To think I’m someone who will never lose weight?

[AugMummy]

I’m really annoyed with myself, I spent lots of money on slim fast products to lose the weight but as I couldn’t stick to it even one day it’s been a waste. Been on and off slim fast for 10 months-1 year and kept torturing myself. I then decide to just eat healthy that lasted 2 days and I was gorging myself.

This morning I started my keto after lots of research and got all the necessary foods in. I did well in the morning I had a lovely vegetable omlette and was feeling full. Had lots of water as recommended too. Took kids to park after breakfast and saw ice cream truck and just had to have one! I then came home upset with myself and had a croissant and now just finished 3 penguins. Why can’t I stick to any diet what the hell is wrong with me? Should I just give up as I’ll always be fat as I have zero willpower.

It's like any addiction you need to keep at it and not give up.
I smoked for 25 years decide I would stop and the next week did. It was very hard but doable.
I have also lost 4 stone the same way. Fuck slim fast bollocks just eat lots of clean protein, veg and no UPFs the cravings are bad for a couple of weeks then go.
You can do it.

You aren't eating because you're hungry. So being full didn't stop you wanting the ice-cream. You will need an ability to deny your body what it's asking for if you want to lose weight. So it's a mental issue, not a physical one.

I'm really not knowledgeable about weight loss but I do find that if I quit sugar I stop craving it after a few days- no judgment as that may not be the case for you. Are there other, non sugary treats you could have on hand to get through breaking the 'sugar addiction'? And does it help to think of it as sugar addiction rather than focusing on weight? Like quitting smoking or something, somehow it seems less about judging yourself as a person/feeling shit and more about saying 'yes, it's an addiction, and it's hard?'

Edited: oh I cross posted with two others saying similar things :)

You need to try and overcome the boom or bust mentality. One ice cream doesn't mean everything is ruined and give you licence to to over-indulge (whilst telling yourself you'll start again tomorrow?). It's a mentality I'm all too familiar with, so I'm not judging!

I'd advise you against restrictive diets. Maybe start with a gentle reduction of crap, pay attention to calories but also the quality of what you're eating (definitely not-over processed Slim Fast shite), but don't go overboard and all-out; it's not maintainable and leads to binging.

I had this problem until I went cold turkey entirely on sugar and wheat. I never had any problem with weight control after that. It was the wheat and sugar that made me hungry.

Myself and dh have recently started intermittent fasting and honestly you have to be strict. The first few days were the hardest but you have to ignore the cravings and say no.

OP have you thought about trying the weight loss injections, to see if they stop your food cravings? There have been loads of threads on here with people who have had great success.

Obviously they are not for everyone, but if your issue is constant hunger they may help you.

Wegovy works for me! I don’t know of anyone who lost weight on Slimfast and Keto is a whole lifestyle change.

Have you tried calorie counting, rather than marketed diets?
You'd be able to adjust things to fit an ice cream in to your day without feeling like you fucked it.
If you try it, I'd recommend setting a small deficit - 0.5-1lb a week might seem very slow, but it is more sustainable. A year at that is going to give you a better loss than half a day of slimfast after all!

You have to accept that there are days you will fail. Can’t resist the ice-cream? - never mind, that’s not the end of the diet, it just means you’re running a day late. Lessens the need to self-sabotage with croissant and Penguins.

consider also making space for the ice cream by eating less at the next meal.

And don’t keep Penguins in the house, or other tempting snacks. It’ll set up better habits in the kids too.

Your problem is that having one treat, you then decide to throw the whole thing to the dogs. A good analogy is if you get one punctured tire, you don’t get out of the car and slash the other three. Every meal is an opportunity to make choices. Just because you had ice cream in the park, doesn’t mean you can’t make good choices for the rest of the day. Once you realise that, you will start making progress. Nobody ever got fat from one single ice cream, there are no bad and good foods. You can eat anything in moderation. The problem is a chain of bad choices and “I’ll start again on Monday” mentality.

In your head you need a different reason to lose weight than the one you are using now. As the PP said it's in your head.

Mine was anger at a previous boyfriend.I changed food cravings into anger at him and didn't need to follow through with good. And health rather than how I looked.

Good luck you got this.

I recommend Paul McKenna “I can make you Thin” or “Thin” from Audible. It comes with a PDF leaflet and guided exercises and several different hypnosis tracks. It helped me get my binge eating under control and I can lose a couple of pounds a week. It has 4 simple rules and the only time it stops working is when you stop following the rules.

The following have worked/helped for me:
. Being more scared about health than greed/longing for the food.
. Work out high risk situations and try to avoid them. I can have a cup of tea in a coffee shop, but I want something to go with it, so I avoid coffee shops.
. Buy snacks for family that they like but I'm not so bothered about, so i can leave them be.
. Remove myself from the table before dessert
. Upgrade what I can't do without, so I have moved from 'normal' dark chocolate via 70% an 80% and am now on 90% which is 'less bad'.
. Seeing a private GP every 2-3 months to give me external accountability.

Think you've had lots of great advice.

Recommend Charles Duhigg and his book The Power of Habit.

Good luck!

I agree with this 'dieting' is a lifetime thing. So have the ice-cream but learn to incorporate it with everything else in your day not say well I've fucked it now so I might as well eat all around me. I'm not trying to lose weight anymore but still do a rough total of calories in my head throughout the day. So if I have an ice cream I just cut back a bit with dinner or don't have bread with lunch or whatever. The most important thing is not to go off the tracks completely because you ate one thing that isn't ideal.

Take a look at this woman:

You really need to want to do it. I have about 7 lbs to lose so not much but was in the pattern that you’re in. I’ve had to have a total shift in mind set. I ask myself if the food is nutritious before I eat it. If the answer is no it doesn’t go in. I’ve just stopped getting an ice cream when my DD gets one, my mindset is that ice cream is for her and that I don’t buy ice creams for me anymore.

I’ve made a list of tasty, healthy snacks that I like and if I have a craving I eat those. I find having a list that I refer to stops me just mindlessly grabbing a pack of DD’s haribo. Stop fad diets, you’re not on a diet, you eat healthy, nutritious food that is good for you because that is now how you eat. Get an air fryer and you’ll be surprised by how tasty air fried chick peas and thinly sliced radishes and courgettes are! Frozen grapes are lovely. If I’m craving chocolate I have an options hot chocolate drink. It takes the edge off.

I also agree with PP that one ‘bad’ thing does not then have to turn into a bad day.

Stop beating yourself up, 4 healthy days a week are better than 7 unhealthy days. Getting off the treadmill of binging is tough but gradually reduce overtime, add in healthy snacks, move more and rather than focus on what you can’t have, focus on what you can.

I’ll just add here for information that Paul Saladino who made his fortune on carnivore diet propaganda, recently came out with admission that he knew about the health implications of the diet BEFORE his book was published and he is no longer practicing the diet himself. A slender body is not worth the potential long-term negative health effects of this fad.

I was like you. Have now been on Wegovy nearly a year, lost just over 30kgs, about two more and I'll be at my goal weight. I eat non-UPF (but can eat eg non-processed desserts if I'm craving something sweet) and intermittent fast on a 16:8 schedule. I've also taken up running, rowing and aim to start doing weights after the summer holidays... The aim is this will enable me to stay at goal weight as I titrate down from the injections.

The only way I can explain it is Wegovy helps me lose weight like a teenager... ie watch my diet and the weight comes off, simply and easily. I think it would be a waste of money to go onto Wegovy or similar without a lifestyle change as well though.

It's so hard. I am like you but have managed to stick to current diet for two weeks now which must be a record for me in the fifty years I have started diets ! I am doing intermittent fasting and cuttings out sugar and low carb. If you cut out sugar it stops the cravings. Strangely I do not have cravings now in the evening. I know I can't eat after 7pm.

Oh OP, it sucks doesn't it. I've been where you are. My life changed when I stopped seeing it as a 'body issue = i'm hungry' and realised that for me, what i thought was genuine hunger was a phantom hunger caused by 'mind issue = I want to eat'. I sat down and really tried to get to the bottom psychologically of why I was eating. You might find this helpful to do with someone.
Identify your triggers.
Do you eat at the slightest sign of hunger?
Do you eat when you might just be thirsty (to test this, if you feel hungry go drink a pint of water instead and see if that helps)
Do you eat because it's there.
Do you eat because you have a spending habit and you spend money on food.
Do you eat when you are sad.
Do you 'reward' yourself with food.
Do you eat crap because a healthier option is unavailable/harder to get hold of.
Do you snack because you've been mindless snacking for years and your body is telling you that you are 'hungry' even though logically you can't be, in which case it's just habit.
Are you just eating because it's roughly mealtime as opposed to if you are hungry or havnt had enough food that day.
Are you eating because other people are.
Are you eating because you have a sugar addiction and really struggle to turn down sugar.
Are there certain times you always end up snacking, like if you go to the corner shop for milk, do you always end up grabbing a snack too just because it's there?

Keep a food diary and try and figure all this stuff out. Write it all down, and read it every day or however you want to keep it in your mind. Be conscious of it.
Then you can fix your diet. You will feel fuller for longer with LOTS of water, veggies and protein alongside carbs. Figure out a 'menu' of meals that you actually like that include these things (instagram is great for this) then every week pick from the menu. It's okay to eat the same thing over and over again if it's the only balanced meal you like and it's got decent variety (I WISH someone had told me this!) Focus on kicking habits, sugar addiction etc before you worry too much about variety. You can do this!!

I'm on Mounjaro, doing intermittent fasting and keto. It's working for me because I have completely changed my mindset to suit myself. I can truthfully say I am not going to got though the rest of my life without eating a potato or bowl of pasta, but unless I really want the potato or pasta, I won't have it.
Yesterday I really fancied an ice cream so I had one and then I go right back to keto. Not so long ago I'd have had the ice cream, decided that I'd trashed the diet and probably had another two.
Every tiny step adds up so increase your water by an extra glass a day. Leave one forkful of food on your plate.
Baby steps!
Good luck. 😀

I feel you OP. I get horrendous sugar cravings at day 3. I struggle with things like the ice cream van - Im always torn between “seizing the moment” and my diet goals.

i also have an all or nothing mentally. In reality that one ice cream probably wouldn’t have made a dent in your diet - but all the shit you shovelled in when you got home will. I’m the same. All or nothing.

it’s really hard OP. Forget the slimfast and fad diets. Eat normal, wholesome food. Look at your protein intake (use James Smith calorie calculator) and follow the 80:20 principal.

It’s working because you’re on mounjaro - there’s nothing wrong with that but don’t suggest it’s an organic mindset change, it’s not, it’s artificially induced so OP won’t be able to achieve what you have just as easily.