To ask you all a question about weight?

[Onceinabuemoon]

If you are slim and in good shape. What's your diet like? Do you eat a healthy diet, do you exercise regularly and so on? What I mean is do you work at keeping in shape, even if it's not difficult for you personally? Or are you slim but live on coffee and fags?!

If you are overweight or know you eat a bad diet and don't exercise, do you feel a bit rubbish? Or are you bigger but feel healthy and great?

The reason I'm asking is although I've never been overweight, I've always been bigger than I'd like upper end of a healthy weight. I eat what I want and don't really exercise and I don't really feel particularly healthy. Tired a lot, bad pms, feel unfit.

I can lose weight ok if I try and have often lost a stone but find it a real drag, hate limiting calories, hate cutting out food groups. Always put it back on. I figured I'm going to try a different way. Instead of disliking my body and trying to change it, I'm going to try and forget altogether but try eating better and exercising to feel healthier in the hope things will fall into place.

I'm just interested to hear how others manage their diet/weight really.

[JaneEyre70]

I went through a phase of feeling very run down and just not right. Went to GP after DH pestering me, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and sky high blood pressure and am now on medication for both (there is a family history of both). To my utter horror, I was 19 stone and had no idea..... I'm now around 16 stone, and am slowly adjusting to the lifestyle change. Thankfully i have a very active cocker spaniel, and my fitbit (great investment) records around 13000 steps most days but I find anything over 1200 calories and I just don't lose weight. It's very disheartening tbh but that's the way it is. I'm 46 and have ruined my system from years of fad diets :(. Buying size 20 clothes is alot nicer than buying size 24 though and I genuinely feel a million times better for it.

[IDismyname]

I think our ages have a massive bearing on our ability to lose weight - and gain it too...

I'm early 50's and could have written a number of posts ^^ when I was younger. Being this age (and older) makes the whole weight loss thing sooooo much harder.

[Pigface1]

I'm slim and fit but used to be slightly overweight and very unfit. I grew up in a household with people with an unhealthy relationship with food and it took a long time to unlearn that relationship. But the most effective changes I've made are:

• limit alcohol. This would be my number one. If I don't drink, I can eat more or less whatever I want. As it is I tend to have a half bottle of red wine on Friday and Saturday nights but no more.
  
• strictly, strictly limit sugar. This one took me a long time as you have to 're-tune' your tastes. I found a book called 'I quit sugar' by Sarah Wilson really helpful. I now have no more than two squares of dark chocolate on an average day - and I don't miss it at all. I never touch fizzy drinks or sugary cereals.
  
• walk everywhere you possibly can. To work, to the supermarket (I take a backpack and bags and carry my shopping all the way home), to the shops at lunchtime, etc. We go on walks every weekend.
  
• have a healthy breakfast. I have a huge bowl of porridge every morning and I honestly couldn't do without it now. It stops me from snacking on crap and helps prevent digestive issues.
  
• sit down and enjoy your food. Cook from scratch as much as possible. Have steamed veg with every meal.

[Bottleblonde99]

I wish I knew what it is I am doing wrong. I am the wrong side of 50 which doesn't help, but I now weigh 12st which is 3st more than my normal weight even though I eat healthily and between 1000 and 1200 calories per day.
I walk a lot every day and occasionally visit the gym. I have cut carbs right down and eat more protein and veggies. I'm baffled really.

[summersun80]

I am slim and eat a lot of junk processed food, alcohol, energy drinks. I do exercise in day to day life from moving around.

[CremeFresh]

I'm slim 5ft 8 and 91/2 stone . I don't exercise and my diet is rubbish. I'm probably one big tube of cholesterol .

[BorisTrumpsHair]

It would be a shame to embrace any form of "Dieting" now - it's proven to make you fatter and it doesn't work longterm.

check out the Rebel Fit group on FB - he speaks all the sense! and here: rebelfit.co.uk/

They really helped me to get rid of damaging "diet" mentality and embrace nutrition and exercise, which s really what it is all about. (I don't work for them - I'm just a very happy client)

[CremeFresh]

I do think that is harder to lose weight as you get older . Although I weigh almost the same as when I was younger , my shape has changed and I'm thicker round my waist.

[summersun80]

Unfortunately a lot of it is genes in my opinion

[WomblingThree]

Weight gain can't be attributed to hypothyroidism quite as much as people think. Extensive studies have proved that only about 10lbs on average is directly due to the thyroid issues. Once thyroxine is working as it should, the weight gain should taper off.

I know only a very small portion of my gain was because of my thyroid. Most of it was from medication, inactivity and eating too much.

[DownstairsMixUp]

Bmi 23, never really been fat. I have good and bad days. I know when I've put on a few lbs and cut back, exercise is a massive part of my life. I walk most places. When I look at other people's portions mine are quite small, always eat breakfast, not a bit sweet fan.

[thenewaveragebear1983]

I've spent my entire adult life either pregnant or dieting since the age of 20 (14 years). If I don't actively control my weight then I will gradually creep up to a size 14 ish and I imagine it would go higher but I've never let it.

I feel better when I follow a low carb/ high fat diet but I love carbs and crave them intensely due to being insulin resistant and having pcos. I have never lost the carb craving even when I low carbed successfully so the Weight I lose always returns.

I hate to say it and I hate how it makes me feel, but I am obsessed with diets and calories, it makes me both unhappy and happy. I have never been happy with my weight and I cannot understand how people who eat far worse than me, drink loads, etc etc can be not just a bit slimmer but several dress sizes smaller, effortlessly. I'm not huge but I am a stone or so overweight and I always have been. I am so tired of being the biggest one at every family do, social night out or work place.

[WomblingThree]

What a load of crap BorisTrumpsHair. Restricting your food intake (which is what a "diet" is) and moving around more does not make you fat.

Eating more than you burn makes you fat. It really is that simple.

[robinsongyal]

I have always been slim apart from recently due to having a baby. In total I gained 4.7 stone &I only have 10 pounds left to go! 2 months post partum. I'm very very fit and work/study within the health and fitness industry so I suppose alot of the healthy lifestyle habits I've maintained have been engrained into me over the years. I credit alot of my weight management success to that!
I eat around 1500 a day but due to breastfeeding it has increased, and I do a mixture of HIIT training and low weight heigh repetition exercises (1 stretch session also) 5-6 days a week. A tip that keeps me on track would be to allow myself one cheat meal a week, usually i'll choose a glass of wine. Also not to get into a habit of weighing myself, instead go by measurements with tape especially if I've been working out intensely.

[thismeansnothing]

I'm overweight an out of proportion size 16 and on the whole happy with how I am.
I'm fit and active, walk a lot, run 3-4 times a week for an hour or more, cycle, swim and weight train and whatever else takes my fancy. I enjoy exercise.
I eat healthy about 80% of the time. My downfall is sweets and cake. I don't smoke, I very rarely drink.

[monkeyfacegrace]

I'm an alcoholic, 5ft 7, and now weigh 12.5 stone approx. I've gained 2.5 stone over a year from drinking a bottle of wine every day, plus I can easily eat a 6 pack of crisps plus a 4 pack of chocolate bars in the evening.

I'd rather die than carry on like this, but I'd rather drink than anything else so I'd count myself as a lost cause now.

As it happens, I have ADHD too and it makes me obsessive over research. Low carb is absolutely the way forwards. It's not a fad diet, it's just what it is. Carbs and sugar have made the nation fat. No amount of slimming world/weight watchers/other diet plans will convince me otherwise.

[bigsighall]

I'm slim and fairly fit. I do approx 1 hour of moderate exercise a day (think walking dogs etc). I always take the stairs and generally am just up and about a lot (even tho my job is a desk job 9-530 which an hours commute each day)
I eat (mostly white carbs veg salad cheese and a bit of meat) what I want but don't really like fried food and don't have a sweet tooth so rarely have chocolate etc. I am addicted to crisps
However I was brought up slim and I believe this helps. I'm also tall so that helps too. All my family are now overweight but they eat masses of crap all the time and don't really move. I don't think they needed to get like that as we were all so slim into our 20's and they now struggle.

[Nettletheelf]

Remorseless exercise is what works for me. I'm the tall Amazonian type so I tone up quickly, and the more I exercise, the less crap I want to (or, more accurately, have time to) eat.

I never weigh myself but I'm 5'8" and a size 12, which I'm happy with.

All I need to do to pile on the pounds is stop exercising, drink more and eat more party food like chocolate and cake. Christmas and Easter, in other words. My stomach will wobble on my first few runs after those very enjoyable occasions, but it soon goes back to normal.

I think that it's easier to control what you eat in an office, by the way. If you work from home it's a massive struggle not to graze.

[BorisTrumpsHair]

wow you sound so defensive WomblingThree!

It's scientifically proven that dieting makes you fat - have a google.
There's plenty of evidence out there. But it understand it is very difficult for dieters to hear this - it took me some time to "get it" too.

www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-dieting-makes-you-gain-weight_us_58ae1289e4b0ea6ee3d0353e

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3632055/Health-warning-all-diets-make-you-fat.html

www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/07/481094825/a-neuroscientist-tackles-why-diets-make-us-fat

rebelfit.co.uk/blog/2017/the-difference-between-dieting-and-nutrition

rebelfit.co.uk/blog/2017/a-lesson-for-veteran-dieters-on-nutrition

etc

[TatianaLarina]

I'm 5'10, 58kg (about 9 stone 1). I have very small bones - 5 inch wrists - so although I come up as underweight on the BMI this is normal for me.

I don't like feeling hungry and I don't like feeling full, I think that's preserved me from the bother of dieting or overeating.

I like to eat healthily and have never eaten crisps and crappy chocolate. I don't eat bread as it makes me bloat, don't like cow's cheese/milk/cream and I don't like pastry much. That probably helps me keep slim. I eat a lot of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, lean white meat and fish. Nuts too, I love nuts and dried fruit. Coconut yoghurt is my current passion.

I go running with my husband and we have a treadmill and cross trainer. I don't use the latter - way too much hard work!

[AceholeRimmer]

I definitely have to make effort to stay slim, a takeaway makes me put on 5lbs (which comes off the next day if I am eating healthy again) I am a binger so it is a constant fight.

[TheFairyCaravan]

I'm 46, 5ft 4 and 8 stone. I'm not fit, I'm disabled and can't exercise.

I do limit what I eat and only eat when I'm hungry. I drink a lot of water during the day. I'm unable to eat chocolate or drink any alcohol because it gives me migraines.

We don't eat much processed food. I don't eat a lot of carbs and I'm not a lover of red meat.

[Vicsteur81]

5'6" currently 10st and BMI of 23. Ten years ago I was more like 13st with a BMI of 29.

I lost weight by moving more and eating a LOT less. I got down to 9st, but my relationship with food still wasn't healthy.

I try and eat foods that are health and whole. I do really like both sweet and savory naughtiness though. It's tough and some weeks are harder than others.

I exercise at least 5 days a week. I prefer weights to cardio, I also climb 2-3 times a week.

I'd like to by half a stone lighter but it's not happening at the moment.

[WomblingThree]

I read the Telegraph link you provided Boris. Dieting didn't make him fat. He lost weight on every diet. Stopping dieting and going back to stuffing his face as normal made him fat. Swapping food for vast quantities of alcohol made him fat. Eating less and moving more does not make you fat.

"Embracing nutrition and exercise" as you put it whilst shilling for a weight loss program is still eating less and moving more, and thereby a form of dieting.

[BagelGoesWalking]

Revolution 3st in 5 months is amazing! I see why you'd think I should have lost more. I might ask the Dr for some blood tests when I next have to see him, but I know they were within normal levels last time - although that is about 4 yrs ago probably. It might be that I'm just not moving enough. I'm not working outside the home and some days I can be very slothful (especially when Wimbledon's on). I've just recently started walking someone's dog twice a week (brisk walk for an hour) and I really need to start yoga/Pilates again. Not a lot of exercise, I know, but better than nothing.