anyone else fed up with their weight.

laughingsheep

I reached that point a couple of weeks ago with the prospect of a beach holiday with my skinny SIL coming up in May. This coincided with a really good cash back offer on Weight Watchers from Top Cashback so I joined a couple of weeks ago and their new system is working well for me so far.

I also love my food and don't believe in faddy diets, but Weight Watchers is helping me with portion control and highlighting just how bad for you some stuff (ie. all the stuff I graze on) is!

They have changed their points system recently and now count both fruit and veg as zero points. So I can eat normal meals (although it's spag bol without the garlic bread for example), snack on fruit and still have some points left over for chocolate / alcohol. Fingers crossed this will refocus me and once I shift the weight it'll stay off!

Also, while I don't subscribe to the low carb, high protien theory that India Knight's Idiot Proof Diet book puts forward, it has a very interesting first couple of chapters looking at why weight is gained in the first place which is useful motivation.

red_devil

enjoy your hols. I go away soon too and thats hard not to eat on holiday when you are relaxed and enjoying yourself.

Mrs_Z

Dear Red Devil

I'm afraid there are no shortcuts to success. Your current weight is a result of your eating and exercise habits. You will have to choose - is it the cakes/extra food/junk food and extra weight or will you do without the sweet stuff but have more managable weight? Personally, rather than going on a full blown diet, I would start making small PERMANENT tweaks in your bad habits... conquer them one by one! Sugar is the main poison - it's so addictive and it never gets the headlines... so start with foods that contain sugar first of all, replace fizzy drinks with water, etc. And start moving.... just buy doing some useful exercise - for example getting a news paper from an agent that's little further down the road - if it takes you 15min to walk there and 15min back, it's 1/2h. Even doing this 3 times a week is better than nothing! Then once you're comfortable with that, see what else you can tweak.... Good luck!

red_devil

Mrs_Z wrote: »

Dear Red Devil

I'm afraid there are no shortcuts to success. Your current weight is a result of your eating and exercise habits. You will have to choose - is it the cakes/extra food/junk food and extra weight or will you do without the sweet stuff but have more managable weight? Personally, rather than going on a full blown diet, I would start making small PERMANENT tweaks in your bad habits... conquer them one by one! Sugar is the main poison - it's so addictive and it never gets the headlines... so start with foods that contain sugar first of all, replace fizzy drinks with water, etc. And start moving.... just buy doing some useful exercise - for example getting a news paper from an agent that's little further down the road - if it takes you 15min to walk there and 15min back, it's 1/2h. Even doing this 3 times a week is better than nothing! Then once you're comfortable with that, see what else you can tweak.... Good luck!

i do loads of walking no car and i dont have fizzys. I play sport on a Friday night but obvioulsy need to do more! I have been taking citalopram for the past year and wondered if it was a side effect but its probably not. I agree that slimfast is a short term fix but it does work while you are on it?

DUKE

Yeah, I had cancer a few years back & after the chemo I could only eat bacon, chocloate, chips, & crisps. Anything else made me sick, & this was stuff that I wouldn't normally have. I slept a lot, & couldn't walk very fast as the treatment gave me athritis in my ankles. Hence gaining 2 1/2 stone! Luckily I was only a 7-8 stone wimp before, but I still felt like a sumo wrestler at almost 10 stone. I'd also stopped smoking & I just couldn't stop eating. I vowed never to reach that 10 stone mark, so my New Year's resolution was not to exactly diet (I enjoy all of my food far too much for that) but to eat just 3 meals a day & walk everywhere. I've lost half a stone, & am aiming to loose another half by about June-ish. I wouldn't be too bothered about gaining a bit of weight as most people say it suits me, but I have an amazing pot belly :eek: & I hate it! So I'd say just cut down on stuff & get some power walking in if poss.

Dinah93

A lot of the time when you think you're hungry you're thirsty - always have a glass of water before snacking, and have a glass with meals to space out eating too quickly.

I do think plans like WW are better than slim fast as they teach what is a healthy portion and generally what is bad for you, rather than giving a crutch to relly on which means you gain it all back when you eat normally again as the problem that made you gain weight in the first place is still there.

Personally I find tweaks work, I only eat fats or carbs in a meal when I'm trying to loose weight as it automatically cuts out quite a lot of calories, and I try to have high fibre (10g per 100g or more) cereal for breakfast as it means I don't feel the need to snack mid morning. Swapping juice for water helps too.

Gavin83

ciderwithrosie wrote: »

Only trouble was it started to affect my relationship with my husband and without going into details, things got pretty bad, so I gave it up.

Did your husband get concerned with your need for weight loss? That seems quite common in relationships.

You need to forget dieting and make long term managable changes to your diet. What does your diet consist of at the moment? You need to eat a fair amount of protein while cutting down on the fat and carbs. I would also suggest eating small portions 4-6 times daily rather than 3 big meals but this is often impractical in the real world. Your last meal of the day should only really consist of protein and veg, certainly no carbs, something like a chicken/tuna salad works well for this.

Exercise is also important and I would suggest at least 3 high intensity sessions a week and walk as often as possible. Also take the stairs over the list when you can.

You proved that you can lose the weight if you want to so you can manage it again.

BillTrac

Without boring you all I am a bloke and needed to lose some weight last year.

GP got me onto a weight management programme run by the NHS and the local football club.

Trainer looked a weekly record of my diet and advised a slightly bigger breakfast of oats/porridge.cereal. Snack mid-morning of a few nuts or a carrot etc. Then lunch becomes a top up and you're burning calories whilst you do whatever it is you do. Snack mid-afternoon then tea can be smaller as it is also a top-up. Then you aren't sitting around after a large meal.

I lost over 11kg over the 12 week session without trying.

After the sessions stopped my weight did plateau a bit. But then the Fitfans team called me and now I go to a gym session every saturday and the weight is moving off again

I was told I could still have chocolate/beer etc but to watch the amounts.

And as said I do drink water before and with my meal, that way you feel fuller sooner.

goodgirl80

Your weight is connected to calories in - calories out. If you eat less calories than you burn you will lose weight. If you eat more than you burn off you will gain weight. To maintain your weight you need to take in the same amount of calories as you use.

margaretclare

ciderwithrosie wrote: »

Had issues with my weight since late teens when I swapped athletics and cross country for drinking, smoking and being ferried around by boyfriends with cars. I gained a lot of weight with my first pregnancy and it never went - 2 other pregnancies I gained no weight at all which was good but was already fat.

Two and a half years ago I got to the heaviest I'd ever been and it was starting to affect my health. I managed to lose 8st and was the lightest I'd been in about 20 years. Only trouble was it started to affect my relationship with my husband and without going into details, things got pretty bad, so I gave it up.

Fast forward to now, I've put 5 of the 8st I lost back on and I've reached that lightbulb moment again so I'm back on it and already lost a stone. I have the incentives of a 30yr school reunion in August, a friend's 40th birthday weekend in Spain in September and a wardrobe full of clothes I can't fit into spurring me on at the moment. Any issues that crop up with hubby I'm more prepared for this time. I'm seldom hungry tbh, so clearly I eat for other reasons.

regards CWR

What other reasons? Comfort? Boredom? Just because it's there? WW used to have a TV ad which said something to the effect that 'eating is in my head not in my tummy'. That's exactly where it is. In the head, and that's where it has to be tackled first.

What were the 'issues with your husband'? I would guess that you need to look at these and try to sort out this problem.

You pinpointed your problem in your very first sentence - you used to be very fit - cross-country running etc - but changed that healthy outdoor activity for indoor sedentary activities which involved taking in too many calories and not using them up.

Incidentally, a lot of young women now blame pregnancy for putting on weight and not losing it. OK, you put on weight during pregnancy - the weight of a baby, plus increased blood supply, amniotic fluid and growth in size of uterus. All that goes once the baby is delivered. If you breast-feed you use up some of the fat laid down - Mother Nature doesn't know about bottle-feeding!!

I was the slimmest I've ever been when I had 2 toddlers. I was on my feet all day running around after them, doing things, but now I see so many young mums who are - to put it politely - just too overweight.