to be pissed off that losing weight is easy

[mercifulTehlu]

when you have no choice? Not a stealth boast. I have, like many people, spent years and years of my life tinkering with my diet, trying to lose weight. Slogged away at different kinds of fitness regime. Lost weight sometimes but always put some back on. Fed up with my willpower being so crap.
Then 3 weeks ago I had a massive and excruciatingly painful attack of what turned out to be gallstones. 3 weeks on a strict low fat diet and the weight is falling off me. My clothes feel like tents. 3 weeks! That's all it has taken for me to be the slimmest I've been in years. And with virtually no exercise.
I don't know why it's making me so cross really. I know IABU really. It just seems ridiculous that we are all in thrall to the whims of the massively lucrative diet industry and spend our time beating ourselves up about it, when it's actually so simple. Why is it so hard to actually lose weight when you really want to? As soon as they whip my gallbladder out, I expect the weight will start going back on again .
I'm probably just stroppy because I'm thinking about all the Christmas food I'll have to watch everyone else eating.

[WeeHelena]

I had rapid weight loss for me anyway through no dieting or active exercising and have lost a stone and a half in space of a year but any loss was big and fast. . No real reason for it that I can tell.

You will probaby find your attitude to food will change even subconsciously.
I used to catch myself looking in cupboards and fridge and then ask myself do I really want to eat this

Even if you gain weight might not be to the way you were before your attack, don't fret if you weren't actually actively trying to lose weight then it's a bonus.

[OldBloodCallsToOldBlood]

I understand exactly what you mean. I had gestational diabetes and ended up on insulin, combined with strict carb counting. I don't know how much I lost but my weight stayed the same during the last three months of the pregnancy and I could feel I was thinner all over, besides the bump!

DS2 is nine weeks old and I got the results of my postnatal glucose tolerance test recently. I'm prediabetic. I went a bit sugar mad after giving birth and I've knocked it on the head and gone right back to healthy eating and it's been EASY. I've yoyoed up and down the same three stone over the past five years and it's never ever felt easy before, but it is now it's my health at risk.

[Trills]

I agree, simple is not the same as easy.

Nearly every diet plan that exists is there to distract you from the fact that you are eating less.

I am heavier than I should be at the moment (according to both BMI and my jeans) but in order to lose weight I'd have to have a less nice time, and I don't want to.

[HelenaJustina]

I had my first and only gallstones episode this time last year. I lost a stone in a month by going ultra low fat and for a couple of weeks I was probably scraping 1000 calories a day as the fear of the pain returning meant I ate instant porridge, rice cakes and an apple and soup. That was my three meals.

Batching making soups was a life saver, fennel and celeriac, celery soup, lentils... It can be difficult to get protein I found.

Since my diet has slowly returned to normal I have only put half of the weight back on. I have 4DC and am slimmer than I was before I had them... You can keep it off, it just takes a bit more willpower!

Good luck with Christmas, I was off booze as well as the attack was affecting my liver, I wasn't exactly the life and soul!

[mercifulTehlu]

Hmm. It's the fear isn't it? The only other time I lost weight easily was after dc2 when I had dangerously high bp (brought on by pregnancy, but I was quite a bit heavier then anyway, which must have contributed ). I was terrified that I was going to drop dead of a heart attack or a stroke and started eating really healthily and running. Lost about 2 stone but in the last year or so it had started to creep back on. Sad that we often need to be in mortal fear to motivate us! Once the fear abates, so does the motivation.

[HelenaJustina]

For me the fear didn't really go, I had a scan afterwards which showed my gallbladder was clear, though blood tests at the time showed something going on.

I agree that you just need the right motivation. I wasn't even nearly overweight before but I like the shape I am now so maintain it. For me, vanity is enough of a push!

[taptonaria27]

Op I've not read all the threads but I lost weight like you before my op, however, I have kept it all off and lost a bit more in the 6 years since my surgery.

[Wolpertinger]

I lost 2st on the gallstones diet

Mostly stayed off but never managed to lose more after they came out as frankly eating totally or near totally fat free is so fucking boring that only fear would make you do it.

FWIW I could eat normally pretty much straight away and just get some indigestion if I eat a really high dairy fat meal so gooseberry fool now comes with a Gaviscon chaser

[Ipsos]

I know what you mean. My digestive system's kind of packed up because of baby-related sleep deprivation, and I'm like a twig at the moment. Christmas lunch is going to be a strange affair.

Well done for having figured out the secret of slimming at least. Now you'll always know what to do if you want to get slimmer.

[Pericombobulations]

I've lost a stone and a half on the gallstones diet too, and am slightly terrified to say I'm due to have the op on Monday!

The pain for me was worse than childbirth, and thats coming from someone who begged for an epidural.

Goodluck to those waiting for their op's, may it be pain free for you all

[WeeHelena]

Just wanted to come back and say that since losing the weight and becoming single it motivated me to tone up as although I'd slimmed down it was weak muscle so I wanted to look/feel great for myself more than anything.


Only downside is my boobs are now beyond tiny and now just stretched marked sagginess. Can't have it all eh.

If you want it badly enough you can do it.

[RB68]

4.5 stone in 3 mths whilst also pregnant the pain was not of this earth - horrendous you have my empathy. 10 days after c section I had the gallbladder removed thank God - 2 female surgeons who literally kept me in hospital till there was space to operate although it meant for 5 days I didn't eat before tea time in case they could pop me on the end of surgery. DD was in SCBU so I used to go and see her and i was expressing too - not a time I remember with any pleasure!

[upaladderagain]

Damn. i had gallstones last year - pain worse than labour. But nothing I ate or didn't eat made any difference, so I'm really pissed off that both before and after having gallbladder removed I didn't lose so much as a pound.

[mercifulTehlu]

Jeez RB68 - that sounds horrendous! to all of you for your gallbladder-related horror stories. upaladderagain - commiserations on having had the pain without the weightloss! Although I'd swap my weightloss for a plate of lasagne right now (which just goes to show why I normally find it hard to lose weight ). Off to bed now, hungry as usual...

[Saukko]

Low-fat can be problematic - can lower your hormone levels and make you tired and irritable. Personally I go high-fat, high-protein, low carb but that's just because I like fat/protein foods more than carbs. And it stops the low-fat grumpiness. That said, if you're feeling good your diet is probably tailored to prevent those slumps.

And yeah :/ I hate to say it but I found losing weight really easy. Logged it all on My Fitness Pal, weighed portions properly, learned some valuable things about portion size, 20lbs off in 15 weeks.

[hmcReborn]

I have had periods of being slim and periods of being fat - losing and regaining 3-4 stones several times throughout my life. I am currently slim (but constantly worried that it wont last)

I do get what you mean OP - losing weight is easy - when you are in the right mindset and ready to go for it. Its like turning on a switch in your brain and suddenly you can do it. The trigger can be anything - a health scare as in your case, or something as silly as a candid photo where you suddenly see with total clarity how hefty you've become. However losing weight can also be incredibly hard - I have had years of wanting to lose weight but never quite managing it until suddenly that switch in my brain occurred. Trouble was - I wasn't in control of turning on that switch, it would just happen one day

[mercifulTehlu]

Saukko - I have to do low fat because that is the only way (until surgery) to avoid a gallstones attack. Low carb high fat is not an option. The gallbladder's job is to help digest fat, so the only way of avoiding severe pain is to not give it any fat to digest.

[blobbityblob]

Do you mind me asking, what can you eat on a gallstones diet? I think I have them, currently waiting for tests. Just wondering what I'm in for.

[Spilose]

I know why you mean. In theory, losing weight is easy. It's the mental battle that is exhausting.

[mercifulTehlu]

Anything as long as it's got virtually no fat in it! Some people seem to have other things which also set off an attack (apples for example) but mainly it's all about the fat.
Ideally, eat lean meat, non-oily fish and pulses, plus plenty of wholegrain and veg-based carbs and fruit.
Avoid at all costs butter, cheese (unless it's really low fat like Quark or low fat cottage cheese), fatty meat, pastry etc.
Oh and drinking lots of water helps, apparently.
Good luck - sorry to hear you're in the same boat!

[mercifulTehlu]

Yy Spilose - exactly!

[specialsubject]

who is in thrall to the diet industry? Only those that don't get the relationship between calories in and out.

usual MN oversenstivity disclaimer for the small minority who are ill or taking medication and for whom it isn't that simple.

[mercifulTehlu]

Only those that don't get the relationship between calories in and out

Maybe. If so, that still seems to be an awful lot of people.
In any case, the two things aren't mutually exclusive. I'm sure you can basically believe in 'calories in, calories out' but still be in thrall to the diet industry because you've failed so many times to actually stick to a calorie-controlled diet and are desperate to try something else, anything else, that might work.
Besides, most of the diets peddled by the diet industry Do work on the basis of calories in, calories out. They just choose different ways of reducing those calories.

Weight loss might be as simple on paper as 'calories in, calories out', but human beings are not simple, and there are all sorts of reasons why losing weight isn't easy (unless you have a huge and terrifying incentive).

[blobbityblob]

Thank you merciful I might start trying now.

[walkinginmercury]

Oh I'm so glad to read this! I'm only just recovering from a dreadful attack that seemed to come on mild and last 2 days.

It's really no surprise as I've basically spent the last 8 years bouncing between binging on the most fatty foods and starving on total food replacement diets.