have you lost lots of weight? if so how did you do it?

[swiftyknickers]

ok-i am biting the bullet!! have 3/4 stone to loose-getting married next year and dont want to be a fat bride

my trouble is I know HOW to loose weight...I have 2 weeks of being really good, gym lots,loads of water then something happens or I am pre-mesntrual and i binge...

i need motivation to do this. feel sad when i look in the mirror-felt sad that a woman at a BBQ last night said with regards to skinny DS ' well he clearly takes after his father'

so i have 10 months till i get hitched-is it achievable without going down the Lighter life route?

I lost over 2.5 stones with slimming world. It really worked for me and what motivated me was going every week - not just to be weighed but staying behind for the group.

If you lost 1lb per week by the time of the wedding you will have lost nearly 3 stone, so that's definitely achievable.

I lost almost 4 stone in 3 months doing the Cambridge Diet. It is similar to Lighter Life but not as restrictive.

Well, I've lost 7 and a half now - yup, lost another half stone since I last posted about it! Yeeee-haaaa

However, nobody break out the party poppers because I still look like this

By my calculations, I still have the equivelant of 2 adults, a small child and a puppy left to lose.

How have I done it? Short bursts on every different type of diet going.
milk diet, slimfast, calorie controlled, only eating stuffing (I don't know what I was thinking. It gave me terrible wind!) low carb, etc etc.....

Plus the drugs. First xenical, then reductil now xenical again. Plus I've bought some thyroid suppliment over the internet, which I know I really shouldn't.

At the moment, I'm eating the same few things every day. I did this before and I've just started it again. Hopefully it'll go well.

breakfast - fat free yoghurt with 2 tablespoons of museli and a banana

lunch - stock cube soup, ham sandwich and a piece of fruit

dinner - a baked potato and something (chicken or tuna or prawns for example), with salad, followed by a yoghurt or a low fat choc mousse or a mini muffin

plus I have extra fruit and extra stock cube soup if I want, oh and half a pint of semi skimmed milk for coffees. I can also have sugar free jelly if I need to satisfy my sweet tooth!

Sometimes I pig out though but I am trying to stick to it!

I lifted this from a magazine a while back. You could try it.

BREAKFAST - CHOOSE FROM
200g lf yog & 2tbsp sf mueli
2 eggs & 1 sl wm toast
40g mesa &150ml ssm & 1 banana
2tbsp muesli & 175ml ssm & 8 strawberries
2 sl wm toast, scraping lfs & marmalade or jam
2 crumpets with jam
1 bagel with lfs
200g lf yoghurt & 1sl toast with lfs & jam/marmalade

LUNCH - CHOOSE FROM
125g cooked chicken, 2tbsp lf caesar dressing, lettuce in a pitta
ham sandwich - (2sl wm bread, thin spread lf mayo, 2tbsp lf coleslaw, 2sl ham)
veg soup & 2 crispbread with thin spread extra lf philly
2 scrambled eggs & 1sl hm toast & 200ml lf yoghurt
1/2 pot lf potato salad, 2sl ham, 6 cherry tomatoes
100g prawns & 1tbsp lf mayo in a pitta & 1 lf choc mousse

DINNER - CHOOSE FROM
chicken & rice - 125g chicken, 1/2 onion, handful mushrooms, 50g rice, chicken stock, 2tbsp lf crème fraiche
tuna pasta - 40g pasta, 1 small can tuna, 3tbsp sweetcorn, 100g carbonara sauce
medium baked potato with 1 tbsp lf mayo/philly and choice of topping - - 1 small can tuna & 3 tbsp sweetcorn, 1/2 cn beans, 100g prawns, 4 sl ham
150g chicken or fish w mixed steamed veg

PLUS
200ml ssm per day
3 pieces fruit

ONE DAILY TREAT. CHOOSE FROM -
1 pot lf choc mousse
1 pk lf crisps
1 mini choc muffin
2 finger kitkat
1 skinny cow blush smoothie
1 cereal bar
1 large vodka and slimline tonic
1 small galss wine
1 crumpet with 1 tsp choc spread

thanks everyone-thats a great loss hecate.well done!

maybe i should join a slimming group-am uber competative so might motivate me!!

just want to be thin again

That's what I decided helped me. I am very competitive too and every week I sat there thinking "right, next week I'm going to get Slimmer of the Week". It definitely motivated me being around the others. When I got to target I stopped going and over 6 months put on just over a stone again. I started going again and was straight back into it.

Dh is doing the TNT Mens Health diet and in less than 3 months he's lost 2 stone. It's basically low-carb. I've been doing it too & have lost about a stone, but had a lot less to lose than Dh. I never feel hungry which is great.

I think we've been through a few hundred eggs since we started it

from being very thin till 20-i have now been big for the last 10 years-have to do something.i always thought i carried it well but a few comments recently i clearly dont

so slimming world or weight watchers? mhave done weight watchers before and hated counting all the bleeding points!

With slimming world you get Syns. It took me a couple of weeks to get used to it but then I found it quite easy.

I found that if I menu-planned my whole week - every meal including snacks, and then shopped for it I was fine.

I have lost almost 4 stone since mid January doing Slimming World.

Never done a formal diet but previously lost 2 stone by just being realy diligent about not snacking.

Good breakfast, sandwich for lunch and healthy dinners - no real portion control. Just didn't eat any crap at all - that meant no bars of chocolate from the newsagent, no cakes at work when it was someone's birthday etc etc. Still drank wine, only took about 2.5 months to lose 2 stone that way.

Ooh, and loads of walking too...

I've lost 3 stone since Jan, juat eating a lot less. Unfortunatley there isnt a quick fix, although I have been taking a slimming supplement called Now Slim, which you canbuy from ebay and asda, amongst other places.

I think the main thing is that if you have a bad day/weekend whatever dont fall off the wagon, throw in the towel and carry on eating. Take it on the chin, accept you have eaten loads/what you shouldnt and just set yourself that tomorrow you will get back on to your diet - the chances are that a) you havent put on as much as you thought in such a short space of time and b) if you binge for a day or 2 then get back to strict dieting the weight you have put on will come off in a day or 2.

Keep an item of clothing that you would love to get back into in yor wardrobe- try it on every few weeks.

Take a picture every month in the same outfit/underwear so you can see the difference

Take your vital stats every month so you can track yor progress.

Have a new kitchen extension. it makes it physically impossible to get into the fridge.

i would love a new kitchen maidamess!
have the willpower of a nat, have gottowork on that-amgoing to give SW a whirl-see how i get on x

Hi, I've lost almost 5 stones since mid Jan doing weight watchers. I still have some way to go but feel very determined (still!).

My tips are :-

1. I eat only what I like. I hate feeling deprived so that means a large portion of something delicious. I try not to waste calories on anything that will not taste nice.

1. I always have a treat every day. Mostly a Crunchie which I leave til night time. Children asleep, me with my Crunchie and cup of coffee. Bliss.

1. I do not apologise for what I eat. Previously I would always try to 'fit in' and fool myself that it would be rude not to eat the cakes/chocolate/take away etc. I am more than happy to be in the company of people who eat them, indeed I am happy to serve them but I don't eat them anymore.

1. I have recognised that I could excuse every single emotion, occasion, bad day, good day, morning, afternoon, evening as an excuse to eat unhealthily. So, I have stopped saying things like "this was a bad week because I went to a wedding". Instead, I try to save points through the week, indulge in whatever I feel like at the event and then get straight back to healthy eating the next day. If I stay the same that week or only lose a half I have done well.

1. I tend to do the 'breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper' thing. It seems to suit my digestion to eat lightly after 6pm.

1. I have a very large amount of weight to lose so I have tended to focus only on my interim goals (indeed initially my 10% seemed too big a goal to focus on) like each half stone, dropping from one stone to another (ie going from 18stone 1 to 17 stone 13), going up another digit in pounds lost (ie going from 48 pounds lost to 51 pounds lost). If there is a numerical goal to be found, I will find it. I also keep a spreadsheet in excel of my weekly weight loss with the milestones highlighted and a projection of future weight loss based on an average 2 lb loss per week. I know, completely sad but this all spurs me along.

1. I write off a bad day and get straight back into the good eating. I don't focus on what I already ate and concentrate instead, on saving points to make up for it.

Wow Ags - what an inspiring post. I'm doing WW too and I'm going to print out your advice to keep me motivated when the going gets tough.

Thanks so much Lulu. Good luck with your journey!

'Eating Less - say goodbye to overeating' by Gillian Riley
I found this book really helpful in terms of thinking about your whole attitude to food and health. I've never been a dieter but now that I am overweight I've come to the conclusion that a full time change of thinking is the only way that I will lose the weight and be slimmer again. Many diets are only a short term fix.
Good luck!