Does trying to lose weight and be healthy ever just make you utterly miserable?

[Nursenance]

I am so depressed at being overweight and this year have said to myself stop moaning and do something!
I got a PT and did 4mths with him - lost a stone in 4mths.

I'm now with another PT and still got 3 stone to lose.

I'm so sick of doing 10k steps everyday, counting calories, tracking everything and the progress is sooooo slow.
It feels so much effort and all consuming and makes me miserable.

I think if weight was coming off I would be better but its just so bloody exhausting.

Just wondered if anyone else feels like this?

(I'm not looking for people to start telling me to do intermittent fasting/5:2 etc etc)

Sadly it's a lot easier to overeat enough to put on 1 lb than it is to eat less than you burn/exercise enough to lose 1 lb

Being consistent with your health is bloody hard work, and yes it does get boring. It just does. That's perfectly normal. Huge well done for what you have achieved so far. I'm sure you're aware of this but weight loss is almost completely about nutrition rather than exercise

Feel free to have a good moan, but do also take some time to tune in to how you feel, rather than getting massively hung up on the numbers (calories, kilos, pounds etc). You've lost a lot of weight so far, and that has to be having a positive impact on your health

Yes. Me too.
suppose I’m not madly overweight but could really do with losing a stone, or two even better. It’s really hard, I.one some-then put it back on again, been,like this for a couple of years. Age doesn’t help, harder to lose when you’re older. Also low thyroid, been on pills forever. Then I’ve got arthritis really badly so exercise is pretty much not an option. Last year I lost nearly a stone, now it’s virtually all back, fed up.

Thanks. Yep I know its all about nutrition but PTs appear obsessed with bloody steps!
Apparently a bike ride or a swim don't count. It's all got to steps.

I spend half my life marching around living room.
I work from home and can't fit in 1.5hr walk everyday outside as well as work, gym, kids, meals.

I lost over a stone with a PT last year, I was super motivated and kept it up.
over Christmas and into this year the enthusiasm gradually dwindled but I kept paying it to force myself into it…definitely not lost much at all all year.
gave up after holiday in June, restarted with a new one who is located much nearer my house in October. Lasted a month and haven’t renewed for this month 🤣life is too short to pay £150 a month when I’m not giving it my all...
Keep it up OP if you have more dedication than I’ve got.. but also don’t get too hung up on it and enjoy your life! It’s much harder in winter!

Yes, I gave up with the PT cos his answer to my lack of weightloss was "do more steps". I wasn't losing even on the weeks I was doing 10 mile hikes at the weekend and, as a single parent working full time, I just couldn't do more (without giving up other fitness activities, which I didn't want to do).

Have lost weight with slimming world but struggling to stay motivated.

'Apparently a bike ride or a swim don't count'

Well I'm no PT but I did get massively into fitness about 10 years ago and have kept it up and learned a thing or two along the way. All exercise 'counts', as in, if you're moving at a decent pace, you're getting your heart rate up and building some muscle. You're also doing your mental health a lot of good. Marching around your living room sounds soul destroying 🤦🏻‍♂️

Losing a stone is brilliant and losing it by being consistent and building good habits into your lifestyle is how you do it. Not by trying to change everything at once.
Getting the steps in is good but doing everything imperfectly and keeping at it is key I think.
It does take a long time but perhaps try to shift your focus from the scale to how you feel. You will be getting fitter and able to do things easier than you did previously.

I started a diet today for going on holiday next month. Literally day 1 and I’m already breaking my ‘no snacks’ rule 🤦🏼‍♀️ my body was telling me I was going to pass out so letting myself have cereal before bed 🙄

Yes. I lost weight years ago and it’s a constant struggle to maintain it. I feel miserable when I deprive myself, and miserable if I give in and overeat.

It is totally exhausting and disheartening. However, channel Kate Moss 'No food tastes as good as skinny feels'.

YANBU, i’m literally broken by trying to exercise and eat well and still it’s taken me
3 fecking weeks to loose a lb!! Im exhausted from chopping vegetables and getting up at 6am to exercise before work 😴I blame my hormones, it was never this hard in mh
30’s!

I feel like it but for slightly different reasons. I also have low thyroid but for me that means I never have an appetite and if I do actually eat I make sure it's very low carb, lean chicken or fish, salad and veg. I probably eat one meal a day sometimes two.

I have many health problems including advanced cancer and can't have the hip replacement I need as my hip joint now has cancer in and around it. I also have cancer and arthritis and cancer in many joints so exercising is minimal.

The result of the above is that I'm 3 stone overweight but I just can't lose it. It just won't shift, I feel like a slug and so fed up and tired of it all. I don't know what to do really but I relate to your post and felt like a moan!

I hope you can manage to stick with and get to where you want to be.

This sounds like the PT is taking very much the wrong approach as it doesn't have to feel like that - and if you want to be successful, you need to find a way of making it less miserable. On steps, it does help to get lots of non-exercise activity and steps are a handy measure of that, but taking steps round your living room sounds utterly soul destroying. Could you put some music on and dance instead? Or do an online class or activity-based game? Even housework would be preferable to just walking, it may not be fun but at least gives a sense of achievement.

To stay motivated you need to find ways of getting movement into your day that is either purposeful (like walking to the shops), sociable or fun. Otherwise the natural resistance to doing exercise (movement for no purpose) is just too powerful to resist in the medium term.

Calorie counting drives me up the wall and I've only ever managed it briefly. Could you find a way of managing your nutrition that's less intensive, so you don't need to count calories (which aren't a great measure of how healthy your diet is because calorie intake from food varies so much), maybe just following some simple principles like eating more veg, having complex, fibrous carbs rather than refined ones and reducing highly processed food.

I was lucky to find, after years swearing I hated it, that if I took it easy I really enjoyed running. Over the last few years it has brought so much pleasure to my life, including friends through running club, and I've now branched out into triathlons and strength training. I want to eat healthily to fuel my training and I want to get out and exercise because it takes me to beautiful places and I love the feeling of getting stronger and faster. There will be something out there for you that you can also enjoy. I was listening to a podcast the other day about two women who took up parkour in their 40s and 50s which was very inspiring!

I disagree with Kate Moss about being skinny, but "nothing tastes as good as strong and healthy feels" is a principle I can get behind!

I am doing the set meals from Results Plan, they are small but there are 2 hot meals a day, breakfast and a sweet snack. I am 2 stone the weight I want to be, (5ft 4, started at 11st13). I lost 11lb in the first 4 weeks with no exercise. Its easy as I don't snack as I know I have the meals planned out so haven't bought anything else.

I am on week 5 so will see how the next 4 weeks go.

It says you can lose 2stone on the 8 week plan, however due to me doing no exercise it actually says the plan I should do is 750-1000 cals but that sounded so low so I'm doing the 1000-1250 plan instead. Presumably I would have managed a stone in 4 weeks on the lower one.

I felt miserable before but feel better as feel more in control now.

The battle of the bulge is won in the kitchen. Exercise is great, but you need to moderate what you eat too. I had a friend train for the marathon who couldn't understand why he didn't lose any weight - because he didn't stop eating his usual amount and probably subconsciously thought he needed to eat more.
Plus, it's not a short fix - it's said over and over but it's true. You have to have a lifestyle change otherwise it will come back on.