I’ve got 2 months to lose as much weight as possible… give me your best tips!

[lifeistooshort2024]

As the title says, I am going on a beach holiday to a really lovely resort in 2 months.

I am obese, a size 18/20, and should have done something about my weight months ago. But I haven’t and I have 2 months to try as hard as possible to get in shape.

What will help me the most?

TIA!

Hello everyone. I didn’t expect so many replies. I haven’t read them all through yet as someone suggested the fast 800 diet which I am now researching.

How does this work? Are the recipes easy / simple to follow? I live by myself so I don’t want to be spending lots of money on obscure ingredients to make one meal!

The recipes are super simple as long as you weight everything and track that you're only having 800 calories per day.

You'll quickly see the numbers go down, because you'll be eating less carbs so you will lose a few lb's of water weight! This won't actually be fat loss or healthy...but don't worry cos that number will go down!

Don't worry about exercising, you'll be so tired and grumpy you won't want to!

Then once the diet is done you'll be so hungry you'll probably binge on highly processed food because your brain will be screaming out for energy, remember all that water weight you lost? You'll put that back on because you're back eating carbs, you'll then weigh yourself, feel guilty and then will look at the next diet to try!

Or, you could try a sustainable method of eating and exercising focusing on moving your body in a weigh that feels good, alongside eating foods that make you feel good, and enjoy your amazing holiday.

If you’re considering the fast 800, I’d consider kick starting with a 5 day Prolon diet. Everything is provided so you are way more likely to stay on track. Then continue after the 5 days with whatever you decide.

I found with the prolon it reduced my sweet tooth massively and I was able to stay on reduced calories for a few weeks after without really feeling I was missing out. Easter was a challenge but I ate way less chocolate than I would have done! The 5 days was really hard but I felt so good at the end! I did my first prolon on 13 March, I’ve managed to lose half a stone and still losing every week. I only wanted to lose a stone overall, so you may lose more than I did.

Thanks for typing this out to save me a job. It's frustrating that 9 out of 10 of these posts are from women who are just wanting to get the number on the scale down at any cost and aren't interested in sustainable lifestyle change. I have lost 1/3 of my body weight and nearly two years later I've kept it off, at no time did I go anywhere near 800 calories a day. I'm happy to share more details as to how I did this but most people just aren't interested.

You do realise you've said that you think 'Slimming World is awful' then go on to describe pretty much the Slimming World plan?

Work out how to stop snacking/eating too much crap

Don't eat mindlessly

Eat lots of veg and salad as part of your meal so you don't feel deprived by small meals.

All a big part of SW.

People criticise SW for 4 things as far as I can see:

1. because they advised people to eat Muller Lights in the past
2. because they sell own brand cereal bars
3. because certain foods are treated as "syns" and therefore to be eaten in moderation
4. monetising people's desire to lose weight.

It actually teaches people who either don't understand nutrition at all or who fallen into bad habits how to eat a healthy diet and restrict calories without having to track every last thing. SW was never about eating limitless pasta (one of things I've heard said). Yes, convenience and upf are sometimes recommended, but this is because they recognise not everyone can cook and/or can afford fresh food all the time.

If it were fundamentally bad for you, the NHS wouldn't recommend it and fund it for some people.

Food volume is key in a calorie deficit, so eating actual food that will fill you up instead of protein powder shakes for example. Eating larger meals earlier in the day will fill you up so you are less to be hungry and go off plan later.

It's a business. It's not designed to make you lose weight and keep it off, it's designed to keep you coming back, the biggest problem however is that if you already have a difficult relationship with food, such as binge eating disorder, it can compound those issues.

If it worked the company would be in administration. The NHS recommends it because it's cheap and a band aid solution, and while you can argue that the principles are well meaning - yes eating whole food high in nutritional value is great - when you are then flogging ready meals and 'hi-fi' bars all credibility goes out the window.

This I found very insightful listening:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001y27g

My neighbour did SW, she lost 2.5 stone, her SIL and DIL also did it, they lost between 2 and 3.5 stone. Even her DS who wasn’t doing it ended up losing a stone because his wife was.
They’ve all kept the weight off for well over 18 months now.

Thank you. I have yoyo-ed weight my entire life and suffered from bulimia and binge eating disorder.

It's taken me many years, many diets, and many weight cycles to finally reach a point where I am a healthy weight for body (and health is relative, also I expect my weight to increase as I age, and I'm ok with that), I am also the fittest I've ever been.

I still have bits that jiggle, cellulite etc, but I'm at peace with my body and you are 100% right it's sustainability that's the key! I tell people the secret is simple...you need to be a little bit boring and a little bit consistent... and don't trust ANYTHING anyone is selling you!

Anyway I'm probs derailing the thread I'm gonna get back into my box!

Eat one meal a day but make that meal a bar of Ex-Lax 🙄

I’m interested and would love tips as the 2 years maintenance is brilliant.

@Ladyofthepond once you reach your target it's free for maintenance.

I find that if I focus on filling up on healthy stuff then I don't binge so much on bad stuff. Like have a load of fruit before lunch and it stops me eating a huge lunch. Good luck. It's daunting at first but hopefully you can find your motivation once the pounds start dropping off.

It’s been around for so many years that most members must be at target and enjoying free membership then, right?

Could not disagree more. I lost two stones in two months by calorie counting, exercising (10k steps /strength training at home), no alcohol or junk. Tons of food but high protein and vegetables. Completely do-able and now have toned definition.

Go for it OP, Two months of hard work will pay off and you'll feel amazing.

Lots of people reach target and stop going and return to their old habits. It happens with virtually every diet. There are lots of factors at play.

@GoldenGumballs - in that case then I'll share what worked for me. So from the start I acknowledged three things - my bad diet was not going to be fixed by a "big bang" approach, exercise would make me feel good and make me stronger but would not compensate for the bad diet, and food is fuel for my body and I wasn't going to get anywhere by depriving my body of the amount needed to perform basic functions.

I took gradual steps to include more fruit and vegetables into my diet, working on one food at a time until my palate accepted it. A key part for me was that no food was forbidden. Instead I educated myself on calorie contents and I modified portion sizes and frequency of consumption accordingly. This does require willpower but I honestly don't think I'd have been able to do this if I'd completely banned every single treat food so for me it's worth putting in the effort to make those adjustments if you can. I also came to accept that this is my way of life now - if I go back to my old way of eating then the weight will just come straight back on. So I did not make any changes I was not prepared to keep up indefinitely.

My overall approach to calories was to be precise on the calorie dense foods but to be loosely aware for the rest. I'd weigh something out once to get an idea of what one portion looked like and then thereafter I'd just go by memory. I don't think that getting my food scales out 50 times a day would have done anything for me mentally. I do track in MyFitnessPal just to ensure I'm getting enough protein to prevent muscle mass reduction but I'm not going to the gram or anything.

My sleep also needed to be addressed as I'd never been a very good sleeper and that doesn't help with adopting a healthier lifestyle. I cut out caffeine and added sugar (so fruit is still okay for example) after lunchtime and saw a massive improvement almost overnight. I made a plan to stick to a regular bedtime schedule which I think has helped.

In terms of exercise I found a gym with really supportive and knowledgeable coaches. After leaving the class I was full of endorphins and it made it so much easier to make those good diet choices. I realised that the exercise was improving my mental health and so the key thing there was not to overdo it, as was the temptation. I also tried to look at my schedule to find more opportunities for walking over using the car, though this is not something that's possible for everyone.

Doing this I lost a consistent 1-2 pounds per week and I've kept it off. The hardest part was getting started and over that first week, then it got a lot easier. I'm aware that this will not work for everyone as we all approach weight loss from a different starting place but this worked for me and I wouldn't change a thing if I had to do it again.

Breakfast
Iced water and lime, coffee
Porridge (plain, pre-measured sachet, or 30g fast cook oats), 150-200ml of semi skimmed or almond milk, a banana and a tsp peanut butter. I sweeten mine with the sugar free coffee drops (salted caramel)

Lunch
Homemade vegetable broth, with some barley in. Basically any veggie you can find, a measured amount of barley or soup mix, chicken broth and boil it up. Can add ham shank if you wish. Big bowl with a sugar free jelly for pudding

Or scrambled eggs / omelette with protein bagel thin and lots of veggies

Dinner
Fish / chicken / pork with sweet potato wedges done in the air fryer, half a plate of veg (use seasoning to actually make it lovely) and again lots of water
Ice pop to finish (made with dilute squash and 7up free in a mould, or those Mr Freeze sugar free pops)

Or Same again but stir fried with veggies, sauce and half the noodles

Basically anything you like, cooked with no extra oil (or actually measure your oil out and use good oil, recommended serving size) but limit carb portion

Before bed
An options hot chocolate or decaf tea and a snack

Snack ideas
Protein yoghurt, rocky bar or mini maleasers(as a treat to stop me falling off the wagon), frozen grapes or banana, options hot chocolate, homemade flapjack or granola ball

Could it be less processed? Yes but I work on the 80/20 principle, this is what I have found to be sustainable for me. You can find what is sustainable for you.

Ditch the scales, use measurements / progress photos
Keep moving, any way you can.
I drink quite abit of tea / coffee, and sugar free soft drinks. Which I should probably ditch but I enjoy. The key is I enjoy this way of eating

Make sure you calculate your TDEE and work to be under that and you won't go far wrong, personally I have many issues with slimming world as there's no such thing as a bad food, just moderation. Depravation is what makes you fail in my opinion