Petite, overweight and lacking motivation - please help !

[Fandango52]

Hi all, very much in need of weight loss advice and support please!

I’m 5 foot and weigh 58kg, which is 12kg from where I’d like to be (ideally 46-47kg).

I was between 48-50kg until 2020 (the pandemic…) and then I gained weight over time during lockdown due to having more takeaways than usual and not exercising much, and ended up at 60kg in 2023/24.

I’m now generally between 57-59kg, after going to the gym 2-3 times a week for about 4 or so months and trying to eat healthily. I haven’t been to the gym now for about 3 weeks after coming down with a bad cold, but now feeling much better and need to start going again.

As mentioned above, I’ve been aiming to lose weight for a while, but the wake-up call came today, when I went for a pedicure and the lady doing my nails asked if I was expecting 😬😬 my stomach was kind of scrunched in the chair, and it is my major ‘problem area’, as all my weight seems to go on there, but I was so embarrassed.

My downfall(s) are probably eating a bit too much and a general lack of portion control, not eating enough veg and fruit and not moving enough. I don’t smoke, and rarely drink (maybe once a bit if that). I live in a house share, so have limited space to store food, but have a well stocked store cupboard (pulses, rice and pasta, sauces, herbs, spices, tinned fish etc).

I’ll often have Greek yoghurt and berries and nuts or eggs for breakfast, but running out of ideas for easy, tasty and healthy meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), and also looking for motivation to stay active and moving, as I work from home quite a lot, and the less I move, the less I want to 😳😳

I really need to shift 10-11kg - hopefully by next January if possible - and then maintain that.

Any advice very gratefully received please!

In all fairness, you're 9 stones. That's not overweight. I'm 5'3 and 67kg and still only a 10-12 in clothes.

Thanks for your reply abathofmilkwithladydi! Unfortunately it is overweight for my height, according to the BMI index :(

When will people learn its not OK to remark about other people’s bodies? I’m sorry that happened to you, I’ve been there and it sucks.

I’m 5’ like you but 10 st 11lb for the same reason (lockdown etc) I’m having great success doing the Fast 800 diet pretty much out of the book but my goal weight (for now) is 9st 0lb - which is what you are?

I know the BMI charts and doctors all say 7 - 8 stone is healthy for women of 5ft but if I was that weight it would be too low for me personally as it would be unsustainable food wise (I’d need to be on less than a 1000 calories a day to maintain anything under 9 stone) and I have quite a broad build.

Basically as long as I’m a size 10 I’m happy - which means being ‘overweight’ according to the charts 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hi, I don't have any advice but I'm 5ft and understand. I have never been as low as 47kg but always around 51kg. Last year I dropped from 57 to 52 by dropping to 2 meals a day (I eat at 11 and 6) which helped. I do 30 mins of weights a couple of times a week and run a few times a week as well but I always feel like I could be smaller. People don't get it as my BMI is 22 and I'm a size 8 but keeping the fat under control is really hard. I wish I long and lean! If I eat a bit more than usual over a week I can't do my jeans up. I'm the definition of skinny fat - look small in clothes but have control underwear holding all the wobbles in. I see people much bigger than me with flatter stomachs - I don't get it.
I've been thinking about cutting out bread completely and am trying to follow a natural diet of whole foods (I try to do this but end up eating toast or kids left over sandwiches).

Thanks so much, Chelsea.

I’m ‘lucky’ (although I shouldn’t feel that!) that I rarely have people naming those sorts of remarks, but I wish it just didn’t happen.

My mum sometimes does the same (even though she’s the same height as me, but a few kilograms lighter), and I hate it (e.g. ‘what, are you 9 months pregnant with twins?!’)

Thankfully I think she’s stopped, as I was pretty firm the most recent time she did it and told her I didn’t comment on her body and didn’t think it was fair that she comments on mine. I think she thought it was funny, which is strange, as she is generally very kind and compassionate and would never dream of doing that to anyone else. I think it was her way of telling me she thought I needed to do something about my weight, and she thought she’d do it humorously, but it just felt mean.

The Fast Diet sounds like a good plan to try - I’ve got that book and a few similar ones by Michael Mosley, so will give it a go.

Can I ask how you managed to stay motivated while on the diet? And also when you first started to see results? I realise that’ll be different for everyone, of course, but wondering if 2/3 months (for example) is too soon to see results, or if you might start to see some then?

Aah. My mother was very short and very overweight but (don’t get me wrong, she had her faults!) never made weight an issue for me in any way and I’m very thankful for that.

It was the first lockdown when the extra two stone started to go on. Two months ago I picked the fast 800 because I knew I needed to eat a lot less than the 1500 built in to other diets for the weight to go, and luckily I like the type of foods the recipe book uses.

The first six weeks were pretty easy using the three meal a day suggestions. Motivation was not a problem because once carbs were reduced my appetite lessened and not snacking was not as hard as I thought it was going to be - I’m a massive snacker - meals have never been my problem!

I saw a 2lb loss on weeks two and three (water weight, I’m assuming) and then maintained for two weeks after that, and lost 1lb per week for the next two weeks.

After six weeks I added in a portion of wholegrain (bran flakes, ryvita or wholegrain bread and pasta) every day as the constipation was awful and fibre supplements were not working, and were too expensive. This worked really well and although my calories now come in at 1000 - 1200 a day now the constipation is not a problem and I’ve continued to lose at about a pound a week for another month.

I’m realistically looking at what I’m doing now being my diet for life, so I don’t worry if I go way over on food one or two days a month, I just have to make sure the ‘slips’ don’t carry on for weeks or months at a time, that’s what got me into this situation!

Overall, I’ve lost a stone in 8 weeks and theoretically have two to go but at barely five foot I take the BMI chart with a pinch of salt and think I’ll be very happy to lose just one more and maintain a BMI of around 27, dress size ten. If I tried to go below that I’m pretty certain I would fail, in the longer term.

What else….oh, I don’t go to the gym or do any formal exercise as I live in the country, I just stand all day at my job (own business) and go for a long walk every evening.