I need to lose 2/3 of my body weight. Due to pain, gym/exercise is very difficult. I also work 8am-8pm 5 days a week and do voluntary work at the weekends so when i do have time to go somewhere there's nowhere open near me, even supposing I could afford the £100/month they wanted last time I inquired.
I am well aware that my problem is portion control. I forget to stop eating. I basically have to have a continuous mantra of 'do not eat' running at all times in my head and that means i'm thinking about food all the time- which has it own drawbacks. it also rather distracting to be having to consciously think about not eating all the time as it makes it hard to think about other things!
I do try to distract myself but the only thing that works is sleep and even then i wake up in the middle of the night and eat.
how do you stop yourslef eating too much. i've tried mindful eating, VLCD, low carb...
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neon500
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You need to stop 'dieting' and find a sustainable way of eating that you'll be able to continue for the rest of your life, that has a happy side-effect of weight loss.
It's not necessary to belong to a gym, especially if you're not physically able for it. Walking is excellent exercise, can be done anywhere, at any time and is free. You may find some other ideas here nhs.uk/search/?q=exercise, but remember, while exercise is good for health, it's not essential for weight loss.
Restricting input massively will have the effect of making your body think it's starving, which it is and it will fight tooth and nail to get you to eat more. It's very difficult, if not impossible, to override biological urges.
Follow this link to our chat thread and a list of all the activities we run. We've found active participation to be key to success, especially with our weigh-ins and Daily Diary.
thank you I did read the newbie page before i posted.
Walking is not an option either.
"You need to stop 'dieting' and find a sustainable way of eating that you'll be able to continue for the rest of your life, that has a happy side-effect of weight loss."
that's exactly what I'm trying to do but I've never been able to find that way because i eat without being aware that i am doing it.
You can only do that if you have food in front of you. While you retrain yourself, can you shop daily, or batch cook, with specific ingredients and freeze all your meals?
Short of packing up the entire contents of my kitchen into storage until I can be trusted not to eat anything I can find. It's not just what's in front of me,
Shopping more often leads to me buying more and spending more.
Batch cooking I've tried but I tend to eat most of the batch before it makes it to the freezer also it takes too long to defrost them that I eat other stuff while I'm waiting for them to heat and no I'm not organised enough to defrost the night before
I'm afraid it boils down to how much you want this to happen. My mantra is 'If we always do what we've always done, then we'll always get what we've always got'
Maybe you could embrace your love of food instead of trying to fight it, it might help your mindset? And instead channel it into making healthy meals that focus on filling, high protein, foods. Try food keeping the cupboards and fridge empty of food, other than stock cupboard ingredients and fruit to snack on. This will mean that you won't have to feel guilty about food shopping daily either. It seems to me that you'd be a fantastic chef and some some excellent taste combinations going on in your mind itching to be made. When shopping only buy what you actually need for that day, take one bag into the shop and set yourself a budget - check out the offers to save a bit of money. You are going to enjoy your food even more as it will be fresher. BBC good food has loads of healthy recipes to give you a starting point. But honestly you are lucky as you do have an intrinsic love for taste - so make the most of it and use it to it's best advantage. Don't fight yourself anymore. Just make sure to concentrate on filling foods and by default you should be able to lose a bit of weight if you're gentle and kind on yourself. Good luck and I hope you create some taste sensations of your own x Remember fill up rather than fight yourself xx
Thank you Moreless. One of the links is broken I think, it's the one to the NHS about fitness. But don't worry as I can find it myself. I agree with you about the carb/sugar crash craving too. I still enjoy complex carbs as without them it's much harder to make a meal but, like you, I have fewer simple sugary carbs. I only really joined as I wanted to reply to Neon500 but it does look like a useful site. Have a great weekend. Becky
I'm sorry about the link, Beckyl. I've swapped it for an NHS exercise search link, which does work, so I hope that will help both of you
Hi neon500.
My internet is not working so I may not be able to reply. But I wanted to send you a message of support.
Your situation sounds very bad and you sound as if you are in a continual cycle of 'things that do not work'.
Firstly 2/3 of your body weight is a lot but many folk on here have lost 6 stone and more. So you are amongst friends. If you do decide to take an active part in the forum, and I hope you do, you would be very welcome and you would receive a huge amount of support.
Am am not medically qualified, but have you discussed your issues around food with your GP? It sounds as if a 'diet' or exercise is not the only approach for you. I wonder if your whole relationship with food needs some specialist support.
Is you GP understanding?
Can you take this post ( or a copy of it) to your GP and explain to them the terrible problems you are having around food/ being around food/thinking about food. Does your GP know how much you are suffering? How much this issue is affecting you life? Do you have a supportive GP? There are specialist support programmes available but I think you have to have sharp elbows to access them!
I have the opposite problem around food, in that I starve myself but I know that until I begun to address my relationship with food I could not move forward. I was just going round and round and getting worse.
I have been a member if this forum for 18 months or so and it has been life changing for me. I need the support of the forum, a huge amount of willpower and the support of medical professionals ( mainly my GP) to get my problems under control.
neon500 It sounds like we could be twins. Like you I can't exercises due to pain, I have bone on bone osteoarthritis in my right hip so walking etc cause pain and wear. Food has always been a problem for me at 13 I weighed 13 stone and the school nurse put me on my first diet I got very good at finding food to eat which has continued through my life.
Currently weigh 20 and a half stone bmi of 49. I need a hip replacement but the surgeon won't do it till my bmi is 40 or ideally 35. I have until January to lose the weight so I can go on the waiting list. I know I should be focused on this goal but I fluctuate between 20 stone and my current weight. My gp is very good, I take oralstat (fat binding medicine) which has made me cut down on eating very fatty foods, and though I'm not a current member I follow the slimming world eating plan portion control is also a problem.
What I hope you realise is you are not alone, we are here and we understand x
Welcome neon500. Sorry to hear you are having such a difficult time with your weight.
You’ve been given great advise already on here and would completely endorse the idea that if you want something to change you need to change something...
Would it work for you to start by pledging to do one thing differently and take things from there? For me I think the one thing that made a real difference initially was keeping a food diary. So my commitment was to eat what I wanted but I had to write it down. This made me accountable and stopped me from eating mindlessly. This then led on to proper meal planning and then to lowering carbs. I’ve steadily lost weight since starting this at the end of April, 1-2 lb per week. Daily interaction with this fab forum has also been a game changer for me.
I would also seriously consider BlueMats suggestion of seeing your GP about accessing some psychological support. In my part of London we can actually self refer to IAPT services though the waits are quite long I believe.
I think you are doing too much working 5 long days and volunteer the weekend . “ All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy “
You need to make time for yourself please and focus on your plan .
For me no snacks in house so temptation removed . Snacks are now fresh fruit / dried fruit / nuts and semi raw vegetable sticks to fill me up .
You do the shopping so you make the choice for you ! Best of luck - and you can do this . Start with the shopping and 2 days off every week. The body needs rest .
Thank you everyone for your support and suggestion, some of these I have tried in the past, or just aren't practical but there are a few new ones there as well so I do thank you.
I did mange to self refer to a dietitian about 2 years ago and I was doing food diaries for her but I was only allowed 6 months with her and to be honest it wasn't helping. I think there is someone in my area who does CBT for eating issues privately but that's very much what the dietitian was trying to do. I've also had CBT for depression in the past and that was similarly ineffective, so I'm thinking that may be it's just not the thing for me.
My GP's practice is one of those ones where you just see who ever has an appointment and only one of them has every really talked about my weight with me. The others only mention it in relation to my back pain. The one that did mention it did talk about Bariatric surgery very briefly but I wouldn't be a candidate for it my my area, even supposing I wanted to go that way, which I don't.
Psychological support within the NHS for eating issues is a bit of a Unicorn here!
I've have been trying to lose weight far as long as I can remember, at least 35 years, and it is getting to the point where my weight is a contributory factor to a number of irritating health issues. I don't know my current BMI, as I don't have access to scales that read high enough, but last time I did know it it was about 58.
I don't actually work 8-8 every week day... I have a day job that's 8-5.30, i have 1/2 hour to cook and eat dinner then a 2nd job that's 6-8. The 2nd job isn't every night but I try and keep as many evenings free for it as I can- need the money!- so I wouldn't be able to commit to a regular gym class during the week....and though I don't do voluntary work EVERY weekend I do it or work some of it, often enough that committing to something at the weekend would be difficult.
I don't buy snacks, biscuits, crisps...etc but I can't say no when they are offered at work. Even if I do say no, i find myself eating them anyway.
I certainly don't eat enough fruit and vegs cause I find them complicated/long winded to cook. I do buy fruit and veg thinking 'I'm going to be good this week' but then I find it mouldy down the back of the fridge/table/drawer a couple of weeks later.
I have also tried Hypnotherapy in the past and all manner of weird and wonderful quackery to try and change the habits of a lifetime.
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So overwhelmed 😔
Why to others get so worked up?
Feeling SO fed up.
4 stone loss, so why do i still feel so FAT
End of Week 6 - So How's It Going?
