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

Thank you 😳 I'm feeling a bit more sensible today and have picked myself up and dusted off and all that and feel embarrassed for over reacting. I over reacted at the group as well and decided after sitting patiently for 15 minutes that I didn't want to stay and got up and left. I bet they all think I'm such a drama queen. It's just so hard when I feel like I'm being perfectly on plan and not being rewarded! I'm going back to basics today and will be working on being more organised. Thank you for your kindness 😊

@WeightlossKin, so glad you’re feeling better. The pressure on people who have been set targets is so massive. And there’s already so much guilt and shame around both weight and fertility that it is going to seem really unfair to work really hard and find weight loss inconsistent . But you are doing well and it is working. We are all with you.
Bodies are weird, in weeks that have not resulted in a loss, try and work out why that might be. Often in pre menopausal women, it is connected to the menstrual cycle and hormone release, and, therefore, outside your control, but it may be that eating more lean protein or more veg helps. Find other ways to assess your progress. Set targets for exercise, hydration, self care, especially self care, and reward yourself when you achieve them. I can’t remember if you do this, but swimming, yoga and Pilates are great exercise for overweight people, bringing benefits to mind and body, and a release from worrying about all the rest of it.
I weighed this morning at 98.2, which is disappointing, but I know I am doing ok apart from some rainbow birthday cake and some stray pigs in blankets. So 8mgoing to take my own advice and go swimming and not think about it!

Thank you, I really appreciate it @Zebracat.
The pressure is so much. Your message has made me realise I've sort of stopped eating much protein, when things were going a bit more quickly I was making a huge effort to fill up on protein rather than carbs. So I'll go back to that.
I don't do that much exercise right now actually, probably as I've been a bit depressed all around so will make an effort to do a bit more again as I actually quite enjoy exercise. I was doing quite a bit but gave up when it didn't make a difference to my weight loss.
I do take measurements etc. The problem is the NHS doesn't care how fit I am or how well I am, all they care about is BMI. It's so brutal in a way. But it would be better for my mental health to focus more on the other measures of health improvement! 😊

I hope you enjoyed your swimming!

WeightlossKin I'm sorry you've been feeling down - its so much harder psychologically for you because of the external pressure of the fertility treatment target - I think most or all of us recognise how external pressure about our weight actually makes it harder to lose because often comfort eating is our go-to strategy for dealing with pressure! As alphaechokiwi and Zebra say you're actually doing really well even though you haven't lost as much as you wanted this particular week. As they say weight loss is very rarely linear, and if you keep doing what you're doing you'll see inexplicably big losses sometimes to offset the weeks you inexplicably lose very little despite doing everything right. The protein, self care and exercise advice is all excellent too - I'm glad you're going to take Zebra and alphaechokiwi's advice and are feeling a bit better. Feeling good in yourself helps so much with weightloss - its very much positive or negative spirals I find.

Zebracat I hope you enjoyed your swimming, I'm sorry the scales disappointed you this week, but you're completely right to keep on keeping on and concentrate on the big picture of overall health and wellbeing. That way long term weight will stay under control and slowly reduce instead of piling on.

Btw your other post about finally understanding lingerie resonated with me. Having finally found one bra style and size that actually works for me now I've taken DH's advice and invested in 5 the same (in different colours)

5 bras hair, what luxury, better not lose tooo much more weight! Swimming always makes me feel better. I’ve been again today, and now I’m going to garden.

Thanks @UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme it's a hard balance really. I'd love to see some inexplicable big losses 😁 would be nice!! I do think hormones have a lot to answer for.

Sorry I haven't been on the thread for a while. Ended up with a nasty bout of food poisoning. Was in hospital last Friday, bloody horrendous. Took almost a week to recover. Better now though. Went on the scales, still the same 17st 1lb. Doesn't seem to be shifting!

Oh no @BippityBoppity87! I'm sorry to hear you've been so poorly. Food poisoning can take such a toll on your body. I once got food poisoning from a prawn spring roll and for ten years couldn't eat spring rolls of any kind or prawns in anything! I'm over it now and have gone back to loving both.
I'm sorry your weight hasn't moved, are you still calorie counting and doing very low calorie? Maybe you need to try something different now?

@BippityBoppity87 I'm so sorry to hear that you've been unwell. It can take weeks to recover from a bad bout of good poisoning, so don't be too hard on yourself.

Good morning everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. I had a pretty decent week and I'm 78.8kg this morning which I'm happy with. . Wishing you all a great weekend x

Morning everyone! I have been away for a little while, but am back now.

Just to give a quick update,last time I posted was just after I had my (thankfully short-lived) long covid relapse. Even though I was only off work for a week that time, it still took a while to get over it. I was working more than I had been and just didn't have it in me to post on here, or think too !ich about food. So I decided to take a break from thinking about my weight till after we had a holiday, which was last week!

I am doing pretty well healthwise, back to my full hours at work. Though I still have to be very careful about exercise. I'm also feeling good in myself, so now seems the perfect time to be back! I was a bit worried when I weighed myself this morning, but I have stayed under 90kg (actually 88.7kg) so I feel like that's not too bad.

I'm not able to go through and read everything I've missed, but nice to see those of you who've been posting a while - @UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme @alphaechokiwi @Zebracat @WeightlossKin and @BippityBoppity87. Good to see you're all still going!

I lost 1.2kg this week, so that’s me down 10.9kg.

Welcome back BippityBoppity87 and ScottishBeth glad you're both feeling better.

Well done on your decent week alphaechokiwi and on your big loss wombatsandaplant

I'm pretty happy with how maintenance is going - sticking to basically the same self created plan as when losing weight (intermittent fasting, mostly avoiding processed sugar and processed carbohydrates) and lots of walking, but am more relaxed about the fasting interval, and still making exceptions for special occasions like my own family members' birthday celebrations.

The new thing I'm doing is being more aware of eating enough protein - it seems really easy not to manage this and I think I've been having too little protein fairly often. I've taken up adding plain quark to my yoghurt as well as banana, and really developed a taste for it after initially thinking it was a bit tart. Its a good job I have a family and residents at work to cook for as I honestly would be happy to live on porridge if it was just me

Walking is making me happy atm, as long as I can do ling walks I think I'll manage maintenance. Gratuitous picture of one of my favourite walking routes attached...

That looks lovely @UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme !

Welcome back @ScottishBeth - I was thinking of you and hoping you were keeping well. I'm glad to hear that your health has improved.
@wombatsandaplant - big congratulations on that weight loss this week and your achievement to date.
Lovely pic @UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme - it's wonderful that you've discovered something that you love so much. And your maintenance update is inspiring too. I think when we have a lot of weight to lose its so important that we do it sustainably as maintenance eating is not that much different to the weight loss plan. So many times I've dived in the deep end restricting food, but been unable to sustain it beyond the initial 'big' loss, let alone in the long term.
I've been following the CICO thread over the past few days. It's a really interesting and informative discussion. For sure we live in an obesogenic environment and there are so many more factors influencing obesity than just calorie intake. The more I read about this, the more I tweek what I and my family eat with an eye towards long term health (especially trying to eliminate processed carbs and vegetable oils at the moment). But stress, sleep, exercise and hormones all play such a big part.
Hope you are all having a good week.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4359045-To-think-that-eat-less-move-more-everything-in-moderation-and-CICO-is-total-bollox
This is the thread in case anyone is interested...

Thank you @UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme and @alphaechokiwi

@UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme I'm glad maintenance is going well. And it's good you're still walking. Is that picture from somewhere close to you? It's beautiful.

@alphaechokiwi I'll take a look at that thread - it looks interesting. It's so frustrating! I find all this terrible food so delicious sometimes. I'm sure part of it is emotional, but also I guess this food is designed to be addictive.

@wombatsandaplant fantastic loss!

Hi everyone! Hope my NC back to my original name has worked... Things went to pot a bit about 6 weeks ago and this past week has been especially bad. DH has encouraged me to return to the thread. I haven't forgotten you Not sure how much soul searching I want to be doing but my goodness, I need to shift some weight! I accidentally took a selfie yesterday from an unflattering angle and there's no denying that I am big, just big! Not sure about my plan, I'd love to just get under 90kg for the first time in 5 years I think

Hi Sticky. Welcome back and also thanks for inspiring me. I've been lurking for a while waiting to come back as I've been struggling too. It's so hard to admit when you're struggling isn't it so fair play for doing that. I know from past experience there is so much support here. So not sure why it's taken me so long to reach out. Ah well. Here we go again I guess

Welcome back @Notthissticky and @MamaNewtNewt - it's lovely to see you back here. I'm sorry to hear that you've both struggled, and I hope posting here will help you both. I feel your pain on the bad photo. It's somehow very raw.
I"m 78.2kg this morning. I"ll take any loss I get as success, so happy with that.
Happy Sunday everyone

Good to see you both @MamaNewtNewt and @Notthissticky

It is hard, and I'm sure everyone here has had times where they've struggled. It really annoys me when people smuggly say "you just need to consume less calories than you use!" Oh, is that all? If it were that simple we wouldn't have a massive obesity crisis! Sort of related to CICO thread mentioned by @alphaechokiwi the other day.

And alpha - 78.2kg is fantastic! Well done.

I was pleasantly surprised this week. I wasn't expecting much, as I've had a couple of pretty calorific meals - one planned as a treat, one not, and also my after dinner sweet treat has been a bit bigger than I would like a couple of times. However I was 87.6kg, which is a loss of 1.1kg since Monday! Am delighted! I am sure some of it is water weight, I'd not been trying for a few weeks and only got back off holiday a week ago, but still!

What I've been doing is - on my non-work days, a shorter eating window of 6-8 hours (can't do that on a work day as it will make me ill), no snacking, and just slightly healthier meals, though honestly not amazingly healthy. So for next week I just need to make sure I'm organised enough to take lunch to work, and reduce the size of my after dinner treats. I am feeling positive.

Thanks @ScottishBeth and @alphaechokiwi I just weighed myself and it’s not as bad as I feared. I’ve somehow only put on 0.5lbs, not sure how. The broken ankle just totally derailed me but I’m determined to keep going. We’ve been eating better as I can cook now and I’ve deleted the deliveroo app so the number of takeaways has gone down. Maybe this has offset the sugar intake. I’m going to try to come off the sugar next week, I’ve been relying on it a bit more as work has been so busy but I need to prioritise my health. Still not able to walk too well but will try to get out a bit more. Oh and I've FINALLY started treatment on my thyroid, after a couple of years of borderline results. They wanted to wait and see again, yet I put my foot down for once. The Dr also thinks I have sleep apnea as well but not looked into that fully yet.

And well done on the losses both of you!

Hello everyone. Lovely to see people bravely coming back. I am still trying to get back under 95 kilos and it’s not working. I have a problem with my leg/hip/spine, not sure which, but it hurts so bad to walk that Ihave to lie down for 3 hours afterwards. So of course I am moving less. This has been the case for a few months. I’ve put off making a doctors appointment in the hope I could just lose some weight, as I know they will tell me to. But it really is a vicious cycle.
I commit here to trying really hard at 8 am tomorrow to get an appointment. I’m not actually gaining weight, ,some weeks I lose as much as 100 grams!