What made your brain click so you started losing weight?

[Youaremysunshine14]

I hope the title isn't too baffling! What I'm trying to get across is that I know losing weight is as much a mental challenge as a physical one and if anyone has need tips on how to make my brain engage in the process, I'd love to know them.

Background: I've been a yo-yo dieter since my teens so I'm pretty confident I know everything there is to know about how to lose weight. I've read The Obesity Code, am savvy on low carbs, glucose intolerance etc etc. I know about the body's set point and why it rebels against LCD et etc. I know about the benefits of intermittent fasting etc etc. I know that commercial diets are designed to only work in the short term and that the diet industry's success is built on a failure rate of 98% that guarantees return customers etc etc. I know all this and more (I've even tried hypnotherapy!) and yet still I'm overweight by three stone (I've been in denial about it for ages, but today I realised I'm now proper fat and can't put my arms down by my sides properly).

I've just turned 50 and I don't want the final third of my life to be blighted by ill health caused by obesity. But how the heck do I flick the switch in my brain that makes me stick to a healthy eating plan and stop scoffing crisps by the multipack-load? What worked for you? I really don't want a health scare to trigger me finally taking action – I want to sort myself out before I get to that point. I'm hoping this post, and taking some accountability, might spark something, so do share if you have any tips!

Watching with interest! I could have written the OP’s post myself.

For me it actually took a health scare unfortunately. My blood pressure was creeping up, my cholesterol was very high, my weight was approaching obese … the final straw was finding out I was pre diabetic (my mum died from diabetes related disease). I kept telling myself I’d gained 3 stone due to having had mental health struggles coupled with an under active thyroid. Having an excuse I believed in is a nightmare . I told everyone who would listen about my metabolism not working. Then my doctor rang and gave me all these numbers and said “all of these things would be cured if you lost weight”. That was my moment. I’m now 3 stone lighter and yes, the numbers are now all within normal range.

Could you tell yourself your numbers are as bad as mine? It sounds silly but if you don’t feel like you have a choice, that otherwise you’re a goner. That worked for me.

Also, I have never enjoyed exercise before but have now found lane swimming. I started out in the slow lane making 50 laps in 50 minutes. I’m now in the fast lane and managing nearly 100 in the same time. The buzz I feel afterwards! If you can find an exercise form you can commit to, that along with dropping all treats, makes all the difference.

You can do this, do it for the right reasons. GL!

Vallmo47 I have been tempted to ask my GP about pre-diabetes, because I must be nearly there. I've got an appointment on Monday about something else so maybe I should bring it up. Weirdly, I also love lane swimming and went this week for the first time in about a year. Managed 22 lengths in the slow lane! 😂

I think there are a lot of us who could write that OP!

Functional medicine to treat Lichen Sclerosis. The idea was to boost my immune system to fight an auto-immune disease. Losing weight wasn't really the point but it was a welcome side effect. Surprisingly easy if fear is the guide.

It has not clicked with me but I have found a way of eating that suits me. I started 16/8 eating as a friend had lost three stone in just over a year with it. The weight loss is slow but it completely fits in with my life. Hoping it is gonna be a game changer.
My husband had a health scare recently and lost two stone. It's hard isn't it?
Sometimes just giving up dieting works too!

I was referred to an NHS pre diabetes course and that seems to have been the push I needed. You can refer yourself via 'Know your risk'

preventing-diabetes.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjwve2TBhByEiwAaktM1JlJ94jPETc5s0luqq5-enw2kls8-McHEPvAvNFU2fb487CbYsaxXhoCbDkQAvD_BwE

Glucose levels don't have to be very high to qualify! Mine were in normal range.

Changing my eating habits.
Changing what i eat from the cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, evening meal to large breakfast and large lunch with no evening meal, both being veg + protein based.

The knowing what proper hunger is was the click. Carb heavy food leads to false hunger

Sorry, yes it was a health scare for me too. But I also think that I've turned a corner recently by accepting what I need to do to lose weight. I need structure and convenience. I got too overwhelmed by contradictory rules.

I am doing a VLCD. I actually find it easier to not eat and tell myself I can't have something. Instead of saying I can have a little bit of something. I also need quick weight loss to keep motivated.

I am only 18 months into it but for me it was getting a CEV letter about covid due to a couple of health things I cant do anything about and then being pre diabetic which i could do something about.

I actually focussed only on blood sugar and walking for fitness and it has worked to date

Lots of things. I had a health issue that caused me to gain weight. I wanted to lose weight but never felt in the right position to do it. I was depressed and unwell.

Last year i had surgery. I felt better but it took a long time to recover. I got horrendous chub rub on a city break (in U.K.). My thighs bled. So when I booked a European city break to a hot place in January this year I was determined to get some weight off to be able to enjoy a break without bleeding thighs and struggling in the heat because of my weight.

as I get older, I want to be fat a lot less

I lost a sibling very young to bowel cancer. Couldn't have been healthier in terms of diet, weight. Also lost a parent to heart disease in the same year. Again, healthy weight, fitter than me

It made me realise I was asking for trouble, as well as feeling miserable about myself.

I've lost 3 stones and I'm still worried about my health, but at least I've tried.

It's so hard OP. I wish you well.

I went on holiday, which is quite a good start for a reset. I then chose two days a week that I would do one meal a day (OMAD) to get the benefits of fasting. On those days I spend my time planning or making my evening meal when I would usually be eating lunch etc. E.g. make some hummus, some roasted veg, some delicious dishes to look forward to that are mostly healthy but also yummy. Somehow being around the food and making it special and something to look forward to helps me through the day without eating and I don't restrict myself on my evening meal too much, it makes eating more of a pleasure again. I choose to fast on regular days I know I will be busy, e.g. every weds / sat (easier because thinking about food less). I also scheduled in a 1 min a day on my airwalker exercise machine. That 1 min is easy to do but somehow helps me stay in a healthy mindset and am building on it. I've also started listening to the slimpod thing every day (it's hypnosis / NLP recording that's a few mins long) which I think helps. Listening to lots of "benefits of water fasting" type videos on youtube also good. And a book called Atomic Habits is great for inspiration and methods (although I prefer listening to the guy's youtube lectures as it's easier every so often to remind myself of the methods - reading is too much hassle for me!). It all seems to snowball a bit if you go easy on yourself at first.

Thank you, I've just registered! My score was moderate, so hopefully that's enough to get me on it.

I lost weight as side effect of overcoming bulimia/ compulsive binge eating, what clicked is realizing that I wasn’t going to grow out of it, and realizing that I would still be like this at 40/50/60 if I did not address it.
what worked was taking a long term approach, that it would take a year plus to retrain my eating behaviour
focussing on normalizing my eating, not dieting or weight loss.
accepting ‘failure’/ backsliding as part of the process, not a reason to give up

I'm so sorry for your losses. My OH had cancer but is now in remission and instead of spurring me to make changes I ended up stress eating more. But it's because he's better that I don't want to get ill now.

F

I think a health scare but here I am sitting starving myself!!! So I need to just retrain how I think/plan food etc! My only success has been restricted eating. Sad.

I had a stern talk to myself and basically decided that my brain, or inner voice was in control here not my stomach. I allowed myself to feel cravings and then talked to myself that actually I had a choice here to either reach for the biscuits or take a pause, have a drink of water and then if I was still hungry make a healthy snack.
Sounds ridiculous but for me it worked. I realised that cravings passed and hunger pangs also went if I allowed myself to acknowledge them and then make a better choice.
Also making time for my present self to thank my past self for the decisions I made

A nd what pp said about proper hunger. I had to train myself to recognize what hunger was and when my appetite was sated. I had completely lost track of that.

If anyone wants to lose weight... highly, highly recommend a website called weight loss resources. It's basically just calorie counting, accountability and encouraging you to keep going. It's not free, but it's excellent. You can take a free trial before you sign up too!

For me, a holiday photo. I thought I looked great, fab new jeans, the perfect shoes, lovely top. Gorgeous backdrop of scenery. And then we got the photos uploaded and it turns out I looked like the back end of a bloody bus. Jolted me out of my denial very quickly. I was 3 stone overweight at that point, took me 18m to lose it. Then developed health issues and put it back on... Back to the drawing board I go.

OP can you elaborate on what you mean by set points and our bodies rebelling against low calorie diets? Are those scientifically proven facts or just theories?

My son has additional needs and I can't bear the thought of not being there for him or not being the mum he needs so that keeps me motivated all the time and those days when I'm tired (I have chronic pain) I drag myself to the gym and I never ever regret it. I want to be the healthiest version of myself I can be for him.

It was one year before my dc1 was going to be Bar Mitvah. We have a tradition that you share your good fortune and do not let others go hungry while you feast. I decided to put £5 aside for every pound I lost, and donate the money I saved to a local food kitchen for the homeless.

I weighed myself on Day One, but then did not step on the scales again for two weeks. Thereafter I weighed myself every Monday morning, recorded my weight and put a fiver (or more!) into the envelope in my drawer.

Seeing the donation fund build up was hugely motivating. Far more so than what I might look like on ds's special day. I lost on average one pound per week, but they envelope remained fat even if I stalled. Handing over the cash the week before the bar mitzvah felt so good. Even though I did it quietly and as anonymously as possible, it felt like our celebration had already begun. I continued even after ds's bar mitvah, and by the time I reached my target weight I had donated £350 to the food kitchen.

Please don't think that I'm boasting. I did not make a noise about it then or ever since, but you asked what made someone engage with losing weight, and this was far more motivating than hating the way I look or fearing for my health.

Good luck