it’ll feel restrictive and you won’t be able to keep it up.

@undecidedfatty

Chickpeas are reasonably high in protein, less than meat but as much per 100g as eggs. Could sprinkle on some cheese if needed.

Everyone can make time for exercise if they choose too.

there’s no point asking about the gym then saying you can’t go

Have you actually read any of my posts?
Or are you just one of those intent on detailing the thread by any means.

I suggested forgetting about the gym for now and focusing on walking and getting out as a family for 30mins - 1 hour a day.
This includes jumping in puddles, collecting leaves, playing in the park etc.

As I’ve said this isn’t just about the burning fat side of weight loss - it’s helping kids sleep better, it’s helping mum sleep better (less likely to eat crap for energy), it’s improving the quality of everyone’s sleep (less likely to eat crap for energy and improves behaviour), releasing feel good hormones (less likely to emotionally eat) and relieves stress (which is again associated with over eating/eating crap).

If you don’t take your kids out after work, then that’s your choice.

But I personally found that by me doing it then my DD slept better (also had less screen time, behaviour improved and diet improved) and I was less stressed, slept better and the weight fell off.

I’m not sure why you take such an issue with me giving OP my opinion on what worked best for me to help me lose weight.

Why would I recommend an expensive gym membership when OP can use that same amount of time doing fun things with the kids and getting the fresh air benefits/being in nature too.

Why not just give OP the method you used to help you lose weight (and get your kids to sleep better and help you to be less stressed and tired etc) and then it’s up to OP to decide which ones to try for herself.

What? Your OP was a choice between injections or the gym, and you've spent the rest of the thread telling people you can't make time for exercise as you have such long and difficult days - fair enough, but why even contemplate the gym? Just get the injections and have done with it!

I'm using weight loss injections, but I'm a lot older than you and I have fairly severe (though slowly improving) chronic fatigue that makes it difficult to exercise as much as I'd like.

In your situation I'd opt for the gym or swimming if you can make it work. The endorphins and fitness you'd get from exercise would do you so much more good than losing a bit of weight. The feel good factor would lift your mood and feeling fitter would give you so much more energy to manage your life and your diet. Could you talk with work and maybe have extended lunch hours a couple of days a week to allow for gym/pool visits. Or use breakfast clubs for your children and swim/gym before work? I did this for years when I was working long hours and whilst tough at first, when I got into it I felt great for the extra exercise.

If you do go for the injections, you should try to up your exercise anyway. Will your children enjoy weekend nature walks (maybe not at first, but if you persevere...)? Or find kids activities in a local cheaper sports centre where you can use the gym for 20 mins whilst the kids are in their club?

If you want to lose weight then it’s the weight loss injections, it’s true that you can’t out run a bad diet.

I go to the gym regularly but I’m still a size 16 because I’ve got the appetite of a small elephant!

lol. So we’ve gone from a daily, year-round, hour-long weight loss power walk until at least 8.30 at night with two hungry, primary aged children followed by dinner, homework & the bedtime routine (with often freezing, soaked kids) to a 30minute play in the park on the way home which would make no difference to an adult’s weight whatsoever. People don’t half talk some crap on here.

I would try Mounjaro myself, but it's up to you. I have used Wegovy and it has more side effects, from what I hear. I have upped my protein (eggs galore in this house) and started exercising a couple of times a week. Modest changes but I'm very pleased to have shifted after a long time of not being able to, I feel so much more able to move about the world, exercise, look better, the whole thing has worked well for me so far.

I wouldn't justify yourself further, take the route that seems the most sensible. I wouldn't bother with gym membership simply because you are paying for something you don't have time to use. If you have time on weekends to use the gym, I'd use a pay as you go type (we have one near here).

That’s fine, it was just what worked for me as my DD struggled to sleep and I was struggling to lose weight and having that evening fresh air/exercise really helped us :)

If you eat eggs then these are such an easy way to get protein.

You can boil a batch up and have them as a snack or use them as part of meal.

So when were you going to go to the gym?

I was stuck at 12.12 until I started going for a fast 30 minutes walk every day - I'd been stuck for 6 weeks! Started the walking beginning July and am now 12.4. It really helps me that's for sure.

I find it hard to believe because it rains almost constantly from about October to April, so playing in a park in the dark on a wet or snowing Wednesday in December at 8pm would be extremely inadvisable. I'm sure twice a week it would be great, but not every day to the level the OP would need to do to shift many stones on top of the walking she already does (which sounds pretty impressive on their holidays).

I picked them up at 7-7:30 from the child minder.

Then took them to the park (giving them a snack on the way) played in the park, played on their scooter, jumped in puddles etc for 30 mins to wear them out.
On the weekends or if I finished early I tried to do it for at least an hour in the evenings.

They then slept better and had less screen time as a result.

Obviously it depends how rurally you live but most parents with kids who are hyperactive will try and find some way to drain their energy in the evenings.

It’s also a nice way to wind down after school/work and have some 1-1 times playing with them, as when you get home it’s typically chores and you just feel exhausted.

Not sure why you don’t believe that some people take their kids out after work.

Even now that my DD is older and more manageable will go swimming in the evenings as often as we can.

A women who already walks at least 15k steps a day will get no additional health or weight loss benefits from adding 5k steps to her already stressful daily schedule. Exercise is good for health and weight maintenance but weight loss is overwhelmingly about what & how much you eat. Weight loss medications work by reducing appetite and interest in food and in many people reducing the psychological reward from sweet or fatty junk foods in particular. A 5’6 woman would need to lose four stones to go from BMI 34 to a healthy BMI. That’s a massive mountain to climb and few people can achieve it without help.