Has anyone given up on losing weight?

[Peae]

Just that really. I mean, I know for health reasons I should continue to try to improve my diet, but I’m genuinely starting to think I will never shift these stones.

In a way yes but while weightloss would be nice it isn't my highest priority. I had a bad injury and lost a lot of function so I can't walk very far and have chronic pain. My goal has been to look after my body so it can heal and that is frustratingly slow. I struggle a lot with the loss of what I could do previously without thinking and the change in my self identity but I have to be very kind to myself when things are not progressing or even regressing. Staying in the same state is sometimes a massive achievement and I just try and keep doing what I can with my diet and exercise, sleep, hydration and stress levels without feeling too miserable about the outcome. My weight is not the problem it's the headspace around eating, activity and how I feel about myself.

I’ve lost about 1.5 stone over the last 2 years by simply chipping away at various things that I hadn’t already tried.

At 57, and a lifelong ‘big’ person, I’m a dieting veteran… IMHO 🤣

Ive abandoned being on a diet. I only ADD stuff into my life instead. I’m attempting the 30 different plants a week, I’m adding more fish into my meals, I’m adding more water. A handful of nuts instead of biscuits.

Ditched the wine. Drink gin instead. I process it better!

I take probiotics (Biokult) with kefir every morning. Try not to eat too late at night. Skip breakfast occasionally.

All simple stuff based on daily choices. No big deal. No big planning and psyching yourself up.

Im adding meditation (somatic meditation which decreases cortisol… and cortisol controls a lot of your tummy/visceral fat) I follow an Irish lady called #HealthwithHolland on Insta. She seems to have the measure of cortisol and what it does to you.

Im adding dancing (Zumba) because that’s what makes me happy

And I weigh myself roughly once a month. If I remember.

I use Renpho scales and an app on my phone.

I’ve essentially found a sneaky way of tricking my system AND my brain into thinking that I’m not dieting.

There is no one size fits all, but thought my approach might help someone.

I might've given up but for Ozsmpic. It's helped me enormously.

I have given up on weighing myself. Physically threw out my bathroom scales. Realised I defined my happiness by a number on the scales. But I have not given up on reducing my intake of UPF and working on improving my relationship with food.

I do think reducing UPF and stopping using food as a crutch for challenging feelings will result in weight loss for me but I want to see that in how I feel in my body and the comfort of my clothes not a number on the scales

That's another one for the no weighing club, then 🙂

I disagree

If you continue with the plan - lots of healthy protein , fruit and veg with recommended calcium and fibre - limit treats like sweets chocolate alcohol then you will not regain

Surely that would be the same for any plan - IF / Ozempic / WW/ Cambridge/ Jane Plan - if you stop and return to unbalanced habits then you will regain

I think SW is one of the more " normal" balanced plans there is out there
I've been back to group for 6 weeks now and have lost 18lbs -

I did this in my 30's and stopped at target but have slowly but surely put back on and more , I'd have agreed that it's so much more difficult as we age - until I saw a photo of myself that I honestly didn't even recognise, felt so awful and joined that week - lost 4.5lbs week one and had to admit to myself I'd eaten more proper food than I usually do in a long time

Of course , people object to the unlimited pasta rice potatoes and gorging on muller light yogurts that comes with SW - the plan does allow those unlimited carbs - until you are comfortably full - I'm almost 60 and have more energy , sleeping better , feel happier , knees and feet feel lighter - looking forward to my next blood pressure check and generally feeling positive and motivated to keep going .

Don't rule it out - it's also a social outing , I won an omelette maker at the raffle ( 50p) and have donated some clothes to another lady who's lost a lot and was down to my joining weight and very very grateful ( she donated to RSPCA as I wouldn't take anything for them) so I quite look forward to going each week

In my opinion it will only work when you are mentally ready. I woke up new years day and knew it was now my time to look after me. I was 12.3, Saturday I weighed in at 11. Pre kids I have only been 11.
I've done nothing drastic but found habits I can stick to and stack.
I have moved my breakfast back to 9am, use my fitness pal to log calories and go for a daily walk. I've reduced alcohol consumption to the minimal but I still have chocolate daily.
I focus on sleep and will prioritise this over lifting weights.
I view food differently now, as fuel for my body and have this new gratitude for myself.

Discipline is doing the shit you don't want to do or not doing the things you do want to do. Everybody and I mean everybody would like to shove cakes, chocolate and crisps into their mouth.

Don't do what you feel like doing but do what is necessary.

Willpower fails long term because it's a finite resource, it's great for a few weeks when you hit rock bottom as it can be incredibly motivating but if it lasted you wouldn't have posted this thread.

UPF is just another in a long list of things people are now using to absolve themselves of any blame as to why they're fat.

This is information that absolutely everyone already knows, and yet intelligent people still struggle with weight loss. This would suggest there is something more complex going on, don't you think?

This sounds like a diet though.

Yes. I can't balance everything. However I now look awful in photos and miss exercise. Tired though from single parenting life, work, kids...

Good luck @Quickcutter I have fasted for years (sometimes OMAD, sometimes 16:8 and currently only 14:10 as part of my 'quitting'). I also aim for the 30 plants a week, and it really changed my palette. My last job was quite sedentary because it was WFH. One reason I changed job is that I now have a 45 minute walk each way.

@rockstarshoes could you say a bit more about what you do in "power stretch"? I can't find anything with a quick google, but flexibility is one thing I want to work on.

I’ve said this on another thread so sorry for boring anyone 😂

weight loss is not about willpower that’s correct

any change you want to make, you have to want the change more than you don’t want to the change - or be ambivalent about it. So if you aren’t in the right mindset, you don’t have the focus or motivation you need. And all change is about sustained motivation. Usually why motivation wanes is that people have huge, massive goals and the journey is so long, it just feels like a mountain you cannot climb. You start to lose sight of your goals, feel so far away from them and just fizzles out.

To put simply you need far smaller goals.

What you need to change is habits. We begin to try to change ALL our habits in one go and humans don’t work like that. You had your habits your whole adult life, you can’t change them overnight. The threads ‘today is day 1 of a new me’ is setting huge unrealistic goals.

Think of change like a deck of 52 cards. You can turn over one a day, or one a week, or even a month. Each card might have one small habit change on it - walk some more. Drink more water. Each card is a new habit, once you have cracked that habit, turn over a new card. Each card is a goal. Don’t think about ‘omg I have to turn over 52 cards’ just think ok, I did that one card I am proud of myself for changing that habit. On to the next!

A lot of the time we don’t treat ourselves kindly and have self belief and strong self worth. You are worthy of treating yourself kindly and you do deserve it. Choose one thing you would like to change and just work with that, one step at a time.

My goal has been to look after my body so it can heal and that is frustratingly slow. I struggle a lot with the loss of what I could do previously without thinking and the change in my self identity but I have to be very kind to myself when things are not progressing or even regressing. I found a lot of wisdom in your post @Scribblydoo

Surely that would be the same for any plan - IF / Ozempic / WW/ Cambridge/ Jane Plan - if you stop and return to unbalanced habits then you will regain Yes, that's what I've read repeatedly - most diets work short term, and most fail (and lead to weightloss) longer term, including SW.

@Menora I completely agree with you - that is precisely my experience.

To put simply you need far smaller goals. Yep, I've followed the small habits approach and it led to a lot of improvement for me. Just not weightloss.

I haven't given up on trying to live healthily, I am just really starting to doubt that I can lose weight.

It’s not about discipline either I’m afraid. None of us want to go to work most of the time but we have to. We control our own lives to some extent, some of it we don’t, and outside of the mandatory elements we adapt as humans to make our lives more comfortable with habits we develop as coping mechanisms. You need to be motivated to change habits and actually want to do it, so it’s not about forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to do because that is not sustainable. Humans only stick at things they do like or do see a benefit from. I don’t always like exercising so I choose something I do like, I compromise with myself over it. If I don’t want to walk outside as it’s cold I won’t force myself, I will pick a different activity

I have always, since a tiny child, had a big appetite. If I don't consciously restrict then my weight creeps up. It isn't because I'm gorging on cake, it's because I consistently eat slightly more than my body needs. I can eat a huge volume of food before feeling full. This has never changed. It was the same on Keto, it was the same intermittent fasting, it was the same after maintaining a healthy weight and eating small quantities for years. I grew up with a sister who was close in age and has always been slim. Our upbringing was the same. She has always naturally self regulated and maintained a healthy weight without thought. If I'm not paying attention then I'm gaining weight. Some of us are just more hungry than others.

I was a healthy weight for a quite a long time on OMAD. And then lockdown happened and I was no longer walking 1hr 30 a day as part of my commute. My job became 100% WFH. I just couldn't fast all day while at home trying to work and homeschool and my weight started to creep up. I gained 3 stone over 3 years and just couldn't get to grips with it again, couldn't stick to anything for more than a few weeks.
Wegovy has been the answer for me, it's snapped me out of any bad habits and I've got into a really good routine.

I would have possibly given up if it had meant staying the same weight forever. But it wouldn't have been, it would have been gaining more and more and becoming very fat.

I would keep on with making your small changes, enjoy the benefits it’s bringing to your life to do those. You probably need to take the pressure off yourself about how you are viewing your body. Trust me I know how it feels to see yourself this way, it’s an awful feeling. But you are being too hard on yourself. Like you say, our lives are hard, stressful and have a lot of obstacles. It isn’t impossible, but for you it feels impossible so I think working on how you view yourself is probably important. You are clearly a determined person as you have made lots of changes to your habits and even changed your job to reduce stress. You have a good insight but you have lost your hope completely. Can you do some nice things for yourself? I think you can get your hope back if you stop reading negative things tbh 😂 maybe you need some more positive online content.
Yes a lot of diets fail but you just don’t always hear about those who keep weight off, as they aren’t posting about it anymore. It’s usually through changing their lifestyle and not one of the diet culture methods.

you kind of also need to mourn your younger size 8 self. I had abdominal surgery 4 years ago and it completely changed my lower abdominal shape - I now have an apron shelf area I never had before. I could have had a flat stomach once again now I never will. I used to get upset about this but now I just try to accentuate in clothes other areas that I am happy about and accept that this area was not my fault, and it was for my health and I just need to learn to be ok with it

Stop dieting and instead cut out ultra processed foods.
I have been on diets all my life, done everything and was still overweight.
Since cutting out ultra processed food the weight has just dropped off.

I did 9 weeks solid on 1000 cals a day and 16/8 at the same time. Lost 5lbs.
Still 3.5st over weight.

Thank you @Menora Very accurate!

On AIBU a few weeks ago (I think). Some people were posting about what they eat in a day. I also contributed. I swear I eat a quater of what they did and most of them were not over weight. I feel like the Gastric Sleeve will give a me a complete re-set with my eating and health. Reduce my portions and be healthier. Also hopefully reduce my diabetes.

I dunno. I'm up for trying anything now.

People lie about what they weigh and what they eat. AIBU is horrendous for it.

If someone isn't proficient at calorie counting and says they eat 1600 I'd bet my life on it being nearer 2500 in reality. Some people just don't realise what a portion of something or even how calorie dense some things are.