If you’ve lost a significant amount of weight, how did you do it?

[MrsDrake]

Currently trying to avoid getting weight loss surgery as I don’t think it will help in the long run as I have impulses to binge and I have family who have gained weight again after stretching their stomachs.

My health is shot. I have to lose 9+ stone.

I’ve done all the diets and seem to get stuck in the same place. I like the freedom of not weighing and counting everything with SW and WW but end up extremely hungry. I like the freedom if nothing being off limits with calorie counting, and don’t get as hungry, but the counting and weighing takes up so much headspace it seems to trigger a binge too.

I’ve tried to get hep for the binging, but a lot of it seems to centre around stopping dieting. With my cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes status that just isn’t possible.

If you have managed to lose a large amount of weight, how did you do it?

I lost 3 stone by reading Pete Cohens book lighten up donkeys years ago. Then lost a further 2 stone with weight watchers.

have put back on a stone since but still in a healthy weight range. I use strategies and methods from both regimes to keep it off.

from a personal perspective you can have all the fancy diets in the world but If you have a shit day and your way to deal with it is eating then it won't work. You have to look at why your reaction to a shit day is to eat 3 cheese wraps, 4 packets of crisps and 2 natures valley bars

I listened to this Audible book, Hypnotic Gastric Band by Paul McKenna. and read the PDF a few times. It gave me the boost I needed. I also stopped drinking my calories, reduced portion size and started light exercise.

I lost 5 stone by being in a crap marriage & getting divorced.

As a balance I had a gastric sleeve, I've only lost 50% of my excess body weight which had kind of left me a bit meh...I've seen bigger people with more success etc. I am at least way more active now, and I think healthier, but can't help being governed by the scales. So if you can find a way to do this without surgery you'll be in a much better position. I am far from fixed.

I’ve just taken my first dose of saxenda tonight, I have a lot to loose (5/6 stone) but finally feel excited to do it!

I started with calorie counting and walking more. Then I added the gym into it once I had lost a significant amount of weight. I always found that when I did it all at once I would hit a certain point and then pile it all back on. I also don’t drink alcohol so no more empty calories.

We have one fakeaway every week on either a Friday or Saturday night. We usually go all out so homemade curry with all the sides and starters or homemade salt and pepper fakeaway, this stops us wanting to order a real thing. We do eat takeout and eat out occasionally but doing this stops the cravings. I also meal plan and before I go to bed I log all of the ingredients for tomorrows dinner into my fitness pal so I can see exactly how many calories I will be eating in the evening so I can split the rest of the calories for my day accordingly. So many times I have been caught out and eaten too much and not had enough left over for dinner, when just eating a few hundred calories over your daily total can be the difference between losing and gaining.

I spent years going backwards and forwards but it wasn’t until I was diagnosed with a chronic health condition and a harsh appointment with my consultant booted my arse into gear.

Saxenda here too

I really overhauled my diet. Lots of protein, veggies and fruit, very small portions of carbs. No treats. I have a sweet tooth, so just had to cut them out completely. I found that my appetite really declined over time. I also walked for at least an hour six days a week. Sometimes fast walks, sometimes steep uphill climbs. I found that it got much easier to maintain after about six weeks when you start to feel benefits and cravings have dropped off.

I've lost 25kg with another 15kg still to go

Like you I'd tried everything but this time it's different. Im calorie counting through Team RH but I've done a huge amount of work on myself working out how I got to this place.

I was in denial about my eating and drinking habits. I suspected I was an emotional eater but now I know I am. Also I didn't realise if I'm depressed or anxious then my movement drops majority.

My plan long term is to make sure I wear a step counter to ensure my activity level is where it should be and to weigh myself often to make sure I'm not in denial again.

I looked into weight loss surgery and it really scared me so I decided that this was my last ditch attempt otherwise it was something I was going to have to do

I've also identified and removed from the house anything that I can't control myself with. No more cheese for me!

I lost a significant amount of weight by purely cutting out carbs and intermittent fasting. By that I mean not eating until late afternoon or evening. I actually started on the Dukan (the first 10 days of which is pretty boring but it’s only 10 days) and slowly introduced vegetables and fruit. I now maintain my weight by balancing out ‘naughty’ days with fast days at 500 calories or so.

The Dukan diet is great as it isn’t restrictive (you can eat as much protein as you like) so for constant grazers like me you don’t go hungry, and inevitably it controls your hunger. Fasting also does the same.

Exercising is also a great way to hold yourself accountable as after a workout you really don’t want to ruin your hard work by eating crap. Don’t push yourself too hard at first, a simple 30 minute bike ride or whatever it is can be enough to switch your mindset if you make it a routine. Once you’ve gotten used to it you can increase the workouts for better results.

By eating M&S calorie control meals, one for lunch and one for even meal. A calorie controlled breakfast bar for breakfast and fruit for desserts and snacks. I’ve lost 38lb so far.

I've lost 46lb since new year with a combination of intermittent fasting and my fitness pal.

Cancer operation, completely replumbed digestive system, I wouldn't recommend it

This is so true. So diet will cure binge eating disorder.

I have about 4 stone to lose. I've already lost one this year. It is a long, hard miserable road of fighting every daily urge to binge. And I've accepted that it always will be to be honest. But I need to lose weight because it was effecting my health.

So I have this constant mental battle with myself everyday. I talk myself out of the kitchen every time I want to binge. I have gone to bed crying to myself because I cannot binge when I want to. It is not easy. There is no magic bullet.

4 stone in 5 months.
Very little sugar, little to no alcohol, lots of long walks.
Still got a couple of stone to go but feeling so much healthier

Visualisation - imagine you are already in the body you want (I.e you are just wearing a fat suit). And then acknowledge that your body hasn’t yet caught up with where your mind is. There’s a delay between how you feel and how you actually are if that makes sense. Calorie counting using myfitnesspal, I did 1200, and walking as much as I could. And also using www.losertown.org/eats/cal.php
to see my goal date. Each time I lost weight i re-entered the info and the date would change - such a good feeling! 😁

Why does anyone need to weigh food? All packaged foods are clearly labelled with the calories. If you're cooking from scratch then surely you only need to weigh once or twice then you've got a clear idea? You already know which foods are calorie dense, eat much less of them. Allow some treats but mostly stivk to it.

Op I think it’s mind over matter a lot of the time. Determination and the ability to stick with it and not give up. There’s no easy answer. What works for one person does not work for the next.
im trying to move more - I set myself a may madness challenge of walking 10,000 steps a day. My job can be quite sedentary so I go for a walk either before or after dinner.
I have such poor will power when it comes to food. I know what I should be eating and how much but it’s hard to control, add that to cooking for hungry teens and it’s not easy to loose weight.
my suggestion it to think of it as a long term goal but set small goals in between. And try a few different diet plans to find the one that works for you.

Weighing food helps with portion control, it’s very easy to underestimate quantities . Obviously this is more important with calorie dense food and carbs.

My DH has been trying to diet and has changed what he eats. Unfortunately he's in that trap where it appears he is making better choices, but it's not helping enough as they are still calorie dense. Or he eats 4:5 of them. Things like eating malt loaf rather than a mini mars bar. It's is better, but he needs to take it to the next level and replace this with grapes or carrot sticks. It's very different as from kids we given food rewards that are chocolates, puddings, cakes, sweets.

Thank you everyone, some great tips 🙏

I found it hard to calorie count because I don’t really eat packaged food. But I am checking out that team rh and they look quite good so far so may give them a try.

Stay away from Team RH it's too cult like and the owner is currently embroiled in lots of conflict with lots of people.
Try James Smith or even just the scooby calorie calculator.
I've found increasing my protein and water intake really helps. As someone else said visualisation and also perhaps taking a true look at yourself now in a decent mirror.
I was in a restaurant toilet one day wearing a fab outfit looking about as well as I could at size 20. The hand basin was in the corone, there were two mirrors on each coroner wall facing each other. They gave the perfect illusion of what I'd look like many sizes smaller and if I'm honest what I deludedly hoped I may look loosely like.
I was able to compare by looking in one mirror how I actually looked and by using the two how I could look. That image is imprinted in my brain and motivates me every day.

Can anyone who said saxenda explain what they think and how they got it? Thanks.

Walking 10k steps a day without fail.

Reducing carb content - only ever eat the odd slice of Vogel seeded bread, no rice/pasta/potatoes, and make sure I have protein at every meal. No snacking. And barely any processed food apart from the odd Cauldron veggie sausage - just simple good home cooked food.

I feel so much better. Being diabetic was probably the kick up the arse that motivated me though - I'm 3 stone down with 3 more to go.