To lose 80lbs this year? Is it doable?

[FootballFanGirl]

I'm very overweight. I'm tipping the scales at 18st 13lbs, aside from when I have birth to my son last year I was 22 stone which I manag d to lose without trying really, this is the biggest I've been although I've always had issues with my weight up and down since I was a child. I don't want to be fat anymore, I want to be healthy and slim and just feel better. My mobility is bad now, all my bones ache, I have back problems, knee problems, you name it. I know that my weight isn't helping me. I want to lose 80lbs so around 5-6 stone. Ice already made some big dietry changes. And trying to be in a calorie deficit. I struggle to do vigorous excercise because I'm always in so much pain, I also have bad anxiety mainly health anxiety and terrified that my heart won't take the exercise and I'll die!! Silly I know. I do walk alot and most days walk between 4-5 miles pushing my son in his buggy. I don't really understand how it works . I know that I need to burn more calories than I consume but how on earth do you burn 1500 calories in one day alone? (Just an example) especially when mobility is bad like mine? Is there anyone that can give me some advice, some stories or just words of encouragement? Now that I've sat here and said it aloud I feel like I'm being unreasonable to think I could actually lose 80lbs and get to my goal weight. Any opinions or thoughts appreciated.

I started at 18st 10 and 3 years later I'm 14st10 still slowly working on it. I used nutracheck only set to 1lbs loss a week and have worked hard on my relationship with food. I used the fitness chef books to retrain my brain no more good food bad food and I have never gone back up more than the odd lb (I've also had another baby in this time) I still want to lose another 3stone over the next 2 to 3 years I know from experience for me personally losing fast never stays off for me and I'm miserable

You can do it! You've already lost more than 2 stone, and as you said that was without really trying. I lost 6 stone in just over a year (which is about what you're aiming for) - admittedly I don't have your mobility problems so could go for slightly higher impact exercises but I found the main thing that helped me was that mental 'switch' from wanting to eat for comfort, boredom, pleasure, to wanting to lose the weight more than I wanted that extra cake, toast, half a packet of biscuits with my tea...

Your body burns a certain amount of calories just existing - all those bodily functions like digesting food and powering your muscles. Moving around increases the calories you burn. If you try out a free app like Google Fit or myfitnesspal it'll help you to estimate how many calories you're burning using different activities. Myfitnesspal will also help you keep track of the calories you put in (so would things like weight watchers or slimming world). Keeping track of what you eat and when you do or don't lose weight will help you work out which foods and exercises work best for you - what meals fill you up without stuffing you with fats or sugars, which exercises burn more calories per minute.

I was 121kg and totally unfit, and went straight into beginners level martial arts classes - your body will soon let you know if it can handle more. Free online workouts like bodyproject on YouTube are easy to access, encouraging, and they give beginners versions for each exercise they use.

You can do this. You absolutely can.

You don’t need to burn 1500 calories through exercise OP. Your body uses 1200-1500 calories per day just to exist.

There are various apps that can help you figure out what your baseline calorie level is. Then you take off a couple of hundred for the deficit.

At least to start off with try to separate out food calories from exercise. Treat exercise as being a habit that is good for you, rather than trying to keep track of calories burned through exercise.

I’m not sure if this helps but I think exercise can seem overwhelming when viewed as you need to run/walk x distance to burn x calories (usually not a lot, like half a Snickers bar 🤣).

Your big muscles are your thighs and your bum and generally trying to be more mobile with those throughout your day will help. Going up and down stairs, bending and lifting properly and staying busy in terms of what you are physically doing may be more of a help than you realise.

I try to b active, I have a toddler who I'm constantly running around after and I do all the house work every single day. I get a sweat on running around with the hoover. I thought about swimming as I like swimming and it's something I know I can do without being in loads of pain in that moment. I admit my downfall is eating out of boredom or emotional eating and sweet things on a nighttime.

I'm afraid you can't outrun your fork, so while exercise can help, for most people to lose weight it requires a dedicated effort to cut calories and consume less food.

I am slim and if I run I tend to gain weight as it makes me ravenously hungry.

You could try keto or low carb as that works for some people. For me it's unsustainable and it might be for you too, if you try a diet like that and can't stick to it then it's easy to feel like you failed but you haven't. You have just tried a diet that didn't work for you. Different things work for different people.

Fat in your diet isn't that bad for you if it's healthy fats and eating high fibre foods will make you feel fuller than high protein foods alone.

Low calorie foods like soups and salads can be served alongside smaller portions of 'normal' foods to help tip your diet towards high fibre and nutrients rich foods. I often have miso broth with vegetables as a soup and on the side have a very small portion of what my partner might be eating (pasta, potatoes etc).

What carbs like white rice and bread are essentially awful for you and should be cut down as much as possible.

Alcohol and sugary drinks can make anybody gain weight, drinking calories is often why most people don't realise they are over consuming. Sugar in drinks even tea and coffee can cause blood sugar spikes and when your blood sugar falls again it makes you more hungry.

You need to examine your diet and figure out where the extra calories are coming from, you need to know what your issues are before you can modify your diet or manage that particular food group or eating habit. You could keep a diary of every single thing you eat for a month so you can really look at it written down. If you are emotional eating or it's related to mental health or disordered eating eg binging it will be far harder to manage just with normal diet changes and you might need professional help before you can get it under control.

Have you considered a low carb diet? It's a good way to drop weight because you get to eat lots of filling food (meat, fish, lots of veg, eggs, some dairy) and it makes you cut out sugary junk and lots of ultra processed foods. I'll warn you in advance that it's very unforgiving if you cheat, but if you stick to it, it's great to lose weight and not be hungry.
If you have some smart scales you can work out your basal metabolic rate (the calories you burn just by living), if you prefer a calorie count approach.
Try to do some exercise every day, even if it's just a walk. YouTube has some great at home exercises. Anything is better than nothing.
I wouldn't aim to go too much too soon as you will struggle to stick your it.

It's good to be active but exercise is not that helpful for weight loss and you need to focus on your diet. Use one of the online calculators to figure out the calories you need and use something like nutracheck or myfitnesspal to keep a food diary.
Get some digital kitchen and also bathroom scales.
It will be hard. Don't aim for 80lbs, aim for 10lbs and then another 10 and then another. A huge goal will feel too hard.

Thank you. Iv just don't the online calculator for BMR and it says 1912 kcal so I don't understand really what this means!! I know I need to take it a day at a time. I suppose I just so badly want to be so much smaller! And fitter!

@FootballFanGirl it means if you have a sedentary day and you eat more than 1912 you will gain weight, but for that same sedentary day if you eat less than that you will lose weight (on average).

Hi op, I'm the same weight you are now and I've just lost 2 stone. Still have another 8 to go. It seems so daunting, but the trick is to make small changes that are sustainable yet build up healthy habits. If you do too much to start with, you will get overwhelmed, bored, and/or frustrated and stop, thus ending up back at the beginning.

What small things do you think would help? For me, it was making meal plans every week for my 3 meals a day(or making them 2 or 3 weeks in advance to ensure I don't have an excuse to order takeaway) and sticking to them.

Taking water to work with me instead of fizzy juice was another small, sustainable habit that's been helping me lose weight.

And finally incorporating more steps into my day, eg. Talking the stairs at work instead of the lift, putting on my earphones when cooking dinner and dancing round the kitchen 🤣 etc.

I wouldn't worry too much at the minute about workouts and exercising, weight loss mostly comes from a calorie deficit, not burning calories.

I would focus more on building small yet effective healthy habits until they become second nature 😀 then you can go from there when you've got a handle on the healthy eating.

Two things I have found to be useful are take photos at the start and throughout your journey, because you often can't see your progress with you look in the mirror. When I compare pics of me at the start compared to now I am completely amazed by the difference.

And most importantly of all, have patience with yourself. It's going to take a long time to lose a lot of weight. That shouldn't put you off because the time is going to pass by anyway, so don't let this make you feel like weight loss is insurmountable. It isn't, and we're both going to kick obesity's ass 🙌 good luck op, hope this has helped.

The science has moved on so much in recent years and there is now a lot more understanding about the causes of obesity. Its linked to insulin resistance which is reversible through intermittant fasting. I thoroughly recommend reading fast feast repeat by gin Stephens. It has changes my life. Also the obesity code by Jason fung. Also listen to intermittant fasting stories for inspiration. You can do this!

Absolutely. I went from 18 stone 4lb to 12 stone 1lb in 8 months.

I still treated myself but only occasionally. I calorie counted and went to the gym 4 time a week.

I did managed to keep most off. Hovered at around 13stone for a few years but I am huge again, partly after my mum dying last year and partly because I'm now 25 weeks pregnant 😂 once this baby is here I am determined to try and get back down to 14 stone by Xmas (due in april)

Definitely look at low carb and/ or intermittent fasting. At your weight you are very likely insulin resistant which can make weight loss harder. This is because you can feel hungry even after eating or soon after eating.

People will tell you it's just calories in versus calories out. But they completely ignore how much your body is able to change its metabolic rate. That's how some people live for years on incredibly low calorie diets.

Both intermittent fasting and low carb addresses the issue of insulin resistance. Dr Jason Fung, Dr Michael Moseley and Dr Unwin are all worth looking up and seeing what they recommend.

What is insulin resistance?

You can definitely lose 80lbs if you stick with your calorie deficit and start ramping up the exercise a bit. It might take more than this year, but you can definitely do it. I wouldn’t set a target date to lose it by, but it’s certainly possible to lose that amount of weight steadily over a sustained period.

I lost 65lbs in about that time through calorie counting and exercise.

I would like to lose as much as I can by the summer. Just so I'm not a huge sweaty mess and I can wear nice clothes and do nice things without being so conscious about what I look like.

To lose 80lbs this year? Is it doable

Well there's only one day left this year so probably not 😁

I'm in the same boat though OP with wanting to lose quite a lot next year so I'm not a fat sweaty mess in summer again

@FootballFanGirl so insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas when you consume carbohydrates which includes starch and sugars. It tells your cells to take up glucose from the blood. This keeps the glucose levels in the blood at a relatively constant level.

When you are insulin resistant your cells are already full of glucose and start to stop responding to the insulin and as a result the pancreas has to release even more insulin to keep the blood glucose levels normal. This process goes on every time you eat carbohydrates. You end up with fat accumulating inside organs like the liver and pancreas which is very bad for your health.

If you want to lose weight you need your body to burn the stored fat you have in your cells. But while insulin levels are high you can't access your stored fat and burn it. Only when insulin falls can your then burn the fat it has stored inside it's cells.

Some people cause insulin to drop by eating a low carb diet. Others cause it to fall by intermittent fasting for example only eating in an 8 hour window. Some do one meal a day. Others fast for 24 hours or more several times a week. Key is to find what works for you.

One of the benefits to a low carb diet is it can stop you feeling hungry. Once your body has switched from burning sugar and started burning fat it has plenty to burn so doesn't need to trigger hunger hormones as much.

But when you are changing from burning sugar to fat you can feel rough and a little weak. I definitely felt it for a few days. Worth it though. I'm 40 pounds lighter and all those aches and pains have stopped. I'm considering starting running as a new year resolution.

Good luck!

This.

I am Tyoe 2 diabetic, and I know that a steady exercise regime and lowering my carb intake and following 16:8 (basically no traditional breakfast meal) both lowers my blood glucose and sheds fat quickly for me - burning the internal fat around d my organs is what deals with the improved blood glucose, I see results quickly which spurs me on to keep at it. I have come to realise just how much of my calorie intake used to come from carbs.

Even pre-diabetes I never managed to burn fat so effectively and sustainably.

I used to think I needed lots of carbs to feel full but I now know nothing is further from the truth.

Keep up the walking, it’s as good an exercise as any. You could try short intervals of walking extra fast.

Cut out bread, biscuits and cake, pasta, rice and potatoes. Avoid low fat anything as they tend to be full of sugar. Don’t eat anything after evening meal.

January 2021 I weighed in at 305lbs.
December 2021 I weighed in at 199lbs.

I stuck to 2000 calories a day and I started by hitting a 7k step goal each day. To start with I found that step goal hard to hit. Once I lost some weight I found I was hitting between 10-15k daily. And I was more active in general.

It's doable.

Wow! That's amazing!

Do not cut out whole foods groups. That is unsustainable. There's nothing wrong with bread or potatoes as long as you account for it. But do try and cut back alcohol/sodas/fruit juices.
Get yourself something like My Fitness Pal app. Log in everything you eat, aim for 1500/day is a good start. You will have to weigh things. Also you can scan food labels and it will tell you the calorie count. Do not eat back your exercise calories as most apps way overestimate what you burn.
Consistency is key. You will slip up just get right back on it the next day, if not the next meal. Keep up the walking it's an excellent low impact and free workout. As you lose you can speed up a bit.
Don't try and lose too much too quick. 2lbs a week is plenty - that's 8-9lbs/month. Your first month you my lose as much as 14 (a stone) due to water loss which can be motivating.

Some great advice here.

you can absolutely do this. I lost 5 stone this year via eating once a day, eating low carb and walking a lot. Stay in a gentle calorie deficit, keep moving and stick to it, and you’ll succeed.