I'm at my wits end!

I completed the NHS 12 week plan and lost 6 pounds doing so in the first 11 weeks. In the last week I gained back 2 pounds. Now a week on and I've gained another 5 so I'm heavier than when I started! This is just turning into an impossibility and I feel like I can't cope with it anymore. I equally feel like giving up just isn't an option because I am so dangerously overweight. I've just lost all motivation now. I was planning on restarting the plan on Monday but I've just really lost all hope it'll work. Why am I so inept at losing weight? I don't know what I'm doing wrong!

[Zest Healthy BMI]

Hi Natz994,

I would suggest going ahead with your plan to re-start on Monday, and Re-boot - i.e. follow the NHS 12 week plan again and stick to the principles. The weight you've put on in the last couple of weeks should very quickly come off again - I put on about half a stone on my recent holiday, and I've done the same over a short period before, but it usually comes of really quickly - and hopefully yours will too.

Please don't let it put you off, I would suggest just putting it behind you, and moving forward. It was a challenging week for many people last week - having been Bank holiday and half-term, and it's a very typical time for people to gain weight. So please, keep on the wagon, and hopefully you'll be fine!

Good luck, and enjoy your weekend.

Lowcal

[Venusflytrap]

Well something is clearly going wrong. Whether it is your behaviour, your subconscious sabotaging you, or your underlying medical condition, you haven't found out yet. But we will, if you can stick with us. I have just written an enormously long post for miamia who has had a stay the same weight for 6 weeks. So not as disappointed as you yet, but getting that way. I think you would find her thread and the replies interesting and useful. So have a look at it by clicking on miamia's link in blue on line 4 above.

I want you to restart the plan on Monday and have the rest of the weekend off without worrying, unless you really like the meals you had planned and bought for. In which case, go ahead and enjoy them.

When you are feeling calm on Sunday or before you get going on Monday morning and start eating, I want you to plan Monday's eating, I want to see it written down here in a posting. I want to know that you have all the foods that you have listed already available or that you can pick them up easily during the day before you need them. On Monday, you will be planning the rest of the week's meals, if you feel up to it and if you don't feel up to it, it will be Tuesday's and Wednesday's meals.

To help you plan your meals for the week, go to this web page:

nhs.uk/tools/pages/toolslib...

Download the Easy Meals app and the One You Drinks Tracker and the Change for Life Sugar Smart App.

Have a look in the Easy Meals app. This will support you in planning your meals on Monday for the rest of the week. I will read it again too and suggest what you do on Monday.

Worrying never lost anyone a single ounce. So stop worrying. What will help you lose weight will be managing your eating and activity. If you follow my suggestion about meal planning, you have already made an eating plan for the week starting on Monday, which is just what you wanted to do, so tick that off your list. For activity, I suggest 2 options. One is to just join in whatever is planned at home and have a relaxing treat time, but try to include a walk (between the showers). The other is that because you are already miserable, do the one job you have been dreading most. It only took me 30 mins yesterday to start 2 jobs that have been nagging me. One is done and the other is planned and partially achieved. Because I felt my life was now more organised, I felt able to go out last night and am planning more social treats this weekend. So feeling much more positive. Off to have my porridge with fruit and do the next stage of the great wash! Thank goodness for machines!

We can do this, if we take a step back, a deep breath and just move forward a tiny bit. I'll have a look at your Monday's eating plan as soon as you post it. It would help me to know what kcal intake per day you are aiming for.

Venus

[kantara71 in reply to Venusflytrap]

Come on Natz, you can do it! How can you fail with such great support like that from Venus and Lowcal?

Start the plan again and try and establish where you might be slipping up.

Enjoy the weekend

John

[muffintop67 in reply to Venusflytrap]

What great support Venusflytrap. I am sure Natz94 will be pleased with all your suggestions

[Seuzan]

You did really well to lose 6lbs. You also now have the experience of doing the 12 week plan so you will find this next phase easier.

I had a week off the plan and immediately piled on a few pounds (& enjoyed the eating of treats at the same time!).

I'm re-booting on Monday and hope that you will feel determination & perseverance to do the same. It is a lifestyle choice. If you fall get back up!

Good luck!

[Venusflytrap]

She might not be, muffintop67 , there is a fine line between strong support and bullying. It depends if she really, really wants to do it and just needs a helping hand. She may find it all too difficult and feel that hand is pushing her in a direction she isn't ready to go in. We've all been in both situations. Well we have if we're old enough! And I certainly am old enough! I know for long periods in my life I "dieted" while steadily regaining 5st after successfully losing 4st for my brother's wedding. Then, one nasty comment from the one person I thought would be thrilled for me, and I was straight back up, and a stone extra as well. Reminiscent of a yo-yo! I don't think it was just that one remark, but it certainly went right inside and said "you can't do this". So I absolutely know I can lose weight. What I have never managed is maintenance. But I am so hoping I can make it this time. I think it is my last chance!

[muffintop67 in reply to Venusflytrap]

I am sure you will make it this time Venusflytrap. So sorry that person made a nasty comment especially when you thought they would be pleased for you. Sure they will get their comeuppance for not being supportive. I have another 4 pounds to lose then I will be tackling maintenance. Hope to keep using this forum and as it has helped me lose the weight so hope it can help keep it off to. You can do it!

[GoogleMe]

The NHS plan is a great idea and attracts many who desperately need to break out of a yo-yo pattern of 'dieting'.

You don't say in this post what else happened other than what was on the scales (ie the results) It can be such a hard adjustment to break away from being result driven to 'this is the way I live my life, this is the way I want to live my life, this is the way I enjoy living my life'... most of the time...

Would you talk like that to a friend? Would you ask her why she was so inept at losing weight? What *would* you say?

[Venusflytrap in reply to GoogleMe]

Good point about talking to your inner self as a friend GoogleMe . Mine is a bright but inexperienced 4 - 10 year old, depending on the issue!

[Venusflytrap]

It was my late mother, and yes, she sort of did. But I would not have wished the outcome on her or anyone else. It was one of the points at which I realised that I could stop trying to fulfil her expectations of me, because they weren't about me, they were about her issues. I was never going to make her happy about what I was or how I did. So from then on I just kept quiet and did what I wanted without reference to her ideas. So it was one of the points at which I moved into real adulthood! But I will never forget the looks on two of my new sister-in-law's faces when she said it to me! They saw the cat's claws that day! Poor Mum! It was the point at which she stopped being our equal and became one of the "managed"!

On a lighter note, the ends of our journey are so near and so similar! This is one of the points I start wavering - when the finishing line is well within sight. Really hoping not to do it this time. Shall we make a promise to each other? I want to see a lb off next week. Doing OK with the food. Really managing that better. It's all the sunny days out that caught me initially - adjusted to that now. But I am being a real dud with the exercise. Never remember to charge and put the pedometer on. Sometimes have it on but not switched on etc etc. So the only time I have any idea of the distance, is when I am walking next to one of these fit-bitters and I can pinch their info. I have to up the walking, as there is a lot planned for my two summer hols. It's not the distance, on my legs or stamina, it's making sure the shoes work on my rather tender feet. Time for professional advice I think! But I think my Freudian slip is showing with the lack of pedometer info! Family offering me a Fitbit for my birthday, I fear I must accept!