Losing weight without injections - what really worked for you?

[30GrandLessStress]

I’ve gained about 4 stone since Covid for a variety of reasons (mainly eating too much shite) and I’m desperate to shift it.

The last 2 years has been a merry go round of different diets and subsequent failures. The only one that has really worked in any sense is Keto, but I found it so restrictive and incompatible with family meals, which is a significant factor as Dh and I are hugely time strapped.

I’ve started exercising consistently 5-6 days a week, and through that I’ve been very slowly losing (1-2lb a month) but it’s not enough.

As it stands currently, I eat very little through the day - first food is lunch at 2pm which is normally a salad with chicken, eggs or tuna. Sometimes I even skip this depending on how busy I am.

We eat dinner at 7pm, usually something home cooked - spag bol, curry and rice, chicken and veg, soup etc.

I do have a downfall of snacking in bed while I watch tv, normally a chocolate bar or pack of crisps.

Have tried calorie counting, slimming world and all other manners of diet but nothing sticks. Time is my main challenge, if I had a very defined set menu to follow I think I would find it so much easier!

Calorie counting worked for me, but I also did a lot of thinking about why I was over eating in the first place.

In your case, are chocolate and snacks actually a treat if you are having them every night? IMO a treat is something out of the ordinary not a daily occurrence. What do you do every day that is so special that you feel you deserve this treat?

Maybe call it ‘food that I really like but don’t need’ rather than a treat and then decide which you want more - to lose weight or eat food you don’t need.

Eating less. Cutting out some junk but still eating chocolate, crisps regularly and cake occasionally. My diet is carb heavy. Controversial on mumsnet but it worked well for me to lose 2 stone and I kept it off. BMI went from 26 to 21.

How about a 100 ish calorie treat!

I’ve only started in early summer but so far I’ve lost 8lbs. I had a bit of a health worry and had a fab chat with my Dr who talked to me about food. My main tips are eat light and eat early in the evening, no dessert but a little square of chocolate if the craving needs satisfying (every night for me 😂). I’ve cut out all alcohol. I still have things I want like a hot chocolate daily and juice with my cereal but added in a 40 exercise each week. I generally get more than 10k steps a day.

I would often have garlic bread with pasta and large portions. Now I’m looking at calories on menus just so I’m a little better informed. I sometimes will eat 75% of the restaurant meal if it’s calorific.

It’s super slow loss, less than a lb a week overall but it’s going. It’s not overtaking my life and I enjoy food, just changing some habits. Really proud of myself as so many of the school mums are either doing weight loss jabs or Herbalife through the ‘nutrition’ clubs, some are looking skeletal now it’s worrying.

How tall are you? Ive lost 20kgs this year. In part due to WLIs but I still had to put the effort in and select healthy food and not too calorific.

but what has struck me when looking at when I’ve lost weight and when I haven’t is how many calories my body needs. It is a lot less than I realised. The smaller / shorter you are the fewer calories you need to maintain your vital organs, brain and muscles.

the difference in calorie requirements between a 6foot man and a 5 foot woman is a lot!!!!

it’s been eye opening. No wonder I have put on weight over the years!

I expect everyone knows this (& I did but I was not aware of the details) but to lose weight you need to create a calorie deficit and that means eating less than your body needs to function. I don’t over exercise but I was told to ignore exercise when counting calories as the important numbers are what your body needs to run itself and how many you are consuming. Therefor any exercise is a bonus and not what you should rely on to lose weight.

given my height I have to eat less than 1400 calories a day to consistently LOSE weight.

what I have found helpful is to avoid snacking which I do by only eating between certain times (8am - 7pm) and by not insisting I have 3 meals a day. Ie I eat when I’m hungry and not at any other time.

I do try to have 2 meals a day tho. As this reduces temptation to snack.
I also pre make food for ease of access

Btw a consistent 1-2lbs loss per month is not bad at all and over a 12month period many people would be happy with that .
Keep that up and you will lose the weight. And the loss will be sustainable. So less likely to go straight back on.

Have you tried one of these TDEE calculators?
like I said - I found this number fascinating, especially comparing mine to my husband or my tall friend!!!

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/fitness/a62799874/tdee/

Whenever I need to lose weight (admittedly it’s more like 2-3lbs than a few stone), the only thing that remotely works is cutting carbs.

Fill up on protein and fats. Eat earlier in the day. Do ‘accidental’ intermittent fasting by delaying breakfast and having dinner slightly earlier.

I lost 9.5 stone on a well known vlcd

came off. Weight gain was insane

Realised my consultant had really disordered relationship with food - I can give loads of examples but one is - gosh one of my clients went out for an Indian and she had a poppodum and the chutneys and then a chicken tikka main - I don’t understand why she didn’t forgo the poppidum and just have a chicken tikka starter. She’ll never be thin eating all that food 😳. It was the clients birthday, she had a single poppodum - honestly how many chutneys can she have eaten and she only had chicken - no rice, no naan, no chippati, no veg side dish! For her birthday meal

I had a carrot as I was hungry - just chowed down on a raw carrot. She had a fit about the carbs in a carrot and told me eating like that was why I was fat

im now simply eating in a calorie deficit, prioritising protein and fibre. I’m focussing on ensuring I have a decent size portion and yes I’m eating carrot 😂

Calorie counting. Weighing everything and tracking it in a good app. I used to use myfitnesspal but have recently switched to Nutracheck which is so much better.

I've not cut out any food and I eat a bit of chocolate most days, as long as I have the calories to spare. Feeling deprived or overly restricted is the fastest way to fall off the wagon. I do try to get enough protein and fibre (eg: hardboiled eggs, full fat greek yog, berries, flaxseed etc). I also do intermittent fasting in that I don't eat breakfast (and sometimes not lunch either if I'm really busy) but I do drink 2-3 litres of water a day as well as black coffee and matcha with a splash of milk.

No booze unless we're out for dinner; used to open a bottle of wine to drink at home several nights a week, but it's just empty calories and I hated feeling groggy every morning.

I've lost 30lbs and dropped two dress sizes. it's actually been pretty easy. I also don't beat myself up if I go off-piste for a day - just get back on track the day after.

Oh, and weigh every day! It really helps with understanding my body's natural fluctuations. I no longer get discouraged and give up if I wake up '2lbs heavier' because I know it's just water retention or whatever rather than fat, and it'll probably disappear the next day.

Fast800 done properly with all the books and joining the Facebook groups.

Hi, could you recommend an app please? I used to use My Fitness Pal but would prefer something else.

Inlost 2 stone very quickly once I realised I was intolerant to lots of foods and stopped eating them. I then started intermittent fasting and couch to 5km and lost 1.5 stone. Unfortunately due to illness and broken bones I am back at only a two stone loss, not 3.5. I lost 8lbs very quickly once I moved but that's gone back on. I've struggled kernels eating for two years but now have two meals a day and some days I have breakfast.

I walk 2-3 hours some days, always at least 1.5 bur chocolate every day and a hot chocolate to keep warm would be my non negotiables if I was allowed any.

id like to lose 1.5- 2 stones.

I'm another one that Slimming world works for. Tried loads of things, but I'm competitive enough with myself (and like certificates and stickers) that being weighed by someone else once a week was what did it. The food is healthy and you're never hungry, which helps, but honestly it's the weight in once a week that has really done it for me, I think!

I do injections but I also revamped my whole diet.

Carbs are nearly out, I moved from toast and pastries in the morning to full fat greek yoghurt and fruit.

Lunch is often the only carb meal as I find it difficult to eat something proper at work or home (I often have calls between 12 and 2), no time to cook or eat hot food.

Dinner is basically 1/2 the portion the rest of the family eats, just low carb and heavier on the protein.

Fat is not the enemy, neither is any food but I find I feel a difference if I have a day of crap.
Also, plenty of water, I drink around 3l a day.
My blood sugar level has improved, no more spikes. I did WeightWatchers aeons ago and remember the hunger feeling and spikes as they encourage more a low fat, low calorie diet which doesn't do anything for me.

I think one major point is that you need to eat regularly, I am on three meals a day and can count the amount of snacks I had in 2.5 months on two hands because I feel full after a meal. Yes, the injections take the food noise away but there is plenty of snacks in the house and I check my calorie deficit first before eating anything.

I stopped drinking alcohol from 1-2 bottles of wine a week to 1-2 glasses per week.

The only thing that works and worked for me is a huge reduction in calories, I was trying to loose weight for 2 years I was obsessed, counting tracking and still not loosing, blaming HRT blaming everything.

I had an emergency gallbladder blockage, 3 weeks in hospital surgey and 4 weeks recovery and on some days only eating a few pieces of toast etc, I lost over 8kg in a month.

its not a suggested diet plan, but now I’m recovered it’s dawned on me I don’t need as many calories as I was calculating. So to stay this lower weight I need to be 800ish I was running my life at 1500 and putting on weight.

it’s a ridiculous tiny amount but as a short arse and 50 it appears that’s all my body burns!

I’ve done calorie counting snd use Nutracheck. I’ve lost 2.5 stone this year, another 1.5 to go but it works ( most of the time - am currently in a plateau)

I put my details and goals into ChatGPT and it made me a meal plan. You can even ask you to simplify it into a shopping list too.

Working with a fat loss coach, no complicated systems or restrictions, just some simple tools that help me keep things on track and tackle the reasons why I overate - working on mindset first I guess.

I lost just over 2 stone using the Nutracheck app and reversed a fatty liver. £34.99 for a 12 month subscription (less than 10p a day), portion control and no hitting the gym, running, cycling or swimming. 17 months later I'm still the same weight and learned my lesson not to be so greedy.

Downside to losing weight, I've had to shell out for clothes that fit and wished I hadn't got rid of the clothes at the time that didn't.

Forgot, with Nutracheck I didn't cut out "naughty" food like pizza and ice cream for example I just ate a small portion within my daily 1400 calorie limit.

Calories counting- I was really surprised when I got a fit bit how few calories I needed in a day, it claims 1300! So I know I need to be under that to lose and 1300 to maintain. It’s very easy to go over! If I do go over I’ll exercise (run or gym)… but it’s hard to exercise your way out of eating too many calories.

I'll probably get lynched here as everyone seems to hate Richie but I recommend the Team RH approach and their app is really good. Better then MFP by a mile becaues the foods are actually verified when users add them so there aren't ten different versions of the same thing.

Deleted, as realised too late this is an old thread.