How did I get so fat again!

[Catspyjamazzzz]

I’ve never ever been really thin.

I have been much smaller. I’ve yo-yoed a bit. I lost a chunk of weight last year (ww and lots of exercise).
However a year of no exercise (bad foot) and a full time job sat on my arse have really made me pile on the weight.

I feel like I don’t have the energy to do it all again. I still have foot issues and working full time limits the walking I can do (in the past I walked a lot) which I think kept my weight under control.
I’ve been very fit but never really thin and now I don’t think I am fit at all.

Please feel me stories of weight triumphs - I’ve just seen how fat my arms are!
I’m going on the exercise bike tomorrow - I am I am I am!

Those horrible individuals saying 'you eat too much' rather rudely will you FUCK RIGHT OFF!
Your stinking attitude doesn't help, it hinders and breaks people more - i suspect you would feel the same way if somebody stuck their hefty stiletto into your anxiety point too

OP ignore the 'stating the bleeding obvious' brigade! Well done that you've acknowledged it and want to
Move on.
Modify your diet with small things such as portion size, reward yourself with small treats and goals for treats. Get a pedometer and do your 8-10k steps a day, purposefully walk around the office/ block etc st lunch one or when you're off to meetings etc
See if there's a gym nearby or cycle to work if it's possible

Little and often exercise is maintainable with a hectic lifestyle and you'll feel better
Don't restrict your diet, just modify it a bit (less bread, cheese, fats etc more veggies and healthy bites - slight changes make big differences) and be really good at rewarding yourself for doing eg 20k steps one day or cycling to work etc.. something little like a glass of wine or a line of chocolate bar etc. Enjoy splurge days too and get back on the wagon thebnext day, write it off and forget about it, don't feel guilty for the once a week/fortnight splurge, but do be good the other days

Give yourself a proper goal of say 12 months from now I'll be 2 stone lighter and that's actually do-able really easily but it'll be effective

Good luck, love yourself and like yourself too - fuck all those very unhelpful people

But it’s true flumpybear
There was a time when I too could exercise it off. I could lose weight very quickly by cutting down on calories. That just wasn’t working for me as the more diet stuff I had the more I put on weight. Having read Mosleys book on the good gut diet I changed my way of eating and incorporated some intermittent fasting. Low and behold this actually worked . For the first time in years I was losing weight and I didn’t feel hopeless.

I agree its mostly down to diet but exercise makes you feel like you're working towards a goal. Is there exercise you can do that won't aggravate your foot? Swimming, some gym equipment like cross trainer or rowing machine, cycle if the resistance is low, weights that tone core, arms, legs without engaging the foot, yoga and pilates.

Try this healthy eating plan devised by the kitchen doctor.

thedoctorskitchen.com/#

However a year of no exercise (bad foot) and a full time job sat on my arse have really made me pile on the weight

While you can't out exercise a bad diet, generally, there is a lot to be said for the extra calories burnt by being active day to day, compared with a sedentary lifestyle.

Remember back in the days where people did manual jobs, manual housework, walked or cycled to work etc and didn't drive to work to sit at a desk. They ate quite a lot of calories but were slimmer than people are now, because they burnt it off. That sort of lifestyle probably burns more calories overall than someone with a desk job who goes to the gym a few times a week.

Years ago I had a job that had me running up and down stairs dozens of times a day. My job changed and took away this particular task. I put on about 10 pounds in a few months with no other changes. The same happened to a teacher friend who stopped being on her feet all day, and running between buildings to teach different classes, to a desk job.

Seemingly minor changes in calories consumed or burnt can have a huge change over time. An extra biscuit a day could lead to nearly a stone of weight gain a year. Change from an active job where you are always walking around to a desk job could go from walking several miles a day to almost none. SIgnificant difference over time.

This happened to me a couple of years ago, OP. After losing nearly 5 stones I gradually regained almost all of it back again (minus half a stone) . I was gutted, but it was my own fault and yes flumpybear it was purely and simply because I ate too much.
You can do it again, if you really want to. I'm nearly back to my target weight now, it's taken me nearly 2 years but I don't care about that because I know I can keep it up indefinitely now. Just exercising regularly (swimming and walking in my case) and keeping my eating under control. It is difficult sometimes, but I don't want to be fat. I want to be a normal healthy weight and reasonably fit and I have to work at it.

Thing is flumpybear what people have said is a factual certainty. You can’t dress it up any other way, OP has to accept these fundamentals before moving in the direction they wish to go. They is lots of support for trying different things, but you can’t buck the fundamentals here: less calories and more exercise is needed. It’s gets harder the longer the realisation is put off.

But there's a way of trying to help people by encouragement and a way to make people feel like shit and make them feel down and depressed - try positivity, dressed up however you want it but still be positive

A bit like saying or dear you have cancer, well that'll be your genes then - rather than saying well loads of people survive cancer now it's not a death sentence - 90% of getting 'better' whatever that is equals positivity - try to reinforce that, it break it down

*don't break it down

I agree, but I think the two approaches should be separated and correctly ordered.

OP I could have written your post and there are some silly replies on here talking to you as if you don’t know what makes you put on weight. I think the point is that the majority of weight LOSS is a result of reducing calorie intake ( in whichever way is easiest for you) but exercise makes you feel better, you get that endorphin boost, you feel toned etc. All of which encourages you to continue with the dieting. So when that’s taken away from you through injury and reduced opportunity it’s doubly hard. So I do understand. But ultimately it’s a problem within our control so let’s do something about it.

Hello op...I've been putting off writing the same thread as you,sadly ..I can't work out if I'm fat because I'm depressed.or depressed because I'm fat..either way ..I'm depressed and fat...it feels like the worst thing in the world to me to be fat...I lost a lot of weight 3 yrs ago by living of soup...obviously the whole dam lot has gone back on....there was a thread on here about a wife who's dh had put on weight and was depressed and people said it was his own fault if she left him....made me feel sorry for my dh,I'm sure he didn't want a fat wife ,but he got one,I feel ashamed.

While you can't out exercise a bad diet, generally, there is a lot to be said for the extra calories burnt by being active day to day, compared with a sedentary lifestyle.

I'm glad you posted this, Barbara. Every time someone talks about how you can't out-exercise a bad diet, it makes me feel like there's no point to bothering. There are so many absolutists on here, it can be very discouraging.

I can't get to a 'healthy' BMI without exercise. I can drop 2 stone by dieting which takes my bmi down to about 25.5. But to get below that I need to diet and exercise.

What diet I do doesn't matter. It's the physical activity that makes the difference. I always used to put 10 to 14lbs on over the summer holidays. I assumed it was the odd ice cream or pub lunch with dd. It was the school run twice a day that made the difference as one year I was dieting and knew what I was eating was the same as the previous 10 weeks and come the end of September it went off again.

Hi, sorry been on massive day out with DC.

I don’t think I can lose weight without exercise. I do have a fit bit but literally the job I have been doing is being chained to a computer 8 hours a day. There is literally nowhere to walk to as it’s a secure site and it’s frowned upon to take a lunch break.

It’s one of the reasons I am leaving. My last job I sometimes did 20k steps a day. This one I am lucky to do £1k. After I pick DC it’s impossible to go back out as DH gets back so late and the very early start means I need to be in bed.
The lack of fresh air makes me feel like crap so it’s a vicious circle.

I think the constant sitting has also made me ‘soft’ which I think is one of the issues which makes me feel fatter. Especially my arms. I used to use them a lot and it kept them toned.

Anyway I walked a billion miles yesterday and I’m cleaning the house today and that makes me feel better!

I think I also might be a bit peri-menopausal which is why I am getting tummy weight, which I am not used to!

Nope. It's diet that will make you lose weight. I always used to see figures saying it's 80% diet and 20% exercise, but recently Dr Jason Fung has been suggesting it's 95% and 5%!

Exercise will obviously help you tone up and generally make you feel better - but you have to do a lot of it to burn significant amounts of calories to compensate for a poor diet.

As an example, if you run 5K, which will be around 30 minutes of running, that will burn c. 350 calories. Which isn't very much. According to Chron.com:

increasing your daily calorie expenditure by 350 calories will lead to weight loss about 2/3 of a pound a week as long as you keep you calorie intake constant.

Rate of Weight Loss
MayoClinic.com reports that you will lose about 1 pound a week burning an additional 500 calories each day. One pound of body fat equals about 3,500 calories. Therefore, burning an extra 350 calories daily will help you lose between 0.5 and 1 pound per week, or about 0.7 pound each week. If you continue your fitness program for 16 weeks, you'll lose about 11 pounds, or more if you also reduce your calorie intake.

So even if you run for 30 minutes every day, that will only equate to 11 pounds over four months.

But 5k is probably about 6000 steps. The OP has gone from 20k steps a day to almost none. That's got to be significant.

I have put back on 1 1/2 stone in six months. I have worked out that if this doesn't stop by 2002 I will have to be carried out by firemen through a window frame.

sorry meant 2020, I can't see through my fat eyelids

Weight loss is 100% calorie deficit. Some people find it easier to create that calorie deficit through exercise, some prefer to restrict food, lots find a combination of both to be most effective and sustainable. The benefits of walking and running and improved fitness in general go way beyond calories burned!

5K = c 6,250 steps according to this site

BTW totally agree that you/we all should be doing exercise - it has far greater benefits than just helping with weight loss.

I think 11 pounds over 4 months is a lot.

I’m very short so that’s a lot of weight on my frame. To be to my youthful non fat weight is only 2 stone lighter

While you can't out exercise a bad diet, generally, there is a lot to be said for the extra calories burnt by being active day to day, compared with a sedentary lifestyle

There are more benefits to exercise than weight loss, so it’s imoortant to incorporate regular exercise into your life, but don’t hang you hat on thinking walking 5k a few times a week is going make you drop a stone.