I weigh 16.5 stone 🙁

[LadyintoGaddings]

I’m a size 22, I’m 5’7.

I have zero motivation and I like food too much.

I’ve got a 3.5 year old and I’ve no energy most days as he’s very hard work.

I also have ADHD so I struggle to prioritise and plan healthy meals etc.

Don't really know what you're wanting anyone to say?

@LadyintoGaddings would you like some encouragement, guidance? Maybe people have been you and found a way to lose weight?

If you want to lose weight then start small; walk a bit each day. Try and have slightly smaller portions and drink lots of water. Don't think of reducing what you eat and exercise as punishment, see it as an investment in the future. Good luck, OP!

It sounds like you want to do something about it? Then make small steps to start.

The more weight you lose, the more energy you'll have for your DS and the more motivated you'll be. The more energy you have to run around the more you'll benefit additionally from that exercise, and again you'll be more motivated to do more.

Not to sound harsh but give yourself a good kick up the arse and start now. Your ADHD isn't an excuse to hide behind, it's an additional challenge you need to work around.

My suggestions would be to skip meals eg breakfast/lunch, and walk a lot, taking LO with you to park etc. Or try intermittent fasting. And avoid all high calorie snacks and drinks. Michael Moseley's books are full of good advice.

I’m a size 24.

im walking 12000 steps a day, drinking water and counting calories. 2,500 a day. Instead of going without I’m telling myself to eat more…..more protein, more veg, more fruit and that’s filling me up properly.

min starting exercise next week. Dreading it, but looking forward to this time next year

I was 15 and 1/2 stone at my heaviest. I struggled with binging and restricting for years.

The podcast and book Brain Over Binge was hugely helpful. I've been a healthy weight for my height for several years now.

What a very helpful contribution
OP I know how it feels. You want to make changes but every day you wake up feeling tired and rubbish and it falls by the wayside and you find weeks and months later you have got bigger if anything

No snacking, unless fruit and don’t buy snacking bits for the house. Not having biscuits helped me lose weight. Walk, even just a little bit here and there. Have a filling breakfast.

I would start by meal planning.

Start by just learning what calories look like. Meal plan for your 2,000 calories a day.

You can prepare meals in advance to do this. Have the food in the house and ready to go, so you aren’t tempted to have something else.

Once you have adjusted to that meal planning, you want a slight calorie deficit. Plan instead for 1,800 calories a day. Most weight loss comes from diet.

Then introduce a bit more exercise. This doesn’t need to be slogging at the gym. How many steps are you doing a day? Try to increase this.

Small changes, but easy to do and will have a big impact over weeks.

And water first, before meals and when you feel peckish. I would say fill up on veggies and healthy foods BUT I needed to reduce my appetite and the the huge portions I tended to binge on so I would recommend reducing portion sizes.

Lists. Use lists.

That's a good way to keep track of what you're eating and drinking, and what you're doing in terms of steps/exercise.

You can use 'Notes' on your phone or just a notebook.

Then you can start to see where the calories / soft spots are.

3 months ago today I weighed 19st10lb. I started small, watching portion sizes with a portion plate, started walking a few mins a day and then increased it bit by bit. I also substituted snacks so instead of a chocolate bar I got chocolate rice cakes, instead of ice cream I got ice pops. Today I weighed 18st3lb. Its motivated me so much to keep going. I don't restrict myself if I want a treat but I make sure I'm in charge not the food.
You can do it.

Thanks for the helpful advice

i guess I’m posting for help and encouragement.

I do walk quite a lot , I did actually start the couch to 5k last year and was doing well, although I didn’t get past week 3, I kept repeating weeks. Then my mental health got bad and I struggled to find the motivation.

I wouldn’t be able to fast or skip meals as I feel horrendous if I don’t eat.

OP you need support for this. Do you have a friend who could be your weight loss/ exercise buddy? Or perhaps slimming world? That way you would have a community to encourage you and you would feel more accountable. You can do this, for the sake of your little boy who needs a healthy mum :)

I find weighing out correct portion sizes helps massively in realising how much we overeat by. I would start there.
Honestly, me personally, I don't believe in diets because what ever you do to lose weight has to be maintained for the rest of your life in order to maintain that healthy weight you have got yourself to. I genuinely believe the key is breakfast, lunch, dinner where portion sizes are correct and the food is healthy and no snacking in between along with lots of water and exercise. Everyone is different though and the only way you will find what works for you is by trying different things. My advice is to start by weighing out your portion sizes - see how much your overeating by. You will be hungry but you will get used to it. Good luck, I know it's not easy.

Once women reach an obese BMI, they have roughly a 1 in 1200 chance of being able to lose weight to reach a healthy BMI and remain there for 5+ years unless bariatric surgery is undertaken. Figure comes from the leading NHS consultant in this area, Denise Ratcliffe.

As in, once you get to a point of obesity, it's very difficult to reverse without surgery. I weighed 19st and had a gastric sleeve. I now weigh 10.5st. If you struggle with diets and genuinely want to change, look at bariatric surgery options. NHS website is a good place to start

You may well be eating when you actually need a drink (of water or similar).
Have you tried that?

Calorie deficit is the way to go op, google TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculator and also download MyFitness Pal app (its free) and you will have the tools you need to get started. My advice is to eat MORE, but by that I mean more volume of less calorie dense foods, so have huge platefuls of foods that are less calorific, vegetables, lean proteins etc. This will mean that you are feeling satisfied and not hungry. Feeling hungry will lead to your body craving for high calorie foods, then before you know it you've gone into a calorie surplus. Also look into low GI foods, these have a lower impact on blood sugar, meaning you don't have the high and low swings that can also lead to you craving or overeating high calorie foods.

OK so fasting or restricting is not for you.

Keto could work? You can eat loads and the weight will fall off. But you need to read up on it and follow it strictly.

I'd also recommend downloading a free app such as aktiBMI to log your weight. It's hugely motivating to see losses plotted on a graph.

I'm sorry you're feeling so down.

Where do your calories come from? What is your current diet and daily life? Do you eat from stress with your son?
I think it's always best to make small changes rather than anything dramatic that you can't sustain.

If you are on Instagram, I would highly recommend following glucosegoddess. I bought her book and my weight is really coming down. I am not on a diet at all but controlling my blood sugar levels is making a big difference. I also have a lot more energy.

You don't have to restrict much, I've got my calorie goal set to lose .5lbs a week, but by making sure I get 10,000 steps a day and doing other exercises I'm losing 1-2lbs a week. Eat plenty protein - I aim for 1lb of protein per kilo of body weight. Good luck, you can do it!

I drink a lot of water, but I guess it’s my portion sizes that are the problem.
We hardly have any takeaways.
I think I definitely eat for comfort, so that’s a part of it.

Strangely I can still walk up steep hills (we live in a very hilly area) and go for longish walks. I guess it is my calorie deficit that’s wrong

Ignore the advice to skip meals, that's a terrible way of going about it. Lose the high calorie snacks, lose fuzzy drinks and cut down booze.

Meal plan. Healthy meals are my h tastier than processed rubbish. Get moving, swimming, cycling, increase walking although walking alone isn't enough.

Think of what you are feeding your child too. If you have a poor relationship with food and exercise he's likely to become fat.