To want to do a drastic diet?

[Sunshinemakesmehappie]

I have gained huge amounts of weight over the last two years and am now nearly 15stone.

At my height, that’s pretty large and I’m very depressed.

Wondering about doing a liquid/shake diet. Any views?

Ermmm the data I just look around me, on the trains ,my family, friends who have died recently at fairly young ages, the NHS is crumbling, HFW is trying to help as is Jamie Oliver .

Because people who make vast fortunes like the enormous diet industry, fast food \fizzy drink manufacturers , etc. aren't charlatans at all

Ppeatfruit - good nutrition is part of the problem, but not the complete picture in what promotes good health. Poverty and breakdown of social support networks have an enormous contribution to poor health - this has been demonstrated by good data.

Obviously good mental health makes a difference but that is to do with what you eat or drink too. Too many young people drink too much. it's not a good pattern for living a healthy life.

How ironic that you talk about the diet industry yet think cleanses are beneficial - they are one and the same.

In terms of the fast food industry - they are not peddling their products as optimum nutritional products which promote good health with the message that routinely eating their fare would result in less disease and greater longevity.. If they were claiming this, they would indeed be charlatans.

You live on 800 cals a day on the Cambridge diet.

Prisoners in the nazi concentration camps were fed 900 a day.

The minimum even the smallest person needs to survive without risking metabolic adaptation is 1200 a day.

These diets work in the short term (for some). However it messes up your metabolism meaning that you gain all the weight back and more. It also puts you in ketosis which can be very dangerous.

I diet on 1,600 cals a day and I lose weight at around 1lb per week as a 5’8 size 10. You need exercise and a diet and lifestyle change, not a quick fix that does serious damage in the long term.

Not necessarily - the social milieu you are in has an enormous impact on health. The case of the Rosetan people is interesting, and I do think that the obesity crises is linked with the breakdowns of communities, eating as families, and having mealtimes be central to binding people together.

I had great success with a VLCD diet in 2011/12. I did New you plan (all shakes soups bars etc) and lost 3.5 stone then a further 0.5 stone during the maintenance. I kept it off within a few pounds though 2 pregnancies (obviously gained weight while pregnant but lost it soon after) and was fine until dd2 got ill December last year. I lost a lot of weight and somehow after she got better gained it back plus at least 2 more stone* .* Due to severe ibs the packs aren't agreeing with me so I'm doing (veggie which means more planning) keto meals for just over a week and have seen a huge difference in my chins (multiple) and jeans fitting better, weighing on Thursday so will see.

Look at exante, it's basically the same as the Cambridge diet but cheaper

Hello to you too OP. Sorry to hear of tour rough year. Dropping some weight will be all round good for our physical and mental issues I think, sending lots of encouragement your way!
Thanks for the advice Pebbles. I changed to vegan from vegetarian 4 months ago and also gave up drinking (I was a daily drinker) at the same time. These changes have barely effected my weight because my eating is very disordered. I get fixated on a single food and eat it exclusively for weeks. At the moment it is high fibre museli with almond milk and applesauce (high sugar no doubt, but not exactly junk!) For the last few weeks this is all I've had, but kilos of it, no interest in any other food.
Before that it was tomato on toast with olive oil, this went on for weeks, no other foods. When it was only dark chocolate- covered almonds things got dangerous, and this went on for a couple of months. This is bizarre to me and I don't know what the root of this disorded eating could be?
Does anyone else feel their strange or compulsive eating patterns got them here, overweight? What are we compensating for I wonder? Going to try hard to vary my diet (once museli is all gone).

Hotel have you had eating disordered in the past? Or followed very strict diets? It sounds to me like you've swapped one eating disorder for another? There is a name for it but I can't think what, basically instead of anorexia, bulimia etc people are following vegan diets, raw food diets etc as they are socially acceptable forms eating (disorders).

Hello Gonad yes it’s called orthorexia, looked it up and it’s described as obsessively eating ‘clean’, like only ever very healthy stuff. I have the obsession bit alright but not the clean bit. I just can’t believe how layered and complicated our relationships with food can become. Yes, I’ve had disordered eating patterns from the age of 12, which coincides with the time my mother first started commenting on my body/ weight, (which has ranged from 7 and a half to nine and a half stone, I’m 5”4)

I’m 36 years old now and these issues just go on and on. Now I just feel so rebellious towards food, like I’ll eat what I want when I want and only that. Another part of me feels as if I don’t deserve good home cooked meals, sitting at a table, looking after myself because I am not that important, that I only have to survive, not flourish or be healthy or well.

I have two small children and I will never mention their body weight to them or pass negative comment on their bodies as long as I live.
Back to the subject after all that, the BBC doc about the 800 calorie a day diet was interesting Sunshinemakesmehappie Did you see it, I only saw a bit, anyone catch the end verdict? I can’t handle watching the scenes of bariatric surgery they are forever showing in these docs arrrgh.

Diet is literally calories in v calories out so a VLCD will work and work quickly.

The disadvantages are that you're more at risk of loose skin than you are when you lose more slowly, and that you aren't learning healthy eating habits while you do it. That's why so many put the weight right back on - not because of the VLCD itself, but because they haven't had months of learning portion control and appetite management and all the things that come with a healthy lifestyle change.

There are also health implications for VLCDs so it is always sensible to see your GP first.

All that being said - they work and they work fast. If that's your priority, it's a good option. But once you've finished it you'll still have to do the work to maintain your weight in the long term. It's possible and many do it, so there's no reason why you shouldn't be one of them.

Hotel it's such a shame when your family ruin your relationship to food, I grew up with a mum and sister constantly dieting, my sister had a great figure too and I was always the plump one, now I struggle to eat in a balanced way and I'm always thinking about my body, weight and food!

Just eat less ! I have lost 2 stone by

Eating less and healthier
Cutting carbs down (not out )
Reducing alcohol
Exercising whenever I can

5 months in i no longer crave unhealthy food . You kind of get used to the change

I can’t see that milkshakes will give you enough energy OP ? Or nutrition

I know BusterGonad thoughts about body, weight and food can take up such a big part of your brain space. I really wish my mother (and yours) could have been more careful not to shape our young brains in this negative way, they had no idea of the lasting damage they were doing.

I really feel now that it is far better to try and be happy and forget about being big or slim, as long as I’m not morbidly obese, it’s ok. My mother told me it was very unhealthy for me to be 10 stone, at 5ft 4, when my second child was 8 months old. I just ignore her now.

I’m going to be living near her again next year and am now worried about her attitude\ comments affecting my daughters as they grow up. I really desire them to grow up without any of this rubbish in their heads, do what they love, eat normally and be happy. All the best to you Gonad Women are beautiful at a wide range of sizes.

Well done Lavender.
OP You started a thread on Mumsnet asking for advice. You got it but dismissed it.

As a "fat" person who eats far too much due to BED.
Il tell you how you can lose weight very quickly.

This is from experience.

Eat 1000 calories a day for 4 months.
You don't need to do exercise if you don't want to.

I lost 4st.

For all the people who are vegan telling others to go vegan because of the fat in meat and animal products, please never offer veganism as a form of diet solely because it's absolutely crap.

I've met far far too many fat vegans because they turn to the carbs!

After reading the thread a little be longer, I realise that op, you haven't come here for advice at all.

In the nicest way possible but stop putting food in your mouth and you'll soon lose weight!

Sadly you have the mind of a fat person.

You put it in your mouth, you can stop it from going in again.

Stop making excuses and lose weight.

There is no 24 hour quick fix for your mistakes.

I think that the first step is to accept that what ever you do you are not going to be thin in 6 months. You can be thinner and fitter though. I have gone with eating more healthy foods and taking up exercise classes I am loosing weight slowly I have thyroid and other hormone problems that makes that difficult but I feel much better and much healthier.
I have also done the eat 2 granny Smith apples a day for 2 weeks to boost the gut bacteria and that has helped too.

Hotel I would speak to your Dr. What you describe sounds serious, perhaps even a form of OCD. Health anxiety, which I have suffered from, is actually a form of OCD but many people don't realise that. Such obsessive patterns of eating may also fall into that classification.

In any event, this is something you need some help with by the sounds of things.

Thanks Escalated, you are right, it is a form of OCD. I saw a psychologist 4 months ago and was put on 300mg of zoloft to treat it, but I felt so numbed on that dose that it was brought it down to 200mg and the OCD is back, although not as bad as before. I know that if I can just gather some momentum I will be able to eat normally, as I have done for stretches in the past. Unfortunately eating is 90 % emotional, 10 % hunger for me and if there is anything stressing me out these weird eating patterns arise. I have to address the stress to fix the eating. I wish it could be simple, that food could just be food!! Sorry for derailing thread, what were we talking about again??

I don't understand how anybody can be vegetarian and still be overweight, unless they have some kind of underlying medical condition.

I stopped eating meat two years ago for a number of reasons (one of which was an inherited gallbladder condition which has since cleared up), and although I wasn't overweight to start with, I lost the better part of 5kg in about 6 weeks.

I play a contact sport and train hard during the season, and, if anything, I struggle to take the calories required on board when playing.

Unless you're existing on chips and cheese, a vegetarian diet goes hand in hand with losing weight, because you have to think about what you're eating, and non-animal proteins don't contain the same amount of calories.

I would imagine it must be even more difficult as a vegan, although there are many successful vegan elite athletes out there.

@ThistleAmore it's easy to be vegetarian and fat, I'm a vegetarian and basically eat my body weight in pasta and cheese. I'm losing weight now by eating properly but I think I'd be exactly the same if a meat eater.