March 2025 Starters thread 8 the one where some of us are maintaining or nearing goal

[TheSpoonyNavyReader]

Hey lovely ladies

Let’s carry on supporting each other.

I am sorry that you feel like that but take care of yourself and I hope in a few months you can see we were being supportive.

X

I will probably be classes in the same camp (mid life crisis) 🤣🤣.

I have had Botox for years but my face is full of filler now! Thank goodness my filler lady does natural as I do not think you can tell, I just look younger and fresher. I will be 48 next month and have not looked this good for about 15 years!

As you know I also had a breast lift and new implants in May as the girls were looking deflated. They look perky and great now.

As for cooking I am buying M&S chicken thigh/breasts and throwing them in the air fryer and chopping a salad because the weather is so hot, my kids asked for Risotto the other night, no I am not standing by the hob in this weather.

Hi all, I am still here but the thread took a bit of a turn that made me feel uncomfortable. Sorry to Fairfax but I hope you get the help you need and with time can see this place has always been about support. I do think we need to gently challenge each other if we need to.

Anyway, as for me I am still maintaining and am 1lb under goal. I've lost 4st 9lbs in total down to a BMI of 23. I would like to lose a couple more lbs in the next few weeks as I'm going on holiday at the start of August so I'd like to give myself a bit of a buffer.

The heatwave here in Berkshire is helping actually as I don't want to cook so I've filled the fridge with fresh food and have declared that we're living off grazing boards all week 😂. Plenty of cold meats, hard boiled eggs, salad, tinned fish, nuts, hummus, fruits and vegetables so I am most definitely getting my five a day.

I have also found that I genuinely love high protein egg salad. Just hard boiled eggs mashed with cottage cheese rather than mayo with salt and pepper. Never, ever in my life would I have thought I'd be a person enjoying eggs and cottage cheese but here we are 🤣.

Like @TheBossOfMe I have found cutting down UPF has really helped me. It's noticeable how much better I feel eating low UPF and more whole foods..... regardless of calories. I don't count calories at all anymore and just try to focus on eating more real food and less highly processed stuff. Coming from me, the person that used to chug slim fast shakes that is a big change! But I feel great.

@Bipaloss I'm glad you've finally got back to getting the full effect from MJ, although shame about the SEs returning at the same time!!

I think with your interrupted journey you're probably in a harder place than most of us right now. You haven't got to the full reward bit of hitting goal but you're noticing the other effects and probably more focused on and critical of those because you haven't had the buzz of a good loss for a while.

I've got a decade+ on you though so I don't know how it would have felt doing this in my early 40s, and how long it would have taken me to accept how it affected things like my face.

Tempted to change my username to MrsFuckingPearlClutcher 😉but mostly CBA. That was all quite sad to read, really.

Off to see if MrsPearlfuckingclutcher is an available name

Oh, that's going to make a lot less sense now the relevant post's been deleted by MN. 😅

Weeping 😂

My face has definitely changed although unsure what’s down to weight loss and what’s just aging, I’m 54 so probably more the latter. I have one of those Foreo Bear things, I think using it regularly helps. My armpits are a disaster though.

And I’ve also moved to grazing board and “picky bits” dinners now. Far too warm to be cooking complicated meals. I do tend to underestimate calorie intake with grazing meals though. So need to watch that a bit.

Still maintaining around goal now.

Lovely to hear from you all.

Still here, been maintaining at 8st 5 for a few weeks now. I’m on holiday at the moment and feel fantastic in all my size 8’s!! Had fillers a few weeks ago and its definitely helped. Look forward to having implants in my deflated boobs, getting sick of the chicken fillers haha. Yes this group did take and uncomfortable turn, hope the lady gets help.

@northernlight20 That sounds all rather wonderful, good for you!

@northernlight20 have you thought about getting a lift and implants, honestly life changing!

Yeah, I’m definitely having a lift and implant, it’s booked nd I’m so excited.

@TheSpoonyNavyReaderYou look amazing! If you don’t mind me asking, how much does a lift and implant cost? And how do you go about finding a good surgeon? My breasts are still really full so not sure what I need but they aren’t what they used to be from a perkiness perspective no matter how much exercise I do.

@TheSpoonyNavyReader you look fabulous!

@TheSpoonyNavyReader Wow 🤩

I started at a 42 DD and after 7 stone loss now 36 E, buying bras has been a blooming nightmare!

I’m not that fussed about my boobs but saggy face and stubborn tummy fat are my qualifications for the not so confident club.

If you start to have filler is it like a life long commitment? Not sure any other facial thing would truly make a difference… and as for a tummy tuck, am nervous of the recovery. It’s a minefield. Coz I also then think f@£k it be happy already and bodies are bodies.

As for the other matters, Spoony you look fab and thank you to those that spoke up to supportively challenge… enjoy those pearls x

trigger warning

How do people know when to stop?

Today I reached my original goal weight of 9 stone 7 which is 5 stone lost (I've been rounding up my loss to 5 stone for about a month but now it's official!)

My BMI is now 26 down from 39.8 so basically 40.

I'm 5 foot tall and comfortably fit in a size 12 down from a solid 20.

I think I would like to.lose another stone to get me to 8 stone 7 which would be a BMI of 23 I believe so firmly in the healthy weight category.

However my family has gently expressed a concern that enough is enough now. Apparently I look gaunt in my face. I do think my cheeks have sunken a little and I feel I look older (I'm early 40s).

But I feel I'm still overweight. For context my lowest ever adult weight was 20 years ago when I was 8 stone 10 and that was before any children

I want to keep going and be firmly in the healthy weight bracket, I've come so far now to stop so close to the elusive green section seems daft. And I want to stay on mounjaro so even if I "stopped" I would only mean stop losing weight actively.

I'm currently on 15mg, eating well, 3 meals a day just small portions. A typical day would be a protein yogurt or greek yogurt for breakfast, possibly with granola, usually with some fruit or dried fruit and seeds. Lunch is usually gyoza, or soup, or cheese and crackers. Dinners are typical family dinners but my portion is the size of a side plate. Evening snack is usually some sweets or a small chocolate bar eg freddo. So I'm eating plenty, no concerns around food intake, and am currently losing a pound a week consistently.

Has anyone got any advice?

@Fatmumslim01 sounds a bit random but I uploaded my details of weight lost, plus details on measurements and photos to ChatGPT and it gave really good advice. It basically told me to stop where I am which is 74-77kg (I am 5’11) which is right at the bottom of a size 14 and size 12 in some. It pointed out that I have loose skin around my middle which makes my stomach larger and cannot shrink much more. Also that the weight I am not is a maintainable weight, dropping to my preferred 70kg would be a constant mission to maintain.

Sounds like you are doing really well @Fatmumslim01 My advice would be keep doing what you are doing until you feel you would like to switch to maintaning as it seems very sustainable and effective.

Ideally I'd have liked to have lost a bit more while I was actually on Mounjaro (stopped in February) to get down to BMI 23 and give myself more wriggle room, but even on 15mg I found it hard to go below 11st 4lbs (briefly hit 11 stone 24.1 BMI) which is BMI 24.7 and was staying at 11st 4lbs even on 15mg.

I seem to maintain now around 11 st 7lbs and 11st 10lbs which is around the BMI 25 mark. At 50 years old I think this is pretty good anyway, particularly as I'm no more than a 10/12 in clothes and have good muscle tone. And I was 11st stone odd at the age of 16/17!

I went up to 11st 12lbs after a two week holiday but this seemed purely carbs/water retention and I lost two pounds within a couple of days of normal eating and exercise. I eat an average of about 1700/1800 calories for maintenance. I do freshwater swimming, yoga, Parkrun, weights and spin to keep fit. Currently I'm having 1500 cals, 90g protein and 30g fibre, carbs <150g a day, fat is only about 45g a day (not intentional but just eat a lot of lean protein) to try and lose a bit more on my own.

I've also started taking Femoston-Conti 1mg/5mg HRT and have not gained any weight on it. 😊 My start weight in March 2025 was 13st 7lbs, BMI 29.6. I have PCOS.

@Fatmumslim01 Congratulations! 5 stone is amazing, and great that you’re keeping your nutrition up. I think @Puddingpiper suggestion is genius.

Congrats @Fatmumslim01 !

you have mentioned before that you going slowly down doses so you may end up loosing a bit more . I would agree with @Puddingpiper approach and also a low BMI is not for everyone , I myself have a goal of BMI 25 not below .

@Fatmumslim01 congratulations that's brilliant news!

For me personally, my goal was to get to a BMI of 23. That felt right for me and gives me some wiggle room without tipping me back into the overweight category. That was a goal weight of 10st 7lbs and I'm a size 10-12 nowadays. I sometimes think it would be nice to lose a bit more but the fact I've been maintaining for 10 months now tells me this is probably the right weight for me.

What has definitely helped is having a range rather than targeting a specific weight for maintenance. My weight can fluctuate by quite a lot after a holiday, time of the month etc so I now tell myself I'm happy if I'm anywhere between 10st and 10st 7lbs but if I go above that (which I did after Christmas and my holiday at Easter) that I have to get it off ASAP. That seems to have worked for me.

@Fatmumslim01 I will say that I am 24.something BMI and would love to lose another stone but I look nice, am still on 15mg and ai suppose will be on it forever. By day 4 post jab I’m quite hungry, food noise is what makes me look at the Shotsy app and inevitably it’s jab day the next day.

I was never a super responder and I lost weight sllooooowwwwly. So slow. And I wish I were back in ALL my clothes but I lurk between 11.4 and 11st 7 and shrug. All anyone says is I look amazing and that’s lovely but I am a full stone heavier than my “best” weight. I am going to leave it til Nov, to relax, then MJ jab every 6 days to try and get me down to my slim weight. And we’ll see!

Everything I read suggests that stopping and restarting isn’t as effective so I’ll just never start. I couldn’t bear the thought of re gaining, then buying the jabs and not having the same effect and frankly the initial effect was the slowest in this group!

I’m still here and am so impressed at all you have achieved. I think I must be buying all your old clothes on vinted as there are a lot of good quality big sizes on there!!

I fell terribly off the wagon of controlling my diet last summer but continued to jab.

TBH I felt and still feel like a total failure spending so much money and only maintaining a still obese BMI.

I got a kick up the arse when I visited a friend a few weeks ago and have been trialing a mainstream meal box after she gave me a hefty starter code . Cooking healthy food for one is really relentless and this has made a difference.

I’ve lost a kg in three weeks and am now the lightest I’ve been since September 2016. OMG. I’ve now lost 21kg since March 2025 and people have finally started commenting on it. However, my target weight (which gives me a BMI of 25, and is my university weight when I thought I was enormous) is still a jaw dropping 33kg away and feels totally and utterly unobtainable. My next mini goal is to get a weight (in kg) back into double digits. I last weighed <100kg in around 2009. It certainly predated my use of MFP.

I will continue to check in periodically and am interested in all the discussions regarding excess skin etc as I’m really worried about this.

Well done @Fatmumslim01 ! Like @GameOfJones I've landed on BMI 23 as my apparent happy weight.

Original goal was vague, 11st -12st to be near/at healthy BMI. Then I aimed for 11st 4 which was 6 stone off exactly and top end of healthy BMI. Then I decided I wanted a buffer zone so kept trying to lose as I titrated down.

All of which took me to 10st 11 which is where I've been bumping around for the last couple of months and it feels like my brain and my body like it here. In my early 20s I was very slim and 9.5 stone. I think for mid 50s, and 5ft 8, around a stone more than that seems about right really.

@Fatmumslim01 your family (and you!) will still be getting used to the slimmer you so their perspective will be a bit skewed.