Help required

[Bee98]

Good afternoon, I’m 20 years old and I am seriously over weight and I need help to change that. My curent weight is 272 and my weight goal is 170. I have tried many diets and gyms but I guess I never stick long enough to see results in the past years my lowest weight was 240.

The reason why I gain weight easily is that I eat my emotions out. So when I’m down I eat which I need help changing. Also I feel like my weight stops me from being myself I have a few friends and I feel if I was skinnier I would have more friends and enjoy more.

Please help me find diets or routines that can help me

[Munyze]

Hi bee! Just like you I also eat my emotions, I'm 216 pounds and 27years, just started dieting this Monday and already ate something I shouldn't... my ideal weight would be the same as you... I never did gym and I'm overweight since my 13... always had loads of friends though because what matters to them is how your personality is and not your exterior... the thing I'm trying to do is eat every 3h, eat loads of fruit and vegetables, eat sweets twice a week (Wednesday and Sunday) because I can't quit cold turkey... and weighing myself once a week just to try diminish the anxiety... my exercise is taking care of a toddler that just started to walk... I would like a buddy to follow with the diet.. I would be pleased if you could help me too... we could share what we are in the day, what kind of exercise, our feelings on this diets and our progress.. what do you say? Let's diet together? I have a wedding on October and I just wanted to look better in a dress.. already tried more than ten and didn't liked one

[Cooper27]

Hi Bee,

This site has a weight loss forum (weight loss NHS) where you might find some useful info and get some support on your weight loss journey.

I guess looking at your triggers would be a good place to start - finding things to distract yourself if you're bored (crochet/knitting are good), making sure you have healthy snacks kicking around.

You might benefit from joining a weight loss group,like weight watchers, to let you get out and meet more people.

One thing I would recommend is cutting out sugar for a bit, it will help balance your emotions, and force you to find better snacks.

[Oonagh071]

In my experience, diets are short term solutions. Eating healthily, exercising and allowing yourself a treat every now and again is the way forward. If you don’t allow yourself to have a treat now and again, you’ll find healthy eating very hard. Even athletes allow themselves to have cheat days.

Drink plenty of water, stay away from sugar, white bread and things high in saturated fat as much as you can. Build your meals around macros: protein, healthy fats and carbs.

HIIT (high intensity interval training) is a great way to get the exercise in when you don’t have much time. Or you could join a sports team. If the coaches are experienced, they will also be able to give you some great advice to help you shred fat and get fitter. My Rugby coaches help me an awful lot!

If you need more ideas for food and exercise, Joe Wicks and Chloe Maideley have some great recipes and HIIT workouts on their social media pages and in their books

[Hidden]

I'm a little late here, but hello!

As for losing weight, the answer is simple yet difficult: you need to eat less. Or rather, fewer calories.

I am a huge advocate for moving your body in whatever way makes you happy, but honestly if you want to lose weight you need to reduce the amount of calories you take in. Truly exercise is not the way to go for weight loss. It is definitely the way to go for feeling good, feeling confident, getting healthier cardiovascularly, but it's not a huge pound dropper.

That is easier said than done. Food is a complicated issue. It has deep emotional and cultural implications. you may need to work through some of those emotions and coping mechanisms with the therapist, or you might be able to work it out yourself by posting on message boards or writing in a journal or some other way of thinking through what food has meant to you and what you can replace it with with less impact.

Lastly, I would like to address what you said about friendship. On the one hand, losing weight can be a hugely powerful emotional experience. Life-changing. On the other hand, you're kind of just still the same person in a new body. Being thin won't miraculously deliver you a lot more friends. And even if it did, would you want the kinds of friends who are only around because you are cute?

I guess what I'm saying here is that there are a lot of things under the surface of the excess weight that you might want to look at for your own sake to feel better about yourself before you go outside yourself looking for relationships and friendships Etc.

I'm no therapist, but I would ask you to ask yourself what being yourself means exactly? You said being overweight keeps you from being yourself. What is yourself? Spend a good amount of time investigating that question. What does it mean, what would it look like, how would you demonstrate it to the world. Consider taking some small step today or tomorrow in being your true self as you are right now at the weight you are right now. It would be a great gift to give to yourself. And a way to integrate your internal dialogue with your external body. Eventually the two can meet.

Good luck, I know you can do this.