Please help me lose a lot of weight

[HeavierThanEverBefore]

I have reached 17 stones and 3 lbs and I'm disgusted with myself. I'm so huge, I'm always uncomfortable, every part of my body is fat, none of my clothes fit, I'm embarrassed to go out anywhere.

I've always been a healthy weight without trying but menopause hit me at the same time as lockdown and a combination of hormones, the switch to homeworking, and depression, meant I piled on three stones within months and it's gone up and up ever since.

I'm starting exercise with swimming and walking. I struggle to do anything else because of my huge size but hopefully when some fat goes I will move on to other exercises.

I really need some help with food please!

My current intake is based on sugar, fat and carbohydrates. I'm not hungry in the morning so don't eat breakfast. Lunch is usually sandwiches or jacket potato with cheese, dinner is based around one of pasta/rice/pizza. Multiple snacks throughout the day are biscuits, chocolate, cake.

I know I need to replace the snacks with fruit or nuts.
I have started having salad for lunch but half an hour afterwards I feel starving!

I live alone and don't eat meat. Fish I do eat but it's expensive so can't have it every day. I also can't afford the meal/recipe delivery boxes.

Please can people help me with suggestions of what I can have for lunch and dinner, that will be healthy but will fill me up? It sounds stupid to say but I just don't know what to eat. I've never really learned to cook food. My parents never prepared fresh meals, always bought something, and as an adult I've followed that on. I honestly don't know what to have for meals that isn't based around carbohydrate.

I am in the same position as you except I eat more during the night.

You need protein with veg.
Do you eat beans and pulses?

Calorie count. Use a TDEE calculator to work out your deficit and eat what you want within your calories.
weigh everything and be completely honest when tracking. It works. Nothing is off limits and you can still enjoy the things you love.
Use and an app like my fitness pal or nutracheck. I’ve lost 5 stone doing this.

Can you afford yo.join Weight watchers? They sometimes have special offers. It's easy to.follow. I have lost 15pounds in 5 weeks. I.started at 19 stone. Try a d go yo.s class. The group.support is great

Did you have any protein in your salad? This makes a massive difference to feeling full.

I have this literally everyday for lunch: half tin butter beans (save half for the next day), one large tomato, cucumber, lettuce, celery, handful of nuts and raisin, handful of feta cubes, handful of blueberries, table spoon of the best olive oil I can afford, tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Eat at room temp and it’s so fresh and lovely. Nuts/cheese/beans keeps you full and it’s pretty cheap. Give it a go and see what you think.

Add protein to your salads. Eggs, turkey, chicken, fish, chickpeas etc. Greek yoghurt and fruit for breakfast. Load dinner plate with veg. Keep a food diary for a month and see what that looks like. Up your step count.

You need to find a plan that you can sustain long term, being able to stick to it is the most important thing about any diet. Then you need to choose the diet you can manage and really go for it. Calorie counting, keto, fasting etc. if hunger is a problem then cutting out simple carbs (processed food/empty calories) will really help. Increase veg, eggs, dairy and try to eat less processed food. Things like pasta and bread are processed and you would do better nutritionally to reduce in favor of potato or rice where you can No added sugar should help with the suger high/sugar crash cycle. Stick to sugar from real food, fruit, veggies etc. plenty of fat to feel satiated. Eggs, oily fish, full fat natural yoghurt etc.

Personally I keto but I know this feels extreme to some people and if you don't eat meat it can feel limiting.

I've recently started slimpod. Look it up.

Well done for starting on a fitness and weight loss journey. To be honest, it’s a “simple” as cutting out the cake, biscuits etc. snacks. First move is to stop buying them and have alternatives like natural yoghurt/seeds/fruit/whole meal bread as an alternative. If you prepare them in/on a bowl or plate and eat them slowly it gives your brain and stomach time to register the food intake so you feel satisfied, rather than eating a fistful of cake or biscuits. You will succeed, it just takes a bit of time to reset your food shopping and eating habits. You said you were always a healthy weight before meno and lockdown. I completely empathise with how homeworking and depression are linked with emotional eating. What small steps do you think you could undertake to get back to your previous diet?

I’d suggest starting by logging what you eat in to a calorie calculator. I find Nutracheck brilliant - easy to use, most items with barcodes can just be scanned in (so scan your loaf of bread, select two slices, it enters all the values).

Start with that for a week without making changes, because you need to learn where your calories, carbs and protein come from.

Then use a TDEE calculator to tell you how many calories you need to eat in a day. This one is good https://www.seancaseyfitness.com/calorie-calc

Cut your calories by reducing carbs, increasing protein. As you increase protein, aim to eat 2g of protein for every 1kg ideal body weight (so if you want to be 80kg, eat at least 160g protein). You probably won’t hit this at first, build it up.

I recommend Sean Casey on Instagram as really simple, common sense weight loss advice. He has a programme you can pay to join, but just watching his videos will give you lots of tips and super easy recipes.

Pinch of Nom is another great recipe resource, their website and their books.

You are on the right track acknowledging your goals and how to get to them. I would recommend focusing on proteins (fish, beans, eggs, yoghurt) with tons of vegetables and healthy oils (extra virgin olive oil), seeds and nuts. You will feel full! Try inexpensive types of fish, mackerel is very nutritious and healthy, some simple white fish. And definitely try not to buy cakes and biscuits and sweet snacks..

@HeavierThanEverBefore Also, must add, you are NOT disgusting. You are on a mission to improve your health through changing your diet and exercise routine.

Honestly, as someone who started a stone heavier wegovy has changed my life. I am being privately prescribed through Boots.

Watching with interest. I’m 4 stone overweight but will be happy to lose 3 stone. Just feel like I don’t know where to start with what to eat. Might start with focusing on a decent breakfast and then sentry focusing on lunches.

This time last year I was a size 14/16 and at 5ft it showed. I decided I didn't want to diet because it never lasts, I needed to change my eating habits.
So I started 16:8. This helped my gastric symptoms and ibs too (not cured but reduced).
I calorie count and started making better choices because I am aware of how many are in things. I have limited energy and am disabled so cannot exercise and have to limit my time cooking etc. So I skip breakfast, lunch is beans/tomatoes/egg/mushrooms on toast, soup and a roll, a salad with protein eg omelette, chicken, tuna with fruit. I then have a piece of fruit mid afternoon. Tea is a home cooked meal often batch cooked in slow cooker and portioned up to help calorie counting. I weigh out rice, pasta etc. I have stopped snacking in the evening. I also allow flexibility in this so having Pizza on dc birthday was OK, going out for a meal is ok because the calories over the week will add up. It feels like a routine rather than a diet. I'm now a size 8 (haven't weighed once so don't know how much I've lost) but I'm maintaining by keeping up with calorie counting and sticking roughly with 16:8 (some days it might be less but my average is 18.45hours). I record everything because it's a good habit to keep me on the straight and narrow. But really I'm just skipping breakfast, eating normal meals but keeping control of portion size, having the occasional treat but not going overboard and not snacking regularly in an evening.

I recommend 16:8 too. I combine that with an 80% plant based diet. Also no alcohol. Have a look at Sophie Uliano on YouTube - she focuses on health and weight loss for the over 45s, she has a paid program which I haven’t done, but her free content is life changing. Good luck!

I think and as someone working on my weight myself that you need to do some work on nutrition. This could be reading or podcasts, nothing heavy just understanding the building of a "healthy" diet with some treats now and again.
Swap out all the refined carbs for wholemeal or brown version and reduce carbs.
Lots of protein and veg or salad to feel full.
Eat to look after your body and value it. Jacket sweet potato and tuna for lunch or veggie chilli on top.
I have a lot of sourdough toast with eggs/avocado/tinned fish type lunches.
On a Sunday I roast a load of veg with a little oil and garlic/herbs to portion up. Cauli/broccoli/corgette/peppers/
carrots. Add a few chicken thighs or a piece of salmon and it makes a tasty filling dinner.
I get those grain pouches from Aldi to mocrowave and sometimes have those with some protein and salad.
I also do 2 fast days and follow the friendly thread 5:2 on here.
I still have a glass of wine or ice cream at the weekend and chocolate.
Losing slow and steady about 2lb a week.

Thank you so much everyone! I really appreciate all of these comments and suggestions.
So it seems protein is a key thing. I need to add a good amount of protein to a meal in order to feel full. I have tended to focus my meals on carbs because I don't eat meat but some suggestions here (beans and pulses) I actually didn't know were protein. Seems manageable!

The person who said could I get back to my previous healthy diet - I've never had a truly healthy diet, that's a big part of my problem. I've always eaten "ok" but never great, but my weight seemed to manage itself until menopause and lockdown, when I became hormonal and very sedentary. I've never actually known or learned about nutrition and healthy food.

The other suggestions of apps and programmes I am going to look up now.

Thank you everyone 💛

Read:

The glucose Goddess.
Processed People
The Obesity Code.

Your plate should be at least half vegetables. Eat these first. Use a vinegar based salad dressing.
Then proteins and fats.

Then carbs last.

And cut out snacks. Your body is supposed to pause between meals. If you need sugar from fruit or refined sugar, eat it after your meal, not as stand alone snack.

Have a savory breakfast rather than a sweet one.

I eat a lot of eggs, lentils, beans. One of my favourite salads is kidney beans, chick peas, berlotti beans, onion, cucumber, tomatoes, and then a dressing made of apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard and oil (I make a batch of the sauce and keep it in the fridge). I sprinkle it with capers.

It's not about calories in vs calories out. That's BS.

It's about reducing carbs, upping protein, stepping away from processed food and allowing your body to get hungry by fasting.

And drink tons and tons of water.

I'd replace the snacks with no snacks tbh.

3 meals a day and make better choices when you do. So high protein and ml it's if veggies.

Have your sweet treats with the meals. Like a single yoghurt, a 2 finger KitKat, fruit and cream etc.