Shit, I stood on the scales today!

[SluttyButty]

Just this, I rarely weigh myself. I tend to go by how clothes fit. I ignored the fact I needed to by size 16 jeans.

Anyway, I need to lose 5 fecking stone. I have no idea where or when the last stone appeared. I don't look 5 stone overweight according to people because I seem to have a knack of carrying it well the fat is distributed everywhere, hell ive probably even got fat ears now

I'm obese, I need to deal with it because there's a lot around my middle which I know is the worst possible place health wise.

I forcibly went out for a 30 minute, puffy walk earlier (I have two types of arthritis) after chucking pain killers down and gritted my teeth.
I've already started to make changes to my/our diet but I need to make more.

So that said I'm leaning towards the 5:2 diet, is it really hard? Well I know it's going to be hard but what I mean is it tolerable? My mother in law said it was a doddle but I'm not entirely convinced because she eats like a sparrow anyway.

HELP ME please

Are you sure you need to lose 5 stones? I wear a size 16 jeans and if i lost 5 stones i would be skeletal. I can't help you with diets though. I am a hopeless case!

I did 5:2 for one day. I felt weak and dizzy but not hungry it was weird. Now I just use My Fitness Pal and count calories. It's always worked for me as it really teaches you about portion control. I also eat more protein and only have (whole meal) bread at weekends. No snacking or alcohol and I walk in average 1 hour a day, sometimes more.

I feel your pain, I weighed myself on my mum's scales yesterday and it was showing me as 5lbs heavier than my scales or I've gained 5lbs in a few days also possible I need to stop eating bloody balloon sandwiches but apart from that I have a pretty decent diet and fairly active lifestyle.
Stepping away from bread made a massive difference to me before so I'll be trying that again too!

Low carb boot camp starts in 2 weeks, maybe give that a go? No experience with 5:2 but I was in your position in September. Lost 3.5 stone so far. Everyone says they don't believe I was that big to start with as I carried it well too. Hoping boot camp can help me shift this last 1.5 stone but I feel great already, got into fitness more and now happily run 5k. You can do this! 😁

bluesky before my thyroid and stupid arthritis took hold I weighed 10st, perfect weight for me and I looked healthy not skeletal and wore a size 10/12.

chap I'll download MyFitnessPal, thanks. I LOVE bread so it'll be a challenge to reduce it 😳

ZigZag what's a balloon sandwich?

Congratulations on making the first step! Losing the weight will be great for your arthritis too. In the meantime, do you enjoy swimming? People sometimes discount it because it's not a huge calorie burner, but most weight loss comes from diet and not exercise anyway and it is lovely for sore joints, it's helped mine loads.

Good luck!

Sluttybutty I don't disbelieve you! It always amazes me how everyone is different weights and sizes. I am 12st 5lb, 5'6" and a size 16.

Low carb/low fat couple with calorie counting is what enabled me to lose weight and keep it off without starving myself. It's hard at first, and you really need to completely re-think your eating habits. I'm a grazer so the trick was to find snacks that stopped me feeling hungry without de-railing the diet. Low-cal cup a soup was a god-send for me but you need to find what works for you.

Once your stomach starts to shrink and you get used to a new regime it really gets a lot easier.

Thanks everyone. Until a few years ago I was always slim and could eat anything.
Now my thyroid is finally under control I'm being given a consistent brand of Levo rather than what they had in stock I'm in a place to deal with it. Just shocked how flipping fat I am 😂

3stone is the low carb bootcamp on here?

Namechange swimming is out for me, I've got disc and spinal arthritis along with PsA and osteo and the strain it would put on me would be crippling sadly. And I've always hated swimming despite being able to swim. I might see if there's a local pool for exercise in water if my rheumatologist can refer me.

Sluttybutty I did the 5:2 two years ago and combined with walking at least an hour a day, I lost 4 stone in 6 months. Admittedly I had a higher starting weight than you so I think that helped it drop quite quickly.
I mostly found it manageable but boring. A good point is that if you have the odd bad day then you can just change your 500 days, (obviously no good if you keep having bad days). I did find it very difficult to do the two 500 days in a row as on the second day I had very little energy, so mostly did them on a Tuesday and Thursday. The other thing that probably helped was that I cut out almost all bread.
I'm about to restart but am thinking of combining it with the 16:8 diet as that seems to work for a lot of people.

Just as an idea my two days would look like this:
Morning snack - banana
Lunch - Babybel light, 2 slices of pastrami, 5 cherry toms and 50g cucumber
Tea - Ostrich steak, 50g green beans, 25g peas, 25g sweetcorn
Weight watchers pudding

Breakfast - satsuma
Morning snack- banana
Lunch - 40g lettuce, 50g cuc, 60g toms, 40g pepper, 25g celery, babybel light, pastrami
Tea - 80g prawns, 30g green beans, 100g toms, 125g courgetti, 50g pepper
Weight watchers chocolate pot
Satsuma

And as an alternative here's my typical low carb day:

Breakfast - 2 fried duck eggs, 4 rashers bacon, mushrooms cooked in butter
Lunch - slice of crustless quiche (or a chicken breast, or some smoked salmon), salad leaves and loads of mayo
Dinner - steak, or pork chops, or lamb chops or other sizeable chunk of meat, broccoli, cauliflower, courgettes fried in garlic butter, cream sauce.

I don't weigh or measure anything, I just eat until I'm full, then stop.

At weekends, I enjoy a few vodka and Diet Cokes.

I find 16:8 easier than 5:2 - my eating window is 11 am - 7 pm, but then I don't have to be anywhere early in the morning.

Best of luck with whatever you decide!

I started the MN Low carb bootcamp last May. I've lost 5 stone. Would like to lose another stone, just to get the last bit off my middle, but I'm now in the healthy BMI range, and I feel fantastic. I'm 5'7, 60, have no thyroid and have had significant orthopaedic surgery. The next one starts 14 May.

So did I. Have a hug.

I am the heaviest I have been in my life after getting slim and healthy last year lost 40 odd pounds. Just let it all slide

I've basically gained 50 pounds in 12 months

Very few clothes fit me. I feel and look a mess.

So :

Bought lots of fruit and veggies at lunchtime
Cleared out the fridge after work and cleaned it.
Dusted off my nutribullet- I really look juices sp am fortunate there.
Kept as active as possible
Gave self permission to buy some luxury face cream tomorrow.
Will have lovely relaxing bath with bubbles and read in bed.

The plan is to get me back into habit of cooking from scratch with fresh stuff. Will worry about portion sizes etc later. Never found cal counting works. Lucky in that I have just me to cater for.

Today I've had

Tomato juice from Lidl at breakfast ( delicious, best I can find) plus super strength b vits
Blueberry and banana smoothie for lunch
Green juice mid pm ( apple celery kale and ginger) sounds disgusting but is rather nice
Sea bass ( shallow fried) and roasted broccoli for supper

Tomorrow:

Walk to station.

Tomato juice breakfast
Chicken salad with toms raw mushrooms and celery, hard boiled egg and Mr Cardinis dressing ( may get some romaine to go with) lunch
Probably : chick and mush risotto with home made stock and Parmesan supper
Small Fruit smoothie.

Tomorrow eve will list contents of freezer and see what can be magicked up

Hmm like the sound of this low carb thing. I don't hugely go for bread and pastry so that isn't too much of a hardship. I do need to keep up the fresh fruit and veggies though - would that ruin things?

OP you can sign up to low carb boot camp on the thread in chat... sorry I'm no good at linking on the app!

5:2 is great, and definitely the cheapest and easiest of them all. First few times can be hard, but you will learn what you can survive on for the day quickly. After that you can have the odd bad day where it feels hard, but mostly it just becomes second nature. Best thing is no food is forbidden (though best to use calories wisely), it's simple calorie restriction two days a week, and those days can change to suit you as you wish...it's not restrictive in any way.