To ask if you lost a lot of weight without surgery

[elephantmarchingin]

How did you do it!

I've always been overweight since I was small. We didn't have much money growing up so relied on what others gave us which was normally high fat processed foods.

I am now a whopping 19 1/2 stone and everything I try just doesn't work because I get fed up or I'm too busy etc.

So if you weighed around this and lost weight please tell me what you did!

I have done it three times. Kept off for years between

First time, was much younger. Gained 80 pounds pregnant. I exercised A LOT and did slim fast.

Second time, weight came on slowly from birth control (injections), then eventually decided to have another baby. Huge weight gain. I went to a diet centre. Was quite pricey but I lost a lot. 27 stone to 10 stone. Saw a doctor at the diet centre weekly for weigh ins. I had a booklet with types of foods I could eat, that was colour coded. Kept a food diary. Diet was to be 1,000 calories a day. AND it involved an appetite suppressant. Each week the doctor would go through my food diary and suggest other foods to eat or add more of this, less of that.

Kept the weight off for 4 years until third baby. Did same thing but added more exercise.

Each of the two occasions I used the diet centre, it took months. This last time the weight stayed off more than 10 years until I had a serious injury that left me bed bound to unable to walk for 3 months

I’m struggling now to lose weight but I’m menopausal. As much older, suffer anxiety and insomnia, I’m wary to take appetite suppressants. But I am exercising a lot. Mostly yoga and walking a lot. Weight is very slowly coming off.

I have binge eating disorder, i am addicted to eating. I get a little voice that tells me to eat, that won't shut up. I'll eat things i don't even like, for the sake of eating during a binge. I contacted my gp, have been referred for weight management. Got weighed in at 17st 5lb, and 5'3 in height. Thankfully blood pressure ok, and blood tests normal. My goal is 12st. They will assess in 3 months and if no change i could get prescribed medication to help.

Tbh the only thing that worked for me was weight loss surgery. Best thing I ever did. But no one gets to weight loss surgery without trying everything else first

Not as large as you but I got diagnosed diabetic. Went very low carb no sugar and the weight dropped off very quickly. As it is a lifestyle change and not a diet as I will always eat low carb now to control my diabetes the weight is staying gone.
Not to scare you but at your weight with a bad diet you are at risk of diabetes as well. It is no fun being a diabetic so please tackle you weight and eating now.

My 'goal' is 14 stone. Yes still not good but vastly improved. The thing is if I was a millionaire I would just get someone to cook my meals and portion everything out for me if he absolutely fine it's the thinking and cooking and planning I hate

Surgery - I've lost 8st so far after a gastric sleeve. Why are you discounting surgery?

Are you me op?

Nothing to offer to help just a comment to say you're not alone in this!

I had very little food available as a child as well, guess what I've struggled with binge eating all my life. Currently I'm trying not to eat after dinner as I binge at night too.
It's so difficult I have to think I deserve to respect myself and my body. There's loads of self help stuff on you tube around this subject.

i was 18st 10(i am 6ft if it makes a difference)im now 15s 1(weighed earlier)and still losing
ive gone from a 24-26,J/K cup
to a 18-20 E/F cup

i lost it through extreme stress though not dieting

i have pcos(very severe as ive never had a period in my life) and find it very hard to lose weight so all my adult life ive been "big" till my stressful situation started

it took over a good year(ie summer 21)for the weight lose to start as my stress built up(no fault of my own btw)

since march 2020 ive been through extreme stress to the point in dec21 i was diagnosed with a emotional breakdown(new term for nervous breakdown)severe trauma and ptsd

the reason for all this is still ongoing and i dont know when its going away as the situation im in i cant get out of

in case anyone's worried im not in physical danger ,domestic violence or a toxic relationship as im single.
its an outside situation

@Crazykefir

I had very little food available as a child as well, guess what I've struggled with binge eating all my life. Currently I'm trying not to eat after dinner as I binge at night too. It's so difficult I have to think I deserve to respect myself and my body. There's loads of self help stuff on you tube around this subject.

I think this is it. We never knew if we'd have enough for the next day or the next shop so it was eat as much as you can to fill you up all day type thing

I was over 18 stone after having DC
Lost 2 stone by having to go gluten free which also massively helped my IBS
Then lost another 6 stone at Slimming World
Put 3 stone back on over last 2 years mainly due to lockdown boredom over eating and drinking
Back at SW trying to lose 4 stone

Fasting for me. I had the opposite issue (in a way)- I had a smaller amount to lost but it wouldn’t shift for love nor money. I was 9.4 stone and needed to lose just under a stone. Having a relatively small amount to lost meant that I wasn’t going to see results quickly and it needed to be a permanent change of lifestyle rather than a short term fix. Being post 40 also meant that my usual ‘eat barely anything for 2 weeks and lose half a stone approach’ no longer worked (to my horror). Nothing seemed sustainable until I tried 16/8 fasting. I needed something (albeit an app) to tell me not to eat in the evenings as I had gotten in the habit of having an extra dinner (usually a cheese sandwich and a packet of crisps - so easily 500 calories) at about 9 ish every night whilst watching tv. Now I use an app and fast from 8pm in the evenings until 12 midday the next day. I am very rarely really hungry when it comes to 12 o’clock so don’t feel I am missing out. I have a black coffee in the morning. At 8pm - when the App pops up with a reminder that fasting has started my brain does a kind of flip - ‘I can’t eat now’. So I don’t. It definitely wouldn’t work for everyone (I know a few people who just ignore it) but it seems to work for the kind of organised, time orientated brain I possess. I think I just needed to be told ‘No’! I have lost 1lb a week over 5 weeks so now am back under 9 stone. But the best bit for me is that it seems sustainable. I have still had the odd night where I have had a drink and I haven’t really changed my diet that much. I sometimes think about how much more of an effect it would have if I did eat clean and fast, BUT I know that isn’t sustainable for me in the long term.

Low carbing works for me because technically I can eat a lot and without calorie counting but in reality, outside of my 3 healthy low carb meals, I can only eat one or two snack cheeses (like fun size cheese) and a few nuts before getting full.

6 stone through a local NHS weight loss group five years ago. Have now put it all back on plus another two stone.

Slimming World. I love food, really love it, on SW I'm honestly never hungry. Tonight we had ham, chips and baked beans, I would never have thought I could eat something like that and lose weight.
It does take planning though. I know that I need snacks, as well as 2 or 3 main meals a day, so I make sure I have enough "syns" left so that I can snack each evening and still stay on plan.

@elephantmarchingin

Walking 10K is hard when you're at a full time desk job then have to be with a toddler especially a toddler who now hates the pram but won't walk very far unless he's in the mood!

Can you get him a balance bike. Mine loved his and was very zippy on it. I lost 5 stone. Mainly by treating food as fuel and running with a slight bit of being heartbroken which stopped me eating so much for a bit. Super identify with the evening /tired/emotional eating. To combat that i ask myself how ill feel after wards. Recognise its emotional eating and it will only make me feel worse. Sometimes I say fuck it and have it anyway but more and more the bingey stuff is dropping away. When im really hungry I have fruit and then wait half an hour or so that way the meal I eat ends up being smaller and I feel good that the first thing hitting my stomach is nutritionally sound and I don't over stuff myself with stodgy food. I think being a bit kind with yourself as well. I hate feeling deprived, it really doesn't work for me and makes me want food more. Good luck. Im fine once I get into the zone but seem to have spent a lot of time just about to get in the zone.

7.5 stone through Slimming World. Put some (couple of stone) back on over the lockdowns and back to it now, 1.5 stone off again.

6 stones. Took a year. Hard work and determination. No other way.

I did Noom last year for 6 months, then carried on by myself for 6 months, took up swimming and bootcamp 4 times a week. I lost 3 stones in 11 months.

It's fucking hard work, there is no magic pill I'm sorry to say, I truly am as I would take them in a heart beat!!

It takes dedication, forward thinking and self forgiveness because if you do 'fuck up' you need to forgive yourself, forget it and carry on sensibly.

It's calorie counting!

The 'old' Weight Watchers points plan (1980s). I lost close to 70 lbs, went 'lifetime' and have 'pretty much' kept it off with the exception of 'baby weight' during two pregnancies that I took my sweet time in losing. Used the same basic plan to lose the baby weight and have continued to use it when I've slipped and gained a few. But I've NEVER let myself go like that again. I actually have NO idea how 'WW' works these days. I just stick to what works for me.

Yes, it involves weighing and measuring. And calculating totals for the day and the week. But I think that's part of what works for me, really SEEING how much I am eating, both by looking at the portions as I weigh and measure and by adding up the points. I liked the flexibility of choosing what to eat, so if I wanted to 'spend' X points on choc cake by shaving off X points from other meals during the day I could do so.

The same thing can be easily done by counting calories.

@elephantmarchingin

My 'goal' is 14 stone. Yes still not good but vastly improved. The thing is if I was a millionaire I would just get someone to cook my meals and portion everything out for me if he absolutely fine it's the thinking and cooking and planning I hate

Lots of good advice in this thread. But you also need to stop making excuses like this for it to work.

Slimming world has been really good for me - went from 13st to 9st 6 and keeping it off so far!

Once you are in the swing of it it’s quite easy to keep up too

I would recommend the book 'Why we eat (too much)' by Andrew Jenkinson. Often recommended on MN but with good reason in my opinion. I have lost 4 stone and am now BMI 23, by following the eating principles in this book - it also helped me let go of guilt surrounding my weight and attitude to food. There's a long-running thread on here for people following this eating principle, which essentially involves cutting out processed and refined food, and ingredients high in Omega-6.

8st through intermittent fasting. Plateau in the middle, which led to me upping exercise/started running. Got quite a lot of loose skin now!

For me, it really is a lifestyle - I will never not fast - have been doing so for almost 3yrs now, maintaining for the last year. Having tried and failed at every other diet - low carb, slim fast, weight watchers, slimming world, calorie counting - for 15+yrs, I am scared of regaining but do really feel like I am in control of this.

See apart from MN I've heard bad things about SW and it seems as soon as you stop going you regain the weight