Is it doable to lose 4st in 8 months?

[tigerbird]

I’m staring down the barrel of 45 and with childbearing, lockdown, depressing marriage and job and so on, I’m nearly double the bodyweight I used to be in my youth! I feel I’ve GOT to do something about it this year or I’ll never do it and my health and self esteem will never recover.

Fifteen years ago in my thirties I could easily lose 2lbs a week/half a stone a month on a combination of low carb and low calorie meals. Is this remotely doable in my forties? I’m around 5-6st overweight but I’d very happily settle for losing 4st. My ideal would be to manage 4st in 8 months and then try at least six months of maintaining it before any thoughts of losing any more. But I never had to shift more than one or one and a half stone before at the maximum, and this is a LOT.

Is it remotely feasible? What works? (NB through a combination of joint and immune conditions I can’t do anything more than really really light exercise, so yes to Pilates etc but no to anything cardio or similar).

Please help, wise MNers! 🙏🏽

I'm 1 month into the Fast 800 Keto and have lost a stone (still got at least 3 to go!)

After the first week I've found it surprisingly easy. The book is on Amazon and it has a menu /meal plan to get you started. It definitely seems to be working for me.

I lost just under 3 stone in 3 months doing Wildfit last year (not even a weight loss plan!) aged 43. So yes, it’s potentially possible.

I’ve completely redefined my relationship with food. Highly recommend. Not cheap, but the best things never are.

@Sunshinegirl82

I'm 1 month into the Fast 800 Keto and have lost a stone (still got at least 3 to go!)

After the first week I've found it surprisingly easy. The book is on Amazon and it has a menu /meal plan to get you started. It definitely seems to be working for me.

I did the fast 800 3 times 3 years ago and completely screwed my metabolism. Has taken this long to get it almost back to working. :-(

And no exercise required on Wildfit. It’s a coached programme based on what humans should be eating (rather than what food manufacturers want to sell us).

I don't know whay to suggest but would you like a buddy? I am a similar age with similar circumstances. Have joint issues also so exercise is limited. Yoyo dieter and the only things I found to work was reducing crappy carbs and calorie counting. I just need to get my head back in the game. Half a stone a month is totally doable and would be up for the challenge if you want some company?!?!

Excuse typos, my phone loves to make me look stupid!!

Thank you everyone, and I would love a buddy @SkinnyCoffeeBean! The more the merrier! I used to use a combination of low carb (but not keto), plus keeping under 1200 calories, and found that used to work, but it’s harder than it used to be. My diet is generally pretty healthy - I just eat way too much of it (and I could lose the glasses of wine, too…) I find just keeping in the right headspace for dieting much harder now I’m working from home and also having to think about DC meals as well and so on… Any tips for focus?

Haven’t heard of Wildfit - will look it up. I did try full on keto a couple of times a few years ago, but it made me feel really really ill and brain-fog-y. Just really couldn’t get past that stage to the point when people say it gets better.

Message me if you want. It genuinely changed my life.

What kind of foods etc. does it cover, @NavigatingAdolescence?

@tigerbird OK consider me your weight loss buddy! Starting in the morning I plan to make better food choices, reduce crappy carbs and log my food/calories! I have nutracheck downloaded already so will start using it. Can I suggest you look into what calories you need though..... even to lose weight 1200 seems quite low to me. When I updated my current weight with nutracheck and set it to 2lb a week loss it suggested 1400 calories per day, 1lb a week gives me 1700 calories a day so I will aim for in between those amounts and see what works! Some days I can manage the bottom end of that, other days I need more

YES - it’s definitely doable. If you have 4-5 stone to lose and were lighter in your youth it will come off if you start watching what you eat. I’m in my 40s & have recently lost 25 pounds through ‘clean eating’ & lower carb/removing most sugar and flour based foods from my diet.

I also know loads of people who have lost weight through improving what they are eating & doing lots of walking: you don’t need to sweat away. Can you do some resistance training if cardio is not your thing?

To add: I think it will come off quicker vs a half stone/stone to lose

As you say you have an auto immune condition: try to educate yourself on how healthy diet will help your condition, approaching things from a health perspective helps in motivation and making a permanent change

Just get started with whatever has worked for you in the past and give it 3 weeks minimum: I am about as certain as can be that you will lose several pounds and that starts to be motivating in itself

For me what works is:
16/8 (so stop eating by 6/7/latest 8pm)
Avoiding carbs at night
Cutting right back on booze (😭)
Likewise bread, sugar, empty calories generally

1200-1500 calories is perfectly fine if it’s nutritious food (and I’m a big eater/hearty appetite).

@tigerbird

What kind of foods etc. does it cover, *@NavigatingAdolescence*?

I’m not sure what you are asking. It looks at your psychology around why you choose to eat what you do. How to manage stress, be more nourished and hydrated. Then teaches you what our bodies want to eat (hint: it’s not the same stuff year round). It removes some food items incrementally so that you can see how well you feel without them (dairy always amazes me) and then teaches you how to bring things back and live with the principles for the rest of your life.

In my group someone came off diabetes medication, one has had her thyroid meds vastly reduced and another has almost overcome the crippling arthritis she was suffering with.

When you fuel your body well, it just behaves completely differently. My skin glows, my nails are stronger and longer, I sleep amazingly and for less time so I can do more fun stuff.

As I said, absolutely life changing. Tens of thousands of people have found the same.

Hello, I am 43 and realised at Christmas I had put on three stone over lockdown and was miserable.

The very restrictive, no carb or fasting don’t work for me - I get bad headaches if I don’t have a balanced diet. So I have just been reducing calories to around 1300 a day.

It’s slower than weight loss in my thirties, but I am at week nine and have lost 1st 3lbs so far.

My aim is three stone in about six months. I just moved out of the obese category which was a huge boost.

You can absolutely lose a good amount of fat in 8 months. Good luck

I’d like to join you too, @tigerbird. In 2020 I lost 3 stone on low carb/high fat and 16:8. Put it all back on again in 2021, and I’ve been struggling since to stick to anything. Four stone would see me back to a really sensible, happy weight.

Are you able to do anything like swimming or walking @tigerbird? Just thinking that it would hopefully help with weight loss but perhaps more usefully, it would give you a hobby/ reason to get out of the house/ something to do away from your DP, if that would also help with your self esteem I do think that a big part of losing weight is believing that you deserve better - you deserve to look after yourself, feel good, make the right choices etc - all of which can be easy to overlook when you have small DC/ a busy job/ an unhappy relationship.

I've got 3 stone to lose at the moment and am in the same sort of place, very little time for myself, a DP who desperately needs to lose weight (and grumbles about it regularly) but does zero to help around the house/ cook healthily/ exercise. I try to take the DC out by myself as often as I can to burn off some of their immense amounts of energy and get my step count up as a bonus... they're a too little to be left still but at least old enough now (6) that we can do more exciting things together!

Has this died, @tigerbird? I thought it sounded a good idea to have a small support group…

4 stone in 8 months is doable, but I would also add that if you lose 4 stone in 12 months (for example) you will also feel great about it. Just to say don’t be discouraged if it takes a little longer, but focus on the longer term trend and if you’re feeling better, fitter, then that’s great.

It is much easier to lose a greater amount of weight if you are doing something sustainable, so finding the right way of eating for you is key.

Also take measurements, not just weight.

I have 45 pounds to lose (about 3.5 stone I think?). It would be great to lose that over the next 6 months, but that’s more of a motivational goal than a hard target! I really just need to get on with it. I’ve had a slow recovery from giving birth and it has taken me longer to get my head into gear. I haven’t gained since the birth, but haven’t lost either, because I’ve been eating foods that don’t work for me longer term - I’m better off low carb, whole foods, I feel better and fuller that way but it all went squiffy during pregnancy!

Forgot to add, thought I’d join the chatter here to hopefully improve my focus too!

@spicedsoup & other posters: I’m getting back to phase 2 of weight loss (brief interruption due to Covid 😭)

I’m doing it whole food & plant based - would be great to have some company on the journey

Fab @DespairingHomeowner company would be very welcome here too! Also hope you are feeling better I sympathise, I have been unwell for a few weeks, not ill as such but I have an autoimmune condition and turns out my meds aren’t quite right so I’ve been so out of it. Totally hampered my weight loss efforts. But they’re now being adjusted so I should, gradually, see some improvements Hopefully you are also turning a corner!

I’m delaying starting properly (again!).

I’d like to join you too.

I had got down to my goal weight of ten stone just as the first lockdown hit …. I’m now 13 stone

I have lost 7lbs in the last fortnight by having baked oats for breakfast, scrambled egg with chilli sauce or just tin of mackerel in sauce for lunch and then a low carb high protein dinner

I have tried so many diets but just being sensible and making good choices - eating healthily seems to be working

I’m not dreading mealtimes which in the past I have as other diets have been so restrictive

I have 3 stone to lose and I need to be swimwear happy by the end of July!