I’ve lost my way

[Alertthecorgis]

I’m so embarrassed to be posting but my weight is out of control. I’m now weighing in at 16 and a half stone and I’m mortified. The last few years have been very hard. We have two children with special needs, along with working full time my diet has become awful. I’ve tried doing the Cambridge diet and I’m never consistent so I feel that I’m piling on the weight because I’m off and on it. And I’m throwing money down the drain.

Should I try Cambridge again? Calorie count? I just feel so lost and it feels like another thing on my to do list but I’m very aware that I need to be as healthy as possible to not encounter health problems as I get older as it’s very likely my children will never be independent (one has severe learning difficulties).

I feel like I’ve lost my way. I walk our dogs everyday so I do get some exercise but my diet is so up and down.

I feel the same way. Solidarity. So miserable and yet… I just can’t seem to sort myself out.
have been considering ozempic as reading amazing things about it.
previously lost weight doing low carb (put it back on) and years later with WW (also put it back on) so feeling like the injection might help me commit to one of those again properly.

I'd say no to the Cambridge diet from what I have read being a lose weight quick diet although the soups would be helpful.

What do you eat?

Sometimes I’m sticking to the Cambridge diet other days I’ll do part Cambridge and but have a sandwich, bag of crisps and a meal which is admittedly a ready meal. I’m wondering if going from eating very little then bouncing up to eating a fair amount isn’t doing any good for my weight.

Calorie count.

For a few weeks, buy ready meals (m and s do a low calorie range) or there's a few nutrition people on Instagram who offer a fresh batch service- I'm sure you could find a local one to you- aim for a 450 calorie meal in the evening.

Aim for 1600 calories a day.
Try and hit 10k steps a day too.
At least 2 litres of water. Small steps. And enjoy your eeekends but obviously don't go crazy 😂

Good luck OP- you can do it

Bread is about 120 cals.
Plus butter and other spreads

Eggs are 70 cals.

Crisps are 130(ish) unless you buy the lower calorie Pom bears.

Water has no calories

Lattes are 230 calories

Chocolate is a lot of calories. As is alcohol.

Anyway, these are just a few foods I love to eat and it helps me knowing what's in them. I find the weight is lost when I choose eggs on toast over a full English and calorie count my evening meal.

@Margaritawithlime, sorry you’re in the same boat. It’s miserable isn’t it. I need to get myself in gear as it’s a huge blight on my life and makes me feel so under confident.

@strawberryandcreams, thank you. I’ll look at M&S and cook as well. I’m normally hitting 10k a day as I walk our dogs.

OP Mumsnet is overall a bad place for diet advice. Already seeing some poor advice.

You don't need to count calories, cut out any foods, etc.

You need to think about why - why do you overeat? Is it bingeing? Is it because it's there? Is it because you eat when you're not hungry?

I lost 55lbs this year and didn't count, track or remove anything.

I:

• walked (only exercise I did) - aimed for 10k steps a day. Any movement is good though, you'll stick to something much better if you actually enjoy it
• changed my habits and perception around food

I started with 3 meals a day, to reconnect with my hunger/fullness cues and understand when I'm actually hungry.

Balanced meals - nothing is off limits. But if I wanted a twix, I'd have it but add some fruit and maybe cheese or nuts for protein. Only eating it if I'm actually hungry.

Stop eating when you're full. This becomes easy as long as you eat slowly, mindfully, without distractions - proper mealtime habits, sit down at the table, chew slowly and really think about how nice the food is.

Now I don't stick to 3 meals a day, I can now understand when I'm hungry so eat whenever I am. Allowing myself to eat all foods instead of dieting meant that suddenly I didn't even want them, because they would always be there when I was hungry.

Your body doesn't want to be overweight. If you listen to your body and eat when you're hungry (and aim for balanced meals) you will lose weight.

This method isn't as fast as a diet, but it's sustainable and easy. I go out to eat all the time, never feel like I'm on a diet, finally feel like food has no control over me. It's life changing!

Calorie counting is not bad advice.
I think educating yourself with how many calories are in certain foods is not a bad thing.
I don't calorie count any more, but it's useful for me to have a vague idea of how much I am consuming (within reason)
I don't deny myself anything and I maintain my weight.
But some people are shocked to find how many calories are in things.

I also am aware that I can consume 1200 calories in a day but if it's all chocolate, it's not going to be good for me.
But it can help kick start a lifestyle approach and having an understanding is useful

Calorie counting can lead to a poor relationship with food, as well as disordered eating/eating disorders.

Not saying this will be the case for everyone but the risk definitely isn't worth the "reward" when there are other safe weightloss methods.

It's also a bit backwards really. It makes weightloss feel like a chore (constantly tracking, counting, adding up) and it makes you focus on these numbers (as you have to focus on them to count them).

Sustainable weightloss is about habits and mindset, not about calculating calories.

If you wanted to save more money, you wouldn't check your bank account 3 times a day - you'd just work on spending less.

Presumably you are cooking for your family as well so I would be looking at a healthy evening meal for you all to share that you could tweak to suit whatever route you go down for weight loss.

I would strongly suggest meal planning so whatever route you go down, be organised with your food. Don’t treat weekends differently. There is a huge temptation to crash diet Monday to Friday lunchtime and then Friday to Sunday is the weekend and alcohol and treats undo all the hard work in the week.

I don’t have DC, but we found it useful to try putting on our favourite foods, recipes into my fitness pal to get to know how many calories were in a dish.

Do you deal with your stress by eating as if you do, it might be worth looking into other ways to deal with it. Whether that is yoga or knitting or a stress ball?

The other suggestion I would offer is to get support, both from your family and a secondary support network. We always diet together as I couldn’t stick to anything if he was eating yummy foods whilst I missed out. I also post on a thread on here so I have support from two sides, I wish I had friends on a similar journey as that support would be great too.

To those arguing against counting calories, if you have no idea how many calories are in what you are eating you can’t say whether what you are eating is going to put you way off your calories or not. The financial analogy would be trying to budget but no idea of the rough figures of your bills. It is worth checking the foods you eat regularly, I was shocked at how many calories are in certain foods, especially in prepackaged foods, you think it’s 500 calories for the packet, but it’s per portion and the packet is two portions. Pizza is a classic example of this or any high calorie food. I personally don’t obsess over my calories but I would be cautious with high calorie foods.

Good luck with your journey, I have found that I needed to use multiple tactics to have any success.