The secrets of overweight people

[ColouringPencils]

I mean this in a light-hearted way, but I guess it might also be helpful to us to see where we're getting it from.

I'll start:

I always serve myself the largest portion, and often nick a few extra bites in between the cooking and serving stages.

I eat a full meal whether I am particularly hungry or not (then often have seconds).

I gave up sugar and doubled my cheese intake (then I went back on sugar too).

Speaking of which, no meal is not improved by a generous topping of grated cheese.

I could quite happily drink a bottle of wine a night, although I don't let myself. On my 'good' nights I drink hot chocolate/ couple of beers and eat crisps instead.

Sometimes if nobody has seen me eat my first slice of toast, I'll put a third one in. This is especially the case when it's white bread, the 'only one' I could buy in the corner shop.

When DH is away I love to read and eat chocolate in bed.

Anyone else got any good tips to help me continue to sabotage my weight loss efforts?

MrsScamander

Still another 8 stone to go till I hit my target, I wish I could lose weight by the "everything in moderation" way but I can't because sugar is my trigger and the only way to keep on track is to cut it out completely.
Well done on the weight loss - that's excellent. I know what you mean about sugar - it's so hard (also to remember sugar of so many types are in so many foods, and that the body considers some (eg refined) carbs AS sugar. I do love carbs and have had to really change the types and reduce the amount I eat. There are some aisles in the supermarket I don't look at!! 😁

Also your comment about cutting sugar out entirely- that's how I dealt with my (long past) cigarette addiction. There was no "I'll just have one" ciggie. Thank goodness both my health and bank balance are better for giving them up. You'll get there - reward yourself with something non-calorific for each dress size you lose - you'll get there! 🌹

I've thought of another one.

I don't know what I look like - so I don't notice either weight gains or loss.

I can see a change in my face, but, not in my body. I feel the same 4 stones heavier than I did on my wedding day (and was a fat bride) - am totally divorced from what my body looks and feels like.

I've spent years being ashamed of my body and avoiding mirrors. We don't have family photographs.

It's really hard.

There's an amazing cupcake bakery opened near me. The cupcakes are so delicious, they really are the best cakes I've ever had.

I go in and buy a few at a time. I say they are for the whole family or for taking in to work (as I now know the baker pretty well due to the frequency of my visits). They're all for me. I eat the first one in the car on the way home, and the rest as soon as I can cram them in to my fat gob.

They really are so, so good though! The sponge is amazing and has some kind of filling, there is a lot of creamy, flavoured frosting on the top and they are decorated with biscuits, chocolates or sweets.

It's affecting my weight and my bank balance, they're not cheap! I really need to knock this new habit I've developed on the head. I could never admit this to anyone in real life, so glad I've been able to confess on here.

Today’s tip for me is, get really, unstoppably anxious. Feel the need to stuff your face until the beta blockers kick in.

I also recommend gabapentin for weight gain. I put on a stone practically overnight when I started taking it.

Thank you @Lobsterquadrille2 I will look into the OA groups

Top tip: to aid in your self delusion that you aren't that fat only have a small mirror to do your make up in.

Ask who the fat bird is when you see a photo of yourself.

I now feel slightly ill as I've been eating Easter egg . Managed to stop myself before I puke. Made a cup of tea to fill a space instead

@Hearhere

Most of this is totally outside of my experience, I find it very easy to stay slim, should I just fuck off and shut up?

Well, it is a bit strange to post that particular post on this particular thread.

Would you post on the pets board to announce you don't have any pets?

Would you post on the infertility board saying you fell pregnant without even trying?

Maybe chime in on the next rant about sibling rivalry to say you have no siblings?

Or maybe go on to the home education board to say you have no experience of it at all?

Here’s my tips.

Crisps and baked beans are vegetables - add them to most meals instead of actual vegetables.

If you do have vegetables, make sure they are a tiny garnish and not part of the meal. So put a lettuce leaf in your cheese and bacon doorstep sandwich and congratulate yourself for being healthy .

Tell yourself that rice cakes are good for you, but add some chocolate spread or jam to make them more tasty .

Have an enormous bowl of cereal for breakfast . Remind yourself it’s healthy because you added skimmed milk. Wonder why your insulin levels are sky high an hour later and you are starving by mid morning, so have some biscuits.

Miss breakfast the next day because you are “ being good “. Reward yourself with a carry out coffee and pastry at the station on the way to work.

Eat a Boots shapers meal for lunch . Reward yourself with a chocolate bar or two afterwards for “ being good “.

Eat a huge curry for dinner because you had no breakfast and a 300 calorie lunch so you deserve a treat.

The next day, have porridge and a big glass of orange juice for breakfast. Because fruit is healthy . Wonder why your insulin levels are sky high an hour later and you are starving by mid morning. Have more biscuits .

Every time you fill up the car at the petrol station, buy one of the 3 for 2 offers on chocolate bars, for the kids of course. Absentmindedly eat one on the way home. Realise you can’t take two bars into the house for three children so eat the other two. Just so the kids don’t fight.

@ImNotNigel thats spot on

I thought of more over dinner.

Go on yet another diet but don’t tell anyone. Lose one of the eight stone you need to. Sulk because no one else notices.

Come on to MN to complain that no one in RL has commented. Lovely MNers on the weight loss boards gently point out that one stone loss when you are 20 stone, while it’s an achievement, isn’t enough for anyone else to see. It’s between you and your measuring tape / scales.

And that your friends and family have been politely NOT commenting on your weight for many years, because they love you and don’t want to make you feel bad.

Sulk that no one on MN understands you either. Eat a large tub of chocolate ice cream while binge watching Netflix.

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Go for a checkup with the diabetic nurse at your Gp surgery. She doesn’t mention your weight like she usually does, although she weighs you and notes it on the computer . Tell yourself that this means she doesn’t have a problem with your weight and you are completely fit and healthy.

Remind yourself that type 2 diabetes runs in your family and that’s why you have it, it’s nothing to do with your weight or lifestyle. It’s genetic.

@ImNotNigel

Very insightful and very bloody true.

I have had periods of very good, healthy "normal" eating (I am talking years!) but I always fall back into the trap of food being a reward / crutch / consolation / bargaining tool to myself ("you had a healthy breakfast and lunch so go on have a takeaway for dinner")

I envy people who have never walked this path, people who don't have this battle on a daily / hourly basis. I envy people who arent controlled by food. Even when I was in a period of being "normal" it was always a conscious effort. Years of denying myself 90% of the time and then the odd blow out binge. * I do realise the irony of considering this "normal" hence the quotation marks

I'm now as far away from "normal" as I've ever been. Its 90% binge and 10% "normal"

*Go on yet another diet but don’t tell anyone. Lose one of the eight stone you need to. Sulk because no one else notices.

Come on to MN to complain that no one in RL has commented. Lovely MNers on the weight loss boards gently point out that one stone loss when you are 20 stone, while it’s an achievement, isn’t enough for anyone else to see. It’s between you and your measuring tape / scales.

And that your friends and family have been politely NOT commenting on your weight for many years, because they love you and don’t want to make you feel bad.

Sulk that no one on MN understands you either. Eat a large tub of chocolate ice cream while binge watching Netflix.*

Oh yes, this is me totally!!

I envy people who have never walked this path, people who don't have this battle on a daily / hourly basis.

Amen to this. The sheer grinding effort of trying to keep it together. Of trying to make this day a 'good' day. Of resisting, resisting, resisting...And then succumbing. It's exhausting.

Go out for a meal with a slim friend. During the meal, be inwardly resentful that she can eat the same crap as you and stay slim.

Rage to yourself in your head all the way home about how unfair life is.

Ignore the fact that she had a burger with no bun, a couple of chips and a large side salad. While you ate your bun, all your chips and most of hers. Oh and had a desert while she had a black coffee.

And that she had only one small glass of red wine because she was driving while you had two bottles of cider.

Complain to your husband when you get home, who helpfully says “well don’t go out with her again if it makes you feel like that”.

Get annoyed with husband as well. Have a latte as you didn’t have one at dinner, with a biscuIt. Because coffee is so wet without biscuits. And there’s only 100 calories in a small kit kat, that’s nothing.

Have another kit kat, because they are smaller than they used to be.

Go to bed feeling resentful. Hate yourself for being angry as well as fat.

Problem is my slim friends eat more than me.

I had to go on antibiotics recently. They had to be taken 4 times a day on an empty stomach. Apart from maybe 1st thing in the morning my stomach is never empty!!!

Urgh, made a delicious chocolate fudge cake yesterday for DH's birthday. Have eaten a slice with a little cream. Gave a big slice each to the two gardeners. Now I want more. Also, it's Friday. Does anyone else feel like 'treat eating' when it's Friday. Like a reward for getting to the end of the week? Even though I am now a SAHM I still get this urge to reward myself!

I also bought a loaf of (smoked -that was an accident, but it is delicious) sourdough from M&S. My friend was going to come for brunch but then couldn't, so now it's calling me.

Mine seems to be that I barely eat. Can't remember the last time I ate a plateful of food... genuinely. I live off bites of things and cups of black tea. Still a massive 16 stone

Yes I'm a natural grazer too and that can often make you heavier than sitting down to a big plate of food. Probably because all those little bites of food are of high calorie food which end up adding up to a huge amount of calories.
Sigh, first week on slimming world and I'm missing my nibbles!!

I think sometimes the difference is with many slim people that when they go out they may eat what they want but at home they'll have a different diet to us. It's quite deceiving

I used to think that too oliversmumsarmy.

Until I realised that the laws of physics applied to her the same as me. And either she wasn’t eating like that all time or she was burning more calories. Or both.

Whatever way, feeling sorry for myself and blaming my genes wasn’t helping me. I ve come to learn that it wasn’t food that was making me fat, it was my brain. I was running this constant self defeating talk in my head .

Like telling myself it’s hard because of my medical issues. Which is true.

And it’s harder than for some other people , which isn’t fair, which might be true.

As well as lots of total bollocks like “ it’s harder for me because I don’t like being hungry “. Well most people don’t.

And “ I just crave carbs / chocolate / pringles / alcohol so much “. Yeah because hardly anyone else likes these things, that’s why they are so hard to buy anywhere.

I was focused on the people who say “ oh I put on half a stone on holiday so I just cut out the booze for a week and it fell off me “ . I really HATE these people. I’m fact I want to kill them. Which is hard if it’s your partner / sister / best friend.

And yes, it’s shit that the Slimming World type things would make me gain weight.

And it’s not fair that I have to intermittent fast and go very low carb to lose any weight at all. But thats how it is. Fucking ridiculous but there we are.

And being hungry is shit but it won’t kill me. Which being very overweight probably will.

That’s where my head is at right now anyway. I’m keeping busy to avoid fantasising about all the food mentioned in this thread. I swear I dreamed last night about twix dipped in peanut butter.

🍫🍰🎂🍨🍿🥜🌰🍪🍩🍭🥧🍟🍔🌮🌭🥪🍛

I can eat cream eggs like other normal people eat smarties!

I identify so much with this thread.

I started dieting again in February (rather than just thinking about it) and was amazed at the near-instant change in my mood from anxious and snappy to calm and in control. I hadn't anticipated the mental health benefit!

As for maintenance, I weigh 71kg and eat 1300 cal per day (am meticulously counting calories); quite sedentary. My weight has plateaued recently; I guarantee that if I move more I'll start losing again, but if I eat more I will balloon. 2000 just to maintain my weight? I laugh/cry at you!

M&S fresh baked sourdough is the work of the devil. And you have to eat it whilst it’s fresh.

I think slim people self regulate - if they overeat one day then they’ll undereat the next, and it all balances out.