AIBU to tell you that you don’t need to be unhappy with your body.

[Iwalkedaway]

I’ve just been reading another thread where lots of posters talk about how attractive they were when slimmer, as though being overweight is out of their control!

I definitely don’t want to come across as negative or patronising, but for the vast majority of people (excluding those with health needs, of course), weight is entirely within your control!

I’ve always been moderately slim, but in the last few years I’ve lost about 3 stone. At almost 40 I’m the smallest I’ve ever been! To achieve that I;

Got into yoga.
Eat less calories than I burn (monitored on fitness tracker)
Swim and weight train sometimes.
Drink less alcohol.
Will do random, ad hoc exercise through the day, squats whilst the stirring the food etc.

So many people seem sad about their weight gain on here, but it’s absolutely a choice! If you’re unhappy change it! It’s absolutely possible

LOLLL OP you are a prick

No one on here needs to defend what size they are! It is not even 1% if anyone else’s business! Anyone who actually cares how much someone else weighs has way too much time on their hands.

I lost half a stone by stopping using salt and pepper.

You'd be surprised how many calories it can cut.

Previous not precious

Just realised you sound like my friend who has become some sort of MLM fitness coach and now posts this sort of shite all day on FB. Despite the fact she's been around 7 stone her entire adult life, and she's actually not fit, just happens to be genetically skinny.

Jenny ... is that you?? (Please stop with the FB shite, I liked you better before)

Dust, people! Dust is your friend.

Not cake.

Please try to remember this.

Oh do fluff off dear.

People self sabotage in all sorts of ways. Procrastination, fear of change, lack of self belief - all kinds of things hold us back sometimes from getting a better job or a healthier lifestyle or following our dreams. Not to mention mental health, stress, depression, illness and medication.

The weight loss industry is booming, OP. And the vast majority of dieters put it all back on with extra within a couple of years of losing weight. If it was genuinely easy, why would that be? No one wants diabetes or joint pain or to be insulted in the street. Everyone wants to be healthy and to look nice, I think. But so many of us are overweight or obese. If we could change it with little to no effort, we would. If we could topple the obstacles we put in our own way, we would.

I’ve lost weight. And I have put it back on again. Over and over and over since I was a teenager in a cycle I don’t even know how to begin to break. I agree that the theory is simple, but I am telling you that the reality isn’t like that. Not for everyone, not all the time. And it is frustrating to know all the right things to do but to watch yourself make the wrong choices anyway. Your post is not a moment of clarity for people struggling with their weight. You haven’t told us anything new. You’ve told us what we already know and having it pointed out doesn’t make it any simpler to do.

How do you fill your emotional void OP if not with white carbs and chocolate??

@CaptainBrickbeard I could have written your post word for word. I turned to hypnotherapy out of desperation and its really helped me. Just wanted to mention it as I had nowhere else to turn and was desperate to break the cycle. PM me if you like

Dust, people! Dust is your friend.

Not cake.

Please try to remember this.

I assume you mean as in a light dusting of icing sugar. drool 🤤

Hope the OP comes back when she hits 50, develops a metabolic disorder and a medical problem that makes it impossible to do lunges.

Hopefully we'll all be able to help.

MAGIC SPRINKLES!

That’s what we need. I was once at 19 on the BMI scale. When I was 22 and chain-smoked. I was doing my MA and ate 1 bread roll a day.

Am I healthier and happier at 24 BMI. Fuck yes.

OP you are DULL AS FUCK

Completely agree with you OP. I am a severely disabled (wheelchair) single mother of 2 and I always make sure I look after myself. People are absolutely full of excuses constantly and this thread proves it.

Eeesh, easily the most patronised I've been in years!! Prize for the smug-splainer! You've made my day!

Pillock

I did a PhD on appetite, could have saved myself a lot of time and energy “it’s absolutely a choice” the end. You are totally right, 3 squats watching the kettle boil, it’s all we needed to solve the obesity crisis . You need to write a book, it’ll sell millions of copies “the 3 squat plan”. Please don’t share anymore of your secrets, save it for the book .

Oh stop preaching and yes YABU and patronising

What if we just accepted that some people are a different weight/ shape? What if we acknowledged how attractive those people are?
Maybe then they wouldn't feel shit and have to keep justifying why they aren't a perfect weight prompting people to start patronising threads.

God - I read the title and thought it was going to be ‘because there’s so much more to you than your body and it’s quite an incredible instrument’ but no, no - it was a reminder for fatties to do squats at the oven.

Aww, shit. Is that all I have to do?

Why didn’t I think of that.

I wonder why, though, if it is so easy, is the diet industry worth billions. Could it maybe be that it is not so easy for many, many people?

I do think you have a point OP, but not the understanding to see the whole picture. I've lost 7 stone over the last year. I've got one more to go officially. I've always been overweight. I'm doing the old chestnut "eat less move more".

I've known about that phrase for over 20 years but it's only now I'm in the right place, mentally, to do it. And I only keep going with the support of my family and my weight loss community (a thread on MN).

It's meant tackling why I over eat. Facing up to things and being a lot more conscious of myself and how I'm feeling and responding to the world.

So yes, the actual process is pretty straight forward. Doing it, successfully and maintaining it, is anything but.

I think the OP has bailed.

I’m flit between underweight and slightly overweight because I have an eating disorder. I’m a big girl and I can take it if you say it’s my fault, but it’s not fair on others in the same position as me who are feeling a little more down about it. But I guess you already knew you were being ridiculous.

OP if you’ve always been moderately slim I cannot believe you actually needed to lose three stone. You must be borderline underweight surely?

Actually OP, it isn’t really that easy. Time after time different experts are producing studies that indicate that weight gain/loss is more than energy in versus energy out.

People try really really hard to lose weight. Most fail. That is why diets and dieting aids are a booming market. Everyone is looking for that elusive magic bullet.

Do you think if it was that easy we’d have the obesity crisis what we have.

How do you fill your emotional void OP if not with white carbs and chocolate??

I'm on that thread. As I said there, losing weight wouldn't bring back the figure I had years ago. I've had a baby last year. I've got split stomach muscles, stretch marks, boobs that hang down to my belly button. I've lost 3 stone since January. I know how to diet. I walk 8 miles a day. My body will still never be what it was.
On top of that I was an addict for a long time years ago and that's done a lot of damage. Losing weight won't change it.