Losing weight, weight loss injections or gym?

I don't eat until at least 12pm. Black coffee and water before then. It sounds awful but honestly I find it totally easy, look forward to my lunch but don't feel starving or weird. Then I avoid sugar as much as possible, including carbs. That works well for me in terms of weight loss.

I did eat a cinnamon bun in a cafe yesterday but as I'd also done 20,000 steps I figured it wouldn't count!

Her current BMI won't be affecting ability to move around. I know because I've been exercising from a much higher BMI and am now about where she is.

I would suggest unpicking the reasons why I feel so worthless that I see feeding myself well as an inconvenience and unnecessary cost
Now we are getting to the root of the issue. I’m on an alcohol support thread and we were just discussing how we sometimes look at the cost of good quality, nutritious food and think ‘No way’ but would have spent 5x that on wine over the course of a week, without a second thought.

Maybe try one of the weight loss threads on here. I’ve found people nothing but supportive on the alcohol ones. One of the phrases that has stuck with me is ‘nourish ourself not punish ourself’. Rings true for a lot of us when it comes to food and drink.

Why couldn't you exercise in a Saturday before?

A tiny freezer might be an issue - though mine is pretty small and you can definitely do some batch cooking even with a tiny space. 'I don't enjoy cooking' is a daft excuse. We have to do lots of things we don't enjoy to get things we want (in this case a healthy diet and weight loss).

For me there are two separate issues. Your weight and your well being. Your well being will be helped in every way by regular consistent exercise. Your weight won’t be affected by the gym at all from my own experience of 4-5 hours per week at the gym and still a stable size 16. I’m fat but energised and very, very content.

I did some work a while back with an online Diet coach. His diet like every other diet really consisted of a protein target, a moderate calorie deficit target, eating high volume low calorie dense foods (veg/salad) a steps target and an exercise target. I started to lose weight consistently with that but life got in the way.

I am going to get back to it now with one small change that I’m going to eat the same breakfast and lunch for a few days in a row because I got a fair bit of decision fatigue with the diet coupled with the rest of my life.

Personally in your shoes I would try a calorie deficit first with some of above stuff added in and then if you don’t get the result you want maybe injections.

I've done both in my life and both worked.

I lost 3 stone in 2006 by joining a gym. I went 5 times a week for an hour. To keep it off I continued to go with that frequency. I stayed a size 10 until perimenopause 9 years ago when the gym stopped working.

I started Ozempic in April 2023. I've lost 3 and a half stone ( now on Wegovy)

I don't think from what you've said that you will go to the gym enough to lose a significant amount of weight.

Your diet doesn't sound great. You need to overhaul that even if you go on Wegovy. Have a look at the Mindful Chef ready meals. They are healthy, delicious and quick. They arrive frozen but you can store them chilled.

There is a happy medium! I totally agree with your thoughts about the meal boxes! Can you order shopping online? It will take you 40 mins to sit and plan four evenings worth of meals and order from Tescos. Then let yourself have a couple of days of eating whatever. Small steps!

have a listen to this OP

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/zoe-science-nutrition/id1611216298?i=1000606583568

The Zoe Science and Nutrition podcast has a solid and reliable science foundation. You will know that they have a vested interest in pushing their diet program and app yet this podcast explains why injections can work well for some people.

If you have the injections but don’t change your diet/lifestyle won’t that mean you have to have injections for ever? Who knows what the long term implications are?
Can you not use the money to buy healthy meals which will help you lose weight and might give you more energy?

I personally can't see how anyone wants to risk their health with those weight lose injections, there's no medium/long term evidence on the effects. Unless they have a serious health condition made worse by weight, such as diabetes. Exercise is far less important than diet. I don't really see when you'd have time to go to the gym anyway? Surely use that time to meal plan and prep healthy food so you can take it to work/eat after work. That will be of far greater benefit to your kids as well, if they have healthy meals.

How old are your children? Once they are teenagers it does get easier to fit in health and wellbeing. It is so hard when they are young!

DL sounds like a lovely idea. The kids will enjoy it and you will too! It's healthy for all of you and I genuinely believe it's important for children to see parents having a hobby.

I go to a lovely gym(kids are older). What I will say is some of the healthiest and fittest women are at least a size 12!

The thing is, as you realise, you’re already quite active in your job and running around after the children. It’s diet and rest you need. You’re constantly stressed and exhausted so the cortisol and sugar combo (loads of sugar in bread and biscuits etc) is going to really send you on that constant rollercoaster of energy highs and lows. Adding more exercise I doubt will help at all, in fact it might make it worse as your body is already so taxed.

You know you won’t eat better and won’t batch cook and resent even spending on healthier food even though you can afford it now and you’ve correctly identified you have some issues with this. It really is the place to start. The food you eat, especially with such a busy and active and stressful lifestyle will make or break this even with exercise and even with weight loss injections.

If it was me i’d be thinking a lot about how come I make the time for my work my kids the house and all this stuff but not for that half an hour to cook or to make healthier food choices. I’d cut down my hours if I could and use the time to rest and prep food to fuel me for the rest of the gruelling week.

An article on stress, cortisol and weight gain: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4dscGVpxYk3ttlnrwn1VnR3/can-stress-make-you-fat

Try the injections. Think of them as an investment in your health. Getting your whole family to the gym at the weekend will likely end up as another source of stress and a once weekly swim or gym session won’t make any difference to your weight. It’s great you have a long-term plan to improve your work life balance and in the meantime you can use medical support to reduce your weight to a much healthier level and slash your risk of diabetes, joint damage and a host of diseases. You will also enjoy looking and feeling leaner. It’s not true that most overweight people have mental issues that require counselling or other treatment. Studies show very marginal effects except in people with binge-eating disorders. Most just feel a bit hungrier than people who don’t struggle to stay at a healthy weight. The OP sounds tired, stressed and understandably fed up with her weight. For the vast majority of people, weight loss injections work.

I went to the gym for two years and gained weight. It made me hungry, so I ate what I burned off and if I missed the gym due to being busy I was very angry at myself. Mounjaro worked well for me. Lost just over 30lbs. You still have to eat well and diet, but it's just so much easier as you aren't hungry as much and because you are thinking about food less you are able to make better choices.

Being time poor was a huge factor in not being able to diet. I didn't have time to plan and cook alternate meals to the rest of the family. Mounjaro meant i just ate less of it instead. Some might scoff at this statement, but I've got two primary kids and one is severely disabled so requires 1 to 1 care and all the admin that goes with that (and there is a lot) and on top of this I work full time. It pisses me off when people berate the nation for being fat, when it is very hard to diet and exercise when you have very limited time.

I slowly came off the reducing dosages (I went from 8.5 to 2.5 and still lost a few lbs when reducing to below target) and this is my first week fully off and I am noticeably hungrier. I do feel better equipped to ignore the hunger now, which I have been trying to do, but being busy means it's hard to make good choices again. The carbs are coming back because it's quicker to make a slice of toast than cook chicken. I think this is because I'm burnt out more than anything, so I hope my holiday soon will reset this. I have gained a lb this week but I am due on.

I managed to over order and not need one of my pens, so it is sitting in the fridge in case i need it for a winter reset. I still weight train, but I'm so busy it can be as little as once a week due to time constraints. I really would do better if I actually had time for healthy living.

I would personally try the injections, then look at gym to maintain. You can get a cheap set of weights and resistance bands to keep at home to use in the meantime. You will need an exit strategy and need to look at nutrition whilst on the jabs, as it is important to eat the right foods if reducing to low calories. The Mounjaro threads were great on here when I was on them.

What on earth makes you assume she has a garage?

Ours don’t haggle
but one is flagship and the others are tier 1
two have wait lists 🙄

I would wait until after Christmas - save the money for the pens and do the pens and family membership in tandem

I would go with a weight loss coach personally, I’d be looking for a bit of a mindset shift, structure and someone to keep me on track and there are some great coaches out there that do this within your budget, just do your research to get the right one for you.

Go cold turkey and quit biscuits completely, they are so high in calories and completely unsatisfying, they will not curb hunger. If you need a 'treat' get corn or rice cakes and drizzle with honey.

I have gone for both - WL injections and a few months in a David Lloyd membership primarily so I can access the pool. You may find that your food bill drops on the jabs so could maybe afford both x

Gym, healthy eating and small portions are the healthy option. I wouldn't even consider injections unless obese with serious health issues caused by excess weight.