Anyone who has been very overweight had long term weight loss success?

[mckiwi07]

I am currently very overweight - 14st 11 and 5'5. I have been on every diet under the sun - currently doing SW. Its working really well for me but I just find it so hard to stick to anything. I LOVE food and will eat for any possible reason - bored, tired, happy, angry or just when I think I deserve a treat :-)

I really want to lose weight for so many different reasons but I dont know if I can actually picture myself as being slim. I was once within the normal BMI range and looked great with the benefit of hindsight but never really slim.

In RL all the overweight people I know seem to be forever dieting much like me so am interested if anyone has actually lost weight and kept it off for a long period of time or am I destined to diet forever :o

What do you mean by forever dieting? You can never go back to eating as you did before (presumably unhealthy) as you will put the weight back on. Your "diet" should be reeducating you about how to eat for the rest of your life. I have lost 100 pounds and have been officially maintaining for the last couple of months. My eating has not really changed in that time. This is the way I need to eat for life, and I am well aware of that. That is why your "diet" needs to be healthy and enjoyable and something you can see yourself doing forever.

You are speaking in terms of being 'deprived'. It's not going to work psychologically if you tell yourself you are somehow missing out all of the time. Why not think about (permanently) changing your 'way of eating' rather than being 'on a diet'?
I'm speaking as someone who is 5'4 and was weighing in at just under 15st a couple of years ago. I lost just under 5 stone in about 9months, and have maintained at 10st for over a year since. I do not feel deprived, I eat loads and never feel hungry.
For years I did the high fibre/low fat thing (and felt as frustrated as you!), but low carbing suited me.

i got up to over 14 stone 8, am now 10st 10 ish. same height as you.
have just started slimming world actually. i haven't kept it off long term yet but i would recommend 'eating less' by gillian riley. it has really helped me change my view of view of food.

Out if interest Half did you follow a particular low carb plan?

Out if interest Half did you follow a particular low carb plan?

I'm afraid dieting won't work for you, I know - I'm the same. What you really need is a mind shift, psycological dig into why you eat what you eat. I need to get back into it after this pg but would recommend the no diet book for laura mellin, it's more about why rather telling you what to eat.

half I think thats exactly what I feel - deprived. I know its about re-educating your eating habits but how do you actually do that - I can follow a diet for a few weeks or months then I just revert back to my old ways. I am a terrible secret eater - none of my family can understand why I am so overweight cos I eat the same as them - its all the eating i do in private that is the problem.

Its good to hear there are people who have had success at maintaining weight loss

fork I started doing The Idiot Proof Diet by Neris & India. I'm a veggie though, so then I started using a lot of Rose Elliot's low carb recipes.

OP - I think I've managed it because I don't have to weigh food, count calories or do portion control - there are just foods I can eat, ones I can't, and ones I can have in moderation.

There's also a good thread on her about the Paul McKenna approach - in which you can eat anything you want BUT you must eat 'consciously' - it may be good for you to have a look there?

gillian riley's approach is a bit similar to paul mckenna's in some ways. they both look at the behaviours surrounding eating rather than the food itself. you don't have to have some major emotional problem to have difficutl behaviours re overeating, i think. and both these approaches look at changing your habits and moving away from the deprived diet stuff.

oh, sorry to harp on about it but gillian riley does tackle the secret eating thing too. there is stuff in about this. when i buy stuff now, i say to myself, would i be happy for others to watch me eat this, if no, i try to resist.

People who lose weight and don't put it back on are vanishingly rare. This is an interesting article (quite long though): www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share

Very interesting cutegorilla, thanks for posting that link.

Yes, an interesting link cutegorilla. I'd say the problem was that they were doing a conventional low fat, low cal. diet, rather than a low carb one. It would be interesting to see the long term success rates of a low carb one.

Fascinating article. Thanks for sharing that.

I'm not sure if I count as a success or not- at 19 I weighed in at 21st (I'm 5'2) and ten years later I weigh 12st 8lb- still obese, but not morbidly! The only period of my life I consciously lost weight was during 2009, I did Rosemary Conley for the year and went from 16st 10lb to 12st 10lb. But life got in the way, I couldn't continue that way of life as I went abroad. I put on over 2st during the next 2 years but I don't know if that was all at once, gradual, or if I gained a hell of a lot more then dropped as I didn't weigh myself properly till December 2011- 15st exact.

Anyway, the diet I'm doing now is working as I'm trying to break my way of thinking regarding food. I'm on a food replacement diet, just starting week 6 and loving it so far. I know what I need to work on- portion control, boredom eating, emotional eating, eating because the food is in the house, eating the kids' leftovers, eating because the day has a 'y' in it...... I've bought books based on what people on here and minimins are saying, currently reading Escape the Diet Trap and I have the Paul McKenna book to read, and the Idiot-Proof diet.

I know that maintaining will be for life, and will be harder than following the plan. I love the products, but I know at the end of it I have to start buying and eating 'real' food. I'm thinking low-carb for maintenance, seems to make sense given how I am feeling right now about my current diet and my life of overeating.

Thanks for all the replies. I have ordered the Gillian Riley book, bought the new SW mag and planned my meals for the next week. I am really trying to stop thinking about being on a diet and enjoy a new healthy way of eating :)

Good luck to you, hope it all works out. Don't know if you know it, I saw it mantioned on here, but the weightloss site minimins is really supportive and has large communities for all the different diets and plans!

Thanks Half, I'll have a look at the idiot proof diet.

I've had success, a change of mind set.
My husband has for 20 years been telling me, burn more cal's than you eat and you'll lose weight. Well I didn't listen and thought it was all about what I eat, nothing else. Well one of my daughters joined a Gym 2-3 years ago and I thought I'd go with her. Twice a week now and I'm in pretty good shape for 51.
Why didn't I learn this 20 years ago. It's simple the more you exercise the more you can eat. Simples.