Obese? Wanting to join a friendly thread ?

[SeatbeltExtender]

Hi

As my user name says this summer the Ryan Air seatbelt did not fit.
Yesterday I had to sit on a wooden deck chair and I found myself trying to Google what the weight limit could be

So tomorrow I start a diet.
So many threads on Mumsnet are for people much smaller than me
I'm 18 stones and 5lbs.

Please feel free to join if you are seriously overweight, please don't join if you are just averagely fat.

That used to be my worst time by a massive margin. In fact, when I was younger and calorie counting, I used to skip breakfast, have cereal for lunch and have all my calories at dinner and then to snack in the evening. Not to be recommended 🙄
These days, I have a hot chocolate every night with squirty cream on top and it feels like a major treat, with the added bonus that i can scale it up or down depending on how many calories I have left.
I've not really got a sweet tooth, but I find crisps etc at night are the road to ruin for me as I can't stop.

I had a bit of a danger zone this weekend when the weather stopped our usual longish Sunday walk. Then on Monday, the WiFi connection to my TV in the garage dropped fatally so I could not do my usual exercise regime
I've stuck it out but it's this kind of thing that could quite easily throw me off course for ages.

@Katypp yes, whoever coined the old expression 'breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince, dine like a pauper' knew their stuff! I like dark chocolate & have discovered Aldi do packs of 5 little bars. Because theyre tiny they're only about 100 cals each. But I'm 20 miles from the shop & Ds has been very ill. My only local shop has just become a motorway style set up - open 24 hrs for whole aisles of crisps, chocs, fizzypop, & vending machines for hotdogs & slushies. Almost no real food. Ugh.
The most 'ugh' is being in a stressful situation & trying to stay aware of what (& when!) I eat. Onwards & upwards x

I have lost 2st with SW so far, to put that into real terms I am 2 dress sizes down.

Keep going everyone, small steps make a big difference in the long run.

@RechargeableGnu I lost 2st with SW when the DC were little, loved it at the time. Tried it again a couple of years later and couldn't get on with it at all

@TheNuthatch I did WW 25 years ago (aarrrggghhhh, that makes me feel old!) and it all made sense... more recently I just don't get it, it's like they've tried to make it easier but actually it's harder, for me anyway. Might be just me being too tired for all these things...

@isthereaway could you have some 'proper' meals delivered - Cook or something similar - or try out Gousto or Hello Fresh? Depends if you have the time to cook, if not, meal delivery might be helpful for you as a stopgap?

@ChiffandBipper I was listening to a James Clear podcast about this earlier, where he was encouraging people to not give up after a minor setback - ie you can give in once in a while to cravings, but not every time or it's a habit - guess which mine have become

I joined ww yesterday it's £8 a month for 8 months going to try my hardest . I also joined pure gym I'm going once drop
The wee one of at school . Really dreading going and don't know the best equipment to use for weight lose/ toning up

Second fast day of the week here. Hoping for a loss tomorrow but a sneak peek this morning showed a slight gain, so I shall ignore that!
Have been generally good-ish this week and am planning a seven-mile walk tomorrow.
@typicaltuesdaynight Good luck with the gym. Is that the chain where you can access them at any time? I think we have one in our town.
@isthereaway Trying to remember to eat properly (or indeed stop eating) is really difficult when you're not in the habit and not 100% concentrating. Let us know how you get on and I hope things get easier soon.
@TheNuthatch I liked the original WW Points plan too. After years of calorie counting, it seemed much easier and I lost quite a bit on it. I've dipped in and out of WW for years but I find the newer plans are (to me) complicated and it's frustrating having to point things that you are used to being free, so I have given up on that. I find it expensive too (the subscription).

Good suggestions thank you. I have 2 ever hungry teenagers with SN to cook for so I make food 3x every day (Dad never has them, no other family around). By evening I'm extremely tired (disabled myself). We have a healthy evening meal & usually watch TV together. It's difficult not to make popcorn/ open chocs / crisps. I need to just chop a bowl of fruit for mindless eating that I seem to do. I think by that point of the day I feel I need a treat. I don't drink & can't go out so options v limited. Posh snacks are appealing but unnecessary (I'm not hungry) & bad for weight. I understand all the theory it's just daily practice I struggle with. Ho hum. Onwards & (weight) down wards!

Thank you @EvangelineFox and @Katypp for the mention. I'm glad I'm not alone with the ww problems.
I'm just back from yet another 4 hour round trip to uni and back. Dd is home for reading week which I'm really happy about. Hopefully we can sort out some of the issues she's having and life will be a little easier when she returns.
A Chinese takeaway has been ordered as dh got home late too. Not healthy onviously, but I'm sharing a portion so half calories. Ho hum, tomorrow's another day.
Lots of healthy food planned for tomorrow and Sunday. It will be nice to have time to actually cook! I'm going to have a good think this weekend about what I want to do. I might try ww again.
Good luck for the weekend everyone.

Weigh in today and another 1.5lb off. Happy with that. Seven-mile walked planned today (good) followed by Chinese takeaway (bad)
@TheNuthatch I am not familiar with the issues,around your daughter at uni but wanted to send solidarity as we went through the mill with ours and to some extent, still are. Hang in these!

Checking in for a 1.5lb loss which I'm proud of. I also had a first "have you lost weight" then again I was wearing skinny jeans and a smaller jumper so showed my shape more so not that unsurprising compared to the baggy stuff I often wear 

Hope your ok OP @SeatbeltExtender if you want to talk we are all here

Also is anyone dreading the start of the festive season? I am a sucker for a mince pie, cheese etc going to be hard. I read a post earlier about people saying they'll just have the day off itself from tracking food but I was planning on more like a week

Well. That was a bad week.

It's half term and at the start of last week my mum had a fall, she's ok, just some bruising, nothing broken but she's coming up on 75 and hasn't been in the best of health for a while, she had a huge operation a few years back and I haven't seen her this frail since then and its not very nice.
So the last week or so has been spent helping my dad out and trying to keep DD as entertained as possible which has meant days out where the food choices weren't the greatest and I'll be honest, I've been that knackered by the time bed time rolled round that I've fallen back on old habits and reached for the Just Eat app. Lots of snacking as well. And the results have been plain to see on the scale this morning, 1.5kg back on and I feel rubbish from it, tired, sluggish, ashamed of myself and my reflux is creeping back. Bloody marvellous.

BUT it's a new week. Another week of half term to go but we have some things planned (Halloween party at her friends house today so I get some time to myself, which is much needed), a fresh gousto box is arriving today, I've got the scales out this morning so I can weigh out my portions properly where I need too and I am determined to turn this around.

Hope you are all well!

Starting weight: 161.0kg (25.3 stones)

Goal weight: 72.0kg (11.3 stones)

Total Loss: 4.6kg (10.3lbs or 0.7 stones)
Still too lose: 84.4kg (13.2 stones)

16/09/24: 158.6kg Loss: 2.5kg (5.5lbs)
23/09/24: 157.1kg Loss: 1.5kg (3.3lbs)
30/09/24: 155.5kg Loss: 1.6kg (3.5lbs)
07/10/24: 156.1kg Gain: 0.6kg (1.3lbs)
14/10/24: 155.9kg Loss: 0.2kg (0.4lbs)
21/10/24: 154.9kg Loss: 1.0kg (2.2lbs)
28/10/24: 156.4kg Gain: 1.5kg (3.3lbs)

@TheNuthatch I hope your DD enjoyed her reading week and that you managed to help with some of her uni issues admittedly it's many years since I went to uni but I think sometimes there is so much pressure to HAVE FUN that if you're not (for whatever reason) then you're made to feel like you've done something wrong, or at least I was. Add to that the greater financial pressures these days and it must be very tough.

@Minnie888 the supermarkets are full of tasty Christmas food already and I'm finding it tricky! I can resist some of it by thinking "I'll buy that nearer the day if I really want it" but then there are things like Aldi's almond pastry mince pies which I would 100% definitely, no question about it possibly even swap the children for, I can't resist those

Sorry to hear about your DM @NoDishiForRishi - mine is late 70s now and definitely getting more frail, not helped by her continually refusing to visit the GP for minor issues so they turn into major ones... I hope things improve soon

I'm going through the fridge today to start some proper meal planning - I will fully admit I'm terrible at it, my executive function definitely doesn't function in this particular area! If anyone has any top tips please do let me know...

Good luck to the both of you. It's hard when life gets in the way.., we've just had a few days away and a break from the diet for me. Not going to lie I am dreading the scales this week but also really hope I keep up the motivation to get back on it tomorrow sharpish before I lose the will to live!!! I'd like to try a gusto box or similar never had them before but might help me with those mid week need to cook quick meals?

Hi everyone. Have been lurking for a while but finally decided to join the thread.

I weighed myself this morning (been intending to for a while) and my BMI is 38.8.

I'm turning 39 in a few days and I would really like to have a BMI of 25 by my 40th birthday.

This means I have a year to lose 40.9kg (6 stones 6 pounds) which is 36% of my body weight.

Is this realistic in any way?!

For me it's psychological, I struggle with my mental health and emotional overeating, so I need to sort out some kind of counselling for healthier choices and weight loss.

I'm wondering about trying something like Noom or should I just go straight for some kind of weight loss injection?!

I'm 40 next year too, good to have a goal of becoming a healthier weight by then 👍

I think just try calorie counting or joining a plan like slimming world or weight watchers first? There are some threads on weight loss jabs though which may give you some good advice. 6 stone is doable, a big challenge but totally doable. Key would be finding a plan or method that works for you longer term so not too restrictive

I think I would tend to agree with @Minnie888 and have a go at basic calorie counting before signing up to anything expensive. All diets are calorie counting at heart.
I've found a 5:2 fast is working for me and seems to have clicked with my mindset. I eat 800 calories on Mon and Fri and around 2000 the rest of the week. I find the fact I can eat pretty much normally on five days keeps me on track
I've lost over 2st since June but I am quite strict and I have massively upped my exercise at the same time.
Have a go at calorie counting first.

Thanks... I really hate calorie counting tbh It sounds like it's the only way. But just seems like such a faff and not actually a sustainable / healthy way of eating. I would love to change my habits and naturally have healthier food and fewer calories. I suppose that's not easy without rules.

I use Nutracheck, which I find brilliant. It has a massive database of foods and a barcode scanner if you prefer/can't find it in the database.
It counts calories for you and I find it very East yo use and far superior to the WW app, which I have used on and off for the past 15 years.
I also use it for meal planning and plan my whole week in advance.

Forgot to say, I always post my weekly meal plan on the meal planning thread, so if you are interested you could see the kind of things you can eat on 5:2 fasting (or that I do, anyway)
That said, I've just posted a pretty unusual week as we are eating our way through stuffed cupboards and freezers to make way for pre-Christmas restock!

Could you send me the link to the meal planning thread please? It would really help me to see what your meal plan is as I’m really daunted by the idea of 800
caloroes two days a week

Thank you!
I'm using Noom for now as I got the 14 day trial but will look at other options as it seems expensive in the longer run.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/food_and_recipes/4971725-2024-meal-planning?page=25

As I say, this week isn't typical but it will give you an idea.
On non fast days I always have a small piece of hm cake and a hot chocolate with squirty cream too!