What happens when you lose a lot of weight?

[PrettyCandlesAndTinselToo]

Like 30% or 5st to get to the weight you should be - what happens to all the skin?

And if you never actually get rid of fat cells, just shrink them, then is 30% a realistic target? Is it achievable, and can the target weight be maintained?

Has anyone done this succesfully, and kept the weight off?

I've lost 7 stone.

I don't have any problems with loose skin at all. I lost the weight over 18 months, so not fast and have been going to the gym regularly for the last 4 months, so I think this has all helped.

How did you do it?

GI diet, there are a few threads about it.

Puff - on a previous GI thread you recommended the AWT book. Which one is it as I'm on Amazon now and there are a few? Is it "The GL Diet made simple" or another one. TIA

Puff, that is AMAZING. Well done you. You must be at your target now...? What was the catalyst, if you don't mind me asking... What made you go, "Right, that's it."?

It's just called GI Diet by Anthony Worrall Thompson.

Dinny - I've another stone to go, although I'd like to lose 2 and get into a size 10 - but this might be too much, so I'll see how I feel once/if I get another stone off.

Until a few years ago I had never had significant weight problems. The weight piled on rapidly following a very difficult bereavement - I stopped eating proper meals and ate rubbish.

One day, I just realised I had to sort out my diet - I was getting health problems associated with being overweight and I knew it could only get worse If I didn't tackle them. I had my boys when I was in my late 30's and I decided I owed it to them to get as healthy as possible and increase my chances of being around to be a grandma .

Found it - thanks Puff.

Physiologically it is quite hard to keep the weight off - most evidence suggests that your body tries to keep itself at a 'set point' (so for example I have to work really hard to lose any weight, but I can eat tons more and would only gradually gain weight). Then if you diet your body thinks it needs to compensate for a period of starvation so will do anything it can to get back up to its set point - and then some (so frequent dieting is actually a major cause of obesity). I think if you lose the weight reasonably sensibly and slowly and then stick to a balanced diet and plenty of exercise for several years to come then you stand a chance of sort of re-setting your set point (as long as its not too low or unrealistic for your basic genetics) and keeping it off longer term. Boring but sadly true IMO. Some people have trouble with skin flaps if they lose weight v quickly - they can be very unsightly and I think you can get cosmetic procedures if its really bad.