OMG I've hit 16 stone!!!!

[user1471526265]

Omg, as the title says, I weighed myself today and have hit 16 stone. I'm only 5 foot 1. I knew I had gained weight. It's been a continuous gain for the last few years, but I didn't realise it was that much.

Bit more about me, I have chronic pain, balance issues and fatigue, among other things, after an accident back in 2021 has left me with permanent nerve damage. I'm 49, very firmly in peri menopause, work part time from home as no longer drive etc due to my health problems.

These issues also affect my ability to exercise, or even stand for long etc so I lead to a very sedentary lifestyle and tend to take the easy way out with many meals now being based around jars rather than cooking from scratch etc. I should also probably mention that, despite clearly eating rings round me, I have a condition called dysphagia which means I have difficulty swallowing some foods. It's a weird range of foods in that I can't eat many raw foods like most salad foods, apples, grapes etc but also cannot eat things like soup.

Am I up shits creek? I'll never be able to lose this weight living off dolmio etc will I?!?

I was already overweight when I had the accident - around 12 stone - but I was fairly steady at that. I can't believe it has got this bad.

Bless you it's a full time job coping with a chronic condition believe me I know! I think you might start with drawing up a list of the healthy foods you can eat then perhaps some chair exercises. Slow and steady wins the race please be sure to give yourself some TLC

Oh I forgot try and get treatment for your peri symptoms they are as bad as they feel

Thank you Crispynoodle. Are you, or have you been, in a similar position regarding weight loss or chronic illness?

This was me 8 months ago. I had to weigh myself at the doctors for a medicine review and they wouldn't not tell me. 16 stone. 5'3", age 52.
It's taken 8 months but I'm now 14 stone 7.
It's been hard and boring. As I'm largely sedentary I've only managed it by keeping to 1200 in the week and a bit more weekends. Cut down on booze. No snacks, no breakfast. Now my knees hurt less I’m walking a bit.
I figure it'll be another 8 months to get to 13 stone and by Christmas next year I hope to weigh 11 stone.
I'm pretty disciplined so don't see the point in injections if I can do it without but it's been very very slow going.

I've been on hrt of various types over the past few years but pretty much out of options now. None of them suited me. I should have expected as much as I could never get a pill that suited me me either.

Are you able to do some swimming?

I feel your pain. I have an odd auto immune disease that means I basically can’t eat fruit, spinach, tomatoes, I am allergic to Benzoates (found in natural foods). it makes my mouth and tongue swell and have tiny painful ulcers.

you’d think with a restrictive diet I’d lose weight easily, actually there’s so much I can’t eat that I eat the things I can eat, which are Sainsburys shortbread, dairy milk chocolate in all forms of twirl, buttons, bars etc.

I had a moan about my predicament with my dr while there for something else and she referred me to the practice dietitian who was helpful. I’m the end I got myself a treadmill and walked gently while watching tv. I restricted my biscuit and chocolates and bad food intake a bit. It’s taken months, I’ve probably months to go but I am slowly chipping away at it.

Well done on the weight loss comfortablynumber. Thats a great loss. I know when younger it would have fallen off so much quicker so that's a brilliant achievement. I would be so happy to ever see 11 stone again. It's been about 8 years since I saw those figures on the scales.

I'm same height as you and disabled (unable to exercise). I don't know my weight as don't weight myself ever. I went from a size 14/16 to a 6. You need to find what suits you. The things that helped me (and continue to help me maintain) are:
Meal planning every meal (and not having treats in the house),
Intermittent fasting I do anything from 16:8 to 20:4,
Calorie counting and log everything (I looked at what I needed on a Calorie calculator). I calorie count over a week so if it's kids birthday I can relax a bit but generally stick to a daily amount.
I think being short and inactive can make it harder but it's doable (took about 18 months for me to loose the weight).
The thing I found was to change one thing at a time so I didn't get overwhelmed and also if I have a bad day don't give up start again there and then (don't leave it till next week).

To my shame, I never did learn how to swim. You could see the sea from my bedroom window growing up but I've never been more than knee deep in it.

I also have the same issue with the blisters and can’t eat fruit or tomatos etc. but it might actually be the spray they add to things or the products they use to grow them. Try switching to organic or home grown. It tastes much different then. It is only a bit more expensive, but the cost on your health will be a lot more if you don’t. I take piriton and use eczema friendly skin care.

Honestly, OP, get yourself over to the Mounjaro threads. Six months ago I was 3.25 stone heavier. I still have 1.5 stone to go and I know I will get there by the spring. It's been absolutely incredible and has changed my whole life.

Can you link?

Ohnonotrain, I'm the same with eating the foods I can eat. It's amazing how I have no problem with chocolate and biscuits in general. I do sometimes get throat spasms after eating chocolate, but I usually think feck it, life's too short.

But I do now worry that I am shortening my life with my lifestyle and I need to do something about it. I just don't know where I'll get the willpower from. It's not like I've not started to diet a dozen times this year alone. I lucky if I can make it past day 2. I think I am now a sugar addict. The withdrawals are so severe when I do try.

My neighbours were born in the 1930s and they are very much alive

Looseloose, wow. Congratulations on the weight loss. That is phenomenal. I'd be thrilled with not having to worry about fitting in a chair at the coffee shop (this is what triggered me to weigh myself as I don't have a working scales at home at the moment). You must have unbelievable willpower though.

healthybychristmas, can I ask you if you've had any side effects?

Hey OP, I'm quite a bit taller and heavier than you, but I'm also 49 and in peri. I'm time-poor as I am self-employed and home educate two DC who are both autistic, one with high needs.

I mention all this only to emphasise there are ways to lose weight, even if you can't prepare everything from scratch or take loads of time in the kitchen.

I've lost 40 pounds in just under four months.

I don't do weight loss injections. Personally, I wouldn't touch them because I have a tendency to react to medication, so I know I'd probably be one of those people who end up hospitalised with side effects!

I don't especially count calories, but I do keep a vague eye on them. For me, the weight has dropped off because I switched to keto. And it's a lifestyle change because when I get to my target weight, I'll just stick to low carb - which is very similar to keto just a bit less restrictive.

I haven't struggled at all. I have loads to eat, including sweet stuff. I feel so much better in myself and I have loads of energy. Low carb diets have been linked to all kinds of health benefits, so I think I'm just going to stick with this approach now to a greater or lesser extent.

Also worth mentioning that I have absolute shit self-control and a very sweet tooth. I never believed I'd be able to lose weight - I can't actually still believe I'm doing this!

I hit 15 stone in May (put 4 stone on in 3 years!) anyway that was my wake up call. I bought Mounjaro and I'm now down to 10 stone. I'm back to my old self. No stretch marks or side effects from the medicine. I've been able to run again, I do yoga 3 times a week. My joints have just been so much better. I can't recommend it enough. You may be able to get it prescribed from you Dr now, I don't know.
Sorry that's my only advice but I know how difficult dieting is and the likelihood of failure. Add a chronic condition in and I'm sure it's even more difficult. Best of luck x

Thanks twilightermummy. 5 stone in only about 6 months is incredible. So mutch more than I expected you'd lose on the weight loss injections. I thought they said things like a 20% increase in weight loss, so if you expect to lose 1 stone in a year it would be more like 1 stone 3lbs.

Do you mind me asking if your face has aged a lot with it? There is 1 person I suspect has been taking it as his weight loss was so sudden. But I was actually worried he was sick. He aged a good 10 years in his face, but I've been assured it's just weight loss and he was concerned about the effects of covid on heavier people and it was the kick up the bum he needed to get it sorted. I didn't pry and he didn't divulge that it was weight loss injections, so maybe it was all dietary and lifestyle changes.

Hello @user1471526265 , I can't comment on the dysphagia, as it's not something I've personally experienced, but I also panicked when I got to over 18 stone at 45, hit perimenopause, struggled with balance, vertigo and fatigue. Long story short: I've now lost over seven stone. My balance issues have improved enormously. I didn't use a GLP-1 agonist, but would certainly not have ruled it out. I've talked before about hypnotherapy and how it was invaluable for me, but it doesn't work for everyone. Exercise is, as I never tire of telling people, not essential for weight loss; it is indispensable for weight maintenance. Diet is the single, hands-down deciding factor for the loss phase.

Well done on the weight loss SpidersAreShitheads. I'll be honest, in the past I would always have shunned the idea of weight loss pills etc but I'd been coming around to considering the weight loss injections. I hadn't thought about reacting badly to it and it completely makes sense. I would likely react too, knowing my luck.

I'm sure the what's and what not to eat on your specific diet are lengthy so I won't ask you to go into too much detail, but could you recommend a starting point? Website or book or something? All I know about keto is from the days the Atkins diet was everywhere but the thing I remember most was people saying their breath stank. I thought it was all meat products. Would that not be bad for cholesterol?

I had some side-effects in that sometimes I had it a bad taste in my mouth for a couple of hours.

Twice since six months I've had bad constipation. I'm not sure what caused it those times but maybe I wasn't drinking enough. I felt queasy when I went up a dose.

What I would do in your situation if I was going to use it is make a list of things you mustn't do and stick to it e.g. don't eat too much in one go because you will feel really bloated. Don't eat in the evenings. Don't drink alcohol or eat chocolate Particularly in the evening. Those things were really really easy for me to stick to and I haven't had a drink for six months which is unusual for me. Those are things that people regularly find make them feel a bit sick or have acid reflux.

However I was having acid reflux before I lost weight and I never have it now. I sleep a lot better. I move a lot better. I feel a lot lighter and absolutely love buying clothes.

Wow Gummibärchen. 7 stone!!!!! That must feel incredible. Was it hypnotherapy helped you with cravings /over eating? How long time did it take you to lose the weight?

I had lost 2 stone of the 7 slowly just with willpower after a bereavement, then backslid until I tried the hypnosis last autumn, so it took a year for the 5 additional stone to come off. Hypnosis worked, funnily enough, like a Glp-1 in that it took away the food noise, improved my satiety cues, stopped me snacking, removed sweet and particularly crisp cravings, which really were my downfall.