What gave you the kick up the arse to loose weight?

[Laceandflowers383]

I dont need to loose much, only 10 pounds but I just can't do it. I'm in this cycle of eating crap then feeling rubbish and vowing to stop and then being hungry and eating crap again. I eat plenty of fruit and veg and home cooked food but I snack too much and treat myself too much at the weekends. I want to stop before I reach needing to loose a stone but I just can't do it!

I'm aware that many people have much larger amounts to loose but this feels like a lot on my small frame.

I had a major health scare at the end of May 2018. I'd been feeling more and more breathless over the course of 2 weeks,and being extremely overweight,was reluctant to go to my GP,as I knew from experience that he'd probably say that it was because I was overweight. Eventually my DD persuaded me to make an appointment. She said that even though I was admittedly unfit,I didn't normally get breathless walking just 50 yards! Thankfully,the doctor took it seriously and sent me straight to A and E,where I had blood tests and a CT scan that showed I had a pulmonary embolism (blood clot on my lung). I was given a clot-busting injection and kept in overnight for observation. Thankfully,it cleared up,but it gave me quite a fright as I was told that if I'd left it much longer,it probably would have proven fatal.

I was told that being overweight probably hadn't caused it,but it certainly hadn't helped. I was put on a blood-thinning drug indefinitely,and I decided there and then that I just HAD to lose weight,once and for all. In the last 3 years,I have managed to lose 7 stone,with another 3 to go. Omg the difference it has made to the way I feel! I am determined that this time it is staying off. I am 58 this autumn and don't want to hit 60 being a fat old woman!

Good luck to you OP. I admire you for getting to grips with it now while it's a small manageable problem,rather than the 10 stone I started off with.

Exactly the same here. I don’t eat crap but I do eat too many calories across the day. I don’t fit most of my clothes and yet each day I struggle to eat less so the situation continues.

Hitting a bmi of 35...pissed off as I'd lost a lot of weight & it's all back for lots of reasons.

Following.

I lost a lot of weight 5/6 years back and kept most of it off. In the last 3 months have gained at an astonishing rate and can't get my arse into gear. I will always 'be good tomorrow'.

I find it really hard to shift these days so it takes ages to see results and I get disheartened.

Lost about 5 stone 5 years ago and managed to keep it off.

My best mate started losing weight and I thought ‘Well if X can do it so can I’.

It was like a lightbulb went off in my head. Do I want this donut now or do I want to feel better and healthier. I’d always say maybe at the weekend ill have the thing I’m craving and by the time it came around I wasn’t that fussed.

Thanks for the replies and well done everyone who's lost, it's never easy.

I need that light bulb moment. I get it but its always after I've eaten the doughnut and it never sticks. The temptation of food is too great. I love eating, I get genuine pleasure from it but I feel like I'm on a slippery slope.

I put a fat photo up.
Then I took it down
I’m fucking useless, so depressed about drinking too much and eating crap. But I still do it. I thought having to see myself how others do every day would be the kick up the arse I need.
It was not. I just found some sand and buried my double chins straight back in it

Grief led to drinking too much, eating too much and sitting on the sofa too much.

I don't want to die before Im old as well so I'm trying to lose some lardage and get fitter.

Lost a stone so far and another to go.

I love food too OP so totally feel your pain. I had recently turned 40 and was in a health spa with my husband. It dawned on me that the slim older women looked better than the young fat women - in my opinion, obviously everyone has their own preferences - and I thought if I’m going to be in the ‘older’ bracket I’d rather be thin! Very vain but it kicked me into a much healthier lifestyle!

I had a number of realisations hit me all at once after the first lockdown:

• I was putting on more weight
• DH was losing weight and I was very jealous
• the crap I ate and drank made me feel crap
• diabetes could happen
• my clothes were uncomfortable
• a healthier, stable diet would help me be more regular (I had bowel cancer and surgery)

So I cut down on the crap, stopped snacking, upped the fibre, cut out alcohol and have lost 2 stone since September 2020. I feel great, run faster, have a more regular bowel, sleep better and can sit down in my clothes without popping buttons. Good luck.

I was at the top of my healthy BMI limit for the first time in 52 years - seeing the words ‘consider losing weight’ really hurt as I’d never, ever been overweight. DH and I joined Slimming World which made me completely rethink how I eat and having the weekly weigh in really helped keep me focused. I now do SW 4 or 5 days out of 7 with 12:12 fasting, and then relax at the weekends. So far the weight has stayed off (although I’m on holiday at the moment and it’s all gone completely to pot!). My clothes are looser on me and everything fits better / I hadn’t realised what a difference a stone makes.

I managed the snacking by not buying anything that was easy to eat (apart from fruit and veg etc). So there was nothing I could just grab and cram in. It all required assembly or cooking and it was so much easier to say no I actually am not going to eat that if it required getting a pan on the hob and cutting etc. It broke that instant gratification link.

If I really felt tempted I’d go for a bath or paint my nails or knit. Anything to occupy my hands.

Gained 20lbs over winter lockdown. Hated how I felt and then saw some photos of me with my son. I’m on SlimmingWorld now and just about to hit a stone gone. I feel so much better, have gone back to cycling and swimming and am very motivated.

For me it was the stark realisation when Covid first hit that I was obese and at risk of becoming very ill or dying. I just suddenly thought that it would be so stupid to die and leave the kids behind just because I couldn't stop over-eating. Sounds dramatic but it was a very strong feeling. I've been overweight for years, thinking I wanted to lose weight but behaving in a way that meant that I put weight on instead. Last year something just clicked for me. I will hit a big birthday this year and that was another factor, I just didn't want to start the next decade so unhealthy I've lost nearly 3 stone since then and feel brilliant. Another stone to go but I'm so glad I had the wake up call. It's interesting to hear everyone's different turning points. Good luck!

Think of it as doing something for your future self.

I gained three stone over the winter lockdown and I wasn’t slim to start with I have relationship issues with DP anyway, but he started making fun of my weight. Then I got on the scales and realised that I was 5 stone heavier than when I got pregnant in 2015 and 2 stone heavier than when I gave birth at 42 weeks

I can’t fit in my clothes, I can’t walk anywhere without sweating. I’m short of breath, my joints hurt and I’m only 33. No one, including my own mother, takes photos of me with DS5 and I know it’s because i look so disgusting.

I lost 5kg in 3 weeks recently, then have maintained that for about a month. I’m now back on it and am aiming for another 5kg pretty quickly. I’m hoping this next round will make a difference in the mirror.

It was the waist measurement thing for me. Im tall so can disguise weight quite well, but there was no denying that and the health implications.

Paul McKenna helped actually lose it. I prefer the book to the app, but I've lost a stone and it looks like it's going to stay that way.

@limesoda

It was the waist measurement thing for me. Im tall so can disguise weight quite well, but there was no denying that and the health implications.

Paul McKenna helped actually lose it. I prefer the book to the app, but I've lost a stone and it looks like it's going to stay that way.

Oooh really? I wonder if it’s something I could listen to while I cleaned. I need to check that out as I’ve never tried it.

For everyone successfully losing what method are you using? I’m low carb for energy primarily but I know I’m eating too much fat 🤬🥴

I was approaching 40 and didn't want to be "fat, frumpy and 40". 2 out of the 3 I can cope with! I was also having invasive dental work done and knew I wouldn't be able to keep stuffing my face. Started 16:8 in October and have now lost the bigger part of 2 stone.

Like a lot of people I was thrown into working from home last March and it was so easy to slip into toast and marmalade for breakfast, mid morning biscuits, you get the drift. My weight had already started to creep up but by the beginning of September I was really struggling. I tried, and failed, with the 5/2 diet but my friend suggested Slimming World. I took myself to our local class and was shocked to discover I was the heaviest I'd ever been. Couple that with everything saying that being overweight affected Covid survival rates really kicked me into touch. Two stone down now, and still another 7-10 pounds to go but I'm getting there. I feel much better in myself, am buying a smaller size in some things, and, more importantly, I'm not getting severe heartburn very day because I've been over eating crap.

I’ve cut refined carbs out before dinner and calorie count. I try and stick as close to 1000 a day as possible but don’t feel too bad if I go 12-1300. I’ve also tried to up my protein intake.

A typical day in the three week period that I lost weight last time would have been fruit for breakfast, an apple, a pear, some grapes maybe. Then raw veg like carrots and cucumber and maybe some gherkins with hummus for lunch. I’d have a babybel or two during the day and then dinner with the rest of the family. I’d relax over the weekend so I didn’t feel too bad about it and I was just in the right mind frame! Oh and I tried to not eat until after 10am.

This time round I’ve realised that I actually don’t get on well with dairy so am trying to cut it out. No more babybels for me, so boiled egg as snacks, fruit for breakfast and either the same as above for lunch or soup and some sort of meat like chicken or maybe ham. This week I’m on the run up to my period though and have found that I feel the need for a carb at lunch, so today I skipped breakfast and then had two slices of toast with homemade labneh and two softish boiled eggs, then I have been having either leek and potato or sweet potato soup and a slice of toast for dinner.

Problem is my relax over the weekend really fucks everything up.
How do I stop that. Every single weekend I have something on.

I got a marathon place! Bit extreme but I really fancied the challenge. Realised I’d make life significantly easier for myself without carrying round lots of surplus weight - I’m about a stone down since feb, nothing drastic here but I’ve just stopped mindless snacking, plan my meals a bit better, stopped my weekly McDonald’s drive through during a work lunch break and also obviously running a lot (which makes me hungrier but I make my own granola which i now have mid morning after a very early run before work, it’s not ‘healthy’ but it’s tasty and makes me eat something relatively controlled rather than just waiting until lunch and then stuffing everything down my gob!).
I wouldn’t recommend signing up to any marathons though well, not unless you actually want to run one!

Lots of things at once...clothes being too tight (again), sore thighs, felt dreadful...but the biggest wake up call was Covid. I knew I was overweight but not obese! That and the associated risk with Covid was the kick up the bum I needed.