To wonder why people can't lose weight?

[Wishiwasholsk]

Medical conditions aside.

We moan about being fat but it's never enough to really change.

I'm 5 stone overweight and already the NYE goal is gone.

Because I have no control. I eat until I'm in pain and feel sick, often stuff I don't even like. Then I cry myself to sleep waiting for the discomfort to subside, swearing it'll never happen again. Then the next day I do exactly the same.

", if I fancy pizza and wine, I have it. Maybe just 3 slices instead of 5 though”

The very important bit is the highlighted bit. I agree eat what you fancy instead of “dieting” BUT portion size is very important.

I think a lot it is about lifestyle and getting rewards.

I’m feeling a bit bigger after Xmas and I’d like to lose a stone. You’d think it would be easy and before having kids, it was. If I had full control over my life and enough time, id go the gym several times a week, eat salads (I love them) and so on.

As it is, i’m a single, working mum. 2 kids with different food preferences, one veggie, one very fussy. No time. Always exhausted and running around to get everything done. I hardly go out, I don’t drink much, I don’t get to the gym much or get to do what I feel like. On a busy school night when we’re runnng late after clubs, of course I throw together pasta because it takes 10 mins, and everyone will eat it. I have some chocolate/pudding because I want a treat, I feel like something nice for me and I don’t have time for other options. I see myself doing it.

I actually do have willpower when I can concentrate on it, but it crumbles in the face of very busy everyday life and the constant distractions and rushing.

I think there are also many other factors, emotional eating, stress, food issues, cake culture in workplaces, etc. But even without those, it is hard. I never judge people for their weight (whether overweight or under) there are so many reasons for weight issues.

My reasons for being fat as follows :-

Husband buys naughty things so I eat them.
Husband likes eating out.
Shit, stressful days at work causing comfort eating.
PMT chocolate cravings.
Alcohol.
My own greed.
Work collegue CONSTANTLY offering me buiscits in work.

Having said all this I have lost 6lbs this week on Weight Watchers fingers crossed I keep it up.

I think it's hard because it's not a quick fix - if people have a decent amount to lose, it takes a good 2 or 3 weeks before you see a difference and also if you deprive yourself of the things you enjoy, it makes you feel like you're missing out. I've just joined weight watchers again and find it easy to stick to, especially now that a lot of foods I like (chicken/fish/lentils etc) are zero points, so feel I can eat a lot more and also have treats (still going through a couple of quality street a day) and I've lost 5lbs on this my first week. Try it and eat what you want within reason and you'll not feel like you're really dieting and it does work

I too have a BMI of 30 - I was surprised to learn. I'm in petite Next 14 (bottom) / 16 top. Hardly the outsize dept but still in the overweight category.

There's dopamine and other feel good hormones that kick in when we ANTICIPATE eating pleasurable foods, we call the slump afterwards a craving. Food activates the neural pleasure pathways like other addictions and pleasurable activities. So it's very hard to control this hard-wired biological urge. But we can.

This is the first time I've been to a weight loss group. It's not the first time I've changed unhealthy habits, though. And like doing a dry jan or quitting fags I've prepared accordingly.

I had a treats cupboard - I asked the teens to clear it for me (It only took them two days ) - I've used up all the less healthy options like coconut cream and changed over to low fat coconut milk for curries and things. It's early days but the first week I didn't plunge straight in and go from zero to hero I just got to grips with the new/changed regime.

However I am looking to make long term changes to the way I eat and I don't look at it as a "diet" more a healthy eating habit that I want to aquire. However, thankfully, my mother seemed not to have passed on any body or food issues to me despite having struggled and been constantly dieting herself. This may have been due to the fact that I was at boarding school between the ages of 11 and 15, you were lucky to consume enough calories day-to-day to stay healthy. :/

I'm menopausal which is why I've gone, the weight seems to be piling on even though my eating habits remained as they have always been, so obvs my body is changing the way it uses energy and my endocrine system is less active, so something has to change. I'm not interested in doing more exercise (Walking and a couple of classes a week, plus cycling most days)

Also I like to think about my food over the space of a week, I have not-so-hungry days and very-hungry days.

This week Ive swapped to soup and salad lunches for work. Surprisingly it fills me as much as the wrap/crisps/fizzy pop meal deal. Im less bloated and managing to wait til my usual evening meal time for the next feed.

Its shocked and embarassed me how simple a swap it is and it WILL make a difference and i ought to have been doing this for the past year.

Hopefully that mixed with some other mindful choices will see some weight shift. But its hard to break the desire to eat crap. Id kill for a whole tub if garlic dip and a sharebag of cheesy doritos to dip into it. But that is why i have a stomach which looks pregnant.

I'm actually quite good at losing weight, I'm just hopeless at keeping it off so it's constantly going up and down. I think the problem is that biscuits are really nice.

I'm frustrated at the moment as been doing WW since 2nd Jan, not had a drop of alcohol (before this I was drinking most days, even if only a small glass of wine or whatever) and I've not lost a single pound! I don't know why it isn't working :(

Less than 8 hours sleep a night has a massive effect on your appetite.

Emotional reasons. Food isn't just fuel.

JustVent Are you following flex? I found it didn’t work for me at first as I ate too much of the free foods. I cut them down to no more than one portion per meal and I lost 6lbs this week 😊

Littlepond Sorry my last post was for you 😂

Munchy I've just read a book which said exactly what you've said about insulin. It made a lot of sense to me. The more sugar I eat, the more I crave and everything just goes on as fat.

I'm doing vegan January to break my eating habits and am going to reintroduce eggs and yoghurt gradually but lose milk for good and cut sugar and carbs as much as I can.

Almost everyone can lose weight, they just don't try hard enough. I could lose the 3 stone I should if I tried enough, but I don't

It's hard! I've always eaten mostly healthily, with a couple of vices, but struggled with exercise and activity levels.

However, since DS was born, he's not let me be lazy. He needs a daily walk, in the same way an excitable dog does, and, as I prefer to use a sling to a pushchair, man, I'm getting exercise. He's 7mo now, I'm eating more than before he was born, but I've lost 2 dress sizes, and I'm as stunned as anybody - it's the slimmest I've been in probably 7+ years when I was a piss poor student who ate sporadically and cycled everywhere

Motivation can be really hard to come by. Mine was a little forced upon me, but if you can find it, it's a big help

cake2018 yes I'm doing flex - I don't want to but the app automatically updated and I can't go back to the old way! I don't like it, I don't do slimming world for the exact reason I need reigning in with portion sizes!

Thanks for tip, will try and stick to smaller portion even with zero point food...

People are fat because they consume too many calories.

Very helpful @Aquamarine

Aquamarine1029 Gosh I don’t think anyone has realised that! Thank you for your wisdom 😂

Aqua it’s been fairly definitively proved that it’s not that simple.

If it was, how can some people not gain weight however much they eat?

Gut bacteria, thyroid issues, night shifts and cortisol levels, and other things can all affect it hugely. Some foods calories are less used by the body, others more. And so on.

Of course reducing calories is generally an important step in weight loss but as a whole it’s a much more complex picture.

I come from a family with very disordered eating, was a fat child, anorexic teenager, bulimic in my early 20s but I'm old now and in between all of the above (occasionally resurfacing) I've had decades of being a normal weight and fit and well.

Calorie controlled diets really do work. But we all tend to delude ourselves a bit so we need to be honest about where the extra calories are coming from - snacking, portion size (that's my weakness), not understanding the calories in a food item, hidden calories in drinks, comfort eating etc. It is a simple chemical equation and nothing more.
Those of us who do not have natural appetite control (I will never have this) need to know what a 500 calorie meal looks like and accept that good health is a reward, too much food is really a punishment.

Hurrah another fat thread!

Because all the advice about dieting is wrong.

Well, you know, not all. But low fat diets have pretty conclusively been shown not to work. Not all calories are equal in the way that the body processes them.

Try a low carb diet like the Blood Sugar Diet, OP.

I can't because I like bad food and I have absolutely no self control.