Mutual support thread for those currently losing or working towards losing a lot of weight

[UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme]

This is a mutual support thread for anyone who wants (and needs) to lose a lot of weight, is mid way through losing a lot of weight, or is nearing the end of a big weight loss and wants to continue to support and be supported as maintenance approaches.

The previous thread has been massively helpful to regular posters, as we share both our losses and our plateau or gains, congratulate or console, and talk about what works for us while understanding that different things work for different people, and we are all different ages, all have different families/ households/ people to plan around, different commitments, different working lives and different health conditions which partly determine our approaches.

We are all on this journey together - this thread is for us to encourage one another, post updates, chat about what we're doing, how we're doing, share stories and thoughts and sometimes wander slightly off topic if we want, but everyone posting should be somewhere along the journey towards escaping high BMI obesity.

The previous thread was started by someone who no longer posts and initially asked how to lose 9 stone - it developed into a support thread for people with varying amounts left to lose but all of whom started out with at least 5 or 6 stone + / 30 or 35 kg + to lose, very roughly...

No links to selling sites or unsolicited "helpful" lectures please - mutual support from existing and new posters all actually living this big weight loss now, or just starting out, welcome!

Previous thread here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/3894410-i-need-to-lose-9st-help

It's a long hard road but we are trying.

I love reading all the posts here. It motivates me to keep going and reminds me to do planks and sit ups!

Well@UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme , I think I’ve always been a rebel and disliked organised anything, but that may well have held me back a bit. I hate the BMITracker , and I will stay away from it, but my MFP graph is full of peaks and troughs, and what is very clear is that as soon as I stop tracking, the line starts going the wrong way. But I m over it anyway because I weighed myself this morning and I was 95.6 kilos, so a kil lost since Sunday. I think I was just holding onto water. I feel much better now!

@Rebuildingconfidence, glad you are still planking. I loathe it, puts me off getting up in the morning, but I do it and they are getting easier, and I have lost an inch off my waist. Looked down in the shower and I could see my tush! Very exciting, rushed downstairs to find “I feel like a woman” on Spotify.

Hi all, I'd like to join. I've been on a few of the other weight loss threads and a lot of people seem to be looking to lose 2-5lb. That feels like a very different type of situation to mine so I'm not sure the advice is always comparable.
I'm currently 111kg (approx 17.4 stone according to the google converter?) with a BMI of 35 as I'm quite tall.
I don't have a set target amount of weight to lose but want to get my BMI back into the healthy range. That'll be around 33kg to lose if I sneak in at the higher level.
I've just read Andrew Jenkinson's Why Do We Eat (Too Much) and it could have been written with me in mind so I'm following a lot of the recommendations in there for now.
I've spent years fighting my weight and only getting heavier so a lot of his stories about people struggling to control their eating really resonated. I've cut out vegetable oils, bread and sugar this week and starting to feel a lot better already. I'm hoping it's going to stick. Feeling confident!
I've had a number of weight loss apps, including MyFitnessPal but I find I only use them when I'm exercising and eating properly and forget about them when I fall off the wagon so I'm not sure I get much benefit.

OldTurtleNewShell welcome!
What do you use instead of vegetable oil?

@OldTurtleNewShell.
Hello. You’re definitely in the right place. Those numbers sound like our normal. I read about the Jenkinson book and thought ofgetting it, so I will be really interested to see how you get on. My Dh looked at me as if I was bonkers when I suggested we roast our potatoes in lard instead of sunflower oil. I also know he doesn’t approve of fruit at breakfast. And my whole life stops working if I don’t start the day with an orange. I take my own with me when I go away.
But the rest sounds really thought provoking.

I've just read this article on Andrew Jenkinson www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018733651/bariatric-surgeon-andrew-jenkinson-tells-us-why-we-eat-too-much (no idea why I read one from New Zealand) and it sounds almost exactly like what I've been doing for the last ten months - minimal bread and refined sugar, minimal processed food, minimal snacking, two or sometimes one meal per day, 16/8 (or really 18/6) but although I don't eat processed food any more - so don't eat vegetable oil that way - I do use vegetable oil in cooking. Butter and olive oil are only good at fairly low temperature aren't they? I don't think lard is really something that you can buy in Germany - I've looked for it before to make mince pies and it just isn't available. Theres Butterschmalz, which should just be clarified butter, like ghee, but lots of colleagues at work cook with it so I've bought it for the work store cupboard and its actually highly processed with a long list of ingredients... Perhaps Butterschmalz from an organic supermarket...

I wonder how much difference a spoonful of cold processed organic rapeseed oil used in cooking a meal for five (so 1/5 of tablespoon each) really makes...

That's a really interesting article - thanks for posting it. I'm not sure I understand why not eating vegetable oils helps with the omega 3/6 ratio and how that relates to weight loss - I'll definitely do some more reading on it. Totally in agreement though on the sugar / carbohydrate thing. I eat lowish carb / sugar because for the calories they deliver, I don't feel full or satisfied for long. Because I often eat one meal a day, that really matters.
@Zebracat very glad you are feeling better....
Welcome @OldTurtleNewShell - I'll be really interested to see how you get on with your approach.
@UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme - my feeling is that a small amount of something like rapeseed oil for cooking has to be better than something highly processed (disclaimer - I've not read the book so that's just my instinct....).
You wondered where I decided on 0 8kg per week for my graph - here's my nerdy stuff.... I thought a 40kg loss in a year would be achievable. Taking 2 weeks off for wobbles, I simply divided 40 by 50. However to double check that would be do-able for me I calculated the weekly calorie deficit I would need to achieve that (multiplied 0.8 by 9 -assumption that all weight loss would be fat) and divided that number by 7 to show me the daily calorie deficit I would need. I looked at the combination of food and exercise it would require to achieve that daily deficit, and what impact having a 'day off' every week would have. The maths indicated it would be do-able and the graph shows the calculations were reasonably accurate!. I studied biochemistry at university about 100 years ago.. I don't actually do any of this nerdy stuff on a day to day basis, just keep an eye on calories and exercise on MFP. I should really recalculate, because I'm now lighter and the deficit requirement will have changed.... I'll do it when I've lost the 40kg as I have another 10kg to lose at that point to get to a healthy BMI.

oops, correction - I multiplied 0.8 by 100 to covert to grams and then multiplied by 9 to calculate to energy deficit. None of this is necessary or important because it's actually being disciplined about what goes in my mouth on a daily basis, that matters...the underlying science just satisfies my inner nerd, (and I like seeing my theory proven on my graph!!)

What do you use instead of vegetable oil?
Sorry, I took a bit of a shortcut there. I've cut out all vegetable oils with the exception of olive oil and I've used that sparingly. I've probably had the equivalent of a tablespoon in a week.
I actually went through my cupboards and just got rid of anything with added sunflower oil. It was a lot!
I'm not sure I understand why not eating vegetable oils helps with the omega 3/6 ratio and how that relates to weight loss
According to the book, the problem is that there is effectively only so much space for omega 3 or 6 in fat cells, and because vegetable oils (particularly sunflower oil) are so high in omega 6, they effectively block the omega 3 and that causes issues (my summary, it's a bit more detailed than that)
It's difficult to summarise the book because it's hugely detailed. A lot of it is about how the metabolic system works and why your weight set point increases when you go on a diet in combination with eating certain foods. I found it absolutely fascinating.
He's quite fond of examples, and one of those that he uses is that of how we feed livestock. Naturally grass grazing cows tend to be a lot leaner than heavily farmed cows where they are often fed high volumes of oil and grains to bulk them up, and the same kind of thing works with humans.
I read that and thought about how much bread, pasta and sunflower oil was going into my body and thought oh my god, I'm a grain fed cow
The whole book actually made me feel a lot better about my weight because it was utterly eye opening about how I got to this point.
Interestingly, according to the book, it was down to me actually working so bloody hard at trying to lose weight using the standard calories in/out method but in the wrong way so that my body decided that it needed to hold onto that extra fat and my natural weight set point got raised every time, making it harder and harder to lose it. It's a vicious cycle.
I'm still very early in trying to make it work and its going to be a slow process, but it feels very different to what I've done before and I think I understand the hows and whys a lot more so I'm hopeful.

I forgot to add this link which I think is worth a listen.
thedoctorskitchen.com/podcasts/94-weight-series-part-1-of-2-why-we-eat-too-much-with-dr-andrew-jenkinson

Well, I have whatever the total opposite of a science brain . But grain fed cow is a very powerful image!

And the sunflower oil is going!

alphaechokiwi that's really interesting! I love doing sums like that in my head while walking but have an absolute aversion to commiting them to paper/ spreadsheet form as it's too much of a commitment I have the world's most mixed academic background - English lit BA at standard middle class kids is supposed to do a degree and likes books age, gap, few years of work and travel, employer sponsored International Business MSc. gap, Graduate teacher programme "qualify while you teach" QTS, big gap for a few years teaching, move countries, degree apprenticeship programme leading to a learning disabilities nursing qualification...
Bit of everything, I possibly lack direction I swear I won't retrain again while secretly googling Open University psychology degrees - there's a very specific fully funded masters programme run in English in Munich which I fancy... bit I'm much too old and have retrained quite enough times for one life!

OldTurtleNewShell thanks for that explanation - between posts I was at the supermarket and whilst looking for balsamic vinegar I happened to see olive oil advertised as suitable for high temperature cooking, which I didn't know existed, so I've bought that to try.

Hi everyone,

I have also heard of that book, and I think it sounds really interesting. I was tempted to buy it, but honestly I feel like it'll be too much to give up the treats! Also, and this might be ridiculous, but my wife does most of the cooking! (I feel bad saying that, but honestly when I'm not ill I work a lot more hours than she does, in a job that is much more stressful! Also I promise I don't take her for granted.) Anyhow she'd never agree to change what she cooks, which is fair enough. But I will also be interested to see how you get on, OldTurtleNewShell. I have heard the thing about cattle as well, basically being fed a lot of the stuff people try to eat when they're trying to lose weight!

And on that note @OldTurtleNewShell welcome to the thread! You are definitely in the right place! I feel like we are a very supportive bunch!

@alphaechokiwi I loved your explanation! I am something of a geek myself!

I weighed myself this morning. 86.7kg, which is a loss of 0.8kg from last week, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Last week I said I would just have one treat meal in the week, which I had over the weekend. But yesterday my friend messaged me in the morning about going out for lunch and I couldn't say no! But we went to Pizza Express and I just had a Leggera pizza and a diet coke. I think that's the first time ever I've not had dough balls at Pizza Express! In general my weight loss is very slow at the moment - it's been about 9 weeks and I've lost just under 4kg. But slow is a lot better than nothing, and also than losing it too quickly and putting it all back on. I'm still here and feeling motivated, so should be ok!

Hi everyone,

I have also heard of that book, and I think it sounds really interesting. I was tempted to buy it, but honestly I feel like it'll be too much to give up the treats! Also, and this might be ridiculous, but my wife does most of the cooking! (I feel bad saying that, but honestly when I'm not ill I work a lot more hours than she does, in a job that is much more stressful! Also I promise I don't take her for granted.) Anyhow she'd never agree to change what she cooks, which is fair enough. But I will also be interested to see how you get on, OldTurtleNewShell. I have heard the thing about cattle as well, basically being fed a lot of the stuff people try to eat when they're trying to lose weight!

And on that note @OldTurtleNewShell welcome to the thread! You are definitely in the right place! I feel like we are a very supportive bunch!

@alphaechokiwi I loved your explanation! I am something of a geek myself!

I weighed myself this morning. 86.7kg, which is a loss of 0.8kg from last week, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Last week I said I would just have one treat meal in the week, which I had over the weekend. But yesterday my friend messaged me in the morning about going out for lunch and I couldn't say no! But we went to Pizza Express and I just had a Leggera pizza and a diet coke. I think that's the first time ever I've not had dough balls at Pizza Express! In general my weight loss is very slow at the moment - it's been about 9 weeks and I've lost just under 4kg. But slow is a lot better than nothing, and also than losing it too quickly and putting it all back on. I'm still here and feeling motivated, so should be ok!

Hi everyone,

I have also heard of that book, and I think it sounds really interesting. I was tempted to buy it, but honestly I feel like it'll be too much to give up the treats! Also, and this might be ridiculous, but my wife does most of the cooking! (I feel bad saying that, but honestly when I'm not ill I work a lot more hours than she does, in a job that is much more stressful! Also I promise I don't take her for granted.) Anyhow she'd never agree to change what she cooks, which is fair enough. But I will also be interested to see how you get on, OldTurtleNewShell. I have heard the thing about cattle as well, basically being fed a lot of the stuff people try to eat when they're trying to lose weight!

And on that note @OldTurtleNewShell welcome to the thread! You are definitely in the right place! I feel like we are a very supportive bunch!

@alphaechokiwi I loved your explanation! I am something of a geek myself!

I weighed myself this morning. 86.7kg, which is a loss of 0.8kg from last week, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Last week I said I would just have one treat meal in the week, which I had over the weekend. But yesterday my friend messaged me in the morning about going out for lunch and I couldn't say no! But we went to Pizza Express and I just had a Leggera pizza and a diet coke. I think that's the first time ever I've not had dough balls at Pizza Express! In general my weight loss is very slow at the moment - it's been about 9 weeks and I've lost just under 4kg. But slow is a lot better than nothing, and also than losing it too quickly and putting it all back on. I'm still here and feeling motivated, so should be ok!

Hi everyone,

I have also heard of that book, and I think it sounds really interesting. I was tempted to buy it, but honestly I feel like it'll be too much to give up the treats! Also, and this might be ridiculous, but my wife does most of the cooking! (I feel bad saying that, but honestly when I'm not ill I work a lot more hours than she does, in a job that is much more stressful! Also I promise I don't take her for granted.) Anyhow she'd never agree to change what she cooks, which is fair enough. But I will also be interested to see how you get on, OldTurtleNewShell. I have heard the thing about cattle as well, basically being fed a lot of the stuff people try to eat when they're trying to lose weight!

And on that note @OldTurtleNewShell welcome to the thread! You are definitely in the right place! I feel like we are a very supportive bunch!

@alphaechokiwi I loved your explanation! I am something of a geek myself!

I weighed myself this morning. 86.7kg, which is a loss of 0.8kg from last week, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Last week I said I would just have one treat meal in the week, which I had over the weekend. But yesterday my friend messaged me in the morning about going out for lunch and I couldn't say no! But we went to Pizza Express and I just had a Leggera pizza and a diet coke. I think that's the first time ever I've not had dough balls at Pizza Express! In general my weight loss is very slow at the moment - it's been about 9 weeks and I've lost just under 4kg. But slow is a lot better than nothing, and also than losing it too quickly and putting it all back on. I'm still here and feeling motivated, so should be ok!

Hi everyone,

I have also heard of that book, and I think it sounds really interesting. I was tempted to buy it, but honestly I feel like it'll be too much to give up the treats! Also, and this might be ridiculous, but my wife does most of the cooking! (I feel bad saying that, but honestly when I'm not ill I work a lot more hours than she does, in a job that is much more stressful! Also I promise I don't take her for granted.) Anyhow she'd never agree to change what she cooks, which is fair enough. But I will also be interested to see how you get on, OldTurtleNewShell. I have heard the thing about cattle as well, basically being fed a lot of the stuff people try to eat when they're trying to lose weight!

And on that note @OldTurtleNewShell welcome to the thread! You are definitely in the right place! I feel like we are a very supportive bunch!

@alphaechokiwi I loved your explanation! I am something of a geek myself!

I weighed myself this morning. 86.7kg, which is a loss of 0.8kg from last week, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Last week I said I would just have one treat meal in the week, which I had over the weekend. But yesterday my friend messaged me in the morning about going out for lunch and I couldn't say no! But we went to Pizza Express and I just had a Leggera pizza and a diet coke. I think that's the first time ever I've not had dough balls at Pizza Express! In general my weight loss is very slow at the moment - it's been about 9 weeks and I've lost just under 4kg. But slow is a lot better than nothing, and also than losing it too quickly and putting it all back on. I'm still here and feeling motivated, so should be ok!

Hi everyone,

I have also heard of that book, and I think it sounds really interesting. I was tempted to buy it, but honestly I feel like it'll be too much to give up the treats! Also, and this might be ridiculous, but my wife does most of the cooking! (I feel bad saying that, but honestly when I'm not ill I work a lot more hours than she does, in a job that is much more stressful! Also I promise I don't take her for granted.) Anyhow she'd never agree to change what she cooks, which is fair enough. But I will also be interested to see how you get on, OldTurtleNewShell. I have heard the thing about cattle as well, basically being fed a lot of the stuff people try to eat when they're trying to lose weight!

And on that note @OldTurtleNewShell welcome to the thread! You are definitely in the right place! I feel like we are a very supportive bunch!

@alphaechokiwi I loved your explanation! I am something of a geek myself!

I weighed myself this morning. 86.7kg, which is a loss of 0.8kg from last week, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Last week I said I would just have one treat meal in the week, which I had over the weekend. But yesterday my friend messaged me in the morning about going out for lunch and I couldn't say no! But we went to Pizza Express and I just had a Leggera pizza and a diet coke. I think that's the first time ever I've not had dough balls at Pizza Express! In general my weight loss is very slow at the moment - it's been about 9 weeks and I've lost just under 4kg. But slow is a lot better than nothing, and also than losing it too quickly and putting it all back on. I'm still here and feeling motivated, so should be ok!

Oh, oops. Sorry for posting that twice! I was having trouble with the website!

Hi everyone new to the thread. I started a healthy eating plan roughly around the middle of April and so far have managed to lose a stone and a half. I am now currently 18 stone 1lbs, but I'm only 5ft2 so have a long way to go!

I'm doing a low carb, no sugar plan. But since Friday I haven't lost anything. So not sure if I'm doing anything wrong or I'm just being impatient. I also do intermittent fasting. Although I'm starting to eat less and less and I'm wondering if I should be concerned about that and maybe getting a bit too obsessive? For example, yesterday, I had 3 coffees and one pork loin with one cup of broccoli and cauliflower. I don't drink fizzy juice or anything, just water or snack. I do like the occasional gin and slim line tonic once a week, so wondering if maybe I should cut that out completely?

ScottishBeth 4kg in 9 weeks really is pretty good, going in the right direction is what matters and steady loss is more sustainable and less likely to leave you with sagging skin.

BippityBoppity87 welcome! If you read the thread you'll see we all have plateau - its part of it, annoying as it is, but sometimes the loss is bigger once the plateau breaks. I do think you may be right that you're not eating enough if one pork chop and one scoop of broccoli is typical for a full day! You won't be getting the fibre, vitamins minerals and protein you need if every day is like that!

75.2 kg today, which is 1.8 kg less than last week! So my self indulgent wallowing gain has gone and then some more! Its a big loss at this late stage. Only 5kg to a healthy BMI now
Possibly the odd day of self indulgence/ more calories and unhealthy stuff actually helps nudge the metabolism as long as it is just the odd occasional day? I don't know whether there's any scientific evidence for that theory but I have thought that before...