How long have you been dieting?

[Voi]

I’m on month 3. Trying to lose baby weight (gained 3.5 stone with my twins).

Have dropped a stone and a half. Just can’t believe how much longer I have to do this. Never had an issue with weight so the sloggery of weight loss is just mind blowing. The consistency required is mind blowing.

Goal still feels so far away

You’re doing great! I’ve been going for 18 months. I’ve lost 2 and a half stone, but it’s so slow. I’m inching in the right direction but I’m fed up. Especially as I’ve only dropped one dress size. I’ve got another stone to lose.

I started my diet on the 15th April and I've list the grand total of 16lbs. I still have another 12 lbs to go to get to my target weight but my god I'm fed up! On holiday at the moment and just had to sit and watch my kids eat huge crepes with Nutella and banana and biscoff spread and I was literally salivating at them sat with my diet coke. I feel like if I give up now though, all the hard work I've put in so far will be for nothing so must push on!

3 months but saw my sideways reflection and arse in a primark changing room today and pretty much resigned myself to the reality that this may take years 🙈. Sobering thought.
I don’t think I’ll be able to sniff a carb until at least Christmas 😭

Like 2 decades 🤣

I really love fried chicken, pizza, burgers and fatty meat. Need to remind myself not to pig out on it non stop tho.

Thanks. Really admire the mental strength it must take to diet for 18 months.

i get the only dropping one dress size. I remember when I had Covid for 2 weeks I had to literally buy new work trousers.

Don’t feel like my clothes are falling off - probably cause I spend most of my day in elastic waists.

I barely eat carbs (slippery slope for me). And to still be fat is so bloody demoralising. Almost like why bother?

what I wouldn’t give to have some chicken wings with Frank’s sauce. The amount I eat usually works out at 800 calories even when they are just baked!

Nearly a year, but I’m slightly below my goal weight for some time now. It seems like I worked out a sustainable approach to what and how much to eat so I plan to stick to this forever.

Please may I ask you about this approach?

About 15 years. I was obese, and decided to finally do something about it. It became disordered eating and I've lost and regained so many times now- and extreme dieting feels so, so much worse for my health than being obese ever did.

I lost 4+ stone and also reached below target.
I plan to eat my maintenance calories forever so I remain as I am now. I’ve been maintaining for 5+ years so far.

Logging everything on My Fitness Pal means I don’t over eat, and I make better food choices.

It’s not complicated. I eat well: small portions, lots of vegetables (well over 30 plants a week), complex carbs, not too much protein. I still have snacks but I would only have them when hungry and in moderation, I try to pick better snacks, so maybe a mochi and a nectarine instead of crisps. I also practice hara hachi bu (eat till you’re 80% full), which sometimes works better and sometimes I fail miserably 😅.

I count calories and I’m honest with myself, every time I eat something I tend to ever so slightly overestimate what I had. I also never eat in front of any screen (never had, fortunately). When I eat I sit at the table and enjoy my food. I also drink alcohol in very moderate amounts, not weekly but more like 3 times a year.

What I notice is that my taste changed quite a lot. I really don’t enjoy crisps and similar savoury junk foods anymore, a lot of fast food became disgusting. I can’t stand the smell or the greasy texture of kebab anymore and I used to quite like it! Same with chocolate bars, the standard ones have become too sweet, Jaap is so sickly sweet that I can’t stand it and I used to be a fan 😅.

I exercise regularly but only stick to exercise that brings me joy and I can keep at. I make sure I spend time moving outside, in nature as much as possible.

This might not help you but since April 2023 😂
so like 14 months? And I am still not at my goal!

I’ve come this far I might as well carry on till I get to goal now too much invested but in all honesty it’s good - I feel so good now I wouldn’t go back. At about the 9 month mark I realised I was long hauling it and to just take the wins from the journey. Sometimes I’ve felt fed up but this is my life now. Even at goal I can’t go back to how things used to be

@Voi I’ve got something that might help you. It’s the famous milkshake study where people in two groups were given the same drink, but one group was told they were having a diet milkshake and the other one that they were having a high calorie one. Both milkshakes were exactly the same, just different labels. The diet group was actually hungry much faster, their physiological response, measured by the levels of ghrelin was different! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21574706/

Maybe this could help you reframe how you feel about being on diet? There’s a lot of great, satisfying, tasty and just fantastic food we can eat within the calorie budget, things that makes us stronger, healthier and happier in the long run.

This time since February 1st. Hoping this is a permanent change now. Started at 13:12 and now 11:2. Actually had a goal of 11:4 but have decided to go down a few more pounds.

All in all it will be about 6 months to lose the 3 st. Sounds like you are going great so far.

What I found was at the start I had the drudge of eating less but still not looking/feeling great. But getting close to 2st off I started feeling much better, getting back into my clothes and that spurred me on.

Since 26 Jan. Diagnosed type 2 diabetes so no choice! (And, in fairness, am very overweight so necessary anyway.)

Was 90kg (14st2lb). Lost 10kg so far. Still obese BMI but look and feel better. No end goal, just need to keep going as long as I can. Currently aspiring to merely overweight BMI 😁And most importantly hoping this impacts positively on my blood sugar.

3 weeks(this time).Tried the Slimfast diet so many times,and always ended up giving up because I can't be bothered.It really does work,so here I am,trying it again.Id be happy(ish)being 14 stone 7(weight before dieting)but I have a 17 month old to run around so I'm trying to lose the weight to be in tip top condition 😂