Gained 30kg in 3 years

[Jelllytot]

Please be gentle. I am at my heaviest I've ever been. I just weighed myself and I weigh 96kg. I ordered some clothes to arrive for a little trip I'm going on and I bought everything in a size 20 because I thought it would be quite loose and I am so self conscious I just hoped it would hide things. It arrived, I saw it and I immediately thought I'd have to return it because they looked so big. I tried it on and it's snug in some places. I am so disappointed in myself. These are from Next so I know the clothes are usually quite generous.

Before the pandemic I would gym 4ish times a week and eat so well. But since getting marrie din the pandemic I have let myself go so much. Both me and DH are so unhealthy.

I had a baby 7 months ago and I've been advised I can't do the following until I heal my pelvic floor:
Anything high impact
No jumping
No running
No lifting heavy weights
Those are all the things that I would have done previously to lose weight. Nowadays if I walk for too long (eg. A day out in the countryside for a long walk, hurts me where my pelvic floor is, so my physio has said to stick to short brisk walks instead). I have no idea how I'm going to make a dent in my weight loss like this.

If anyone has successfully managed to lose about 30kg (or anything of that magnitude) I would love to hear from you. I am not into fad diets and am very happy to take things slowly.

What do you eat on a typical day? Weight loss at this stage will be far more about what you eat rather than exercise.

It’s going to be all about the food.
What you eat and how much of it.
You’re going to need to be very honest with yourself.

This is very true.
But hard when you are short of sleep, and you say your baby is still under a year...

That said, regular exercise is great at helping to reach a healthy weight and body and a happy mind. Cycling and swimming come to mind as well as indoor rowing and yoga/pilates with a very safe and experienced instructor.

Also, ask your physio what weights you can safely lift: run things like calf raises, chest press or dumbbell fly on a flat bench past them, they may think up some light resistance work which would be safe for you now.

I do feel for you OP.
Weight gain is often the "battle scars" of a woman's life. But people don't always see it that way.

Are you breastfeeding? Because that will definitely impact on the food side if you are.

I completely understand where you are coming from because i went from 79kg pre pandemic to 99kg post pandemic and first baby. Once i stopped breastfeeding, i did Michael Mosley's Fast 800 plan + intermittent fasting. I lost 12kg in 12weeks but then stopped as i found out i was pregnant with no 2. I also took up swimming again. I had just got into really crap habits with food, lazy cooking, too many carbs and too much sugar etc. Usual story. I found following a plan helped to reset my mindset and some new recipes made it less tempting to slip into old habits. Good luck - its not easy but it absolutely can be done! 💪

Did the physiotherapist suggest any exercises apart from short walks? If not, go back, or find a different one, or a qualified personal trainer. Having said that, Lucy Wyndham Read has lots of short, fairly gentle workouts, so if you are clear about what you shouldn't do, I'd have a look at her channel.

Exercise is important, but to lose the weight you need to change what and how much you eat. What works for me is:

Intermittent fasting and no snacking/'treats'
Cutting out all UPF, sugar and refined carbs.
Eat mostly plants, plus moderate amounts of lean protein, and some complex carbs, healthy fats and dairy.

Example :
Brunch: 2-egg omelette with veg or salad; OR a large mixed salad with some crunch (eg shredded cabbage) and either 2 boiled eggs or a can of tuna or some leftover protein from last night's dinner.
Snack: fruit, handful of nuts or half a cup of full fat Green yoghurt or cottage cheese.
Dinner: Lots of vegetables/salad and 120-150 g of chicken, salmon or tofu, plus a small amount of complex carbs (lentils, quinoa etc).
A few berries if you need something sweet.

Thank you everyone for your very helpful replies.

My diet and lifestyle are rubbish - especially during pregnancy and post-baby. I had a tricky pregnancy so ordered a lot of food (although the food wasn't unhealthy, I think restaurant "healthy" isn't exactly like home made healthy) and the portion sizes probably didn't help either.

I am breastfeeding, what are the diet implications? With the baby I struggle to cook daily etc and we've been guilty of getting takeout maybe 4 times a week. And where I had gestational diabetes, now the baby is born I just have been eating terribly. Our takeouts are usually burgers and fries chicken.

My meals that I do cook are usually pasta or jacket potatoes. We do get a meal subscription from a place that is supposed to be balanced with macros etc but we've probably eaten like that for 4 weeks over the space of 5 months. I snack a lot on biscuits. Or I'll stick something like potato gratin in the oven with some chicken. I rarely have breakfast and if I do it is probably croissants or sugar waffles. Just writing this all down makes me cringe.

Wow. That's really inspiring.

I can't swim sadly but am looking into lessons .

Also, I am relieved to hear it will be more about food at this stage as at least that's something I can be in control of and do something with unlike my exercise situation.

TBH, while that does sound like things have been pretty difficult - the plus side is that you are likely to be able to make fairly simple changes and still lose weight.

I.e. if you could batch cook (not especially hugely healthy food) to facilitate cutting down takeaways to one every couple of weeks, you might find that's enough to tip the balance?

I'm still obese, having put on 3 stone in 3 years. But I was eating a lot of crap snacks. Literally just cutting out the crap snacks has tipped the balance enough that I am losing weight. It's slowly but I find it much more manageable than trying to manage a full diet change, certainly all at once. Other bits I am adding in a bit at a time.

Swimming is good for gentle exercise but you won't lose much weight doing it at first (you need good form plus lots of pool time) and diet will be key - but definitely take lessons. It's such good family exercise and you can take the baby as a fun thing to do.

Honestly just walk and build up slowly and maybe look for a postnatal class that specialises in pelvic floor and core exercise.

Gousto or hello fresh might help. You cook it yourself and the recipe cards come with calories and other nutritional info on them.

I'm sorry to hear you are struggling. You can maybe take heart that exercise makes surprisingly little difference to weight loss. Swimming is an excellent choice if weight bearing is an issue, and noone will notice any little leaks in the pool.
Portion control and frequency of eating are the next consideration. It's useful to have some fairly rigid guidance to get you started on the right track, either by groups or apps. I found the key for me was fasting, with nothing but water and black coffee passing my lips from 8pm one day to 5pm the next. In the eating hours I had an early medium sized balanced meal with the kids, a very small pudding (like a couple of squares of chocolate), and then at the end of that time maybe a piece of fruit or yoghurt or toast. I'm 15kg down in 4 months, and weirdly haven't felt hungry.

What affects your weight is 70% diet, 20% exercise and 10% other lifestyle choices- stress/ sleep. So just focus on your diet for now. You can lose weight without addressing the exercise, my sister did. Stop all takeaways now and any snacks. Do intermittent fasting - only eat within a 12 hour window. Breast feeding should help as you part with 150 calories a day.

Agree with PPs - Intermittent Fasting will help you lose weight gently and effectively. It may take a while for you to start seeing the results, so don't lose heart, and don't weigh yourself too often. You will start to notice when your clothes feel looser.

IF quickly becomes a way of life, and you feel healthier for it. I've lost nearly 3 stones this year (post menopausal) which I really didn't think would come off so easily, but it did.

I do 16:8 mostly, buy built up to that starting with 12:12 and then increasing the fast by an hour when I felt ready.

There is no fad diet with it. You just naturally cut out snacks and begin to focus on nourishing yourself with healthy foods, drinking plenty of water, and getting enough sleep (hard when you have a baby, though). My DC are late teens now.