If you lost weight, how did you do it?

[Darkling1]

Just looking for tips. Since being prescribed Mirtazapine (I’ve been on this for over a year.) I’ve noticed that I’ve put on weight and my clothes don’t fit me anymore.

I’m 29 and I’m 5ft 2, but I don’t know how much I weigh as I haven’t got scales in the house. I’ve made an appointment with my GP to ask for a medication change as Mirtazapine makes me hungry all of the time, which isn’t helping.

Does anyone have any tips for me in order to lose some weight please?

I don’t drink alcohol or fizzy drinks at all. My issue is my constant stacking.

Check how many calories you are eating (and drinking) presently and be realistic about portion size (check weights on packages), plenty of info on net. I found a spreadsheet useful as a daily quick ready reckoner. Found apps/website a bit time comsuming and awkward to use.
1 lb in weight is 3500 calories so target reducing calories by 500 a day to give 1 lb in weight loss per week (dont be drastic)
Look for the big items first, then the medium items that are around 100 calories a portion (e.g. 1 slice of bread is 80-100) .
You will probably find 500 calories quite easily and some extra exercise will burn off a bit more.
Dont buy anything snacky that may tempt you to go off course.
Good luck.

Calorie counting. Really that was it. I also exercised but being in a deficit was what did it. I like to feel full so lots of salads and veg to bulk out my meals. Accountability - you will have to initially weigh everything and log it on an app like My Fitness Pal. It also lets you scan done foods in as it has the nutritional values already, but be sure it’s per serving not per 100gr.
Snacking is hard as it’s a habit. You have to train yourself to liking to snack on healthy foods. I love sugar snap peas so keep some on hand and if the urge to snack occurs (usually after dinner) I grab a handful. Yep it’s not the bag of Doritos I might like but it gives a certain amount of oral satisfaction. It’s not going to be easy and you will be hungry. But get through it one day at a time. And a key tip is to not have any tempting snacks in the house in the first place! You can take a lot of calories through drinks without noticing - coffee if you use cream, fruit juices. They tend not to fill you up as much as eating say a piece of fruit.
Walking is a great exercise. Try and do a decent pace at least 8000 steps a day, but if that’s way more than what you normally do just increase your daily count by 1000 every week to build up. Good luck!

Post baby number 2 (once said baby was a year old and actually sleeping) i lost 7kg in about 5 months i did -
calorie counting tracked everything in my fitness pal, to eat in a deficit (I’m also 5ft2) I ate 1200 calories a day and tried to fill up on lots of protein. I would have one meal a week completely untracked where I could eat whatever I wanted.
3x strength training a week, used weights at home and followed workouts online.
2x running a week and 1x Pilates. 10,000 steps a day minimum.

i don’t track calories anymore and have kept my weight steady at 46kg since Xmas, I realised I love running so now run 4x a week and strength training twice instead.

it is hard on a smaller frame! I also have absolutely not tits whatsoever now but still have a soft tummy (two c-sections will do that I guess!)

I’m also 5’2”. My BMI was obese and my periods had stopped. I lost over 20% of my body weight, attained a healthy BMI and got my periods back by doing the following:

1. Focused on eating more and adding to meals rather than taking things away. For example, if I fancied pasta, once upon a time I would have made a massive bowl and had it with grated cheese. Now I think: how can I make this more balanced and nourishing? I’ll roast some veggies and stir them through. I’ll choose wholewheat pasta to up the fibre intake. Small changes add up. If I fancy crisps, I might mash an avocado and make some guacamole to dip them in. Instead of plain cereal, I might have some granola with lots of berries, yogurt, and seeds. The abundance mindset really helps.
2. Focused on nourishment and eating because I love my body. I used to eat because I was sad/stressed/angry. Now I eat to make myself feel good. I love thinking about how my food is helping my body: protein to make my muscles strong, omega 3 for my brain, carbohydrates for energy. Each time I choose something healthy to nourish my body, it comes from a place of love, not resentment.
3. Habit stacking. I didn’t go from obese to healthy overnight. I started small (aimed for 10,000 steps a day and increasing veg intake). Once I’d lost 10 pounds, I started couch25k. When I lost another 10 pounds, I cut down on UPF and so on. Don’t wait for motivation because it rarely comes. Instead, start small and the changes you notice will motivate you as you go.
4. Give yourself time: I lost 1/2 a pound a week and it took me almost 2 years to lose the weight. BUT I never felt restricted. I had energy, ate lots, ate well at parties, went out for dinner, etc. Consistency pays off.

Next time you go food shopping, I suggest you start with an abundance mindset: can you buy a delicious variety of fruit/veg/seeds/nuts/snacks/ferments to add to your meals to nourish yourself? Maybe some nice meat or fish for protein? Can you start doing 10,000 steps a day and see how you feel after 4 weeks?
I guarantee you will have lost some weight, feel positive and have the motivation to keep going. Good luck - you can do it!!

The medication increases your appetite, but doesn't directly make you gain weight. If you can use willpower to overcome the hunger pangs, it's perfectly possible to maintain your weight - or even lose weight - on mirtazipine.
Calories in, calories out - it still boils down to this.

I take mirtazapine myself and so does my partner. It works overall but does make you ravenous (oddly not my best mate who is also on it, on a fairly high dose).
There's nothing specific I would say about taking mirtazapine really - it's still the same logic of noticing food cravings for what they are and scaffolding something into your life that helps you resist them.

Agree with the advice to eat stuff that fills you up but isn’t too high in calories

Snack on radishes, celery, cucumber etc. Have some pre prepared in the fridge so they’re easy to grab.

Drink a glass of water first if you feel peckish.

Soup is ideal for the colder months. Filling but is mostly water and fibre.

Swap cheese for cottage cheese. Crisps for popcorn. Sweet stuff for fruit.

To offer an alternative approach to calorie counting, which I wouldn't know where to start with, what's worked for me this year is to weigh myself every few days - always under the same conditions, so, in the morning, naked after I've gone for a wee!

I then make note of whether I've lost, gained or maintained, and mentally log the sorts of meals I've been eating, in the sorts of portion sizes, to achieve that result.

It probably works well for me as I like to eat a lot of the same meals over and over again.

So once I know that I can lose a 1lb in a few days eating these 2 or 3 particular breakfasts, these particular lunches and these particular dinners, with these 2 snacks and an evening glass of wine (or whatever), I can just replicate as needed.

I wouldn't know if I eat 1200 or 2200 calories a day, but know what an appropriate deficit looks like.

Calorie counting (very, very meticulously) and HIIT five days a week.

I'd rather be fat than eat radishes, celery and cottage cheese. 🤣🤣🤣

(Being facetious, sorry)

Also check portion size. The recommended portion is always much, much smaller than you'd expect eg some cereal portion sizes barely cover the bottom of the bowl.

I lost around 10 stone by simply not eating very much.

Just eat like someone who is on mounjaro. You don't need to actually be having the injections to mimic their eating.

"Starvation mode" isn't real (until you are actually starved, body not working, organs start shutting down etc, your body obviously uses fewer calories then, but that takes a long long time to even begin to happen).

Most of us have to eat a lot less than we're told to actually achieve weightloss. That's why all these people eating 1200 - 1400 calories see no movement on the scale (especially if female and on the shorter side), it's way too much. We're not told this because it means an acknowledgement that losing weight isn't actually super good for you and is NOT about willpower etc - it's about how willing you are to feel tortured for an extended period of time. I enjoy it, personally, feels better than eating. But normal people don't.

A lot of money is made by convincing you to think its easy, healthy and you just somehow suck by not being able to manage it.

That's why mounjaro helps, it helps you hit those very low levels of calorie intake in the absence of an eating disorder... Nothing else. And it's encouraged because it makes a lotttt of money. But you can mimic having mounjaro just by being strict with yourself if you're deadly serious. You'll probably get diagnosed with anorexia as I was though. They don't like it when you can hit mounjaro levels of calorie intake without spending money on it.

potentially not helpful but I highly recommend The Broken Heart Diet 💔🤦🏼‍♀️

Have some f*cker draw you in and then break your heart - works a treat for weight-loss 😂😂😂

There's mention of cottage cheese up thread...Is everyone aware of cottage cheese ice cream? I've been eating a bowl a day for weeks now!

Blend cottage cheese to remove the lumps (it's less sour than Greek yoghurt), mix in coco powder and maple syrup (and I add salt and protein powder). Freeze.

Calorie deficit. Weighing all my food and setting a weekly limit. Drinking water and sleeping. I lost weight like that and it took about a year. Then I put half of it back on again. I’m on Mounjaro now and that coupled with the habits I learned re portions and food means I’ve almost effortlessly lost weight and I’m not in a healthy BMI range. I’ll be on it forever though

I am your height and after being 9 stone for most of my adult life I ended up at 13 stone a few years ago. I am now 10 stone, and aiming to lose a stone more. My waist is 29 inches down from 40 inches.

I lost the weight by first weighing myself - actually had stopped weighing myself regularly that summer and then when I got on the scales was horrified to see I was almost 13 stone. Had been 12 stone just a few months earlier. Genuinely thought scales must’ve been wrong. Went to the local Boots to double check on their scales that show BMI, weight and body fat and yeah I was even a pound or two heavier 😆 with a high body fat percentage. BMI around 33.

Not surprising really when I think of it now, throughout the pandemic I was ordering takeaways multiple times a week, baking cakes and cookies a few times a week which i’d devour in one or two sittings and/or eating store bought cakes. Bingeing on whole jars of biscoff or peanut butter and eating huge amounts of white bread. I was WFH and very sedentary. My portions were out of control and my food choices weren’t the best.

So yeah that was the shock I needed to push myself into action. I had a treadmill at home as I was wary of going to the gym during the pandemic but I focused on diet first. Did online slimming world for a few months - focusing on whole foods and reducing UPFs. Lost almost a stone.

I tried a variety of other things but what really has worked the best since about 2023 is eating two meals a day and walking for at least 45 minutes a day. I mainly just drink water or coffee/tea with no sugar. My meals consist of things like
Salmon and brown rice
mackerel, chickpeas and veg
chicken and rice
roasted potato wedges or sweet potato chunks and 5% beef mince
sourdough bread and fried or scrambled eggs
homemade pancakes and fruit

If I snack it will be 100g of low fat high protein yoghurt or an apple with peanut butter.

I don’t go to the gym anymore but do YouTube exercise videos and use my walking pad also have dumbbells, but I’m naturally muscly anyway so right now I am more focusing on cardio. I still WFH most days but now have a standing desk which encourages me to move around more.

I aim for about 1000-1300 calories a day and weigh myself regularly. I worked out my calorie allowance using one of those online TDEE calories. When I was heavier my calorie allowance was higher so again it’s really important to weigh yourself at least at the beginning. I have nutracheck but don’t always use it, as I now have a pretty good idea of how much calories my meals have and I keep a mental note of things. I used to use MYP to check calories daily at the start though. It was very helpful.

Ignorance isn’t bliss in this situation.
I could easily have gained another stone that summer if I hadn’t weighed myself, because I really thought I was losing or at least maintaining weight until I jumped on the scales!

I don’t use any WLI and I’ve tried to make sustainable changes so I do still occasionally eat cakes and I often have dark chocolate in the house and will go out to eat with friends at least once a month.

A lot of it has been sheer willpower but I’ve tried to make things easier for myself by getting better sleep as I’m way less likely to binge or have sugar cravings if I’m not sleep deprived. It’s much easier to eat healthier when you’re not chronically sleep deprived. In fact a lot of My over eating was linked to my insomnia. Walking during the day really helps me sleep. If I’m completely sedentary I struggle to sleep.

I also have removed most temptations from my home - I usually don’t keep things like biscuits or pastries or chocolates in the house unless I have guests. I eat fruit daily for my sweet tooth but don’t go overboard.

And just to add I could’ve lost the weight faster if I had figured out what works for me earlier, if I was more consistent in staying below 1300 calories and also if didn’t eat out as much when I travel (which is a lot) Adding in a few gym sessions a week on top of my walking would probably speed things up too.

But I’ve been happy with my slow and steady weight loss. I have very gradually created habits which are sustainable and not too hard to keep to most days.

So doing it this way I don’t see myself reverting back to my old lifestyle and piling the weight back on. My desire to overeat or go on sugar binges most days has been drastically reduced. I have gone off a lot of UPFs and takeaways are mostly unsatisfying to me now. And I like walking and stretching daily.

Not eating until 12noon each day really helps focus my mind on other things and I’m overall less food obsessed. I try and eat between 12 and 8pm usually.

Great post. Thank you x

I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve been there too, once upon a time.

Just an update. I haven’t put on a great deal of weight, but I think it really shows on me due to my height, unfortunately.

I was a size 10 prior to being prescribed Mirtazapine. I’m now a 12 and sometimes a 14.

My GP has one of those scales, which calculates BMI, so I’ll use that when I attend my appointment in two weeks time.

My issue is that I don’t just feel hunger, I get ravenous and sometimes carbs will only do. I’ve been obsessed with food since being prescribed Mirtazapine, so I really needs that prescription changed.

Chewing gum.

Good old calorie counting, using a TDEE calculator to set my daily amount to ‘slow weight loss’. Found an exercise I enjoyed and did it once a week. Then totally ignored my weight and kept eating that way until it became a habit and I didn’t need to calorie count any more, and it was no longer a diet, just my normal every day lifestyle. Kept off since 2012.

Nutracheck. Subscription costs less than 10p a day. Portion and calorie control. I lost just over 2 stone in 8 months and I use it occasionally to keep my greediness in check. I'm just under 5ft, aged 57 and now 8st 7lb, a healthy bmi. Exercise was minimal, faster walking around Tesco and occasional walks, no cycling, gym, running or swimming. I'm tee total and I didn't cut out "naughty" foods just weighed them and included in my 1400 daily calories.

Talk to your GP about a metformin prescription - they can be very effective at controlling blood sugar and cravings/hunger with meds like mirtazipine.

I lost a lot of weight with the Human Being Diet, my portion sizes and snacking had got out of control. The HBD is very strict around weighing food and eating windows, so it worked really well for me. The book is the only cost. There's also a really active and supportive instagram community