Just eat less and move more?

[fattygettingthin]

I'm very overweight. Have about 9 stone to lose, I'm so ashamed. I got diagnosed with type 2 diabetes yesterday. The dr who was also overweight told me all the things I'm now likely to get, and how I should lose weight as a matter of urgency. They even offered to refer me for weight loss surgery right there. I asked for some advice on losin weight alone and they suggested weight watchers and swapping coke for Diet Coke .

So my aibu is; how the fuck am I to lose 9 stone without surgery? I have a gym membership but I don't think I use it well. I 'workout' for an hour or so 4 times a week but really it's just playing at using my membership and I know I need to be better. But how? How do you learn how to workout properly?

All the workouts I see online are for like mega body building men! And suggestions of eating protein and working out for 4 hours a day. I need help. I know I need to do this. Is it unreasonable to want to see little workout cards near the machines in the gym?

What do you eat for breakfast when you so 'low carb'? Is weight watchers worth it? I have a 12 week membership now but I don't want to eat 'lite' yogurts full of sugar and sweeteners. It feels like a mammoth task that I can't do.

If you got to the end well done!

I strongly recommend getting a Personal Trainer.

My PT drives me to a very intense and focused work out once a week, motivates me to stick to my diet and advises on sticking points in diet, and helps me plan my other workouts. He praises my successes and is continually encouraging me. I am working out better and more safely than before. I knocked 5% off my body fat % in six weeks.

It's £250 for 12 sessions - but so, so worth it. I'll keep paying until I'm happy with my fitness. Based on current weight loss, that will be about 3 x £250 (losing 3 dress sizes). Some people pay a lot more to lose 3 sizes!

Hi

I am also massively overweight and have been losing and gaining the same 5 stone for 5 years on slimming world, this is partly down to 3 pregnancies but also down i think to the way sw works with the whole no portion control thing.

I have recently been following james smith on fb / insta and he talks so much sense - please check him out!

Essentially weight loss is calories in vs calories out and the only way to lose weight is calorie deficit. Eating this way for a couple of months has really made me see how much i was over eating and made me realise that the ethos of slimming world / weight watcheds where you dont know what calories you are consuming because you are ‘pointing’ or ‘synning’ basically means you can never leave them! Very clever business strategy

I stick cook a lot of the sw recipes as they are essential good, based on lots of fruit veg and lean meats, but i know understand the calories i am consuming which is making me look at food differently.

The blood sugar diet is designed specifically to reverse T2 diabetes. It’s a low carb calorie controlled 8 week plan.
I’ve lost 2 stone doing it, there’s others on our thread who’ve had similar and greater losses.

Come and say hello, we’re very friendly!

Blood sugar diet thread 10www.mumsnet.com/Talk/fasting_diet/3222906-blood-sugar-diet-thread-10

Some very varied replies op and I’ve tried them all! Trouble is with all these diets is you’re either ‘on’ them or ‘off’ them. This never works as we all know it’s a total life style change we need. So how do you change the mind set of a chronic overweight person ( me). Some of these ideas would be like sitting down a long term alchoholic in a bar with a Diet Coke every day for the rest of their life and expecting them to maintain this habit ??? I’d love to know the answer! Not to discourage you op but assess why you got overweight before jumping in. Good luck x

And don’t be ashamed, I think you’re amazing going to a gym 4 times a week.

it can be as simple as eat less and move more but so many people underestimate consumption and overestimate exercise, it's better to keep track and to think 'consume fewer calories than I expend'

To make sure this is happening you need to ACCURATELY log calories using something like myfitnesspal and the certified USDA calorie amounts (on mfp the certified ones have a green tick next to them) weigh everything - eg if you have peanut butter on your toast, weigh the jar, put the amount you want on your toast and then weigh the jar again to accurately see how much you've had

also if you 'eat back your exercise calories' using the mfp method bear in mind they do tend to overestimate the calories burned - I'd only eat back half what it says you burned, just to sure

and don't add any bullshit exercise like I saw one woman adding burning 300 calories from 'standing cooking' - seriously ? nooo

So to summarise

eat less - but accurately track it

move more - accurately track that too

I've also been looking at The Body Coach on FB and it looks very interesting. Not bought into it so can't give a personal recommendation but might be worth a browse?

The other tip I would give it to weigh yourself once a week at the same time every week. That way, even if you put on a pound or two one week, you can get straight back on track. It's easy to say, "oh, I've had a bad week as I was at a wedding and had some drinks and extra food etc so that's my diet ruined and I might as well not bother anymore" whereas in reality, once you get your weight down it's okay to enjoy a night out or get a takeaway sometimes. And it's easier to then make an effort the next week and lose the extra gained rather than feeling you've failed, putting on a couple of stone and then feeling that you are back to square one.

I know everyone is very well-meaning with their advice but seriously OP, get the blood sugar diet book and follow it to the t. Everything else is just noise and distracting conflicting information.

Oh lovely. There's so much frustration in your post. I'm the same - I need a strict, no-nonsense plan or I just lie to myself.

I lost 4 stone (and kept it off for 7 years) following The Scarsdale Diet. It's a diet that was really popular in the 70s. It's low-carb, really easy and healthy. Best of all he tells you what to eat at each meal for 2 weeks. It's easy in the summer: lots of fruit, veg, meat and fish. I loved it.

You can get the book for 1p on Amazon, second hand. I'm going to restart it soon, as I'm fat again (gave up smoking) and it's depressing me.

I found calorie counting the only thing that worked for me use My Fitness Pal and log everything it's surprising how much you can miss - re exercise I'd suggest walking at first again track it on Map my run to give you an idea of calories burned. Does your gym membership come with any PT sessions? If so you could see a PT for advice on an exercise program at the gym. Make small changes eg if you leave a pile of things at the bottom of the stairs to take up in one go don't take them up as you need to. C25k is also an excellent program- you can do this OP.

The Scarsdale Diet

This was my first low carb diet! I love this!

I should go back.

Is hiring some professional help an option OP? Like a clinical exercise physiologist or a nutritionist or asking for a referral? This thread already has lots of advice but it sounds like you'd really like some guidance to help you navigate all this information.

I'm now going to throw in my 2 pence! Focus very closely on your diet, exercising will help you control your blood sugars but what you eat, portion size and timing will be key to managing your condition. That said, weight training is excellent for increasing your insulin sensitivity so don't discount it entirely for cardio diabeticmuscleandfitness.com/the-guide-to-diabetes-and-strength-training/

How the fuck did you learn to walk as a baby? You started small and with little steps didn’t you.

Start small. Make sure you go for a walk everyday. In time maybe build it up to a run but start with a walk. Watch what you eat. Switch out anything fried for healthy alternatives and make sure two thirds of your plate are veg.

A place that can help by suggesting healthy menus is a great idea which is why weight watchers works.

I know it’s hard. I put on loads of weight after kids but a few years of slowsnd steady increase on the exercise and watching what I eat I’m now a size 12 andcan run 5k.

You can do it just set little goal stepsfor yourself and keep going.

OP, sorry to be blunt but it's called "effort"

I lost seven stone in a year about three years ago and have mostly kept it off bar a stone and half due to stress. I was almost 18 stone with a BMI of 37 at my heaviest and knew I had to change.

I did the 5:2 diet which was fantastic for me. I learnt how to recognise the difference between hunger and greed and massively controlled my portions which was probably my biggest issue. Don’t switch to diet sodas, there is evidence they make people gain weight. Just drink water. Cut sugar out of hot drinks if you drink them. The exercise you do honestly sounds fine, add some daily walking in too if possible. The 5:2 diet wasn’t a fad and it worked for me.

Thank you all, going to sit and read all the responses now. Thanks for all replying to my 2 am rant!

I lost 8 stone with slimming world with just 2 gym sessions for a hour each time and walking around. But ive gained two back. But im not going to lie i had a referral for surgery now for a gastric sleeve which my surgery will be in the next few months and its a very hard long process to go through via nhs route but as ive lost loads still more to go. Just take day by day and the weight will drop off and then slows down. I now am in low carb high protein diet and works well. Good luck u can do it

I found that cutting out coke etc and substituting carbs with veg really works. I.e. zucchini or squash spaghetti instead of actual pasta. I also got rid of snack food at home and stocked up on fruit. Myfitnesspal is a great way to keep track of calorie intake

Pick and choose out of all of these replies what YOU can work with.

There is no 'one size fits all' diet or lifestyle plan.

The good new? Losing weight is about 80% what/how much you eat, only 20% exercise.
Exercise is VERY healthy and very important and if you build more muscle and reduce fat you will burn more calories just standing still, but in terms of weight loss it does far less than eating well.

Here's what worked for me:

• intermittent fasting. I could not be arsed to count calories on the fast days, so am doing 16:8 (fasting 16 hrs/day, eating 8). In practice it means I don't have breakfast.
• LCHF. Delicious, filling, I will never change back.
• avoiding being bored, sitting with my hands idle because I then develop 'hand to mouth disease' and just mindlessly stuff my face, usually in the evening after the kids have done to bed. I have taken up knitting

Go for it.
Small steps.
Don't think of '9 st, OMG', think 'this is the heaviest I will ever be, tomorrow I will be lighter'.

I find not having any types of sweets in the house. I’m like a broken record on this mn lol but If you can get into cooking from scratch it’s very satisfying and the weight just falls off. It’s hard at the start but now I prefer my own cooking to eating out

I did Cambridge. Not for everyone admittedly (can be pricey, and meal replacement can be too prescriptive). I've lost 3 stone (target weight achieved). Others lose a lot more. My sister did SW - she lost 2 stone to reach her goal.

The trick is not the losing of the weight (although that seems overwhelming to start with) but the lifestyle changes to sustain it - if you know why you got to being overweight, you can avoid the situation repeating itself. For me - emotional eating and boredom eating was the issue. Still an ongoing battle, but try to eat a bit of chicken or ham now rather than the chocolate/crisps i'd go for previously. And very few carbs each day.

Just thought i would add i am on weight watchers online and they have a great online community and i see lots of people saying they have reversed type 2 diabetes with 6 weeks on weight watchers so it does work.

Its really easy to join online and npt too expensive so maybe joing for a month or so and see of it helps.

Its really helped me to see how much i was over eating and how bad some stuff was. Im a coke zero girl nowadays its jut not worth the calories.

If you eat food as close to it's natural state as possible, i.e. not processed or minimally processed, the weight will come off naturally. That's the rule I use and I've lost loads of weight. I've also combined it with low carb but not no carb - I eat lentils and oats for example because they are "good" carbs.

So - instead of apple juice for example, I'll eat apples. I save rice, noodles,pasta, bread, white potatoes for going out or special occasions. No cookies, biscuits, crisps or cake. Just fresh fruit, nuts, seeds, some 85% chocolate. And lots and lots of veggies.

Don't overthink it, it's surprisingly simple. You need to reduce your calorie intake to create a deficit.

Download MyFitnessPal app and input your details. As you have so much to lose I suspect it'll recommend you stick to 1200 calories per day. You eat anything you like, none of this complex syns stuff, just make sure whatever you choose you only eat 1200 per day. You can choose to eat back your exercise calories if you like but you'll lose faster if you don't.

Keep working out if you enjoy it but the majority of weight loss is in the diet and eating less than you have been. Weigh yourself weekly on some digital scales at home first thing in the morning naked and mark it down on a sheet in the kitchen each week to track your progress.

Weight loss is simple in theory, the difficult part is you need self discipline. Hopefully the news from the doctor about the risks of not losing the weight will spur you on, there's nothing more important than our health.

Good luck!