SAHM, how to lose weight

[Eesha]

Just looking for tips here. My friends are able to gym every day but I don't have the childcare. Any tips I can do day to day to lose a stone?....

Exercise is great for health, energy and muscle tone, but it's diet that loses the weight. Fill yourself up by eating loads of fruit and veg, drink loads of water and you'll have less room for unhealthy stuff. Particularly avoid sugary or sweetener-filled drinks and sugary snacks. Don't eat too little, because nobody can put up with being hungry all the time- that's why diets fail.

@lazylinguist in all honesty I've tried to sleep earlier as my weak points are late at night when watching rubbish. I don't tend to have sweets or sugary drinks but portion control can be poor.

my weak points are late at night when watching rubbish

Stop watching rubbish, seriously. Crack a book. Do some knitting. Take up sudoku/watercolours/crosswords/tatting... do something with your hands and your brain and you'll find it so much easier to resist shit snack food.

It's worse to eat late in the evening, plus there's increasing evidence that having a decent fast between dinner and next day's breakfast is good for your waistline and your health. Portion control isn't necessarily a problem- it depends what you're eating large portions of! Fill the majority of your plate with veg and a large portion won't matter.

Walk walk walk. I lost all the weight taking my kids to the park and pushing that dohble buggy around all day! I was literally pushing it 3 hours a day most days! Now I’m on my third baby and I basically have to wear her in a carrier for hours a day!

Walk everywhere. Get in bed early with a book. Dont eat between meals. Dont crash diet. I did all these things after ds21 months. He was my 3rd child at 39 and i put 5 stones on. Didnt have the same weight gain with dds. I have now finally lost the weight. Cut out the rubbish in an evening and you will feel better and have morr energy if you go tp bed earlier too.

Yes, walking a bit more, feeling better but terrified to check scales...I will cry if nothing has changed

Don’t check the scales then. It’ll be awful if You start to feel disheartened.
Carry on.
I found that the scales don’t move really unless you actually cut back on what you eat. I was running 3 times a week for a while and I lost no weight because I didn’t really change my diet.

@Charles11 thanks!

I think I'm definitely eating better as toothache combined with sleeping earlier means no snacks or late dinners. My issue is my friend is gymming 5 days a week and losing 1lb a week and although not a competition, I feel like I'll always be this weight!

The problem is eating better doesn’t always mean you lose weight. You need to eat better AND eat less than you need to maintain your weight.
Do it whichever way suits you.
It’s not easy! I’m still trying.

Wait at least a month to check the scales. First thing in the morning, after your morning wee but before breakfast! But maximum once a month otherwise you could easily get discouraged by random fluctuations.

Sounds like you’re making some very sensible and sustainable changes. Well done. I find the easiest way to cut out junk is just to not buy it. If it’s not in the house you can’t eat it! The difficulty is avoiding the biscuits at baby groups etc!

Walking sounds great. If the 3 yo is happy in a buggy could you try the couch to 5k programme while pushing buggy graduating onto parkruns?

When I am too afraid to check the scales, what I do is I step on the scales in the evening, after dinner, fully clothed. It means I have a (very rough) idea of how much I weigh, but I know the figure is higher than my real weight and it makes it less frightening.
Then, if I want to, I weigh myself properly (naked, in the morning before breakfast). It means the number goes down a lot and it feels like a positive - and gives me motivation.

I was 5'7" and 13st 5 last September. I am at home most days, though my kids are older.

I joined WW - just the online version, not meetings - and found it has a HUGE range of family friendly recipes. I'm now 11st 0.7. My goal is 9st 7.

YouTube exercise is awesome, I too love Lesley's walking workouts.

@AnuvvaMuvva thats amazing!!! Completely my goals, I'd say I was around the 14 stone mark but wanted to get down to 13, even 12. I'm 5ft 6. I don't look massive but perhaps I'm deluding myself!

I didn't think I looked massive either. But I couldn't wear any of my nice clothes and I had a few harrowing changing-room experiences!

I can't diet by myself, it never works. So this has been epic. The WW app is fab, you can track everything you eat as you go, and it has a HUGE friendly social section (I call it Fatbook) where people share tips, dinners, weigh-ins, etc. That's inspiring.

The other thing that worked really well for me a few years ago was an old 1970s diet called The Scarsdale Diet. I lost 4 stone on that in 6 months. It's high protein, low fat. That was life-changing and I kept it off for 6 years. I tried to do it again but I can never do the same thing twice! 😆

Good luck.

Feeling quite disheartened tonight, my friend who gyms every day has been telling me how great everyone says she looks and that the weight is falling of her. I didn't say anything but was thinking I've been doing this just for 10 days and I don't feel like I've lost anything. This feels like a real uphill struggle.

She sounds pleased with herself! 🙄

Yes @AnuvvaMuvva she is but I think the gym is her new obsession and can dedicate all her time to it.

I feel like I'm not getting anywhere, I looked at a full length mirror and my belly is still big. I just want to hide away.

Thanks all, I've been sticking with this method and seems like I'm looking leaner according to people I know or haven't seen in a few weeks. I don't really miss the sugar either/snacking which I'm very surprised about. If anything, I always ensure I do my 15min workout no matter what.

Keep going OP. It's a marathon not a sprint - and you didn't put the weight on in a month or two, so why should it come off that quickly? As long as you keep going with sensible eating and some exercise - you'll get where you want to be!

@fishonabicycle thank you for the kind words. It does feel like an uphill struggle at times but when I feel like I have more energy at times or when I see my belly isn't as big, it's definitely worth it.

this is the one I use

So all that and I think I've only lost a couple of pounds. Truly depressing after 6 weeks of no sweets/treats, working out. Pointless I feel.

@Eesha have you weighed yourself? Did you weigh before you started 6 weeks ago? You may well have lost more than you think - it takes a while to see and feel it.
Are you accounting for everything that goes in your mouth? Try myfitnesspal and log everything. Snacks, kids leftovers etc all add up to a lot.

You need to be accountable - get some weighing scales and jump on every week. Once you start to see them go down your motivation will continue. It's not about the gym - your friend will have adjusted her diet too. It isn't pointless - it's your health and self confidence at stake.

@ploughingthrough I hadn't weighed myself but did yesterday. So I was 89.4kg on the 20th Jan, today 87.7kg. Im 5ft 6. My friend is being superstrict, fruit for breakfast, lots of soup and it's dropping off.

It's her diet then. Her exercise will be helping a little but diet is the biggest factor in weight loss. Well done for the weight you have lost so far - it isn't pointless and it isn't a race. Have you looked at 16:8 intermittent fasting? It's very doable and you don't need to cut out entire food groups. Don't give up!