If you have lost a lot of weight

[Thomasina79]

What have you learned about yourself on your journey?

14 months and around five stone later I have learnt that being overweight is not the source of all my problems

Gaining a couple of Ibs overnight is almost certainly water not fat.

that exercise is vital to lose weight

my self esteem is better than when I was fat, but fundamental issues still remain, such as still thinking I am fat!

7 stone.

Gained 20lbs back.

I've learned I have a mental compulsion to eat and I need to address that.

Congratulations op, I think that’s an incredible achievement. I lost 5 stone last year and know how much dedication you need 👍.

1. people are so much nicer to me, it’s heartbreaking actually. I was only fat for about four years and I was obviously used to feeling invisible
2. My mood stays stable on keto. It’s lovely not wondering about food
3. I still think I’m fat.
4. exercise buzz is not a myth after all 🤣🤣🤣🤣
5. imma greedy bitch and have to stay away from cake. It’s like drugs for
6. Watching what you ear is mentally draining, it it was for me, but being obese and unfit is much much harder.

Oh interesting...I've also lost five stone. What have I learned?

That's a hard one.

That food isn't in control of me.
That I quite like the feeling of hunger.
That I feel ten times healthier when I've eaten well in a day.
That my weight held me back from taking a lot of opportunities that I regret.
That maybe it isn't all good for me - my ego is a bit of a monster now.
That my husband didn't care one way or the other, which is both lovely and frustrating - I really want him to see the me I am now, and I don't think he does. Or I don't know how much he likes it.

I've learned that losing 5st and feeling fab means you end up 7st heavier in a couple of years.

Sorry! That's what's happened to me. I'm fatter than I've ever been now.

I get cold very easily now.

I've put weight back on (not as much, but still enough) and I still get cold more easily than I used to, before losing the weight at all.

Lost 7 stone.
That I still have a poor relationship with food. Being slim did not make me happy, but fitting in to nice clothes is a really lovely feeling.
I love exercising, now everything doesn’t hurt and the buzz is real.
The majority of my health issues were due to my weight, doctors are actually not wrong when they advise people to lose weight to fix their illnesses/ailments.
I will always struggle with food, but eating well makes me feel better. I’m always cold.
Being fat is hard, but also being slim is hard. It’s about choosing which hard you want

Lost 4 stone went down to 8.2 now back up to 12.4 it's either a change of lifestyle forever or go back to what you were before. I couldn't keep up with the lifestyle change because I've got no willpower

That any fat person who says they’re happy with themselves is either lying or deluded and doesn’t realise what they’re missing.

Learned that the 16/8 plan is a brilliant thing for me. I have maintained in or around my ideal weight for over 3 years now. I have occasional breakouts for holidays and special occasions (and other excuses lol!), but I find the general discipline of it works for me. I like rules and not feeling hungry either.

I'm post meno too so if we don't keep an eye on things from then on, weight can creep up, just like that!

Lost 7 stone.
I still felt fat
It changed my whole lifestyle, I gained interest in healthy food that never had before.
Putting weight on again destroyed me, I ended up putting 3 stone on after pregnancy, I now only have another stone to lose, but I never realised how much putting weight on again would affect me mentally!

I went from a size 16 to size 8 and had a course of roaccutane at the same time so I am thin with clear skin for the first time in my life.

• being self confident in how I look has made me better at socializing and so I have more friends
• being confident in my looksmakes me confident in other ways so I’m better at my job. (Ego!)
• people are much nicer to me now or maybe they respond better now I’m not so withdrawn
• men “see” me - I’m navigating all the feminist issues of saying firm nos while trying to stay polite.
• exercise is amazing.
• eating isn’t bad!
• I also still think I’m a bit fat even though my body fat percentage is really low, so I recognise that my body image is very skewed.
• my DH fancies me the same as before which is lovely

I've lost 6 stone and gone from a size 20 to a size 14.

It's much easier to get nicer clothes but I've also learnt how inconsistent clothes sizes are as I have some things that are a 12 and some things that are a 16.
I get cold all the time!
As a PP said, people are much nicer to me now. I get a lot of compliments and much more positive attention which is sad really.
I've learnt I have a very unhealthy relationship with food and my body, and my self esteem hasn't really improved much.
I thought I'd feel so much better about myself but now I just find different things to pick at - for example my boobs are saggy and awful now due to the weight loss and I'm only 28 so that's crap!

Yes to the always cold!

I've lost 4 stone, and still have another 2/3 to go. And the really really weird thing is that I don't really feel much different.... my stomach seems even bigger than it did, I can only eat really small portions of food without gaining again. And I weigh myself too often - it's just as though you replace one addiction with another.

But I do agree that you can't do it without exercise.

I lost 4-5 stone last year. I'm currently 7st 8 and I didn't do any exercise at all! Was all diet.

I have learnt so much about calories though. I'm really careful with what I eat but still enjoy treats!

I lost 3 stone 4 years ago, so not as much as many here.

I learned:
Habit is key. Once I broke my unhealthy snack habit it was so much easier. Ditto appetite: after a week I had trained my body not to want massive platefuls, again so much more easy, for loss and subsequent maintenance.
I felt more like ‘me’.
That however much I see the opposite intoned on MN exercise is vital to my loss and maintenance. For the use of Calories, feeling of wellbeing, toning up and shaping my body, feeling more energetic, improving mood and confidence, and quite simply being in a gym or out on a fell is a distance from the toaster! It’s exponential: the more escalators you walk up the fitter you get, so the more you do, the more you lose…which makes it easier to run up escalators!
That I enjoy the positive feeling of nurturing my body with healthier eating, and that this can replace comfort eating. And creates motivation, while an ice-cream and crisps based week makes me feel negative towards myself for my lack of self-discipline etc.
I can wear all sorts of clothes that I didn’t think I could and some styles that are younger than my forgiving loose linen and tunics were.

I have lost and regained five stone three times now. Things I have learned:

• I am great at losing weight and find it easy.

• I am great at gaining weight and find it easy.

• I am terrible at maintaining a healthy weight and find it incredibly difficult. Each time I regain the five stone my weight barely fluctuates by a pound either side. However once I have lost weight then unless I am incredibly strict and do a massive amount of exercise I can't maintain.

• I am no happier when I am a size 12 than I am when I'm a size 20

• I feel very uncomfortable when people pay me compliments about how much weight I've lost.

I lost 7 stone.

1. I learned my health problems weren't down to my weight, no matter how much doctors wanted to insist otherwise. They're all still very much present and active. The difference is now it's not the first thing any doctor or specialist talks about.
2. I needed no additional exercise.
3. My body knows exactly what it's doing if I just listen, eating only when I'm actually hungry.
4. COLD. ALWAYS COLD. And now, Reynauds.
5. I developed patulous Eustachian tube dysfunction due to losing the weight, which impacted the positioning of my inner ear. It causes enormous issues.
6. I'm not any more or less self confident, I just wear a different size.
7. People feel FAR more free to comment on my weight to my face.
8. There still aren't any clothes I like in the shops.

I went from size 14 flabby to a size 6-8 looked really good.
Toned healthy good looking got plenty of stares got a lot of tight clothes manly tops
Lots of interest from men but said no (what Idiot i was) .
I really looked good even my sisters were jealous of me.
I could flirt my way around anything to get what I wanted.
Done it all myself the hard way no jym work out at home eat healthy no fats no sugar.

Fast forward 18 year im back to a 14 can fit a baggy lose 12.
Tipping the scales at 10 stone look disgusting not healthy bad eating habits junk food no fruits or veg just junk in the oven meals.
I really let myself go i mean i dont even wear a bra its that bad.
I have that muffin top my body fat /weight is on the outside. I call puppy fat.
I have two chins now.
Now i dont get any interest now im invisible just plodding along with my trolly bag.
Wearing leggings and long baggy jumpers smoking with a donut and fizzy drinks.
I tell myself every night im gonna do it get back in shape ive had 4 bags of crisp and a pasty already and a few cupcakes chicken nuggets bacon sandwich.
Quite simply im disgusting. 😤

that exercise is vital to lose weight

I lost 4&1/2 stone when I was immobile by sticking to a calorie target. I’m still at target weight now heading into 6 years.

I have learned that if only I had educated myself sooner about what I put in my mouth, and stopped blaming my thyroid issue, I could have had a fabulous figure years ago and wouldn’t now have crinkly skin on my tummy and boobs.

I lost 4st, got pregnant, put on 6st, have now lost 5st a year on.

I'm happier slim, more confident and care more about my appearance generally.
I have more enwrgy and zest for life.
Losing weight is bloody tough but I can do it.
Exercise is very important and good for my MH.

Oh god I can identify with so much of this. I have lost nearly 9 stone now

• can identify with the ego thing, Ive got a bit cheeky and too talkative
• always cold, just so cold like I didnt believe it was possible to be and just like other posters now have bloody reynaulds
• that I didnt have any real 'underlying' emotional reason to overeat, Im just greedy and if the mechanics are there to stop me, then that solves the problem. I spent a great number of decades telling myself and others I did so that I could carry on presumably
• that being hungry is not like being near death, I can survive it
• that most of the time 'hunger' wasnt hunger at all
• that the food I eat is hugely significant in whether I want to eat more/badly rather than anything else
• far more confident and happy and should have done this years ago, feel very bereft at losing out on things because of being overweight
• I didnt do any exercise and now need to really get strong
• I still hate exercise despite now being able to do it!!!
• arthritis in my foot wasnt caused by being overweight, its much worse now that Im lighter but more active
• that wearing baggy things to look slimmer was a huge mistake and now i wear things that are tight or slightly too small
• I seem to have developed opposite body dysmorphia where I seem to think I now look like a goddess whereas in reality I look like an aging shapeless saggy lump (albeit much thinner than before)
• Weight loss really shows in your face and not in a good way!

Weight loss really shows in your face and not in a good way!

Yes, I look increasingly like Yzma from Disney's "Emperor's New Groove".

I want to be slim more than I want chocolate.
.

I put a lot of weight on comfort eating when things were really tough. I literally kept thinking 'sod it, I deserve chocolate and if it makes me feel better when everything else is shit then fine'

Things had got better and I had started a diet in feb 2020. Then I lost my job right at the start of Covid and remember thinking 'sod it...' and then actually pausing and thinking 'no, I won't. I want to be slim and I'm not going to let all this crap going on rob me of that'

It was a big mental shift and made all the difference. I lost 20% of my body weight over 9 months. Have bounced around a bit but kept it off.

The other is I won't let myself get so fat again. Halfway through losing weight I felt so gutted that after so much hard work I was still overweight. Just kept thinking 'for gods sake how did I let it get that bad?' Weight creeps on in increments and you can not notice for such a long time and reset the base line up every so often. I'm now clear where my baseline is and go on keto if I get 7lbs above it.

@positivesliceofpie you are not disgusting, don’t be so hard of yourself. Maybe try changing one bad habit for a good habit. I have weight to lose myself and trying to get motivated. Going to book a leg wax (haven’t had one in over 20 years) and see if I can get going again.