I’m really upset I’m still fat

For the 100s of 1000s of people taking the jabs, the side effects are minimal and obesity increases your risk of all kinds of illnesses.

Although some people may be adverse to taking them for whatever reason, being 5 stone overweight is far riskier to your health than yo yo dieting and losing a few lbs here and there.

Mounjaro has been life changing for me and I have suffered no side effects whatsoever.

A lot of us don’t really know what we’re doing.
Get professional help, it’s worth the investment.

Dietician, Nutritionist, Personal Trainer, Gym.
Therapy. CBT. People who can educate you.

Reading books & joining slimming clubs, apps?
Fine, but taking long-term serious action is best.

I find planning ahead the best way to keep my weight balanced. I know what all my meals are for this week including snacks. I follow the mediteranean diet. It works well for me because there's no calorie counting or weighing food and it's not too restrictive. I'm a bit of an emotional eater aswell so I plan for that. I have a healthier Brownie that I batch cook and freeze individually its my go to if I have a bad day. Don't be too hard on yourself its hard and takes a lot of willpower to stick to any lifestyle change.

What happens when people stop taking the drug? Drugs have side effects too.

It's not the solution and it's not a shame that OP doesn't want to go down that route.

I’ve done all sorts over the years too. I thought I was on low enough calories whenever I was calorie counting, but recently I learned it should have been a lot less than what I was doing. I worked out my TDEE which said 1800 cals to maintain, and took off 500 to lost weight. So I’m now on 1300 cals per day. I use the jabs to stop me being hungry and to make it easier, but I’d be able to do it without them if I needed to. I’d just rather be less hungry and happier so use the jabs, but it’s the low clothes making me lose.

I had the exact same problem as you, the only thing that has worked is Mounjaro. I've had 4.5 months of zero emotional eating and consistency every single day. Without any effort. Absolutely unheard of for me. I've lost 3 stone.

OP, disclaimer: I’m not obese but have found it really hard to lose weight after menopause. In the past 3 weeks I have lost 10lbs and feel great.

i have been following the advice of a lady called Mindy Pelz on YouTube, she’s also written books. She’s into fasting and intermittent fasting (and more).

I highly recommend watching! Previously I would lose a couple of pounds then eat too much ice cream if I felt a bit down and I’d put it all back and more. Now I feel I have really cracked it!

I wouldn’t use injections either.

What a bizarre comment! How do you know the OP doesn't already have hobbies and interests?

She said she wasn't that overweight, i.e. she was overweight but not to a huge degree, which for a BMI of 29 is a fair assessment, it's below the 'obese' range.

Well most medications have side effects and potential risks. Do you call all medication risky?

1000 calories a day is not enough. You need at least 1200 to meet all your nutritional needs.

This is why I don't think WLI are the way forward, at least not until they are better managed and regulated. They encourage dangerous eating habits. It's only a matter of time until someone dies if things don't change.

They have severe side effects ?

@Refvs give fasting a try

Whilst it is true that it is mostly diet, not exercise that gets you through weight loss, exercise produces endorphins that help you feel good that in turn helps you not respond so hugely to things like emotional eating and helps you feel better about yourself.

Many people forget or don't realise that it is an addiction. And it is putting yourself before the addiction and that can be so so hard.

I have been overweight all my adult life. In 2019 I started going to parkrun with my friend and the kids. I had initially refused to go as to quote myself 'I don't even run for the bus' in Feb 2020 I had a really bad fall at parkrun and in may of that year something snapped in my head. I have never tracked calories or followed any diet. I started to acknowledge just how much I was eating and identifying what caused problems and slowly illuminating them. I never had a bottle of water out of my hand. Drank water before eating and for at least the first 6 weeks, every evening I sat with my fist in my mouth and water at my side.

I realise I am not coming up with any simple easy 'try this' solution here probably for you. But sharing stories can sometimes help or make you think differently.

But I have lost 4 and a half stone and I have kept it off. I have not yo yo'd with my wight in the last 5 years at all. My life has totally changed. I run 3 times a week. I have a few autoimmune conditions which have definitely improved since losing weight but whilst running really helps me it also floors me at times. But I still choose me first and ultimately, to beat any addiction, we have to choose ourselves over the addiction. I still love food. Absolutely love it. There is nothing I do not eat. But I maybe watch portion sizes more or think hang on, is this my actual stomach that's hungry or is this my head stomach?

Losing weight is really really really hard for people who have food addictions. I am not trying to make this sound easy as it really isn't. I am only 4 ft 11 so 4 and half stone is massive on me. Also I'm 48, almost 49 now and glad I hacked away at it when I did as definitely experiencing other issues with my body now....BUT what I have achieved has just continued to give me the determination to be as strong as I can possibly be.

For me, calorie counting or eliminating foods or seeing foods as bad or sinful would not have been and is not helpful. I don't really drink alcohol as I'm just not arsed and would rather have those calories in food 😂 but I choose good wholesome foods without sweeteners and not ultra processed crap. Admittedly I do not have a sweet tooth although that did not stop me from being hugely overweight and I do eat cake and cream and chocolate etc. just would probably rather choose savoury.

Also I am not saying you have to run and you definitely cannot outrun a bad diet. As I said I ran for over a year before losing any weight. It possibly stopped me from gaining even more maybe but who knows. However when I first started to lose weight I couldn't run anyway as was still recovering my accident. But I got outside and I did very brisk walks. And if nothing else they made me feel better.

If you can start to feel better you are in a better place to start choosing you over the food and the bingeing.

This is hard. Really fucking hard. But you can do it.

I’m in the same bait.. I’ve just downloaded something called Hypnozio to do daily hypnosis as a way to try and combat the feelings that go into my emotional eating. I tried the pens and they made me feel sick as a dog. Diet wise, I’m going to embark on the human being diet. Very simple rules. The book is about £5 - have a notepad as you read it so you can shut down what you need to do at each stage. Personally, I have found that type of diet, which is essentially having a good amount of protein each meal and lots of vegetables as really successful in the past

Maybe direct your energy into something else? A hobby, interest or skill.
Better to be fat than a dullard!

I’ve been overweight my entire adult life. Diets tried include: Weightwatchers, Slimming World, lighter Life, Cambridge, Atkins, 5:2, Rosemary Conley, Keto, Blood Type etc etc (you get the picture)

There is not a fat person around who doesn’t understand that they are fat because they eat too many calories.

I also had an abusive childhood, and know lots of my eating issues are to do with that.

I’ve also had CBT, and used Hypontherapy.

I would lose some weight, then pile it back on … living in a family with Stroke and Heart Disease as early killers.

I’ve now lost 5st with WLI (if you don’t want them it’s up to you), what it’s taught me is what 1000 calories a day looks like, what’s in and what’s our.. and making sure I know for the future, how to stick to this number.

I’m an instant gratification person, which is how I ended up fat in the first place, so learning how to meet that need without going OTT. I hope to take these learnings, and this lifestyle with me when I come off the jabs.

If loosing weight, and keeping it off, was easy, they wouldn’t be so many fat people around .. it a wholesale change. Support is vital, writing down everything you eat (number 1 habit), keeping the crap out of your cupboards (getting shopping delivered instead of going in the shop).

I used the jabs too.
In an ideal world I would have been able to do it without them but I tried for YEARS and failed. My mum died of cancer. My dad was diagnosed with t2 diabetes and dropped dead from a heart attack. You reach a point where you realise the risks of obesity outweigh the risks of the jab. I lost 50lbs very easily. I have been off them for a year and still maintaining. It was the best decision I've ever made for my health.

This just isn't true. Without changing my diet in any way at all, I lost 15lbs just by starting to exercise regularly. DH started exercising last year and has lost a lot of weight too.

OP, shift focus away from bring fat and wrong to simply caring for your body. Nutritious food, de-stressing acts that aren't comfort eating, like yoga, meditation, reading, comedy, small pampering things like face masks etc. Things you can do at home while caring for a sick child. Longer term, walking, running, fitness classes etc.

It does sound as though you know where you are failing and like anything else, eating can be habit forming - hope that makes sense MN.
Setting small, short term goals will be easier to manage than planning to lose Xkg in Y months.
I had a serious health scare last summer and needed to shed some weight. I looked at my diet and lifestyle as one subject and changed both together. Smaller portions, increased water consumption, no refined sugar, no ultra processed foods, and I found this to be manageable. Naturally, this might not work for everyone as we are all different and some might think my way is daft but I am seeing positive results. Good luck!

The side effects are not as bad at the side effects of obesity.

I think you need to explain your reasoning as to why you won't even consider the injections. Millions are taking them, and they simply make you feel less hungry. What is so scary about that?

Have you explored the medical route? A lot of women cannot reduce to the weight they would like to be because of medical conditions like lipoedema or PCOS.

Are you actually genuinely overweight? Often weight loss stops because the body has reached the weight it wants to be.

Help us out please, I mean, are you 9 stone wishing you were 8 stone or 25 stone plus?

If you dont want to take the jabs thats absolutely fine OP.

I have tried the jabs and they worked but slowly and I've actually recently been signed off for surgery now.

However when I was on the jabs I did also receive some mental health guidance that focused on the 4 pillars of success which are sleep, stress, diet, and exercise. In that order.

You need to make sure that you're addressing all of these to give you the best chance of success whatever pathway you choose to take. Sleep and stress are important for hunger hormone regulation. If you're not getting enough sleep or you're stressed then you'll be producing more hunger-based hormones than full based ones.

You're also set back if you have other conditions like diabetes or insulin resistance due to PCOS, or neurodivergence because this can affect your ability to process hunger and fullness cues internally due to poor interception.

For now I'd focus on sleep and stress and diet, forget exercise for now as realistically you're not going to burn a tremendous amount.

Also make sure you're working out your TDEE and eating 500 calories less than your TDEE.

You also need to understand how water is stored in cells and how you can have plateaus due to water retention and this is normal. It doesn't mean what you're doing is failing.

Wish you all the best OP.

However, OP is desperate to loss weight. I was on the jabs as part of a clinical trial. I lost weight and guess what it’s given me the motivation to carry on! They’re another tool and for someone who seems to need to very little excuse to over eat it maybe what they need!

But you were overweight, a BMI of 29 puts you in the overweight category!