I need to lose weight desperately.

[starshaker]

I know why im overweight. I eat to become somebody who nobody would look twice at. I wanted to be invisible to men to protect myself. Now im huge and have managed to find an amazing guy who sees past how i look but im scared 1 day he will wake up and see what i see.

I have so much to lose. I have got my justice in a strange sort of way and now i want to look ok for me. I want to lose 8 stone. All i want is to be happy and to not hate what i see

Excellent endorsement Star . Well done on your 2lbs!

Ah, starshaker you did not mention you have PCOS : immediately give yourself real break about appearance.
Weight loss will be harder work (but really worth it).
Interestingly there is some evidence that fasting (the 5;2 method is the trendy one) helps massively with the bloating of PCOS and helps weight loss to stay off.

Is that right Talkin? I'm not an expert but my understanding was low carb/low GI was preferable, that with PCOS it is important to avoid large fluctuations in blood sugar levels (wouldn't fasting create big dips?) that disrupt the hormonal balance...or maybe that is just from a health/fertility pov as opposed to weight loss....probably worth a bit of research in the context of your goals and circumstances if you are drawn towards fasting Star.

Sleepwhenidie
Bigchofrenzy is the science geek on the 5:2 threads, but no, sugar fluctuations are not an issue - mainly because the fasting / meals / breaks method of eating stabilises the whole system at a lower level so there is no peak and thus no trough.

There are a couple of people with PCOS who have been successful on the threads and a former colleague tried fasting (cleared happily by her doctor) to ease the bloating.

The 'thing' with the fasting is that it resets the whole insulin system to work much more efficiently - a couple of posters have actually ceased being Type 2 diabetic through fasting
and loads of research shows its great for stuff like IBS

exactly the opposite of all thefood company sponsored guidance of the last 30 years

starshaker
Bigchocfrenzy is mad as a hatter bless her, but she's amazing at finding science papers for just about anything - feel free to start a thread and pick her brains.

talkin- Quote the OP "I did actually try a juice diet a couple years ago and ended up putting on a stone."

I certainly 100% haven't suggested she's not clever enough to realise that juicing is a stupid fad so there's no need to be patronising. Many people often in desperation resort to far whackier diets than juicing, and yes, we can all become a bit messianic about 'what worked for us', implying that 'therefore it'll work for you'.

tansie
sorry, did not mean to think I was being rude to you.
I was hacked at the twonks spamming all the threads about juice diets

I know that fasting does diddly squat for some people (Mintyy is one) and sets off eating disorders in others and conflicts with medication in others
BUT
we all know that much of the "nutrition advice" in recent years was funded by the likes of coca cola

for middle ages types like me, 5:2 has been a revelation when all other ways of not getting any fatter had failed.

Thank you all for the advice. Im gonna give the PK a good go (havent snacked in 2 days). I was getting to the point that i was going to look at an actual gastric band but with kids its not really practical and i would need to change what i eat anyway to i want to do it without getting too drastic

Please don't do the gastric band either, it can have so many horrible knock on effects - and it won't do anything for the other issues you have to deal with. I am sure you can do it without such drastic measures. Good luck

talkin - I'd also heard that 5:2 can be highly successful and I can see that it definitely works for many people! I'd be gnawing the bum off a low flying duck, myself, if I were on it!