Losing weight, weight loss injections or gym?

[undecidedfatty]

I've recently been lucky enough to go up a pay grade. The number one things which gets me down, which has always got me down, is my weight. I've been a size 16 since I was a teenager and I can't seem to change it. It goes up and down a bit but I've never been a healthy weight. I lost quite a bit a few years ago by fasting every day but I can't do it now as I get too shaky and irritated.
I'm a single parent, I have two small children all the time, I work full time out of the house in a healthcare related role and I cannot lose any weight. This is partly circumstantial as often the thought of a few rich tea biscuits is all that gets me through a difficult shift. My DC's don't sleep, one has autism and I honestly can't keep my mind on dieting. I don't overeat but I often make a cheese toastie for tea or pot noodle (I'm veggie) as I'm so busy and worn out, I'm also skint a lot.
I really need to do something and thought I want to lose weight. I'm not looking for a quick fix (and I don't think such a quick fix exists) but I can't carry on trying to reduce calories as it just feels so joyless in an already pretty difficult existence.
Would the weight loss injections be a good investment? Or would a nice gym membership (with pool) be a better investment? I really want to do something to improve my overall well-being, and feel more refreshed outside of work, mum life.
I would really appreciate some advice from mums in similar situations, especially if you have chosen one of these options. I really don't want suggestions on home exercise (tried it, kids don't let me, no room) or complex diets when I'm constantly on the go, running on adrenaline, no time to cook etc. I'm out the house from 7.30am until 7.30 pm and I have no time nor energy when I get back. I don't enjoy cooking and I can't even batch cook as we have a tiny freezer. I don't even get a lunch break.
I have about £150 a month to tackle this and I really need help after 20 years of trying to do this the natural way.

The thing is, as you realise, you’re already quite active in your job and running around after the children. It’s diet and rest you need. You’re constantly stressed and exhausted so the cortisol and sugar combo (loads of sugar in bread and biscuits etc) is going to really send you on that constant rollercoaster of energy highs and lows. Adding more exercise I doubt will help at all, in fact it might make it worse as your body is already so taxed.

You know you won’t eat better and won’t batch cook and resent even spending on healthier food even though you can afford it now and you’ve correctly identified you have some issues with this. It really is the place to start. The food you eat, especially with such a busy and active and stressful lifestyle will make or break this even with exercise and even with weight loss injections.

If it was me i’d be thinking a lot about how come I make the time for my work my kids the house and all this stuff but not for that half an hour to cook or to make healthier food choices. I’d cut down my hours if I could and use the time to rest and prep food to fuel me for the rest of the gruelling week.

An article on stress, cortisol and weight gain: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4dscGVpxYk3ttlnrwn1VnR3/can-stress-make-you-fat

How old are your children? Once they are teenagers it does get easier to fit in health and wellbeing. It is so hard when they are young!

DL sounds like a lovely idea. The kids will enjoy it and you will too! It's healthy for all of you and I genuinely believe it's important for children to see parents having a hobby.

I go to a lovely gym(kids are older). What I will say is some of the healthiest and fittest women are at least a size 12!

I personally can't see how anyone wants to risk their health with those weight lose injections, there's no medium/long term evidence on the effects. Unless they have a serious health condition made worse by weight, such as diabetes. Exercise is far less important than diet. I don't really see when you'd have time to go to the gym anyway? Surely use that time to meal plan and prep healthy food so you can take it to work/eat after work. That will be of far greater benefit to your kids as well, if they have healthy meals.

If you have the injections but don’t change your diet/lifestyle won’t that mean you have to have injections for ever? Who knows what the long term implications are?
Can you not use the money to buy healthy meals which will help you lose weight and might give you more energy?

have a listen to this OP

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/zoe-science-nutrition/id1611216298?i=1000606583568

The Zoe Science and Nutrition podcast has a solid and reliable science foundation. You will know that they have a vested interest in pushing their diet program and app yet this podcast explains why injections can work well for some people.

There is a happy medium! I totally agree with your thoughts about the meal boxes! Can you order shopping online? It will take you 40 mins to sit and plan four evenings worth of meals and order from Tescos. Then let yourself have a couple of days of eating whatever. Small steps!

I've done both in my life and both worked.

I lost 3 stone in 2006 by joining a gym. I went 5 times a week for an hour. To keep it off I continued to go with that frequency. I stayed a size 10 until perimenopause 9 years ago when the gym stopped working.

I started Ozempic in April 2023. I've lost 3 and a half stone ( now on Wegovy)

I don't think from what you've said that you will go to the gym enough to lose a significant amount of weight.

Your diet doesn't sound great. You need to overhaul that even if you go on Wegovy. Have a look at the Mindful Chef ready meals. They are healthy, delicious and quick. They arrive frozen but you can store them chilled.

For me there are two separate issues. Your weight and your well being. Your well being will be helped in every way by regular consistent exercise. Your weight won’t be affected by the gym at all from my own experience of 4-5 hours per week at the gym and still a stable size 16. I’m fat but energised and very, very content.

I did some work a while back with an online Diet coach. His diet like every other diet really consisted of a protein target, a moderate calorie deficit target, eating high volume low calorie dense foods (veg/salad) a steps target and an exercise target. I started to lose weight consistently with that but life got in the way.

I am going to get back to it now with one small change that I’m going to eat the same breakfast and lunch for a few days in a row because I got a fair bit of decision fatigue with the diet coupled with the rest of my life.

Personally in your shoes I would try a calorie deficit first with some of above stuff added in and then if you don’t get the result you want maybe injections.

A tiny freezer might be an issue - though mine is pretty small and you can definitely do some batch cooking even with a tiny space. 'I don't enjoy cooking' is a daft excuse. We have to do lots of things we don't enjoy to get things we want (in this case a healthy diet and weight loss).

Why couldn't you exercise in a Saturday before?

I would suggest unpicking the reasons why I feel so worthless that I see feeding myself well as an inconvenience and unnecessary cost
Now we are getting to the root of the issue. I’m on an alcohol support thread and we were just discussing how we sometimes look at the cost of good quality, nutritious food and think ‘No way’ but would have spent 5x that on wine over the course of a week, without a second thought.

Maybe try one of the weight loss threads on here. I’ve found people nothing but supportive on the alcohol ones. One of the phrases that has stuck with me is ‘nourish ourself not punish ourself’. Rings true for a lot of us when it comes to food and drink.

@Peonies12 but have you been significantly overweight for your whole life? I haven't just ballooned over the last few years, I have been a size 16, then 18, then 14, then 16 again for my whole adult life. I have always been the fat friend. During that time I have been a working professional on a good salary, a very skint parent of two under two, worked in a very physically demanding role, worked a desk job and been a student. Yet I barely change in terms of my physical shape. Despite having periods where I spent a lot on food, had a PT, and then periods where I slept for two hours a night, couldn't drive so walked everywhere. Yet I'm consistently overweight. Even my GP finds it very odd.
So despite lifestyle changes and variants in how many calories I am expending, something in me makes me overeat enough to stay overweight.
That's why I'm curious about the injections.

Her current BMI won't be affecting ability to move around. I know because I've been exercising from a much higher BMI and am now about where she is.

I don't eat until at least 12pm. Black coffee and water before then. It sounds awful but honestly I find it totally easy, look forward to my lunch but don't feel starving or weird. Then I avoid sugar as much as possible, including carbs. That works well for me in terms of weight loss.

I did eat a cinnamon bun in a cafe yesterday but as I'd also done 20,000 steps I figured it wouldn't count!

@Prenelope yes I used to be able to do that but now I just feel awful. Maybe I'm pre diabetic already :(

Reading that I suspect you would really benefit from the injections. Your body seems to hold onto weight no matter what is going on around you, that usually points to hormone issues. That is where the weight loss injections come into their own. They are designed to interfere with the hormone system.

I also find it really hard to lose weight. Although I wasn't that honest with myself - felt that the weekends were a time for overindulgence etc.

GLP-1 injections have been used in humans for 20 years and are some of the most tested drugs on earth. We know that for the vast majority it f people dieting doesn’t work. These medications do. A BMI of 34 raises the risk of many diseases including cancer. It’s not like someone with a BMI of 24 using them.

I'd get a gym membership, there are many more benefits of exercise other than losing weight.

And OP every suggestion other than injections like batch cooking exercise etc you are making excuses up, if you want to use injections do it stop seeking others approval.

You probably feel awful because you are stressed and tired and running on empty. Could you eat three meals a day for a couple of weeks with no snacking? Absolutely no snacks at all? I do that when I want to reset myself.

Gym membership is a great idea. How about a food delivery / fruit box delivery?

You need to try and change your mindset regarding waste in particular. The food is wasted whether it goes in the bin or whether you eat it despite not needing it.

You can’t out train a bad diet. You really need to start with food. I’d personally invest in meal
prep or something and have them delivered. Calorie controlled healthy and have nothing else in the house you can binge on

@BigDahliaFan

Really no the weight loss drugs, you have 2 young kids and no one knows the long term effects of the drugs.

It is extremely important to understand that medical risks are increased hugely by being obese. The risk of obesity far outweigh the risk of using injections. That evidence is absolutely clear.

Also, the drugs have been in use for Type 2 diabetes for a long time and medical science is a lot more sophisticated than “oh let’s just approve a drug cos it seems OK right now and cross our fingers about the long term effects”.

I do think that a lot of the scaremongering comes from the fact that the drugs are injected rather than taken in tablet or capsule form. People seem to make a mental negative connection between needles and junkies shooting up. Whereas it’s actually often safer to take a drug subcutaneously because it reduces risk of damage to the stomach.