Nothing is working....

[sandwiches77]

I am seriously overweight, as are all the females in my family. Feel like I'm fighting a losing battle, I have tried every diet, stuck to it like glue and no weight loss

I did lose a bit on VLCD but it was not sustainable plus I have a teenager daughter and want to role model eating meals not shakes at mealtimes.

I don't think I have any issues with my insulin levels but obviously I could have, never been suggested. I was told that I had PCOS and I would struggle to conceive, I had DD followed by twins with less than a two year gap between them!!

You need to leave our the crisps from your lunch and the yoghurt from your tea.

Is it spag Bol with cheese and garlic bread or just spag Bol? What's your portion size?

That's a lot to eat in a day.

So good to hear you are trying to role model good eating for your daughter.

I would highly recommend you simply add some extra veg in to your meals, try some low carb options. Ultimately, if you want a lifestyle change, don’t worry about weight or diets so much as healthy foods and fun exercise.

There was a great post here about enjoying exercise. Such great advice. Mix it up, have fun trying new recipes, skip the garlic bread when you can. Don’t go overboard- everything in moderation.

I would advise against weighing food and calorie counting. You will only make yourself depressed.

Your physical and mental health are important. Don’t get bogged down with trying to be skinny or doing unsustainable diets.

If the Kardashians are that miserable about there own bodies to have to try and legally remove unfiltered photos of themselves on the web, then I think we all need to understand how fake insta is and get to grips with the fact that no woman is that happy with her body.

Be healthy, have fun. Go on bike rides with your daughter now the sun is out. Have a salad for lunch some days. Eat cake others.

You will get there!

You may not think you have issues with your insulin levels, but if your diet is routinely as high in carbs as you've suggested, then you will be producing a lot of insulin for your pancreas to have to deal with, and this is a key trigger for the laying down of fat. This is the primary reason for cutting down on carbs.

Just eat soup for a month you will loose weight

I would advise against weighing food and calorie counting. You will only make yourself depressed.

The op is depressed about being overweight now. Weighing things doesn’t mean a joyless existence. It’s useful to have a short period of weighing everything so you know what a portion should be, and maybe count calories to figure out what a normal day’s intake looks like. I weigh pasta, rice and cous cous every time I cook them so I’ve got the right portions. It’s no inconvenience at all and certainly hasn’t affected my enjoyment of those foods. Doesn’t pretty much every recipe in a cookbook call for weighing and measuring?

I think there’s a difference between constantly weighing food and counting calories to fit yourself into a specific jeans size or because you feel the need to maintain an unrealistic body shape and doing the same to try and get yourself down into a healthy or overweight BMI band for the sake of your health while still eating well.

Part of the reason I work out my food intake is so that I can see that what I’m getting is balanced and that I’m not relying heavily on ‘diet’ or ‘light’ foods. I’d rather eat the equivalent in giant stuffed, green olives than one of those ‘diet’ bars and checking the weight and the calories a few times means that I know that’s way more olives than I’d imagined. I want to choose to indulge in a slice of cake or ice cream and enjoy it, not to be unknowingly eating the calorific equivalent while thinking I’m being healthy and then get depressed when the scales don’t move.

You need to check your portion sizes. Unfortunately many of us eat healthy food and "not so much"...
It's bastarding small things.

You also need to do some shorter muscle building workout. It's not just for weight itself. Your body will be grateful. It even helps digestion.

I think sometimes it's useful to be very honest with yourself. I have tried all sorts of diets, very successfully whilst I'm on the diet. I become almost evangelical about the particular diet. Then, when I've lost the weight, the bad habits creep back in and the weight goes back on.

So I'm now changing my way of thinking - starting with being absolutely honest. I am not prepared to give up the odd plate of fish and chips. I am not prepared to have to think ahead when I go out for the day - if a sandwich is all I buy for lunch, I'll have it. I don't want to cook separate things for myself and the rest of the family.

So...I'm now only having half a sandwich when we have sandwiches at home or I'll give DH/DS half my sandwich if I buy one when we're out for the day. When I do a curry or spag bol I'll do all of us half the amount of rice or pasta that we would normally have then add lots of veg. I always weigh rice or pasta as my sense of portions is rubbish! If we have fish and chips (as we did during the Easter school holidays on a trip to the beach) I'll buy a kids portion. It's the flavour and texture I enjoy - not the amount - I've come to realise. I'm only 5ft 2 inches tall, I don't need a full portion the size that my 6ft 1 inch DH can plough through. I can always buy something else if I'm hungry. Again it's the being honest element. If I buy a full adult portion, I'll eat it. Not because I'm hungry but because it's there. It's the 'need to finish what's on your plate' mentality that my parents had coming through.

I also know that later in the evening, watching TV will often mean I'll nip into the kitchen to get a piece of toast or a snack. So...I bought one of those under desk bikes. They're just the pedals and counter mechanism of a stationary bike without the saddle etc., You sit wherever you want and use it. So I sit on the sofa and pedal for an hour. The calorie counter says I go through 300-500 calories. I take that with a pinch of salt but I'm moving rather than just sitting, I can't nip out to get a snack without making a conscious decision to stop and I enjoy it.

Over Easter I enjoyed half an Easter egg with DH and had a hot cross bun each day. But I cut back on other things - probably not enough to cover the hot cross bun but still better than not cutting anything out!

I've lost almost 7lb in just over five weeks, I'm not missing anything because I'm eating everything - just not as much as I usually do. If I want a bag of crisps I have to swap something for it because I know I over eat so I'm being honest and trying to work with the way I am.

Try hypnotherapy. It has excellent results for weight loss and keeping it off long term.

@gonnabeok

Try hypnotherapy. It has excellent results for weight loss and keeping it off long term.

Didn't work for me unfortunately!