DIET FAILED AGAIN thread 4 - Everyone is welcome to join our very supportive and friendly group without any judgement. Do come and join us

Not weighing today, but just wanted to send good vibes to everyone for the weekend.

Planning, and a bit of moderation and you can do this!

This photo was from my early morning walk today. I've come to love the time to think, that it gives.

Weighed myself out of curiosity and scales showing 14.7 stones (I was 15 stone to start with then managed to get to 14 stone a couple of months ago).

Feeling a bit more in control with food so not too distraught as I believe I can get on track.

Oh my @Vebrithien that looks so peaceful.
My breast is a lot less sore today. So I might get more activity in. Thanks for the advice and sympathy everyone. Had a bar of Lindt last night. I don’t feel bad. I really wanted it and enjoyed every mouthful, and It is a rare treat. I do feel frustrated that my weight loss is a trickle. I think I need to sharpen up on the everyday stuff, start weighing portions and turning down extras. I just found a tape measure and used it. That was horrible. 46 40 44, in inches. Yuk. Mountainous. I don’t know how I am a size 18 really.Putting it on here for accountability. I forget numbers but I will be able to return to that one and check progress against it. Does anyone else feel able to do it? I’m not pressuring, I feel really embarrassed myself.

After a lifetime of failed diets I think I've cracked it finally.
I get very hungry and that's where all my diets fail, I'm also an emotional eater.
So I decided that I would allow myself to eat whenever I wanted as long as it is vegetarian, wholefood, brown rice and pasta and only homecooked food with no added salt or sugar at all.
I've lost a stone in a month! At 61. Trust me there is only so much brown pasta with tomato sauce you can eat.
I had made lentil pancakes yesterday which I had with some hummous I made myself and I could only eat two. I never leave food.
My blood pressure and swollen ankles have gone right down.
With me when I need food I need food but i'm finding I'm eating less and less and feel so much better for it.
I'm vegetarian anyway but tended to eat ready meals, white pasta and crisps and chocolate.
No bread, just that German black bread which is very nice.

No change weight wise this week. I've had another exhausting week at work and not eaten well as a result - lot of grabbing the wrong things at the wrong times, so no change is a great result.
My work contract ends in a few weeks so I'll be able to cook again then and have the time to make stuff that's good for me.

Well, I've just had what I believe is called a NSV (non-scale victory?).

Went into M&S, and I've gone down two sizes on my bottom!

Was looking for lightweight, wide legged, cropped trousers that would be suitable for taking away on holiday. Picked up the size below what I got two years ago (20 rather than 22), and they were too baggy!

So I went for an 18 (tried on a 16 out of curiosity, they fitted but the 18 looked more elegant).

Feeling good, I reckon I'm about 5kg down this month, but hadn't thought it'd made much visible difference.

Wow! Some great results here this morning well done everyone!

@zebracat don't be embarrassed. There's no judgement here. We are all in the same boat and are just doing our best. I've been measuring in cm. I started in November with 123cm waist and 133cm hips and I'm down to 110w and 123 hips. Still bigger than I want but it's another thing I can see improve.

I also had some blood results back this week and my cholesterol levels which were previously creeping into high are now all back within normal limits and are actually better than my DH's with his bmi 23! (My bmi has gone from 40 to 34.3)

It's definitely motivating me because I think I've been kidding myself for a while that I wasn't doing myself any damage.

The only thing that hasn't improved is that my liver function result has come back abnormal (and more so than it was before I started losing weight) but the gp doesn't seem to be bothered. I don't really drink at all so I guess I must have damaged it with being overweight. Does anyone know if losing weight will repair that damage? I feel like it should but google is a bit vague.

Well done everyone, especially the non scale victories.
I'm cross ... yesterday weight was 71.2...so I ate under calories and did weights exercise and no alcohol.
This morning weight was 71.6...
I mean how is that fair...I literally stamped my foot like. Petulant toddler.
I'm lying in bed mumsnetting and sulking .

@effiesgoldwig ..liver function tests are often abnormal. It depends which bit it was that was abnormal?
Things like being unwell with a virus can disrupt them for example.
Drinking alcohol , various types of medication,gallstones, trauma ...
If you have non alcoholic fatty liver sometimes weight loss initially makes things worse but they will improve over time.
That said I'd be getting them rechecked in three months...

Hi guys just created a group on Facebook called lose weight with intermittent fasting and smoothies. Your welcome to join for accountability ✅

@effiesgoldwig NAFLD (non alcoholic fatty liver disease) is largely caused by excess fructose. You’d probably notice huge improvements very quickly if you cut fructose out of your diet. People are very misguided about fructose because people hear fructose and think “fruit” however fructose is super sweet and is artificially added to everything because it’s sweeter than sugar (the old high fructose corn syrup which is added to soft drinks for example). Because it’s “natural” it is even added to all sorts of products that claim to be only naturally sweetened and contain no artificial sweetners. Sucrose (white table sugar in a sugar bowl and every single time you see “sugar” on an ingredients list) us 50:50 ratio glucose (which is dealt with by your pancreas/insulin) and fructose (which goes immediately to your liver). All, every single micro gram, of fructose you consume is processed only by your liver, and essentially what it can’t process, it clogs it up with fatty deposits which is what causes liver disease.

evolutionarily we would only ever consume fructose in any great quantity 1) as whole fruit with skins, fibre, seeds and 2) seasonally - and our bodies have evolved cleverly to use it to lay down fat stores in autumn to see us through the winter.

the good news is that the liver is the only organ that can, and does, very efficiently repair itself.

Apologies if I’m teaching granny to suck eggs here. I remember my mind being blown apart when I first read about this and there is SO much false information on mumsnet and In the diet world about sugar and natural sugar and fruit and all sorts. There is also a lot of really good quality, accessible literature about it, so I’d recommend having a read around and seeing if any of it could help you.

Thank you so much @Theredjellybean and @thenewaveragebear1983 that is all very interesting and helpful information.

I will start checking packaging more carefully for what's in things. I'm sure I do eat more sweet things than I should, although it's certainly a lot less than it used to be. I am trying to eat less pre prepared and ultra processed foods but time constraints aren't always in my favour.

It's the ALT/SGPT serum level that is abnormally high (60 in November, 80 now instead of 0-33)
I was ill at the time of the most recent blood test but other than that no alcohol, no medications, just obesity and tonsillitis.

Time to get myself to a healthy weight before I do permanent damage to myself. No more excuses.

@Vebrithien well done, that’s brilliant news and I think more helpful than scales!
@Zebracat heres my measurements: B (no bra) 43, W 40, H 45.5 and I’ve also measured thigh 23.5 and an upper arm 15.5. I think I’ll measure once a month. The 1lb off yesterday has re-appeared today so 5lb off for my first week which I’m happy with. I’m guessing it’ll be up and down then slow and steady but I will reward myself when I lose each 1/2 stone (not sure how yet 🤔)

Oh dear @Theredjellybean I would have stamped my foot too. So annoying.
Thanks so much to @effiesgoldwig and@Gigi789 . I feel less like I’m about to be outed as the biggest woman in the world now. Never thought to measure arms and legs. Arm is 13 and thigh is 22. I will do them again in a month. Effie. I’m also having liver function monitored, but my surgery wouldn’t tell me the figures without a complex rigmarole! So I have no idea, but have to go for another blood test in June, and I do know I could insist but dealing with the reception staff is too frustrating, so I won’t.
@Vebrithien . That sounds like a very pleasant trip to the shops. And a fantastic month. Well done.

I don't feel ready to share mine, even with totally anonymous strangers but I measured and you are not @Zebracat 😭

@PinkArt . I wasn’t looking for people to be bigger, honest! But It is encouraging that there are people about the same! Measuring was horrible. I just hope it helps us stay accountable. I spend so much time in denial. New goal is to get my waist under 36, because of the health implications.

@Zebracat Mine were interesting cause I'm very hourglass but the actual measurements suggested my boobs aren't much bigger than my waist and my hips are bigger than a planet.
I'm ignoring the hips for now as a lost cause and like you, focusing on my waist. That's definitely where I noticed the most change between my lockdown peak and the 17 stone I got a month or so back.
I'm roughly in the same ball park as you, just with more balls, so to speak!

@PinkArt why not see how you feel in a couple of weeks, I’ve written mine in a notebook and hidden it at the back of my underwater drawer and hope to feel better about it once I’ve lost a bit. I’m nearly 50 so chances of getting my hourglass figure back is remote but I now see I’m avoiding doing nice things because I’m a bit embarrassed and I don’t enjoy buying a new outfit for a special occasion. I’ve decided enough is enough!! My adult kids are at an age where a wedding is a possibility within the next few years and I can’t avoid photos l and hide in the background.also with @effiesgoldwig about long term damage I’ve probably already done not being made worse 😕@Zebracat how tall are you as we seem a similar size.

@Gigi789 . About 5.7 and 95-96 kilos. And 63 .

@Zebracat ooooh, we are very similar (you have slimmer thighs and arms which must be nice to hear!)

What would you like to be? I would love to be around 75- still overweight, but less than my husband. But that’s 20 kilos.

@Zebracat I’m aiming for 10 stone which is 63/64 kilo…. Luckily my husband is a big guy so unless he chops his legs off he’ll always weigh more 😉. I’m doing it not so much as a diet but my new life (new mantra)

I texted them to myself @Gigi789! I know that with work the way it is for another couple of weeks, it's not the time to be hard on myself for not losing weight. Long days, lots of stress so just grabbing food where and when I can. Once this contract ends in June it'll be much easier to get back on track properly. And when I do those numbers and this group are all things to help keep me accountable.
The arrival of sweaty thighs season always focuses the mind a little too!

@PinkArt absolutely no point in adding more stress if your up to your neck I agree 👍. Looking forward to seeing everyone’s progress and very much hoping for my own. It’s great to find people in the same boat here. I’m getting confused reading so called experts on losing weight - each one contradicts the last🤯

Ok I found a tape measure with inches on so I'm remeasuring today with all the limbs included.

B47
W44
H47

Upper arm 14.5
Thigh 27

Ok. It's still not brilliant. But for a moment there I hd used the wrong end of the tape measure and was 100% convinced my thighs were 35 inches round!!! Made 27 seem slightly less depressing

Definitely got some work to do. I do feel like my belly has never lost the pregnancy shape. I'm sure it never used to stick out this far. But then I was never this heavy pre kids so perhaps this is just how I would have looked anyway.

I'd been ignoring the weight gain very successfully for a long time until I started this journey. I'm currently need to lose 1 more stone to reach my "heaviest ever weight", which is what I weighed before joining slimming world for the first time back in 2008. I lost 3 stone, then had my first baby in 2010 and since then it's just crept up and up until I hit 18st 10 in around 2019-2020. That is my new (and hopefully last) heaviest ever weight. It is liberating having you anonymous friends to share this stuff with. My DH doesn't know what I weigh. I'm to ashamed to admit to him how heavy I was and I still won't tell him even now. We've been married 18 years.

On the other hand I'm so proud of what I have accomplished so far but there is still such a long way to go. I still need to lose 2 stone to be considered overweight instead of obese.

I'm rambling. Sorry. I'm just glad I have you guys.