Weight loss…which method??

[CobsaGooden]

Mounjaro has changed my life but I get that is too extreme or overkill for some. I’ve always been of the thinking that being overweight is poor eating habits or laziness but the lowest dose of 2.5mg has stripped 3 stone off me in 6 months and completely changed my outlook on food and eating. I now genuinely believe obesity is a physical illness

 

[Carrottom]

3 meals a day, nothing in between.

 

[mariew]

Just to say I can't eat porridge, it makes me absolutely starving and hour after. I actually find skipping breakfast and then keeping refined carbs low and protein and green veg high works quite well for maintenance. And don't snack on crp.

 

[hock]

I’m a proper cob and a maxi one so my weight has always been an issue and I think it’s my safety net almost. However after the death of my father I really ballooned and so have been slowly tackling it with a couple of off the wagon slips.

What works for me is: no bread, very little pasta maybe twice a year, very little Rice and then high protein. I don’t allow myself on a daily basis to use food as a treat. And luckily I don’t drink apart from a wedding etc and nearly forgot I have started to drink lots more water.

Adding the protein really has for me taken away the hunger. Today I’ve had some chicken skewers at about 3pm and have had to force my self to have something to eat this evening otherwise I’d have been having about 800 calories today which is ridiculous. I find I need to do a refeed day every few weeks to give my metabolism a boost. So that’s when I’ll have something I’ve perhaps been craving like a baked Camembert or jacket potato with cheese etc but even then I rarely go over 2000 calories on a cheat/refeed day. Protein and water, water and protein .. stop looking at food as a reward! I still want another good chunk off and I’m determined to keep going. I’ve got some super young horses that I want to compete next year that I’ve bred so it’s gotta come off for them.

Before I knew about refeed days I was eating too few calories and my metabolism was staling. It was an expensive mistake as I had a very long plateau.

 

[hock]

Just to say I can't eat porridge, it makes me absolutely starving and hour after. I actually find skipping breakfast and then keeping refined carbs low and protein and green veg high works quite well for maintenance. And don't snack on crp.

I don’t eat brekkie. If I’m feeling I need it I’ll have a high protein shake and then come in for dinner about 2pm and eat then. I do love a porridge but I don’t think it keeps me full for long either.

 

[Barton Bounty]

Definitely water i drink 2/3 litres a day and previously used to live on coffee and a can of coke

 

[honetpot]

I usually have porridge, or if I have time scrambled egg with sourdough. I never drink juices.

The porridge and the sour dough, that's a lot of carbs.

 

[Amymay Again]

The porridge and the sour dough, that's a lot of carbs.

Carbs aren't the enemy....

 

[Amymay Again]

3 meals a day, nothing in between.

There's nothing wrong with eating between meals, provided it's the right thing.

 

[Ali27]

My weight had crept up to 68kg three years ago at the age of 49! I cut out rubbish food, did an 8 week transformation programme at gym, dropped several kg! I’m now 52, weigh 61kg and the fittest, healthiest that I’ve ever been! I have also qualified as a Personal trainer. I run twice a week, lift weights twice a week and do a hyrox session once a week, eat more protein, healthier food and do between 10-20k steps a day!

 

[Bobthecob15]

Slimming world is really good, I lost 3 stone with it pre covid. Got down to the lightest I’d been since my 20s! The programme is excellent and it really does work, we made the pinch of nom meals alongside it (excellent books) which I think made it feel less like a diet.

However I’ve not kept it off and most has crept back on I’m blaming lockdown…!! Of course I have zero excuse now!

It does work but unless you stick to it forever the weight easily comes back on!

We did Jane plan also last year, lost a good stone or so…but my goodness I got fed up of the bland food after a couple of months, it’s pretty tasty but I found the mushy nature of it too much long term x

 

[bonnysmum]

When I started calorie counting and trying to meet the recommended daily allowances of healthy things I put ON weight

 

[Bob notacob]

I wouldn’t recommend it but grief made me lose loads of weight and I wasn’t overweight to start with. When my husband died suddenly I completely lost my appetite and couldn’t think of anything I wanted to eat/couldn’t be bothered to cook and I got thinner and thinner. Obviously there are lots of complicated reasons why people find it hard to lose weight but not eating as much as normal = weight loss…

So sorry , what a sh1t way to loose weight. Hope you have now found some inner peace.

 

[lynz88]

I cook healthy evening meals every day of the week as I cater for two adults and six children (not all mine). If I eat three proper meals a day I gain weight, so I try to eat very lightly for breakfast or lunch. I think I must be sneaking in treats late evening as generally I don’t eat much processed foods or sweets.

Thanks for your replies, please keep them coming, I’m still weighing up (haha) which method to go for.

I gain weight by eating 3 meals a day as well. I absolutely need to eat in the morning - it gives me fuel and without it I'm grumpy (I get hangry). I rarely eat lunch - if I do it might be a couple of carrots or apple or banana or a handful of crackers or something - and have a rather large dinner. This seems to work very well for me.

My breakfast is always porridge made with proper jumbo oats (you can get 1kg for £1.79 at The Grape Tree - usually a good handful of oats in a bowl is enough), honey, sometimes a small handful of nuts, omega seed mix (The Grape Tree) and a blob of butter (melted butter on porridge is ) and a single coffee - no milk or sugar. That will sometimes keep me going for the better part of 12-13 hours even with 2 gym classes, my physio, yard stuff (I don't ride much anymore due to horse's health and if I do, it's usually just a walk), and sometimes back garden stuff like digging up trees or cutting and clearing branches, etc.

I don't eat UPFs. It was a red line with OH and he's since learned how to cook as I refuse to be doing all the cooking and especially as he is vegan and I will eat just about anything. I have moments where I will devour chocolate or chips (crisps) but then I won't touch them for months on end. I have also started making my own yogurt to boost my gut bacteria and is cheaper than buying it all the time at the shop.

My weight - or rather bloat - tends to go up and down depending on what my hormones are doing but I'm starting a new thing of trying to eat more consciously in that respect - e.g. more phytoestrogen foods during certain times of the month as I've noticed it really does help with hormonal bloat and I've noticed through experimentation my arms and legs look like tree stumps and my tummy bloats and feels gross when I eat yogurt without straining out whey. I'm fine if I strain the yogurt though. These may or may not affect you as well.

 

[HopOnTrot]

3 meals a day, nothing in between.

Nope, I can’t do three a day!

 

[pistolpete]

I remember reading this obesity coach saying if you say a diet worked for you before it hasn’t worked for you! You need to find something sustainable. I’m still searching. I am much less bingey since I dropped ultra processed foods and fizzy drinks but I’m still overweight. Not heavy enough for mounjaro of course! So I’ll just keep going for now and hope I don’t get any heavier. BMI is nearly 28 but I hide it well! It’s the old lady belly fat I struggle with the most. Started running also dance once a week and walk three to four miles every day. I think I’m just greedy!

 

[Lois Lame]

I’m super active at the moment yet also at almost my heaviest ever (apart from pregnancies). I know it’s calories in, calories out, but also that some people like keto, fasting etc. I am mid forties and finding it hard to shift the weight, which is mainly collecting at my middle (plus hips). My horse is technically a pony and although I can’t ride her yet anyway (she’s in foal) I want to be lighter for my share horse and also just for my own wellbeing. I want to lose at least a stone, maybe a bit more.

Any success stories out there?

Yes, yours. It will be a success.

I don't go along with the calories in, calories out business because its too rigid and makes a person think too much about what they 'can' and 'can't' eat. And sometimes I think that we make the problem about eating when it's really about something else.

You know what you need to eat and when you need to eat.

I cook healthy evening meals every day of the week as I cater for two adults and six children (not all mine). If I eat three proper meals a day I gain weight, so I try to eat very lightly for breakfast or lunch. I think I must be sneaking in treats late evening as generally I don’t eat much processed foods or sweets.

Yes, I think you are right. You are sneaking in treats in the evening when no one is looking, not even yourself.

 

[lynz88]

Just to say I can't eat porridge, it makes me absolutely starving and hour after. I actually find skipping breakfast and then keeping refined carbs low and protein and green veg high works quite well for maintenance. And don't snack on crp.

The real oats kind or the packet kind?

 

[Barton Bounty]

Three meals a day does not mean literally three meals!!

Work out your calories you are allowed on the tdee calculator and deduct 500 to lose weight.
Calorie cycling is also a really good way to switch up your metabolism.


Breakfast should contain around 400 cal

Lunch should be around 400/500 cal

Dinner should be around 600/700 cal

Possibly two snacks during the day if you want.

Of course if you want a bigger lunch etc you can just mix it up but no large calorific food after 7pm

Carbs are not the devil, in fact I have rice with a lot of meals and still lost 3 stone 2lbs so far.

Its about portion control.

 

[Abacus]

For me it's about fasting, I'm a bit 'all or nothing' so can easily eat nothing, or too much. And I like to have a good dinner (as well as it being good family time) so tend to skip the others. If I'm hungry during the day (which happens less than you'd expect) I have some cheese on a couple of crackers, or soup. I don't count calories or restrict what I have in that meal except that I prefer not to eat much bread. This isn't every day - it's probably three or four days during the week, and it doesn't matter a bit if it's none. I do make sure that what I do eat is cooked from scratch, has lots of veg/protein, cheese and yogurt for calcium, and hardly have any snacks.

There is a school of thought that fasting is very good not just for weight loss but also reduced inflammation, better healing and even that it improves brain focus. But as others have said, everyone is different - I know plenty of people who wouldn't want to skip a meal or miss breakfast.

 

[m1stify]

Focus on what you can add rather than take away ie up your protein to 1g per kg of your body weight. Try to make better choices. Take up weights you only need a few to start and loads of free programmes on you tube.
Make sure whatever you do is sustainable And doesn’t start a restrict binge cycle.
Unfortunately you are probably in peril menopause hence you are noticing your middle is increasing but it is probably more fat redistribution as your oestrogen is declining and that keeps weight off your middle.
So you could look into replacing those lost hormones!

 

[Bonnie Allie]

Mid forties, very active but gaining weight around middle? Get your thyroid and your hormone levels checked before you do anything . You could be entering peri-menopause.

Also consider BodyScan or similar rather than purely weight. Muscle mass is healthy but weighs more than fat and we are conditioned as women to consider higher weight as bad. Body Scan gives you data that is useful.

 

[mariew]

The real oats kind or the packet kind?

Real oats. My sister is the same. Rye porridge is ok.

 

[sbloom]

I recommend all my riders struggling with their weight or fitness to have a look at @rebelfit on Facebook. I would want any help to be individualised to an extent, to focus on the emotional relationship with food, and to address "set point weight".

 

[Dino7]

At the end of the day, whatever type of diet you choose (and there are SO many labels) - KETO/ FASTING/ SW/ WW etc, you will ONLY lose weight if you are in a calorie deficit so I just never understand why people want to over complicate it. You don't need to rule any particular type of foods out. Just track what you eat (and drink) - ideally planned in advance and be honest with yourself. There is no need to deprive yourself of anything.

 

[Abacus]

At the end of the day, whatever type of diet you choose (and there are SO many labels) - KETO/ FASTING/ SW/ WW etc, you will ONLY lose weight if you are in a calorie deficit so I just never understand why people want to over complicate it. You don't need to rule any particular type of foods out. Just track what you eat (and drink) - ideally planned in advance and be honest with yourself. There is no need to deprive yourself of anything.

Unfortunately, and without being any kind of expert, I believe it to be more complicated than this. Hormones, metabolism and type of activity as well as total amount play a role, as does willpower and ability to change habits, or knowing which habits you personally are able to change more easily. Everyone's experience is different. Understanding what works for you - when and what to eat - is beneficial, hence the complication beyond the simplicity of calories in and out.

 

[Dino7]

Unfortunately, and without being any kind of expert, I believe it to be more complicated than this. Hormones, metabolism and type of activity as well as total amount play a role, as does willpower and ability to change habits, or knowing which habits you personally are able to change more easily. Everyone's experience is different. Understanding what works for you - when and what to eat - is beneficial, hence the complication beyond the simplicity of calories in and out.

Yes hormones will make scales weight fluctuate at different times but if someone is tracking progress by photos/ measurements as well this can be ignored as it will balance out. A lot of people blame their metabolism for why they have gained weight or can't lose it - usually it's more that they aren't aware of how much they are actually consuming. Type of activity - you can actually lose weight with no exercise at all as long as you know what your maintenance or BMR is. As the saying goes, you can't out exercise a bad diet. Will power and ability to change habits are the hard part - this is where discipline comes in.
As I once read, losing weight is simple, but it doesn't make it easy. And I am certainly no expert.

 

[sbloom]

At the end of the day, whatever type of diet you choose (and there are SO many labels) - KETO/ FASTING/ SW/ WW etc, you will ONLY lose weight if you are in a calorie deficit so I just never understand why people want to over complicate it. You don't need to rule any particular type of foods out. Just track what you eat (and drink) - ideally planned in advance and be honest with yourself. There is no need to deprive yourself of anything.

Our bodies can work against us, we aren't bunsen burners. Have a look at @rebelfit or search for the latest science.

 

[Birker2020]

Been at Slimming World since May 2024 and lost nearly two stone. Put a fair bit back on at the beginning of the year. Started Mounjaro six weeks ago today and have lost 7.5lbs since start of March, five and a half as a result of Monjaro.

Increased the dose from 2.5mg to 5mg last Wednesday and have felt nauseous ever since although it's starring to dissappear now.

I'm self funding on Mounjaro but have prehypertension so it's important to bring my weight down even though it's not covered within the threshold the NHS set put.

 

[TGM]

I lost a lot of weight last year with calorie counting and increased activity and have kept it off. I found it helps to track calories and activity on an app such as MyFitnessPal or Nutracheck. Tracking your calories for a week or so can be quite enlightening, even if you think you are eating 'healthy', as you can see where the extra calories are sneaking in. This could be large carb portions, being heavy handed with the cooking oil, butter, mayo or other fatty sauces, drinking your calories (sweetened coffees, alcohol, juices, fizzy drinks etc.) Obviously, you need to think about the quality of what you are eating rather than just the calorie count - try to focus on plenty of protein and fibre as this will keep you satisfied for longer and helps stop you giving into cravings. Research has shown that pulses and legumes (so lentils, haricot beans, chickpeas, kidney beans etc) can help with weightloss, presumably because they are a source of protein as well as plenty of fibre, so worth including those in your diet. I certainly find that they keep me full and stop me feel like I need a snack between meals.