If you were unhappy about your weight this time last year

[PlentyofButter]

And this was the year you sorted it, please cover me some tips!

I run and exercise a fair bit but its just not enough I know its what I'm eating. Meals are healthy injust snack on junk, mostly through tiredness and boredom. I'm just over 10 stone and at 5'1 that doesnt look good. Yet again no photos of me with my DC this Christmas as I dont want to see pictures of myself.

Great thread OP. Watching with interest.

I decided to finally sort my weight out in February this year so I was unhappy last year and am about 8lbs from my target weight. I’ve lost 2.5 stone this year ☺️
My weight has been up and down over the last decade due to illness, pure greed and then having a baby so right now I’m the lightest and fittest I’ve been in at least a decade!
I’ve always done Slimming World before or the gym but this time I haven’t done a diet, I’ve cut my snacks and alcohol but I’ve eaten the same meals I usually do. So I think there’s a couple of things that have helped the weight to (very) slowly drop off. I’ve actually enjoyed the process this time because I haven’t rushed it, I’ve always been desperate to lose as quickly as possible in the past.
What’s worked for me, things I didn’t do before:
Walking my dog first thing in the morning. For anything between 20-50 mins. Maybe kick starts metabolism?
Eat my main meal before 6pm. Easy to achieve when you have little children. I just don’t snack afterwards and as my LO doesn’t sleep awfully well, I’m usually in bed before I’d get hungry enough to snack in the evening.
I’ve practiced yoga at least 5 times a week, try to daily but not always possible. I do anything from 10-30 mins a session, so I find it manageable. Yoga has been incredible for my mental health too. I also stopped antidepressants for the first time in 6 years in April, and I haven’t taken them since.

I think different approaches will work for different people and I whole heartedly believe the early dinner time is what works for me as I’ve eaten high calorie foods some weeks and still had a loss. Yet I’ve heard other mums say if they eat early then they will snack loads, so it’s just what will work for you.
Have you tried any diets? Or planning to? xx

I've lost a bunch of weight this year doing 16:8 TRF and counting calories. Fasting makes it easy to reduce calories.

I was you a year ago. I was 10st4 and 5ft2. Still squeezing into my clothes but not myself by a long shot. I'm now 8st 13. I was 5lbs lighter but I'll sort that. Yes it's what you're eating but being active is brilliant so well done in that. Probably worth counting the snack cals as you'll be shocked at how they add up. Maybe have a substitute or a plan or the old just don't have them in the house plan! I've a feeling the weight will drop off if you can cut them out. Best of luck.

I've lost over 5 stone this year (1.5 to go)

Rather unpopular at the moment but I've started eating breakfast, I have a reasonable lunch (batch cook and frozen so I have a hot meal) and then dinner is protein and veg based -I eat carbs the rest of the day just not in the evening

I drink 8 glasses of water a day, I go to bed when I'm tired and I buy snacks when I want them rather than keeping them in the house -so I'll go and buy 1 packet of crisps rather than a multipack to keep in the house

Good point re single snacks! Muptipack offers were definitely by undoing a few years ago.. Cheap sugar. Well done on amazing loss. Water NB. Before and after each meal good.

I lost four stone doing Fast 800 and now maintaining following the same principles with time restricted eating. I have done WW in the past and reached my goal but I think that this will be easier to maintain as it has become a new way of eating rather than reducing quantities and having to calculate and keep track of points.

We have also got a spin bike and I try to use it every other day. I've set myself the target of cycling 1500 miles in 2021. It's set up indoors and I do half hour sessions so I have no excuse not to do it.

Me! I started literally this day last year at 11st 12lb. I am 5 foot 6 and this put my BMI somewhere between 26 and 27. Fast forward to today and I am 8 stone 12, having followed a 16:8 diet and cut out bread, keeping other carbs. I also cut back a long way on booze.
My motto is the 3 Bs: no breakfast, no bread, no booze (well, now and again for the last one but a lot less!).

I am 2 stone down from where I was September 2019, so just outside your bracket. I still have a stone to go but the fact I’ve kept the 2 stone off is very new for me.

I’m still not 100% sure what changed for me but the following things seemed important. I had a goal- a significant birthday- that I was working towards. I chose to try and lose 1lb a week steadily- rather than quickly- so a much more reasonable calorie goal than I’d previously tried. I walked everywhere and took myself on more interesting weekend walks. I let myself have a couple of treat meals on weekends. And I realised that it was only really 1-2 weeks of true difficulty while I got used to being a bit hungrier. I then realised that treats tasted so much better when they weren’t the norm. And I got counselling to help me deal with my destructive behaviour around food.

I am struggling to get started losing this last stone though so I definitely haven’t cracked it.

Slow and steady definitely better.

What's wrong with breakfast? I would be ravenous and likely to overeat and eat the wrong things if I didn't eat early.

I went back to breakfast after discovering that I was ruining 16:8 by having lunch, afternoon tea and dinner in my eating window. The mid-afternoon snacks tended to be sweet and carby - I’m much better off having porridge for breakfast!

A huge congratulations to the posters who have shared their successes above.

Restricting your eating times seems like a very common route to success. I'd like to try this but I need breakfast (work a long physical day outdoors in all weathers). I also am very reluctant to eat an early dinner- I have teenagers and DH isn't home until 7.30- I feel eating together is the glue that holds us together, but we can't do it until rather late in the evening .

That doesn't seem to matter once your window is within even 12h seems to be beneficial.

I lost 2 stone since March, through portion control and eating breakfast. If I skip breakfast I eat a lot more rubbish later in the day. I still have 2 stone to lose.

I was unhappy with my weight at this time two years ago - like you I’m petite and didn’t need to lose a huge amount (around 1.5-2 stone) but didn’t like how I looked or my clothes fit. I went on Weight Watchers and lost 11.6 kg within about 7 months and came within 400g of my goal (58kg - just over 9 stone). But I could never quite reach it.

Over this past year I’ve stayed on Weight Watchers and kept my weight hovering between 59 and 61 kg. I have decided that’s a healthy, maintainable weight for me - I’m a comfortable size 10 - and have amended my goal to 60kg.

What helps me maintain:

I use the WW purple plan - it has a lot of zero point foods that fill me up and don’t make me crave snacks.

The kitchen is CLOSED to me after dinner.

I have forced myself to stop picking at the granola and sticking a spoon in the peanut butter jar - it really all adds up.

Alcohol is confined to weekends only.

When my family has desserts I do partake but in very, very small amounts and only if I really fancy it.

Weigh-in every single week, first thing Thursday morning, completely naked after using the loo, before even a sip of coffee (a 250ml cup of liquid adds half a pound to your weight!).

At the moment I am violating every single one of my rules but I’m giving myself a holiday break and actually looking forward to getting back on track next week. I may have gained a couple of pounds but I am confident I will lose it and get back to maintaining. I did it before, I can do it again. I have enjoyed every morsel of my holiday indulgences but will be ready to return to a more streamlined way of eating that keeps me healthy in the longer term.

Good luck!

I've lost about 2 stone this year, going from just overweight into the middle of the healthy weight for my height. My BMI is now 21. The main change that I made was no eating between meals. I've been following 5:2 for quite a few years, but was obviously eating too much on non fast days, so I decided not to eat between meals.

I'm pretty active, but was at the same activity level when I was 2 stone heavier, so it's the change in eating habit that's made the difference. I try to hit a minimum of 10,000 steps per day, which is pretty easy as we have a dog.

I'm now really in the habit of only eating at mealtimes and it's not a hardship. If other people are having biscuits or something, I'll have one as a pudding at a mealtime but not between meals. Not denying myself means that I can have the treats I want, but cuts out mindless eating through boredom. As often as not, I don't actually want the biscuit or whatever by the next mealtime, so it definitely works out as fewer calories overall.

I think the trick is small, sustainable changes, and being flexible so you don't feel like you're denying yourself.

ShoesJerry makes a very good point that I discovered as well: it doesn’t really matter how active you are, if your diet is crap you will not lose weight. I recently read an article in the New York Times that said it takes 300 minutes of intense exercise per week to lose weight.

I lost a stone by giving up booze completely in the second half of 2020.

I’m about to have lost a second stone through not snacking at all and reducing carbs (no crazy ‘no carb’ diet, though - just less bread, fewer potatoes, trying not to eat carbs at lunchtime as they make me sleepy anyway).

mommybunny what are your zerp point foods please?

Well done to all those sharing their successes. Watching with interest.

Thank you for all these responses! It's really motivating hearing what people have had success with. A huge well done to those of you who have lost.

I honestly think I'm probably taking in an extra 1000 so cals a day purely on snacking and booze. I want to tackle this really slowly though , previous years I've crash dieted throughout Jan and then it's gone back on by March and the rest of the year has been spent to yo ing. If i can just lose 1.5lb a month for the year that would have me at roughly 8.7 stone by next Christmas.

I have a wardrobe of beautiful clothes I cant fit into and am living in stretchy leggings .

I think the first thing I need to do is cut the snacks. Just no snacking between meals and much more water.

Maybe just cut out those snacks but go easy on say portion size of decent meals etc. That itself will make a big difference. Have the nuts, fruit, carrot sticks etc handy and allow them. If say it might be more than 1000 cals extra if you're anything like I was.

Intermittent fasting. Started in May eating mostly between 12-6 but also 12-8. I try to get at least 10k steps and have started jogging every other day. 22 kg down so far. 4kg to go.

Snacking is definitely a minefield in trying to lose weight, but it doesn’t need to always be fatal. In general I have found that when I have a snack in a pre-portioned amount and eat it off a bowl or plate (preferably sitting down) I am much less likely to run into trouble than when I let myself dip my hand into the granola tub or even a spoon into the peanut butter jar.

Zero point foods for WW vary across plans but for the purple plan include all fruits and vegetables (including potatoes and other starchy veg), eggs, chicken and turkey breast, all fish and seafood, porridge oats, whole grain rice and pasta (but not bread), beans and legumes. The looser the list of zero point foods (purple is the loosest) the lower your daily point allotment. The aim is for you to build your meals around these foods to fill you up (you don’t need to measure them)?and use “points” for flavourings or small extras (like oil and butter, or sugar). It’s great for maintenance, but if I’m losing I find a stricter approach, with a tighter list of zero point foods (and therefore, more foods that need to be measured and counted) more effective.

What's wrong with breakfast? I would be ravenous and likely to overeat and eat the wrong things if I didn't eat early.

Different things work for different people. If you want breakfast, you could eat less in the evening. Keep your blood sugars steady instead of being starving by mid morning and bingeing.