WeightLoss struggles

[Radical87]

I’m a 30+ Male living in the UK for the past 5 years. I had taken up a healthy lifestyle in 2015 when I had reached 132kgs and managed to drop 30kgs to reach 102kgs by mid 2016 after rigorous dieting and exercise. However, after facing back injury due to the gym, I have found it extremely difficult to get back onto the routine. I have gained a few kgs and now oscillating at 110kgs. So that’s my story so far, quite frustrated with this struggle.

[lucigret]

Welcome to our friendly forum Radical87, I hope the back injury is improving - I can imagine how frustrating it must be.

You did so well previously, that I am sure you can do it again. It's all about mind set and getting yourself back into the zone of healthy eating. If you calorie count, then please make sure that you check your own personal calorie range on the NHS BMI calculator.

You could start today by joining in with the Friday weigh in - here is the link - healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

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[Pineapple27]

Welcome Radical87 Well done on the weight loss so far! And well done for not re-gaining it all back. Have you become less active since you suffered the back injury - and are you fully recovered, or are you still in pain?

The good news is that it is entirely possible to lose weight just focussing on what you eat! If exercising is a problem at the moment, please don't let that put you off (but you will need to eat fewer calories whilst you are less active / doing less exercise).

If you want this to work for the longer term, you need to think about it as a lifestyle change rather than a diet. That lifestyle change will need to happen a bit at a time and will involve many things : changing your behaviour around food, portion control, emotional eating triggers, increasing your activity levels, trying new foods, making healthy food swaps, etc.

Commitment to diet/lifestyle change and resistance to temptation doesn't just happen! It has to be worked at.

The only way I have succeeded this time is to change how I approach food and eating it. I have learned to resist temptation! BUT please believe that this has taken a LOT of hard work and practice. 

It's about "normalising" or "modifying" behaviour around food... and I think that with enough "practice" it becomes more and more easy until you get to the point where a behaviour is modified to the point of it becoming the only way.

I am sure that even some people who are not over weight do sometimes over indulge - but the fact is they don't do it very often...

Those of us who are over weight have been used to "treating" ourselves, eating portions that are too large, eating the things that we know are calorific because we can!

It's been a combination of changing all of those aspects of how I behave around food that has meant I have been successful this time.

I have developed a respect for the food I eat. Not everyone has the ability to eat as well as we in the western world eat. We should not abuse the privilege.

I rarely eat "on the hoof" any more, I rarely eat between meals. I take time to sit at a table and present my meals nicely. I take a moment or two to really look at my plate of food before I pick up my knife and fork.

Almost daily I say to hubbie "Aren't we lucky to be able to enjoy such lovely food". I really mean that too, I am not saying it for anyones benefit but his and mine. We should never take for granted having easy access to delicious food stuffs and our ability and love of cooking!

If you log your food - keep track of how many calories some of those "treats" contain, after a while they kind of stay in your head (medium egg = 70 cals, slice of white bread 100 cals, meringue nest 57 cals, 30g (matchbox size) of cheddar, 122 cals)

I do have sweet treats, but I buy my own choice, so things like 2 finger Kitkat, single finger Twix, Club biscuit... these are all around 100 calories. I keep them in a tin and I can have one whenever I want to, but I limit it to no more than one a day and usually with my afternoon cup of tea. That's not to say I eat one on a daily basis (usually about 2-3 times a week). They are always logged into my diary.

If you don't keep a log of what you are eating and the calories foods contain, then it's a bit like trying to travel from one place to another without a map! You might get there eventually BUT it's likely to take you much longer than if you planned the route and used a map PLUS you might take a few wrong turnings and end up going back on yourself!

I have also learned not to plan each trip out of the house to include food. Once upon a time, I'd have included lunch with a trip into town, coffee and cake with a visit to the garden centre.

I now plan or even prepare a meal BEFORE I go out (usually a salad) so that I know exactly what I can eat as soon as I walk into the door... and don't turn to "what I fancy" (usually high calorie carbs that don't keep you full for very long...)

Make a list of the reasons WHY you want to lose weight. Keep it somewhere safe (stuck to the inside of a kitchen cupboard door?) and look at it from time to time, especially when you are raiding the kitchen for treats!

I always ask myself before eating something really calorific "Do I really want to eat this thing more than I want to lose weight this week?". It's called "mindful eating" - being aware of why you are considering eating - real hunger? Boredom? Temptation? Feeling fed up?

Have a glass of water, wait 5 minutes and consider whether you still want the food. Once it's been snaffled down, it's too late and you may end up feeling cross and angry with yourself....

....and that feeling (guilt, failure) lasts for a long time, much longer than the temporary enjoyment of whatever treat you ate....

Oh, and I always remind myself how good the feeling is of seeing a loss on the scales at my weekly weigh in! That wonderful feeling lasts for days! Don't forget how that feels - you need to remind yourself of that feeling next time temptation strikes!

I am writing this as someone who had struggled all of my life (since the age of 9) to lose weight. I have a significant disability that affects my mobility - use a wheelchair outside of the house. I am also very short (4ft 9"). It wasn't until the age of 49 when I started to log everything and kept track of the calories I was consuming that the truth hit me between the eyes. I was eating FAR TOO MUCH for a short sedentary person. I changed my whole approach to food and eating it that everything else clicked into place

[cheritorrox in reply to Pineapple27]

lovely post - you've come a long way and cracked it!

Everyone has to decide what is right for them. In my case I started new life counting calories for 7 weeks - main significant change from before was cutting out 1000 worth of beer every day! I lost 10.6 kg (1st 10). I switched to Low Carb High Fat as I was convinced by the evidence (see LCHF forum if interested). 8 weeks on and I've lost another 7.8kg (1st 3).

I felt - and feel - fitter and healthier week by week. As with your approach, it is a lifestyle and I'm pretty confident that it's sustainable for ever. I've still got inches to lose (especially from "beer barrel"!) - once I get where I want to be I'll probably relax on recording and counting (in this case grams of fat, carbs and protein rather than calories). As you said, a lot of it is already ingrained but I'm still too nerdy not to want to know what the day adds up to! I still have beers when I feel like it (my version of treat!)

I'm sure we'd both agree that the much used phrase "everything in moderation" is absolutely true!

[Pineapple27 in reply to cheritorrox]

I too eat low carb - more fat (not sure I'd call it high fat!) - so Greek yogurt made with 100% milk, full-fat soft cheese instead of low fat, etc.

Sadly I am too short, too old(!) and too sedentary and my calorie allowance - even at maintenance - is very low (1292) - so essential for me to keep a track of what I eat as far as I am able to.

[Pineapple27 in reply to cheritorrox]

I did the Blood Sugar Diet for 7 weeks and managed a 13lb loss in that time, so I know that way of eating works for me!

[cheritorrox in reply to Pineapple27]

I didn't realise as you concentrated on explaining calorie counting!

[Pineapple27 in reply to cheritorrox]

I've been doing this for 6.5 years now, so used all kinds of tactics keeps it interesting and keeps my body guessing!

[Radical87 in reply to Pineapple27]

Thanks a lot! These are great posts and immensely inspirational. I agree with most of your points that weight-loss is a mind-set/lifestyle change and not an overnight change. The problem I’m facing is I really like to work-out, play sports and push myself to the limit when it comes to physical activities but after a week or two the back pain reaches to an unbearable point and I just loose all motivation to stick to my balance diet given I can’t to do physical activities. I really admire your story of being fairly sedimentary and still manage to attain a healthy lifestyle.

Motivation and a disciplined approach is the key to a healthy lifestyle. Really appreciate all your support and will work even harder to keep up with a disciplined approach to attain my weight-loss goals. Fingers crossed!

[Pineapple27 in reply to Radical87]

In a way I am at an advantage in that I can't and never have been able to rely on exercise to earn additional calories to eat! It's quite important (in my personal opinion) that we learn to separate exercise from weight loss - whilst it does help, exercise is important in its own right - whatever form that takes. For example, my exercise is mostly seated bending and stretching for 30 mins to an hour every day,. It's important for me to remain flexible and pain free. Because of my disability, I have used and continue to use my body in a very different way. The shortness of my arms for example means that everything I do from reading, writing, using a keyboard, meal preparation, driving and eating - I am over-stretching muscles and tendons = a lot of wear and tear and pain. So the exercise keeps me functioning and as pain free as possible. In return I can remain fairly independent and able to manage activities of daily living. So that exercise is important to me - I also put on some music and have a jolly good bounce about on the ball, and also some more relaxing stuff where I am concentrating hard to stretch out and flex muscles that are quite tight.

I use a special treadmill (anti-gravity) once a week where I work at 80% of my body weight. I do HIIT training (walking 4 mins, running 1 minutes) for 30 minutes. I am actually physically unable to walk for that long and cannot run. Many people use the treadmill because they are runners/walkers/sports people who have injured themselves or had surgery and are trying to regain their former fitness. I love it as I am gaining a level of fitness and ability that I have never had - at the ripe old age of 56!!

youtube.com/watch?v=FQ6KO9a...(Not working as expected?)

[bikegrrrl 1lb in reply to Pineapple27]

Pineapple27 , I so enjoy your posts, there is always something useful to learn from you.

[Jints1]

Hi Radical and welcome. I love this site you will get loads of great advice and support from some of the lovliest people. You can do this. Stay close to help stay motivated xx