Losing weight is impossible!!

[Lowwintersun13]

Hi everyone, I’m 2 years post menopause and have piled on 6 stone 🥲 no change in lifestyle or diet, just menopause the only change. The 6 stone went on very very fast (around 6-9 months)
I’ve gone from a size 8 to an 18 and look and feel disgusting. I’m a tiny 5 feet 1 so you can imagine how I must look. I have had a recent illness where I did not eat for around 3 months, just an odd piece of toast here and there but still lost nothing! How is that even scientifically possible??!!! But one thing I have and do consume a lot of is milky coffees made with oat milk. Is it the oat milk that has made me so fat? All the usual diet rules just don’t apply after menopause; I avoid carbs like the plague but still nothing. I’ve had every test at doctors, desperately wanting there to be a reason why but all tests came back normal. I don’t even leave the house anymore except for work because of how awful I feel and look. I wear the same top and trousers as anything I buy always looks awful. I have a half hour walk every lunchtime but I am starting to feel this is just how it is. I’m now in the obese range which is an awful thing to hear. My knees and joints hurt all the time. Please someone tell me there is hope and how you managed to lose the weight. I’m not on any HRT, I had to remove my patch after my marker for breast/ovarian cancer spiked 🥲

Mounjaro doesn't just stop you eating less. It works on hormones - it helps with blood sugar regulation, it slows digestion (hence people mention getting sulphur burps), it impacts brain signals, there's been some research that it can directly affect fat metabolism. So while it does dampen the brains hunger and reward signals it's also doing a lot more in the background.

If you ate the odd bit of toast and nothing else for 3 months and gained weight it cannot be fat as fat can’t be made out of thin air

I suspect that most people in this predicament are in complete denial about what they actually do eat. That isn't necessarily a criticism. I've also in the past bought into the fact that clean eating 'healthy' foods in satiating quantities was sufficient - which in other circumstances it might well have been - but I was grossly underestimating what I was actually eating.

If not, and this is the reality, it's an underlying medical complaint that needs urgent investigation.

Sorry for late reply…I have suspected it’s oat milk. That, apart from menopause is the only thing I’ve changed in my diet. I have since really looked into oat milk and how crap it is for us, basically just sugary water as oats are pure carbohydrate! I’m going to cut it out and see how I get on. I will also look into the human diet. I’ve been doing lots of walking, weight training, exercise classes but still nothing. I’m sure people don’t read what people post though, I stated I’d had a full check up and everything tested at doctors, everything came back fine. They blamed the menopause! I’m going to look into cortisol disregulation too. Apparently cortisol has a lot to answer for. Someone also mentioned doing the weight loss jans. There’s no way I’m doing that, not a chance. I’m too scared of the long term damage it could do. I’ve been reading all sorts of awful side effects. No judgement to anyone, it’s your choice, your body but that’s just not for me.

So your only reply on this thread is that a six stone weight increase in a short space of time was down to oat milk? Either you're massively in denial about what you've actually been eating and drinking or just not being honest. Exercise has very little impact on weight. You'd need to be an athlete/sportsperson to expend enough calories to lose weight using exercise alone. Tbh it sounds like a load of excuses to not face up to have been consuming more calories than you use.

I think I would seek a second opinion.
Oat milk and menopause alone do not cause 6 stone weight gain.
You seem to be accepting that this is just how it is.

You say you’re 5’1 and size 18 so say you’re roughly 80kg - I have no idea how much you actually weigh but let’s go with that - then to maintain your current 80kg weight you’d need roughly 1600 calories per day. If you exercise you can add a few more calories like a half hour brisk walk burns about 100-120 calories. It’s incredibly easy to eat 1600 calories a day with little food if you’re not careful
with what you’re eating. To lose weight you need to eat less than this. Just avoiding carbs won’t be enough to lose weight if you don’t know what you’re eating.
These are all very approximate numbers so find your tdee and track everything you’re eating